Matthew 16:17-19: And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
According to Matthew, only Peter was given the keys. This position is one of a servant. "Catholic" means "universal," not Gentile or Jew. Finally, I have seen the site where Peter was buried, levels down under St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. You can look up and see the altar area far above. His grave was found after early Christian writing discovered during excavation pointed the way. Only the feet bones were missing, as if someone chopped down a body hanging upside down. Vatican City is across the Tiber river just beyond the old walls of Rome.
The revised history of the RCC, is that Jesus gave Peter the preeminence over all the apostles, that Jesus made Peter the head of the church and built the church on him, that Peter was the first pope, and that every subsequent pope holds the seat of Peter, via apostolic succession.
This is false, from A to Z - and all that’s needed to disprove the above claims, is the Bible.
When the apostles argued who was the greatest among them, Jesus told the apostles that none of them would be above the others - Peter was not given preeminence:
Mat 20:25 But Jesus called them unto him,and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them.
Mat 20:26 But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister;
Mat 20:27 And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant:
And Peter didn’t think he was anything but a fellow elder:
1Pe 5:1 The elders which are among you I exhort, who am ALSO an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed:
Jesus did not tell Peter that the church would be built on him:
Mat 16:18 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Jesus spoke of two different rocks: Peter is Petros in the Greek - small rock - and the rock the church is built on is Petra - bedrock.
In the Greek Jesus said: thou art PETROS, and upon this PETRA I will build my church.
The language God chose for the New Testament to be written in, explicitly states there are two different rocks there.
The church isn’t built on any individual apostle or prophet:
Eph 2:20 And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;
Built on the foundation of apostles, PLURAL, and prophets, PLURAL - not on Peter alone.
In Matthew 16:19 Jesus gives Peter keys (authority) and the power to bind and loose - but 2 chapters later, when He met the other apostles, Jesus gives the same power of binding and loosing to them, too, in Matthew 18:18 - so Peter has no special authority beyond what the 12 shared.
Peter was not a Bishop, or Pope in the Roman church - ever.
Linus was the first bishop/pope of the Roman church, according to the Orthodox Church.
Peter, the apostle to the Jews, is found in the NT in the Jerusalem church, the Jewish Christian church - not in the gentile Roman church.
Scripture says Paul is the apostle to the gentiles, Peter to the Jews (to the circumcision), so Peter would not be the head of a gentile Roman sect - and wasn’t.
Gal 2:7 But contrariwise, when they saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me, as the gospelof the circumcision wasunto Peter;
Gal 2:8 (For he that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, the same was mighty in me toward the Gentiles.
That’s why Paul, the apostle to the gentiles, wrote to the Roman church, and was instructing it in his epistle, instead of Peter.
Paul calls those in the Roman church, gentiles - in case someone wants to claim that the Roman church isn’t a gentile church.
Romans 1:13 Now I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes I purposed to come unto you, (but was let hitherto,) that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among OTHER Gentiles.
And when Paul visited Peter 3 years after his conversion on Damascus road, he had to go to Jerusalem, where Peter and the Jewish Christian church was:
Gal 1:18 Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with him fifteen days.
Peter was not in Rome being a pope.
