my talk today it just says Peter in the rock on this schedule there but it's actually Peter the rock the keys and the chair because these are three elements that when I was coming into the church resentful to me my wife came into the church because of worship and the saints and devotions I came into the church because of authority I was a Bible alone guy and that's why I enjoyed Marcus Grodi stalk last night so much about that verse if he never saw in the Bible and I'll have to tell you it wasn't in my Bible either the church is the pillar and foundation of the faith I never saw that verse either and it's an amazing thing we were going to write a book one time a bunch of us about all the verses that we never had in our Bible until we became Catholic but I converted to the Catholic Church because of the issue of authority my problem was is that I was a Bible alone guy but even among my evangelical buddies we couldn't agree on what it meant we would argue and fight about it and I could go on talk about that for a while but I want to get into the issue of the papacy and the best way to understand the Bible and the church and the papacy is to go back in space and time so in a way I'm going to ask you to suspend your reality here and go back 2,000 years to the other side of the world you don't speak English anymore you speak Aramaic and Greek you don't live in a democracy you live in a kingdom and I want you to put it through the see this through the eyes of the first century Christians who were confronted with this new idea of a church of a new kingdom of a messiah the best way to study the Bible people say Steve what's the best way to study the Bible I say read a passage think up as many stupid questions as you can about that passage and then look for answers find out and another way is to realize when you're trying to understand the church and Jesus and Mary is to realize that there are really five Gospels not only for you think I'm a heretic Marcus is already following the security to get me out of here there are five Gospels and I don't mean the Gospel of Judas or the Gospel of Thomas which we've heard a lot about which are not Gospels but I'm referring to what Pope Paul the sixth said when he went to the Holy Land and he said I have read Matthew Mark Luke and John and now I am reading the fifth gospel which is the Holy Land because to understand Mary and Jesus and the beginnings of what we are as Catholics a church here we are sitting in America 2,000 years removed from the beginning with different language different culture different ideas different governmental form and it does us a tremendous disservice because we don't see it we're looking at things as Americans in modern-day times and you can't do that you have to step back in time so as a Catholic oh by the way you know the best way I like to do this is I I started running people that I've been asked 50 times already did you lose weight because in my movies I was a little plumper and yes I lost thirty pounds because I started eating right and exercising I just realized the doctor said I had high this high that high that and if I want to see my grandkids married I had to do something my wife and I said God only gave us one body and I want to serve him for a long time and I'm not going to let physical things cut it short so we started eating right and exercising and one of the best ways that I see the fifth gospel is it when I'm in Israel before I take our group's out in the morning I take a run and I run the five days ago I ran from Jerusalem to Bethlehem and back to Jerusalem and the day before that we had eight runners in our group and I said you want to go for a run I'll take you on a run of a lifetime and they said yeah they put on their shoes we talked I took off and we ran around the old walls of the city the city had stopped at every gate ran in prayed at the western wall and and ran for an hour but this is a great way to see the land but to understand the Bible and the Catholic Church you have to dig deep and you have to go into history and into culture and ideas and that's a little bit of what I want to do for you today now in Ann Arbor where I live most of the time um when I'm home but when in Ann Arbor they used at the mall they used to have these pictures in the malls and their call magic eyes I don't know if you have ever seen him I haven't seen him lately but it looks like my grandkids splattered paint all over a piece of paper and they said if you looked at it you would see something a unicorn flying over three three pine trees they said and I looked at and I didn't see anything but splatters of paint and I said they were crazy they had all of these pictures and my wife all of a sudden says oh I see it there's a unicorn with three pine trees and I thought she'd lost her mind and I stood there for 15 minutes and finally I saw it and you know this is what I'm talking about a little bit you have to have eyes to see things I would have said to you 15 years ago all right Catholics if you're so smart and you know your Bible so well why don't you show me the Pope in the Bible show me the Pope in the Bible come on right here chapter and verse first of all there's a big problem with that because I assumed everything had to be found in the Bible you're smarter than