If the reader wants they can just contact the Catholic Church and request information regarding their doctrines. The material being quoted was received from the Catholic Centre at 150 Robson Street, Vancouver in the late 1980's. Catholic doctrine is very stable, so there are no worries that the literature received is now out of date. This information comes from the publication " THIS IS THE CATHOLIC FAITH " by Director: R.N. Mugford .

Before proceeding - just because there is disagreement with some doctrines of various Churches, like the Catholic, this does not mean the writer feels they are totally wrong on everything. So please do not assume this is some persecution of all those Churches that don't agree with my interpretation of the Bible. They do believe in Jesus Christ, which is great.

Now regarding the Catholic Church. In Session 9 page 3 under The Hierarchy : we read " Jesus established His Church upon the 12 apostles. They were the first bishops. Their head was Peter (See Matthew 16:13-19; John 21:15-19; Luke 22:32. As the bishops today are the successors of the apostles, so the Bishop of Rome , the Pope, is the successor of Peter. He is the Vicar (the special human representative) of Christ on earth. He is the head of the College of Bishops. This is called the primacy of the Pope. The Pope has full, supreme and universal power over the whole Church, a power which he can exercise unhindered ".(Vatican Council 11, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, # 22).

Also from page 4 in Session 9 we read :

" (1) Ecumenical Councils:

"The solemn definitions of a general council of the Church's bishops, in union with the Pope, the Holy Father, are infallible. There have been 21 such councils from Nicaea 1(325 A.D.) to Vatican Council 11: 1962 to 1965 A.D.

"(2) Ex cathedra (from the chair) definitions of the Pope:

"(See Luke 22:32) This is the special teaching authority which the Pope has, not from the other Bishops or from the laity, but from Christ Himself, Even if the Pope has been unworthy, Christ has preserved the Church from false teachings through this man.

"Jesus, through His love for His Church, has left her an infallible voice of authority and love: Peter.

" After a long process of development of doctrine the 1st Vatican Council in 1870 defined:

" the Roman Pontiff, when he speaks ' ex cathedra ', that is, when acting in the office of shepherd and teacher of all Christians by virtue of his supreme apostolic authority, he defines doctrine concerning faith or morals to be held by the whole Church, by the divine assistance promised him in blessed Peter, is possessed of that infallibility with which the divine Redeemer willed His Church to be endowed in defining doctrine concerning faith and moral; and that therefore such definitions of the Roman pontiff are of themselves, and not from consent of the Church, irreformable.

" God is infallible. Christ is infallible, Because He is the Son of God. The Church is infallible, because she is the Body of Christ. The Pope is infallible, because He is the head of the Church on earth.

" We need such infallibility. Amid the disagreement of so many brilliant minds in controversial areas of faith and morals, no one would know for sure what to believe, But Jesus, who is truth, makes sure we have the truth. Thank you, Lord Jesus. "

So let us dissect this a bit. In summary Catholic doctrine teaches that the Pope is the Head of the Church on earth, that he can't make mistakes when he speaks ' ex cathedra ', that he is the successor of Peter, that the Pope in infallible and that the Pope has full, supreme and universal power over the whole Church, a power which he can exercise unhindered ". (Vatican Council 11, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, # 22).

The Bible says that  Jesus Christ is the head of the Church;

Ephesians 5: 23 " For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is head of the church; and He is the savior of the body."

Colossians 1:18 " And He (Christ) is the head of the body, the church........."

Christ also referred to Himself as the Door, or Gate for the sheep and the Shepherd of the sheep (the church) (John 10 1-18).

John 10: 1-5 " Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But He that entereth in the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To Him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear His voice: and He calleth His own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And when He putteth forth His own sheep, He goeth before them, and the sheep follow Him: and they know His voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers."

John 10: 7 " ..... Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep."

John 10: 14 : " I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine."

Here in Canada the traditional vision we have of a shepherd is someone who drives his sheep often with the help of sheep dogs. In Palestine and in that Middle East area there traditionally is a different way for shepherds to get their sheep to go where they want them. The shepherd is more intimately involved with their sheep. Herding them all day long. So the shepherd just need walk off in front of them and the sheep just follow along. There is no need to drive them, if the shepherd decides to move them to greener pastures.

Christ does not drive His servants. They follow willingly. They know Him and won't follow others. They know who is their leader.

Yes, but some may argue that we need a human head of the church, because Christ isn't around to guide us. Many people forget how alive Christ is. He is quite capable of teaching and leading the church through the Holy Spirit. Of course there are teachers that Christ raises up to help the church, but these are not masters, but servants (1 Corinthians 12th, 13th, and 14th chapters). The  foundation of the true church has already been laid 1 Corinthians 3: 11 " For other foundation can no man lay that is laid, which is Jesus Christ."

