(April 21, 2015 at 2:01 pm)Alex K Wrote: What the title says. Didn't Jesus pretty explicitly state that
Quote: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.and wouldn't that entail that only the Roman church is the the rightful successor of Jesus? I'm just interested in the rationale of evangelical/protestant Christians behind rejecting this claim.
Even if Jesus follow was literally saying that his church would be built upon Peter, it doesn't follow that the catholic church is the one true church. The fact that the church decided to replace Peter after his death and continued to do so was just a choice they made, not something directed by Jesus. The church was defined by the apostle Paul as "the body of Christ, which is made up of all his followers, not just those who follow the doctrine of a long line of church appointed bishops. Catholics and all other christians are part of the body of Christ and are brothers and sisters in Christ. We don't need to fight with each other over stuff like this. God knows who his followers are.
