Today's Roman Catholic Catechism-What's In It & Why
Josiah Matthews · Dec 28, 2003
Church History, No. 26
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4826231451187

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

So, as I mentioned, this is the last class, and we're going to look at the Roman Catholic Catechism. Okay, one more thing first. I'm going to do that again, I know it. Okay. This is the table of contents on the Church History CD. So, it gives you an idea of all the material that's on there. Quite a bit. Okay.

We've looked at this slide before, and what it says is that new groups, movements, and organizations start due to several different factors. It can be politics, geography, personalities, social differences, different bases of authority, different methods of interpretation, or failed attempts at reform. And you could say all of the different denominations and church groups have begun due to one of these issues.

Take, for example, the formation of the Anglican Church in England, the Church of England, by Henry VIII. Do you remember why he started that church? He didn't like his wife, that's right. He was married to Catherine, he wanted to divorce her and marry Anne Boleyn, but the Pope wouldn't approve it, the Roman Catholic Church would not approve of it, of the annulment or divorce, so he said, I'm going to formulate my own state church, the Church of England, and he did. Around 1534. His what? Oh, really? So he wanted to stop paying the church. So, monetary reason. A monetary reason also.

Well, when we talk now about the Roman Catholic Church, We see that quite a few of these reasons factored into the rise and prominence of the Roman Catholic Church. Politically, now we're going to talk about the Roman Empire, not the Roman Catholic Church, but politically, the Roman Empire divided itself for administrative purposes in 284, AD 284.

And then the Empire officially split in 395. And what we see is that the Roman Catholic Church, based out of Rome, growing out of Rome, was prominent in the western half of the Roman Empire. There, of course, was a church on the eastern side as well, but they grew apart, and eventually, in 1054, they excommunicated each other. So, you can see here, there are political reasons why the Roman Catholic Church grew and there are also geographical reasons and if we remember in 312 AD Christianity was legalized and then a year later was made the official religion of the Roman Empire and then several years later in 324 was the only legal religion in the Roman Empire and what that did is it made the state church, the state approved church I'm sorry, it gave the state church authority to punish believers if they didn't line up doctrinally with what the Roman church taught. And we today would probably have all been for sure persecuted if not exterminated by these guys at that time because of our beliefs, how we interpret the Bible today.

So, by 550 AD, the Roman Empire was all but ruined, and began to dynamically define itself under shifting military power. So it was declining, right? The Roman Empire was declining. But at the same time, the Roman Catholic Church grew stronger and stronger. In the 5th century, so the 400s, AD 400s, the Roman Empire was attacked by barbarians. And on three occasions, the Roman Empire was defenseless against the barbarians, about this time. This was in their decline. But on three occasions, the Roman Catholic Pope went out to the barbarians and negotiated. subsided and left the empire.

So, because of that, the Roman Catholic Church had more authority with the state. Also, the Roman Church adopted the form of the Roman government in many elements of structure, district, and title. And we'll mention some of those specifically in a couple slides. This quotation is interesting because it's by a Roman Catholic Cardinal, Cardinal Newman, and he says, The temples, incense, oil lamps, votive offerings, holy water, holidays and seasons of devotion, processions, blessings of fields, sacerdotal vestments, the tonsure of priests, monks and nuns, shaving of the head, the images are all of pagan origin. That's by Cardinal Newman.

In other words, many of the common practices of the Roman Catholic Church are not found in the Scriptures. One more thing to note is that the Reformers were not attempting to start something new in the 16th century. They were attempting to reform the Roman Catholic Church. We'll talk more about that later, but their intent was not to start a new Protestant group, but their intention was to reform what they already had in the church.

Everyone should have this slide. It's a special handout. We won't go over it, but this is a really neat tool to hang on to. And what it shows is that it lists the doctrines and practices of the Catholic Church as they've been developed over the centuries. And you can see some of the latest additions were in the 20th century. So this list will be added to most likely as time goes on. We won't take time to go over it, but if you're able to read over that. It should be helpful.

Okay, what we're going to do today is take a look at the Roman Catholic Catechism. We're going to refer to it as the CCC, the Catechism of the Catholic Church. And what is the Catechism? Basically, it is the official statement of the Roman Catholic Church regarding its doctrines and practices.