that you know that that is not true at least explicitly stated the first thing I asked people who asked that question now is where do you find in the Bible that I have to find everything in the Bible that's the first thing before when somebody says where do you find us in the Bible say back up a step yours you are asserting something here that may not be the case if everything has to be in the Bible then why don't you show me in the Bible where it says everything has to be found in the Bible because that's not in the Bible but I would have said where do you find the Pope in the Bible the words not there there's no Vatican's and popemobile x' and Cardinals and infallibility doctrines and the Bible's why do you believe why do you let the old man in Rome tell you what to do especially in your own bedroom what is wrong with you Americans why do you follow the Pope this is the land of the home and the free of the brave and we have the Bible why do you let some dictator in Italy tell you what to do and believe me I wasn't saying that to be facetious I believed that I thought it was ridiculous but where do you find the Pope in the Bible well it's like that magic eyes if you come to it as an American not understanding the history the culture the language not standing the whole history to church you may not see it you may just see splatters of words on a page but if you have eyes to see and if you understand the Bible in its context both historical and textual you will see the Pope jump out just like the unicorn flying over three pine trees and so I want to start by going back on a journey to the land of Jesus to the very beginning of time of the church and let's see what we can find about the Pope and whether it was intended to be what we are and I'll give you a little hint upfront it is because that's why I'm up here and proud to be a Catholic today I want to start with the rock and then we'll go to the keys and then to the chair and if I have enough time I'll tell you a story about a ship and some rafts but first of all the rock Jesus took his disciples on a long walk it says that he went into the district of Caesarea Philippi this is in Mathew chapter 16 now all of you people say Catholics don't know the Bible so I'm going to do a little test here I'm going to say a phrase and I want you to finish it all right you are Peter and you guys know the Bible all most of you are converts that's so that's funny but even if I'm in a room that's full of cradle Catholics and I say this they know how to finish the verse you'd be amazed I can quote a half a verse and they can finish it you know the problem is they just don't know where to find it they know what it says Catholics have a good instinct about what the truth is about what the Bible teaches but if you ask them where it is they don't know see when I learned John 3:16 as a boy John 3:16 was part of the verse because you had to know that in case you were talking to a Catholic because you knew they didn't know and so you can win a few points right there by knowing where it was but in Matthew chapter 16 it says that Jesus took his disciples into the district of Caesarea Philippi now stop right there how do you study the Bible you ask as many stupid questions as you can and you look for the answers two good ones here why does it say he went to says areia Philippi it's not necessary is it mm-hmm and why and what was their special about says areia Philippi that made this important and I'm going to tell you he took them into the district of Caesarea Philippi now if Israel is like it's a long skinny country the size of New Jersey only eight thousand square miles it's a little country sure makes the news bigger than it is and if Jerusalem is here in the middle that's where the temple was that's where the doctors of the law was where that's where the throbbing pulsing life of Judaism was down here this is where it was clean so to speak and holy but their way up a 60 to 80 miles up by the Sea of Galilee up here and that was called the land of Darkness the land of the Gentiles and yet there were still communities of Jews with synagogues there but Jesus and His disciples went to probably three days it takes us an hour and a half to get there on a Mercedes bus so how long would it take to walk two or three days I'm going to try it sometime so I can give you the accurate days but they went from Galilee all the way to the very tip of Israel today it's right on the Lebanese border and up there you were as far away from Jerusalem as you can get and still be in the Holy Land in Israel you are now right on the border you are in pagan territory and at the time of Jesus this place fits Ezra Philip I was the capital of Caesar Philip I mean Philip who was the Tetrarch of the area and he named it after himself but there was a place there a rock and I'll tell you about it but it was a place of pagan worship why would Jesus go to such a place and I think the answer is is because he was very smart he was a good teacher you know if you're a good teacher you know that you need to use props and visuals you need to show things to people like a coin Jesus says whose image is on this coin look at the rock so the field look at the sower who went out to sow all the time Jesus is using these marvelous stories because he