Originally Posted by De Maria
The only way to miss this appointment is if you ignore the Spirit of the Scriptures.
Let us examine the chief appointment verse.
Matthew 16 18 And I say to thee: That thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Note that Jesus has renamed Simon, Cephas or Rock:
John 1 42 And he brought him to Jesus. And Jesus looking upon him, said: Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is interpreted Peter.
And we know that the only Rock in Scripture previously was God Himself. Therefore Jesus has given Simon the name which represents God.
Has this ever happened before? Well yes. God appointed a man before to represent Him before other men. That man was Moses.
Exodus 7 1 And the Lord said to Moses: Behold I have appointed thee the God of Pharao: and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet.
History records that St. Peter was the Bishop of Rome and was there martyred. Only recent anti-Catholic rhetoric has begun to question what has for centuries been accepted as truth.
Where? Please provide the reference so I can confirm this isn't simply made up. Otherwise, I'll chalk it up to anti-Catholic propaganda. In the meantime, lets see what another contemporary had to say:
Irenaeus states: "Peter and Paul were evangelizing in Rome and laying the foundation of the Church. After their departure, Mark, the disciple and interpreter of Peter, also handed down to us in writing what had been preached by Peter" (AGAINST HERESIES 3, 1, 1).
That is true. And the Church also calls every believer Priest, every believer King and every believer Saint.
But there are certain believers who allegedly do miraculous things. And in order not to quench the Spirit, the Church tries them to see if they are good. And if they are good, they are canonized as Saints:
Mark 16 16 He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved: but he that believeth not shall be condemned. 17 And these signs shall follow them that believe: In my name they shall cast out devils: they shall speak with new tongues. 18 They shall take up serpents; and if they shall drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them: they shall lay their hands upon the sick, and they shall recover.
No, Jesus gave the Apostles the power to forgive sin and the Apostles passed this power on to their successors:
John 20 23 Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained.
Scripture also says:
James 5 16 Confess therefore your sins one to another: and pray one for another, that you may be saved. For the continual prayer of a just man availeth much.
Sure there is. The Bible doesn't mention the word Trinity but teaches about the Trinity. In the same way, the word Purgatory is not in the Bible but it is taught in the Bible:
1 Corinthians 3 15 If any man's work burn, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire.
Certainly Mary needed a Savior. But her salvation was much different than yours and ours. Let me ask you, would you rather be hit by a truck and saved by the physicians in the hospital? Or would you rather that someone warn you the truck is coming so you could avoid it?
Of course you would rather avoid it. And that is how Jesus saved His Mother. He saved her before she sinned.
In addition, Scripture does not say that Mary sinned. Anyone who says that is reading that into Scripture.
If you would like, we could start a detailed thread on any of those subjects. However, I believe they are beyond the scope of this thread. I'm wondering why people believe in Scripture alone when Scripture Itself says that one should believe in traditions by word and scripture and in the Church?
Sincerely,
De Maria