This is the latest edition, there's a picture of the latest edition, and we're going to use quotations from a previous edition in 1997. The table of contents of the Catechism has the following sections. The profession of faith, the celebration of the mystery, which are the seven sacraments. Life in Christ, and finally Christian prayer.

And here is one of the catechisms that they published, and the one we're actually using for this class. So it's very thick, and it's divided into those four sections. And what we're going to do today is compare several of the teachings or excerpts from the Catholic Catechism with the Bible. And just compare the two. I found it amazing what's actually taught by the Catholic Church.

And again, we're not misquoting them or taking their writings out of context. First thing to note is what the Catechism claims is its source. What is its basis of authority? It says this Catechism, its principal sources are the Sacred Scriptures, the Fathers of the Church, and the Liturgy, the Rituals, and the Church's Magisterium. The Magisterium is the teaching group of the Church. So, the Catechism and the Catholic Church has those Is that four? One, two, three, four. Those four sources are bases of authority.

And you and I, we hold to one basis of authority, which is the Word of God. And note what Jude 3 states. He says, I felt the necessity to write to you, appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith, the body of doctrines, which was once for all handed down to the saints. And the Word of God is what you and I base our authority upon. It's our source of knowledge or epistemology, you could say.

So here are some questions to ask in relation to a basis of revelation or authority. Is there any basis of revelation and authority outside of Scripture? What about experiences, subjective experiences? Should those be given authority? When we're trying to determine what is truth, should we recognize personal revelations?

Dreams, visions, somebody claims that God spoke to them, gave an additional revelation, in addition to what we already have in our New Testament and Old Testament. Also, some revelations supposedly come through organizations, the Roman Catholic Church, the Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, etc. So, the answer is no. There is no other basis of authority other than the Word of God.

And here are a couple of scriptures which show that. Acts 20, 32, this is Paul saying goodbye to the Ephesian elders. He says, "...now I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified." So, notice here, what does Paul commend the believers to? To God and to the word of His grace. to His truth.

Another verse is 2 Timothy 2.2, Paul to Timothy, "...the things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also." So, Paul is saying that things that are important, Timothy, are the things I taught you, the things I communicated to you, the truths that I passed on to you. And then you, Timothy, take these same truths and pass them on to the next guy, so he can in turn teach others. But notice it's not rituals, but it's the truth, the things that Paul taught Timothy.

And this is also very important, 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17. All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work." So, it's the Scripture, the Word of God, that's profitable, inspired, and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness. It's the Word of God, then, that, as a result of the application of the Word of God, the man of God is adequate, equipped for every good work. Let's look at another idea in the Catholic Catechism.

Here you see the Pope is referred to as the successor of Peter, the Bishop of Rome. So here, Peter is called the Bishop of Rome. But the question to ask is, was Peter the Bishop of Rome? And we have talked, Vern has, and others have talked about this before. What we find is that The Book of Acts locates Peter in Israel, mostly in Jerusalem, for over a period of 20 years. After that, when Paul writes to Rome, he never even mentions Peter as being there.

This is a handout that you don't have today. I don't believe it's in your packet today, but it was given out previously. And I'm sure it's on the disc also. But what it shows, and we won't go over it in detail, but what it shows is, the red lines indicate Peter's presence in Jerusalem. We know that directly from the Word of God. Peter was in Jerusalem during these times.

So, in other words, he could not have been in Rome during those periods. And also, when you traveled in those days, it would take several weeks or months so you could add on, maybe even travel time on each end. The green bars indicate Peter's absence from Rome. Not directly stated, but most likely he was not in Rome during those times as well. The latter two blue lines show where Peter could have been in Rome just at the very end of his life. But it's not stated in Scripture, so it's not for sure. So, there is no proof that Peter was the Bishop of Rome.

Now, another thing to talk about is, is it biblical to have a bishop in the first place? You're familiar with the teaching that it's not. That the local church is governed by and is overseen by elders, plural, a group of elders. And Acts 6 is talking about deacons, and it refers to seven men.