knows how our brains work how we learn with images with visuals and there's no greater backdrop or visual to any of Jesus's teaching then it says areia Philippi I'm convinced of it so Jesus is on the way and when they get there he says to his disciples who do men say that I am and they say some say John the Baptist Elijah one of the prophets and Jesus says who do you say that I am and Peter the one with always Boortz things out the first one he got it right you know a couple verses later Jesus says get thee behind me Satan in one chapter he says to Peter you receive this as a revelation from God and a few chip verses later Peter says no one is going to crucify you and he says get you behind me Satan but here Peter got it right he says you are the Christ the Son of the Living God and Jesus says very good Peter it did good this time thank you for defining me you did not get this from your own head or from anything you've learned by walking around or in school or in the synagogue you did not learn this from fresh and flesh and bread you receive this from my father who is in heaven thank you for defining me Peter and now I'm going to return your favor and I am going to define you Peter had defined Jesus Jesus was now returning the favor and he is going to define Peter but he wasn't called Peter yet he was called Simon I am going to define you you are Peter and on this rock I will build my church now let's take that apart a little bit in English we lose the word play Peter Rock so what what does that prove Catholics if you said it in French you are pierre and in pierre on this pierre i will build my church because the word named pierre means rock rock and PR the same how did we get peter from rock well let's go back one language okay we're in english now doesn't make sense the wordplay is gone but let's go back to the language it was written in in matthew matthew wrote the Gospels from what the early church father said first in Hebrew and was later translated into era into Greek but let's read what it says in the Greek it says you are Petros and on this Petra I will build my church aha got you Catholic it's not the same word see Jesus must have been saying you are Petros and on this Petra I will build my church no scholar holds to that by the way what Jesus did was changed the name Petra is a one of those romantic languages like Spanish that has feminine and masculine nouns the word Rock Petra is a feminine noun he couldn't call him Petra he's a big ball burly fisherman my name is Steven I wouldn't appreciate it if you called me Stephanie I go home he couldn't call him Petra Petra is a word for rock but it's a feminine Jesus changes the word Petra and makes a masculine out of the word Petra so that he could give him a masculine name rock but Jesus didn't say it in Greek that's how Matthew translates it for us in the New Testament Jesus spoke Aramaic did you know that when the Holy Family woke up in the morning in their cave in Nazareth Mary Joseph and Jesus said good morning and Aramaic and Jesus spoke the common language of the Jews of the day they spoke Hebrew in the synagogues and in the schools and when they were reading the Torah scrolls but when they were on everyday life they spoke Aramaic and an Aramaic the word for rock is caifa you read Cephas in the Bible the word Cephas that's this word caifa so when Jesus spoke to Peter in Aramaic he said you are kafir and on this caifa I will build my church do you remember what the first thing jesus said to Simon when he met him in John chapter 1 verse 42 he said Oh Simon you will be called Cephas you will be called caifa the rock Peter price said oh yeah okay if you say so three years later he gets the name so that's the origin of that name caifa Peter name changes are very important in the Bible they're not so important to us today but name change is there a name was a description it was who you were Abram had the name Abram and you know what the name means father but at ninety nine years old he still has no children can you imagine when names are more important hello who are you Abram oh you're a father yes where's your kids don't have any then why are you called Abram ask my mom and then God comes to me is ninety nine years old and he still has no children and he says I'm going to give you a covenant I'm going to change your name first of all the sign of the covenant I think Abraham was thinking oh good I'm finally going to get something out of this deal I still don't have any land I don't have a kid now he's going to give me a sign of the Covenant great what is it God and he hands him a flint knife and says Abram cut it off this is the circumcision this is the sign of the Covenant and he says I'm going to change your name and if the splint knife wasn't cruel enough he says I'm changing your name now to Abraham what does Abraham mean father of Nations but then God blessed him and gave him a son and his son became the father of Nations at name change is significant you know Mary we call her Mary and even in the Rosary we say Hail Mary full of grace but you know you go look in the Bible for that word name Mary in that passage it's not there what God said was the angel said from God is hail kajada ptomaine a hail you who have been made full of grace and Pope John Paul the second