As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
I give to you from the Holy Ghost of God, not a new teaching, but the True teaching, which has been shrouded from you by the work of satan, for none of you understand this, as you are held hostage by the clergy and by your own ignorance.
The Vatican has unleashed a teaching upon this world that the Universal religion is the one true church of Christ, and that the Pope is the Vicar of Christ, or the one man on earth that stands in for Jesus or is between you and Christ. None of that is in the Bible and now hear the revelations from God's Holy Ghost to set you free.
In Matthew 16:15, Christ asks the disciples who He is, and Peter replies:
"And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God."
Christ is overjoyed in the response and states that the Father has revealed this to Peter, and then utters the following verse 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."
Before you jump to conclusions, examine this in context. Jesus asked a question, and Peter answered it correctly Inspired from God. At that point, Jesus simply says that He will begin the Church on this insight or message, Christ will build the Church, and that with Jesus laying down His life and taking it up again, hell will not prevail, or condemnation will not prevail against the Church.
There is nothing in this about Peter being given the place of Christ, where there is a hereditary office of Pope, that stands between the Faithful and Christ. All Jesus said, was like founding a store like Walmart in America, that would be the start of the Church.
If one remembers, Jesus also while talking to the disciples after His resurrection if Peter loved Him. Peter was grieved in that, and then Jesus told Peter, that Peter was going to die. It would be John who would continue on, as John was the disciple who stayed with Christ at the Cross.
Look at the Biblical facts in this, that Peter was killed as a martyr, and the only Apostle left was John. There is no record of John taking over at Rome or anywhere else, but there is in the Revelation of Jesus the Christ to John, the reality that in 70 AD the Church at Jerusalem was ended as was Jerusalem by the Roman legions.
Christ in Revelation addresses to John a message to the SEVEN CHURCHES, not the Church which was at Jerusalem or the one at Rome. In fact, there is not one mention of Rome by Christ. Christ's Churches were the franchises which were built on the foundation of what Peter confessed. Jerusalem was gone, but the Faithful were carrying the True Church inside of every person of them as Jesus taught.
Much has been made of the communal order of the Jerusalem Church which was founded. Rich people sold everything and the elders administered to every person's needs. If one examines what Jesus was building when Saul was converted on the Road to Damascus as Paul, this was no longer a communal Church.
Paul states he worked, as donations from the rich could not be relied upon. That is what the Church became. Not a communist type organization of centralized power in Jerusalem, which then transferred to Rome, but a Church which was a Republican form of Christianity, in a Church which every member was an individual, and leaders elected from each Church held administorial positions. It was true Republicanism as the Greeks and Romans had invented. Men and women all were equal. The people all had a purpose and place, which was vital to this Congregation. No one was greater, as Paul stated, all had their Gifts from God, and each had a vital place.
This was not some Vatican, and appointed rulers, a Pope between Christ and the Faithful, but a group of elders morally leading and ministering in each way, male and female, and among them prophets, teachers, workers of miracles etc...
That is the reality of the Church of Jesus the Christ. He is at the head, and there is no one in between Christ and each of His children, who are the living Church, the Body of Christ. Christ rules, and each of His Churches within the Church are not centralized in power, but designed to be decentralized in power. Christ's Church is the individual with rights in a Republic and elected local administrators serving that group, as the entire group serves Christ.
There is not a Pope monarch, just Christ, Who governs these willing Faithful for the Glory of the Father. There is not one Cathedral over other Churches or a Missouri Synod Lutheran, Baptist, Methodist, Church of England or whatever having a higher place than any individual Christian, who is the Church of God.
Jesus Christ built His Church on the Apostles. There was nothing in any order which passed to others when someone died. There was never a centralized authority, save Christ.
When Christ called Paul to carry the Gospel to non Israelites, the Church became open to all the Faithful in this world. This Church was not communal, but it was Christians working in a representative group, for Glorification of God and for their needs. There never was groups of clergy living in luxury while the Faithful suffered.
This is the Church of Jesus Christ. No one is between you and your Lord. There never was collection plates passing money from your community to fund the luxurious lifestyles of clergy in far away places. There was just Jesus and you, and you in your Church, awaiting for the in gathering in Christ's return.
The Christian Church was a community of assets in it's founding, as Christ began it, but that type of situation could never prevail as it fed on trusting rich people to sell all they had and provide a common need of all, and there was never enough money or humane rich people on the planet.
The Paul Church which was expanded upon the foundation, is the Church which was Republicanism, in a working Church in a real world to minister to the Faithful and to spread the Gospel to the remainder of the world.
The Christian Republic is what Jesus built. America was founded for that exact purpose, as America was never a nation, but was instead Congregation, a Church which was a working society meant by God to evangelize the world. That is the reality of the promise and the failings of the Royal Priesthood of the Americans who turned to sin and the Western Republics of Europe who became apostate in throwing off Christ.
Each Christian is a responsible person in this Royal Priesthood, adopted to the throne of Christ in David, and adopted to the order of Melchizedek as founded by Christ.
This is the Christian Republic of the Kingdom of God.
agtG