Then in Philippians 1.1, Paul addresses the overseers and deacons, both plural, in Philippi. In 1 Timothy, it also mentions the deacons, plural. So the biblical pattern doesn't place one man in authority over the local church, but it's plurality of elders and plurality of deacons. The elders look after the spiritual needs of the body, and the deacons see after the physical needs of the body.

And again, this is something most of you are familiar with. It's a study that shows The three different Greek words, Presbyteros, Episkopos, and Poimono, these three words are used interchangeably, and they refer to the elder. And it's the Episkopos, Episkopos is a Greek word that bishop is derived from. So, if you haven't studied those out, please do so, it's very good. So, again, the pattern of leadership in the local church is plurality of elders, not one bishop.

Now, logically, the next question to ask is, who can interpret Scripture? Who has the right or the freedom to interpret the Word of God? Can every member of the body in Christ take the Word of God and study it and interpret it? Or can only the leadership or the Pope or a bishop of a region interpret the Scriptures?

Well, the Catechism says that the task of interpretation has been entrusted to the bishops in communion with the successor of Peter, referring to the Pope, Peter the Bishop of Rome. So the Catechism claims that the interpretation of the Word of God is the job of the clergy, the job of the bishops, not you and I, not all the other members of the Body of Christ.

But what we find when we look at the Word of God is that in Acts 17 and 11, the Berean Jews, it says, now these Berean Jews were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, examining the Scriptures daily, to see whether these things that Paul said were so.

And it's possible that these Berean Jews were not even saved at this point. I don't know if we can determine that for sure, but it's a good chance that they were not saved yet. But they were Jews and they were taking the Word of God, the Scriptures, and searching to see if what Paul was telling them was true. They weren't throwing rocks? What do you mean? Okay. Life through the Church. Question. Does life come through the Church? A quotation from the Catechism says... Not even the heat?

The quotation says, salvation comes from God alone, but because we receive the life of faith through the church, she is our mother. The church is our mother. We believe the church as the mother of our new birth. And it goes on. Salvation comes from God, they say, but because we receive the life of faith through the Church, She is our Mother. So, the Church gives life. What does the Word of God say? In John 10, Jesus says, My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me, and I give eternal life to them. I give is present tense, indicative mood. and of course active. Christ is, of His own doing, of Himself, giving continually life to the believers.

And also Colossians 3.3 states that your life, our life, is hidden with Christ and God. And I think the next verse, 3.4, says Christ who is our life. Christ is our life, and it comes directly from Him, not the Church.

Okay, next. This is a little shocking. Do men become God? This quotation says, "...for the Son of God became man, so that we might become God. The Only Begotten Son of God, wanting to make us sharers in His divinity, assumed our nature, so that He, made men might make men gods." Well, I don't think that... that does not line up with Scripture.

And what I did is I looked at the footnotes that the catechism gave for this statement, and it listed two, and they're non-biblical sources. One is by Athanasius, and the other is by Thomas Aquinas. So, and again, if you remember, one of the first slides we looked at, the Roman Catholic Church views the writings of the Fathers as authoritative, I'm sorry, as authoritative as the Word of God. So, if Athanasius said something to this end, and Thomas Aquinas said something like this, then they decide that it's true. But it doesn't line up with God's Word. Isaiah says, before me there was no God formed, and there will be none after me.

Romans 8, 29 says, For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son." So, what God's in the business of doing is not making you and I little gods, or shares in His divinity. He's not making us more and more divine.

But what He is doing is, He's conforming us into the image of His Son. Conformed is the Greek word, sumorphos, sum, together with, and morphe, form, and morphe in the Greek denotes the outward expression of the inward man. I'm sorry, it's an outwardly expression of the inward man. Morphe does not convey the idea of molding something from the outside, but it's inside out. So the life of the Lord Jesus does live in us, and He does manifest Himself through us, but it's not our life, and we're not claiming that. little gods who are becoming God, but we are being conformed into His image.

The next question is, was Mary more blessed than other saints? The quotation goes like this, The Father blessed Mary, more than any other created person, here's a little position of truth thrown in here, in Christ, with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, and chose her in Christ, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless before Him in love.