said that that was Mary's name in the eyes of God a name change kajada ptomaine a the one who was made full of grace now Peter is being given a new name it is very significant to be given the name ROC no one had been given the name rock before that was not a name it was now a new name that no one had before because Jesus was making a point that I'm going to make you the rock the foundation and when he made Peter the rock he did not just make Peter the rock but he created an office which we'll get to in a moment now I want to tell you about this rock when we drive the bus around the corner I've been there over 50 times and when I get there I still the hair still goes up on the back of my neck and I get goose bumps because this is such a magnificent sight and you can see pictures of it on my website it's Catholic convert calm by the way I love that title the web name you know Catholic convert calm but I have pictures of it up there and when you drive around the corner the first thing you see is a huge rock it's the foothills of the Mount Hermon and they're in the middle of it on the left a little bit is a huge cave and then to the right our niche is carved in this rock where pagan idols used to be placed right inside the rock it's about 500 feet long and at least 50 to 100 feet high it's very impressive and Jesus came here to make this announcement because of the just the magnificence of this backdrop and when you understand that you say of course where else could he have said this my favorite place to give this talk is at that place right in front of the rock and I did it one time with a there's a little like little amphitheater you know a few seats and I have all my people sitting there and then there was another one I just did this ten days ago with a group and then there was another little amp Theatre over to the right and a group of Baptists walk in and they were sitting over there and I knew they're Baptists see I was when I can spot him a mile away and so I'm sitting there talking to my group on how Peter in Iraq and I said I know what they're talking about would you excuse me I just got to go confirm it so I can scooch it over there and I listened and sure enough I heard this and our Roman Catholic friends they'll tell you Peter is the rock but that's because they don't know their Bibles I still have a scar on my tongue oh I was polite so this rock is magnificent and in the time of Jesus when he arrived I don't think he came up to this rock I think he stood a distance off on the hillside just beyond it and looked down on this rock because it was a pagan site and this was the place where pagan worship was taking place and there were probably orgies and unholy masses if you want to call it going on in front of these statues and what Jesus would have seen was a white temple built right in front of the cave a huge cave is there I mean it's a huge cave and in the first century Josephus the Roman writer the Jewish writer who was writing for the Romans says that there was water in the bottom of the cave and he says many times people have taken a rope and put a weight a stone and lowered it down down down and they could never find the bottom of the cave and so the pagans considered it the entrance to the netherworld caves in ancient times deep caves were considered an entrance into Hades or into the netherworld where the gods in the supernatural world and Jesus said you were rock and on this rock I'll build my church and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it why did he say this because there is the gate into the nether worlds the white marble temple that stood right in front of this it was built by Herod the Great before Jesus's time and it was made of imported marble it was beautiful you could see it glowing gleaming in the sunlight before you even got close and there you came to worship what Caesar as Lord Caesar was considered the Prince of Peace he was divine he was the Lord and people came there to this temple devoted to Caesar Augustus and there are still you can see where there are concave areas where they put the statues and you would walk through the temple and you'd give a basin stew the statues and you'd worship Caesar his Lord you'd pinch incense to the genius of the Emperor and then you would throw your living sacrifice into the cave into the water below this is all described by Josephus and they would throw the living sacrifice into the water and if blood came out oh I didn't tell you this there's so many things I wish I was there to showing you because it's easier that way but underneath the cave was flowing a river of water it's one of the headwaters of the Jordan River when you see the Jordan River and say where does it come from it comes out of that cave up there it says areaa Phillipi one of three sources and you throw the living sacrifice in and if blood came out in the water underneath the rock then you would know that the gods rejected your sacrifice but if there was no blood then the gods had accepted your sacrifice which is the opposite of Christianity in which we read in the Hebrews that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins so you would walk through this temple and you would throw the living sacrifice into the gods that were down below the gates of hell now you have a