The foundation of God's Church has been laid a long time ago. All you can do is build on that foundation. 

Ephesians 2:20 " And are build upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone. " 

The prophets are of course people like Moses, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Christ Himself was a prophet. The apostles were the twelve and also the apostle Paul. The foundation was complete ages ago. Christ is the corner stone. So we have the complete foundation and it is the Bible and the Church. Christ will judge us by how well we have followed the Bible, which is a collection of books (Revelation 20:12).

The Bible is complete the way it is. No one has any authority to add anything to it. No group has any authority to add their traditions to scripture and then claim these ideas of men have equal weight to, or even greater weight than the Bible. This is especially so for the book of Revelation (Revelation 22:18-1) (2 Peter 1:20-21). Yet the Catholic Church (and some other Churches too) claims that their traditions are equal to the Bible.

Of course we have translations. The Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew and the New Testament in Greek. There are various English translations and there are mistakes no doubt. The most accurate translations I've come across so far are the Authorized King James and the New King James Version. Even in the Authorized King James there are a few translation errors, but basically it is very, very accurate.

2 Timothy 3: 15-17 " And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith which is in Jesus Christ. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto good works."

Now let us look at the Catholic claim that the Pope is the successor of Peter and that Christ made Peter the head of the Church here on earth. Matthew 16:13-19 is used to supposedly prove that Peter was chosen as the head of the church.

Matthew 16:18 " And I say 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. "

 It is very important when reading and studying the Bible that we not take a specific scripture out of context. You have to look at the whole picture. I've already shown you some scriptures that clearly state that Christ is the head of the church. Christ is referred to as the Rock quite often. Christ is simply referring to Himself when He says " and upon this rock I will build my church." Remember Christ is the chief corner stone of the church. He is the rock described in Mathew 7:24-27 that we are supposed to build our lives on. Christ called Simon Peter, Cephas, which by interpretation is a stone (John 1:42). Remember that the apostles are part of the foundation of the church. Just like the prophets were. So Peter is a stone in that foundation, but Jesus is the chief corner stone.

Peter was the leader of the 12 apostles, because he was that kind of person. There is usually one in every group, who is more bold and outspoken. However, he died and that leadership role ended with him. Peter was not the leader over Paul. In fact Paul had to publicly rebuke Peter for the way Peter was discriminating against the Gentile Christians (Galatians 2:11-21 note verses 11-15). Peter and the other eleven apostles were sent to preach the gospel to the lost sheep of the House of Israel of which the Jews were a part, while Paul was sent by Christ to the Gentiles (Galatians 2:6-9). Paul actually had very little contact with Peter.

As for Peter having the keys to the Kingdom of God and powers to bind and unbind - this again can easily be taken out of context. The other disciples were also given the same powers by Christ (Matthew 18:18) (John 20:19-23). This was authority from Christ for them to do certain things in the name of Jesus Christ. Like the laying on of hands for example. Peter and John were given power from Christ to lay hands on baptized converts and pray that they would receive the Holy Spirit (Acts 8:14-17). Paul did this too. Simon the Sorcerer offered Peter money to purchase the power to lay hands on converts so that they could receive the Holy Spirit through him, but was rebuked (Acts 8: 18-24). God did tremendous miracles through Peter, but He also did great miracles through the other apostles like Phillip and John and also through Stephen (Stephen was not an apostle though).

There is nothing in the scriptures to suggest that Peter's apostleship was handed over to a successor before or at his death.

Peter's connection with Rome was the fact that he was put to death there.

What appeared to happen later on in history was that there grew up a large prominent church in Rome. In fact it was supposedly the most prominent in Christendom. No doubt, just like today there were power struggles. You know how one city figures it is superior to the others. The Roman congregations just wanted to be the boss over the other churches in other places. Rome was used to having its way and calling the shots. The Roman Empire was ruled from Rome. In fact the Roman Catholic Church modeled her organization on that of the Roman Empire. So since Peter was martyred in Rome this gave the bishops of Rome some sort of excuse to hatch up the theory of apostolic succession.

The lengths some people will go to in order to try and lord it over others. Just plain old power struggles. Just plain old efforts to control and dominate others. No doubt there was money involved. There is little new under the sun.

Matthew 23: 9-11 Living Bible " And don't address anyone here on earth as Father, for only God in heaven should be addressed like that. And don't be called Master, for only one is your master, even Christ. The more lowly your service to others, the greater you are. To be the greatest, be a servant."

Only God should be addressed as our Holy Father. Christ is the head of the true church, not the Pope.

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