So, in all fairness and seriousness, why in the world would you relegate those passages to Mary? It makes absolutely no sense to do that. The verses in Ephesians, which are quoted here in the Catechism, refer to every believer who is in Christ. It refers to our position in Christ. Those verses are not for Mary. Yeah, Gail? You know, I don't know that well enough to tell you. I'm not sure. I'm sure their footnotes would include Ephesians right here, but... But I'm not sure. I don't know the history of that teaching.

The other thing to note is that the last time Mary shows up in the New Testament is Acts chapter 1, before the Church was formed. So, from silence we can just state that Mary doesn't have a special place in the Church, because she's not mentioned directly in relation to the Church. Again, from the Word of God, right? They're going to have many sources of the Fathers that may say otherwise, but the Word of God does not teach that.

The next quotation says, Therefore, the Blessed Virgin is invoked in the Church under the titles of Advocate, Helper, Benefactress, and Mediatrix. An advocate is a supporter, a defender, or intercessor. A benefactress is one who gives aid, a female who gives aid. Mediatrix is something stated by the present Pope, John Paul II.

And in this teaching, it's understood that Mary is declared to be the mediator of God's grace, but not the source of God's grace. They do make that distinction. She's a mediator of the grace, although not the source of God's grace. Christ is said to be the source of God's grace, which grace is mediated through Mary.

So, it's not enough that you and I have a personal relationship with Christ, or depend upon Christ, or believe in His finished work, but we need now, according to this, we need now Mary to come between you and I and the Lord. There is one contradiction that we should mention in the Catechism. There's two other paragraphs, and I should mention that the Catechism doesn't consist of chapters and verses like the Bible does. It's separated by paragraphs. So that's why we... I'm sorry, hang on a minute. That's why we have the paragraph symbol and then 969. It's paragraph 969 in the Catechism.

But two other paragraphs in the Catechism state that Christ is the only Mediator. But here it says that the Blessed Virgin is the Mediatrix, the Mediator. So, point that out. But what does the Word of God say? We see that Jesus Christ is the Advocate. And the Holy Spirit is the Helper.

And 1 Timothy 2.5 states that... I'll read it.

1 Timothy 2.15. I think it's 2.15. Or is it 2.5? Anybody have it?

Does somebody mind checking to see if that should be 1 Timothy 2.5 or 2.15? I'll read the verse. It's 2.5? Thanks, bud. So, 2.5, it says, "...for there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." So, Mary, according to the Word of God, we do not need Mary to be a Mediator, but it's Jesus Christ who is the one Mediator between God and men.

Does the Church save? In the Catechism, there is a bold title, or heading, above paragraph 846, which says, outside the Church, there is no salvation. And this quotation says, all salvation comes from Christ the Head, through the Church, which is His body. Brad?

They do acknowledge that we worship the same God. The Catechism does state that. I'm not sure. I would think it would, if they would state that we have the same God. We could take a look at that more later. Are there? There are, yes. Because it changes, right? Each edition is a little different. So, they do add things. like that special handout you have shows, throughout the centuries, and even this last century, there have been new additions, and most likely there will be new additions, yet this century, to the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church.

This is very sobering when you think your Catholic friends do not believe your faith. Oh. And it doesn't feel right. Because I know Catholic friends, How close do they hold to the teachings of their church? And one thing to remember from weeks past is that when the Roman Catholic Church talks about salvation, they don't really mean the same thing you and I do when we refer to being saved by God's grace. In the Roman Catholic teaching, when they refer to being saved, it's the idea that heavens are now open for you to merit your own salvation. That's what's meant here. So it's quite different. than what we understand.

And it's the accumulation of merit by participating and keeping the various sacraments which, according to the catechism, allow people to be saved. Sure, sure, but they're not believing this. They have been presented with the Gospel and do believe that Christ did die for them. They're not dependent upon their own works. But the Church itself teaches this.

And Acts 16.31 states, "...believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved." Implying that that the church isn't the one that is involved in our salvation, but it's only faith in the Lord Jesus that saves a person. Interesting. And again, that's not in the Bible. That's not in the Bible, no. Related question, is salvation by our works?

A clear statement from the Catechism says that all men may attain salvation through faith, baptism, and the observance of the commandments. Does that line up with the Word of God? Titus 3 says He saved us not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy."