false Rock with a false church and you're worshiping what a false Lord now this was the false Lord I want to touch on that a little bit more that was a real problem for Christians in the first century to have to pinch incense to the Caesar and acknowledge him as the Lord you could worship Jesus and Zeus and Aphrodite and Artemis and all the other gods it doesn't matter as long as you agreed that Caesar was divine that was the glue of the Empire all the nations all the countries that came under the Roman Empire had to acknowledge Caesar as Lord and pledge allegiance to him you didn't have to believe it you could even cross your fingers and pinch the incense give you a certificate now imagine what the Christians face when they were in the first and second centuries why were they persecuted because imagine those two doors are now locked BAM they're shut and two Roman soldiers are there with their swords and none of us are leaving until we make a decision and they set up one guy over here and one soldier there and they say get into one of these two lines right now every one of you into one of these two lines here we have an altar and on this altar you will pinch incense to the Caesar to the genius and the divinity of the Roman Emperor and you don't have to believe it come with both hands cross behind your back we won't look and when you do will sign your certificate and you can go but if you refuse to do this then you step over here and there's a chopping block and a big guy with tattoos and a ring in his nose he's gonna cut off your head if you refuse to acknowledge Caesar resort which line would you get in think for just a minute which line would you get into you would say oh I have grandchildren that depend on me and a wife and a husband and I have a mortgage to pay and I have a business I'm running I have to get in this line I'm just going to cross my fingers God will understand oh but then you get over here in this line and there's a few priests here who know that they're probably going to be martyrs someday I tell young seminarians when you become a priest today you're get putting a bull's-eye on your chest because of the way our country in the world is going and the priest as he gets up and he comes over to this line he yells back over to you remember the words of our Lord if you deny me before men I will deny you before my father in heaven do you want to reconsider which line you're in this is what faced the first Christians this is the decisions they had to make this is why they were eaten by lions and burned at the stake and had been cut off their heads with swords so Jesus is now saying you are Peter and on this rock I will build my church in other words this is a false rock with a false church to a false Lord and I'm going to establish a new Church on a new rock of Peter and it will you will worship the true Lord and the water that rushes out from under the Cave what does it do you know that 70% of the water used in Israel comes out of the Sea of Galilee whether you're in Haifa Tel Aviv or Bayer shaiva or Jerusalem 70 percent of the water you use comes out of the Sea of Galilee I said to the pilgrims last week I said every time you flush the toilet the water goes down in the Sea of Galilee he said good I'm glad it doesn't go up the water that flows out from under that rock is the water that has sustained the people of God and made Israel into a garden what is the water that flows from the rock of Peter the rock of Peter has water that's flowing from it is true and pure teaching which we can trust even 2,000 years later it is the sacraments from the church that flow out with the grace of God like I huge like a huge pipeline from heaven just pouring out on us all the time freely and graciously given even when we don't deserve it and what else it is the Holy Spirit that flows from the church these are you look at this rock and there you have a now a true rock Peter with the true church worshipping the true Lord and out from it flows the water of the Holy Spirit and the grace of God there's so much more I could say about that but I want to move on to one other aspect of that rock before I get to the keys if you were to ask today to a taxi driver take me up to says areia Philippi he would look at you puzzled he doesn't know where that is because it's not called says areia Philippi anymore it was only called says areia Philip I for a few short years before that it was called Ponyo s-- and today it's called baniyas you have to tell the taxi driver take me to Banja so he that he knows then he'll take you the reason being is that in the niches I told you about over to the side big niches you can stand in them my son-in-law was finishing his PhD at Catholic University in theology and he went and sat in one of them and said I am the God he's pretended to be funny I have pictures of them there but they're big enough where you can go and sit there are big statues and and you know who the number one God was the big God that they put in there and people came from all over the Roman Empire and the whole Near East to worship at this place the god Pan PA n it was world famous as the place the shrine of pen he was the goat you know with a back Goten of the head of a man and he'd play his flute and chase the girls through the woods that's