Apologetics: Did Jesus Say He will Build His Church on St. Peter?

St. Peter's in Rome

Here is part of a correspondence I had recently. The person was using the typical argument that Protestants like to use drawing a distinction in Greek between "Petros" and  "Petra,"

If you have never heard the Protestant claim, it's basically that when Jesus says "You are Peter [Petros] and upon this Rock [petra] I will build my Church" the Greek word Petros means "little pebble" while petra means "big rock". The Protestant is arguing that Jesus was not identifying Peter with "Rock," but rather contrasting Peter's littleness with the bigness of the Rock (i.e. Jesus). Therefore Jesus was not founding His Church on Peter.

In the Greek New Testament "Petros" is always used for Peter.(162 times). 

Where did the notion that Peter means "little pebble" even come from?

Some Protestant apparently dug up this distinction from a long outdated form of Greek that wasn't even in use at the time of the Apostles (i.e. not Biblical Greek). This detail alone makes the Protestant argument invalid.

There are two types of Greek: Attic Greek, and  Koine Greek.
In Attic Greek, there was a slight difference in meaning between "Petros" and "Petra," but in Koine Greek (the dialect used in the New Testament) they were synonyms. A place to look this up is D. A. Carson’s commentary on Matthew 16 in the Expositors Bible Commentary. He makes this point very well, and he is a highly-respected Evangelical Bible scholar.

Most Protestant scholars have rightly rejected this theory as well. But it always comes up with Evangelical friends.
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If I understand you correctly, are  you saying Peter is not the person Jesus will build His Church on?

Apologetics,: Should We Worship on Saturaday or Sunday?

Below is part of an email exchange I've had with a member of an Adventist group. Particularly a member of The World Wide Church of God . (Seventh Day Adventist fall with in this category too.)

Adventists, as most Protestants, tend to read the Bible without the context of history. They have very little, if any, knowledge of the ancient Church and early Christian history. They may know a lot about Jewish/Hebrew history but not Christian. There is over 2000 years of Christian history. But I am talking mainly about what is called the Apostolic Fathers-- the first 200 years of Christianity.  Detached from history, it is hard to have correct doctrine.

One thing I noticed about Adventist Protestants is they stress communal worship on Saturday--the Sabbath, and not Sunday as most Christians do. They think it is sinful to worship on Sunday and not Saturday as the Jews do.

How did the early Christians understand the theory of keeping communal  worshiping on Saturday?

Colossians 2:16

"Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day."

In other words St. Paul is saying : ' Don't let anyone intimidate you into following the Jewish rituals about eating and drinking...nor their feast-days, nor their celebration of the SABBATH.

Are You a Fan of Jesus, or a Follower ?

 I have seen a lot of videos about the Bible but this is one of the best on how to pray with the Bible. It is very practical.

Founding of Christendom: St. Cecilia post 22

These hundred years of turmoil were punctuated with persecutions. One of the most famous of the time was Cecilia.

St. Cecilia is the patroness of musicians and Church music because during her martyrdom, she sang to God.

As we have said before, not too much is clear about this early part of Church history. We have pieced together as well as we could the story of St. Cecilia.

St. Cecilia’s feast day is celebrated on November 22nd.

The Mass of Saint Cecilia prays:

“Arise, soldiers of Christ, throw away the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.”

 
She is one of seven women, excluding the Blessed Virgin, commemorated by name in the
Canon of the Mass. She is thought to have died in the mid to late 230’s AD, since she is linked with Pope Urban, who died 230 AD. Who was succeeded by a string of martyred popes, during this persecution.

Cecilia was given in marriage to a pagan youth named Valerian. She had been a Christian since childhood, doing penances and fasting, while invoking the saints, and angels, to guard her virginity. Making a vow of virginity to Jesus before her parents had betrothed her; she begged that her parents wouldn’t marry her off. Some mistakenly say when telling her story, that she was betrothed to an angel. But this is silly. She, like all consecrated virgins in the Church, was betrothed to Jesus Christ.  The angel in the story was just her protector. Angels do not marry.
Mark 12:25
“For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.”

Social Studies: John J. Mearsheimer -- International Politics

 

Here are three talks on international politics. Very interesting

Founding of Christendom: A 100 Years of Turmoil -- Post 21

 

 

After the death of the Roman Emperor, Marcus Arealius,180 AD, his son, Cammodus, inherited the throne. Commodus was not a stable person.  One good thing he did was he temporarily  halted Christian persecution. While his father never ordered a direct persecution of Christians, he did allow it to happen– usually by local rulers. Commodus’ leniency  resulted in the release of Christians from the mines in Sardinia, among whom was a future pope.

Cassius Dio, a first-hand witness, describes Emperor Commodus as: "not naturally wicked but, on the contrary, as guileless as any man that ever lived. His great simplicity, however, together with his cowardice, made him the slave of his companions, and it was through them that he at first, out of ignorance, missed the better [virtuous] life and then was led on into lustful and cruel habits, which soon became second nature."

Apologetics : Where is the Catholic Chuch refereced in the Bible?

Technical terms were still being developed when the New Testament was being written, and defined  later for precision. For example The word for priest derives from the Greek presbyteros, which means elder or senior, although in the early Christian presbyteros could refer to a bishop or a priest. The English word  "priest" is a derivative of the word presbyter.

The word ‘catholic’ itself is not found in the Bible. However “KAΘ OΛHC” (pronounced as ‘kath oles’) is found in the  of Acts 9:31.

A three word phrase from Acts 9:31 is “EKKΛHCIAI KAΘ OΛHC” (pronounced as “ekklesiai kath oles”) which is Koine Greek for “church all over” or “church universal.” Swap those words around and you get “universal church.” This is exactly what the word  Catholic means, the Universal Church, i.e The Catholic Church. We will cover this more below.

While of course this reference isn't definitive but is does circumstantially point to the origins of the term "Catholic" for the true Church.