And, of course, there's many, many other verses throughout the Word of God that teach this. So, in case anyone was wondering, does the Catholic Church basically say the same thing as we do? The answer is no. Emphatically no. Or, I should say, does the Roman Catholic Church line up with what the Word of God teaches? And the answer is no. The next question is, is Jesus' sacrifice ongoing, or is it indeed finished?

Okay, the quotation says, the Eucharist, which is what you and I refer to as the Lord's Supper, and remember, Eucharist is a combination of you, which is good, and charis, which is gracing, so it's good gracing, and their understanding is by partaking of the Eucharist, they are meriting good grace, God's grace. Every time this mystery is celebrated, the work of our redemption is carried on.

But Hebrews 7.27 says, Christ, who does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices. Because this He did once for all, when He offered up Himself. Hebrews, of course, is referring to Judaism here. And it says Christ does not need to daily offer up a sacrifice, but He did it once for all, when He offered Himself up. And once for all is the Greek word hapax. which means once given, perpetually valid. So the definition of the word shows us that what Christ did was once, and is perpetually valid. And here they even mention observing the commandments.

This symbol is called the monstrance. It's basically a container for the wafer, the bread. But you notice it's a pagan symbol of the sun god, which they've used for years. Does anyone else have any more comments before we continue on here? We have several, a good ten more slides to go through. Any other comments? Carol?

It was there because they made it a mandatory religion. And so they had to combine all these religions, all these people from their own empire. So if they continued, they wouldn't have to dump their celebrations they thought were important. You know, you like celebrations for Christmas or Resurrection Day for us, you know, or something. And so they just dumped them all in. And so everybody could feel at home.

And most likely that was done because they didn't have a good understanding of their position in Christ. I knew I'd do that again. They didn't have a good understanding of their position in Christ, so they were then attached to things here. Customs and... Well, most people that were then in the Christian church suddenly were not Christian at all. Good point. They were just like anybody on the street. They were made to, eventually. Yeah, good point.

The next question is, can money buy salvation? The quotation from the Catechism says, the faithful departed, the deceased. One way we can help them is to obtain, and Verne has inserted to buy indulgences for them, so that the temporal punishments due for their sins may be remitted." And when it speaks of temporal punishment, it's referring to purgatory. The buying or the mitigation or the lessening of their temporal punishment is referred to as an indulgence. The indulgence lessens the time one will spend or is spending in purgatory, temporary punishment.

Now, at the time of the Reformation, the Roman Catholic Church was in the process of building St. Peter's Cathedral, and they were short on money, so they were selling, offering these indulgences for people that would contribute financially to the cathedral. And this was one of the problems that Martin Luther had with the Roman Catholic Church. and one of the issues that prompted him to write his 95 Theses and start questioning the Church, and again, his intention was to reform the Church.

1 Peter says, knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. So our salvation was not bought, but it was bought with Christ's blood, for sure, but not with money. And not by our doing.

That's right. That's important. And this is interesting. I had to look this up. Is this really in there? This is from Psalms 49, 7-8, and it states No man can by any means redeem his brother or give to God a ransom for him, for the redemption of his soul is costly, and he should cease trying forever." And that's out of Psalms, I couldn't believe it. Pretty clear. The Bible is very clear on this issue.

Can we merit God's grace? Can we earn God's grace. I used to get demerits in school, but these are merits. These are good things. Can we merit God's grace? And the quotation says, moved by the Holy Spirit, we can merit for ourselves and for others all the graces needed to attain eternal life. And 2 Timothy 1 says, God who has saved us, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity. So, again, as we've stated several times this morning, the Word of God teaches that we're saved not according to our own works or doing, but according to God's grace, to Christ's work for us on the cross.

Romans 6.23 says, "...the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." So what does this verse tell us that you and I can earn? Death. Yeah, we can earn something, alright, and it's death. But salvation or eternal life in Christ Jesus is a free gift.

And then Romans 5.17, For if by the transgression of the One," referring to Adam, death reigned through the One, "...much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ." So, death came by Adam, but by God's grace, by the grace, by the righteousness of Jesus Christ, we will reign in life. And that includes now, today, reigning in life, because it's His life, right? Are Believers Perfected or Not?