where we get the word panic and pandemonium and they came there to worship Him and do you know he was represented to God of several things but the number one thing that he was the god of was the god of sheep and shepherds what is Jesus doing here think about the implications of a false rock false temple false Lord and now there's a false god of sheep and shepherds who is the true Shepherd Jesus and he's God where's the true God of sheep and Shepherds standing right in front of you a Jewish sandals on and what is he doing he's appointing his deputy Shepherd who is going to be over his flock because Jesus intends to go away where to heaven John chapter 14 I go to prepare a place for you thomas's how are we going to get there jesus said don't worry I'll come back and get you I'm going to prepare a place and I'll come back but in the meantime I need a shepherd to take care of my flock right in front of the false god of sheep and shepherds now that's why it was called Pontius means the city of pan and today because in Arabic there is no poppy sound it comes out as a bee that's why it's called Baniyas today but right there if you just even know that name it is a testimony to what Jesus is doing at the place where the god Pan was Jesus is appointing a new god of sheep and shepherds himself and his new deputy and there it is right in the geography and the language and the culture you know if our kids knew this they wouldn't leave the Catholic Church when they get older if our kids understood the beauty of the faith and the richness of all of these things if they were taught this in CCD class and in our CIA class and other growing up our kids would not be so quick and ready to leave the Catholic Church which we're going to lose half of them at least by the time they get out of college now there's another thing I want to touch on because time is awfully short keys jesus said at the same place i will give you the keys of the kingdom what does he mean by keys I thought I knew is an evangelical it's the gospel God gives them to everybody if he gave me the keys and here's what they are the keys are like Peter opening the gates of heaven right with the keys but I can do that to get a route group of Catholics together I preach to them the gospel that they must accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior and ask him in their heart and leave the Catholic Church and if they accept my gospel that I've told them i just opened the gates of heaven and use the keys the keys of the gospel oh but i not that's the way in american things not the way a jew think what did you think when they heard i will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven they would have immediately thought isaiah 22 verse 22 there was a royal steward the king had a Royal steward he's going back see Peter is thinking in terms of Israel and the Davidic monarchy and the kings he's not thinking of democracy in America he goes back to those times with the kings during the you know Solomon and Ray Obama and Jeroboam and they had keys and they wore them over their shoulders and the king could sleep in in the morning because his royal steward his second-in-command would go out and open the kingdom gates and open the royal treasury and it even says one time David slept until till evening that was the day he got in trouble with Bathsheba's he shouldn't a stayed in bed that long but the Royal steward was the second-in-command in Isaiah 22 talks about shebna the Royal steward who had a special robe he had a special office he carried the keys he was called father even he was called the father of Jerusalem this is a prefiguring of the Pope and he wore the keys now the keys back in those days were bigger the Romans invented the smaller keys I have some up here on my table if you want to see these are first century Roman keys I'm glad they invented these now we have these silly kind of keys I like these even better but the room but the keys of the times of the Israelites they were like two by fours because the gates were thick and they'd have a hole in the gate and you'd have to have this long two-by-four kind of a key with prongs onion and you slide it through and flip the latch on the other side and open the city gates so whoever was wearing those keys over his shoulder everybody knew who he was and they had to bow to him as he walked through the streets and he represented the king and Jesus is saying I'm going to give you the keys of the kingdom this is what the disciples understood the keys of the kingdom to mean that he was Jesus was the king what did Jesus say to the little fourteen-year-old girl I mean the angel when he darkened the entrance of her cave and called her kajada tomainia which we mentioned he said that you will give birth to a son his name will be Jesus and he will sit on the throne of his father David he's going to be a king and as a king he'll need a Royal steward you'll also need a queen and guess who the Queen was the Queen was never the wife the Queen was always the mother I think when Mary heard the Angels say your son is going to sit on the throne of David one of her first thoughts was oh my goodness I'm going to be a queen because she knew her Bible and her culture and her history so Jesus is the king he's going to leave on a journey he's