The quotation from the Catechism says, "...all who die in God's grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified..." So it refers to those who die in God's grace and friendship are still imperfectly purified. And what's taught is that the deceased go into purgatory, as I mentioned before. Purgatory, by definition, is the state in which the souls of those who have died in grace must expiate or atone or correct their sins.

Hebrews 10.14 says, "...for by one offering Christ has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified."

So, positionally, perfected. Conditionally, as we're conforming to Christ's image, we're sanctified. Perfected for all time is in the perfect tense, which denotes completed past action with ongoing results. Before, remember, we had a a word, by definition, that indicated this past action, completed action, but now it's the tense of the verb, which indicates completed past action with ongoing results. So believers are perfected. Next, Are believers forgiven or not?

Interestingly, paragraph 982 says, there is no offense, however serious, that the Church cannot forgive. But 1 John 2 says, I am writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven. Your sins have been forgiven you for His namesake. And again, that's the perfect tense. Forgiven is in the perfect tense. Our sins have been forgiven. And who forgave our sins? God, and not the Church. The Bible says that God has forgiven us.

This relates to Brad's question. involving the Muslims. Do the Muslims have a part in the plan of salvation? And I couldn't remember exactly what it said, but we'll read it now. The Catechism says, The plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator in the first place, amongst whom are the Muslims. These profess to hold the faith of Abraham, and together with us they adore the one merciful God, mankind's judge on the last day.

And this has to be a new teaching in the Roman Catholic Church, right? Because during the Crusades, which we looked at a couple of weeks ago, the Catholics were fighting with the Muslims to get the Holy Land back, and they certainly didn't believe this. But now they believe this. And, of course, this is not scriptural. Islam denies that Christ was crucified, and in claims... I'm sorry, that's not a word. In claims. And instead claims that it was another man.

Islam also teaches that God is unknowable, but Paul in Philippians 3.10 states that, or he expresses his desire to know Christ. And so, despite what our political leaders tell us, we're not serving the same God as the Muslims. So it's a workspace salvation as well. So, it is similar to Catholicism. Well, this is the last slide, so... Oh, no, I'm sorry, it's not. One more.

So, what is the believer to do? 2 Peter 3 says this, You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard, so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men, and fall from Your own steadfastness. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen." So let's be aware of what is taught, but let's then continue to walk by faith, abiding in the Lord Jesus Christ, resting in our position in Him, being conformed into His image for His glory. So, what comments do you have? What things do you have to add? I'm not at all an expert on Roman Catholic theology. I've only recently looked at it. What do you guys have to add or to say?

In regards to your mention of Henry VIII and the beginning, Henry VIII has been accused of many of what we would call today of being a womanizer. And that may or may not have been true. His purpose in wanting a new wife was to give him an heir to the throne. And that was his previous wife. None had given him a son who would follow him as king of England. And this was his paramount purpose or cause or concern. Quite political. Thanks, Art.

Hal. You know what? Let's go back. Let's go back. We've... Hold. Successor of Peter, the Bishop of Rome, the Pope, Bishop of Rome. You're right. Good point. Interesting. I don't know... I'm not familiar enough with the Catechism to know if elsewhere it does teach that he was the Pope. But you're right. It refers to Peter as Bishop. Although here... No, again, I think Pope is referring to the present Pope, the Pope, Bishop of Rome, and Peter's successor. I'm not sure. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Any takers? What's that? You want to look it up? Sure. Anybody else have anything to add? Yeah, good point. Yeah. See if Nancy can find it. I don't know. And they quickly did go off base.

I mean, the New Testament certainly doesn't teach, you know, a one-man ministry or one man... doesn't relegate authority to one man in the church. But by 110, AD 110, the church was teaching that, things like that. You know, Ignatius reflected that. So quickly they were teaching that one man would be in a position of authority in a church. It's not in the Scriptures, but I do believe it shows the flesh, the sin nature's desire to have that preeminence in the first place and all that. Let's pray. Dear Lord, thanks again for letting us study and we're trusting You together to conform us into Christ's image and to continue to use us according to Your pleasure and for Your glory. In Jesus' name, amen.