going to delegate his keys to his vice president to his Vizier majordomo over the house his royal steward and Peter this is immediately what would come to their mind based on the Old Testament based on their culture of living in a monarchy and what the keys represent now you know when Jesus gave them to Peter he gave them if you read in the Greek it's singular I give them to you singular in the Greek now down south they have this great thing that they do with the word you that I'm trying to get instituted in Michigan if there's only one of us it's you if there's a couple it's y'all and if there's a whole bunch like this room it's all y'all and I'm trying to get it going in Michigan it's I'm not being very successful but I think it's very good when Jesus said the Peter I give you the keys of the kingdom he didn't say I'm given all y'all the keys he's giving them to Peter and what the keys represent remember this keys represent exclusive dominion can I go right now into your car and go live in your house for a month no because you have the keys they represent your ownership I can't go get in your car and go to your house and take it over for a month but if you say to me Steve we're going away on a vacation for a month here are the keys for my car here are the keys for my house would you please go stay there and take care of our house while we're gone then as a deputy as a substitute I go there and take care of your house for you but when you come home what do I do with the keys I don't own them you own them you have exclusive dominion I give them back to you there's this great painting in Rome the only one I've seen of Peter giving the keys away in Rome wherever you go when I take my groups I say there again there again there Peter is always clutching the keys he's going to take this job seriously Jesus gave me these keys and no one's going to take him away from me I'm going to do my job and he has for 2,000 years thanks be to God but in this painting he's giving the keys away it's in the judgment scene in the Sistine Chapel and who's he giving him to Jesus why because it's the end of time we don't need a pope anymore the one who said has carried the delegated keys is now giving them back to their owner now you know that painting has a funny part to it - I shouldn't digress as I'm running out of time but I will do it quick there was a cardinal who did not like the way that Michelangelo was painting that because he was painting people with no pants on and he said they should be covered and he went to the Pope to complain and made a big fuss and so Michelangelo was really irritated by him so he pay painted the face of that Cardinal down in hell on the bottom right hand corner not only that but the serpent was wrapped around his legs biting the appropriate parts to to make his point and the Cardinal came in one day and looked at the picture he's still angry but also he sees himself down there in hell and he goes straight to the Pope and he says you tell Michael Angelo to take me out of hell and the Pope said if he had painted you in purgatory there's something I could have done but once you're in Hell there's nothing I can do for you and that's a true story by the way those are the kind of things I love to tell groups you know make a pilgrimage fun but anyway Peter has the keys and it represents exclusive Dominion and there's only one church and if you want to know what happens at the end of time where's Jesus now he is seated at the right hand of the Father and at the end of time we'll all be up there with him and Peter will give those keys back but in the meantime thanks be to God there is a man seated upon the chair of Peter with those keys now that brings me to the issue of succession because even as many evangelicals will agree that Peter was given the keys and he had a special place but once Peter died that was the end of it they'll stop at the issue of succession but I have to say this if you understand it in the context of Israel that it was an office and that it was a called a dynastic office when the King died a new king would take his place as son when a soil steward died it wasn't his son but another one would be pointed sometimes within the family and it was called a dynastic succession within Israel so when they set what Jesus said I will give Peter the keys of the kingdom they assumed that it would pass on from one to the next in succession it wouldn't just die when Abraham Lincoln and President Kennedy were both killed what did what did America think about the most who is going to succeed them did the seal of the presidency fall from the wall and say oh well no more presidency he died of course not when George Washington died he was succeeded in office it was understood in the Jewish context of a monarchy that if a Royal steward were to die or even be replaced from office someone else would receive his keys and it would go on and on and on you don't throw the keys away it's an office and succession is the handing of that on and I can't say more than that other than what was said last night that by Ken Howell a good friend of mine I loved listening to him talk he's a great speaker brilliant man I'm glad to 'county my friend that he was reading from Clement who said that the Apostles taught us we were taught by the Apostles that when these men and as bishops died others were to succeed them in their Holy Office it was understood by the early Christians why didn't I understand that as a Baptist because I had my Baptist glasses on I couldn't see it you have everybody wears a pair of glasses you look at life through a lens through a perspective through a tradition nobody looks at the Bible or at life objectively I said that I studied the Bible alone but that wasn't true you know why because I was taught Baptist theology by my mom and dad before I could ever read I started reading the Bible through the lens of my Baptist tradition I have very special glasses now I went to a new optometrist this is a Jewish lens and this is a Catholic lens and I admit that I look at the world through a tradition because I'm admitting that everybody in the world does I just have the right prescription now and guess what the world is no longer fuzzy it's all clear if you don't have those glasses yet come see me I'll tell you how to get them then comes the issue of the chair we have the chair of Peter where did that begin did somebody in the early church just say hey that looks like a good looking chair let's put the Pope in there and say that whenever he sits there he's always right that makes life easy people are gullible they'll believe it there'll be some Protestants later who will reject it but most people will believe it so let's put them in that chair and say whatever he says in that chair is infallible and we can solve a lot of problems well that's not how it started I want to go back to where it started because this is the third point and I'm still going to try and get the ship in the rafts in so around 1200 1500 BC Moses led the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt and they went to Mount Sinai and he went up on the mountain and he spoke with God and he came down with the Ten Commandments and oh this is a good time for another joke who's the first man who broke all Ten Commandments at one time Moses right it's a bad one I know but it's good for a sunday-school class or something when Moses came down from the mountain he had every rabbi you go look it up in the Jewish literature when Moses came down from Mount Sinai he had three things he had the written word of God on stone he had the oral tradition the Oral Torah which was never written down not until the second century AD did they start to write down what they remembered of it had been passed on and what's called the Mishnah and the Talmud read those by the way if you want to understand the Bible how Jews thought of scriptures fascinating and he that they said it he had the written word of God on stone the oral tradition and a teaching Authority in which he was virtually infallible it says an exodus 18 that Moses took his seat among the people and he judged them day and night they came to him and said Moses what does God expect of us what should I do in this situation and Moses sat in the chair of Moses in the wilderness and that tradition carried on do you know if I was a Jewish or Orthodox Jew speaking to you I would be sitting down not standing up they sit down when they teach and Jesus says in Matthew 23 to the scribes and the Pharisees they sit in the chair cathedra they sit in the cathedra the chair of Moses therefore do whatever they tell you don't do what they do because they're hypocrites but do what they tell you when they teach you the Word of God from the chair of Moses we didn't inherit we didn't invent the chair of Peter Jesus just said you have failed to live up to my commands in my laws I am now the Jewish Messiah I am changing I am now instituting a new community and what was the chair of Moses is now going to be the chair of Peter and what you used to bind and loose and by the way the scribes and the Pharisees would bind and loose oh my and another one and one was liberal and one was conservative does that ring a bell I mean this like that all the way back and when she my would bind Hallel would loose it was a way of making laws and judging and judging a law and forgiveness of sin it was their authority as the representatives of God to bind and to loose to forgive to make laws to adjudicate those laws and Jesus said you have failed to do it so he says to the Apostles I give you the chair of Peter and to all y'all the twelve not all y'all that would be just y'all you all have the power to bind and loose that's like each one in their own diocese the bishops and they were given the authority to bind and loose and so the chair was not invented by the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages but it was inherited it was something that was going on for 1500 years before so now we as Catholics the Pope Benedict the 16th does not sit on a chair that's only 2,000 years old he's sitting on a chair that's actually 3,500 years old because it inherited from the chair of Moses the Saint said what would the true priests but Moses had the priesthood and then the chair of Peter inherited the true priesthood during the time of Christ and so the Christians because we have had this chair we have been able to trust the words of God thus saith the Lord for 3,500 years isn't that a blessing I used to be my own Pope what church did I go to the Church of Steve I was my own Pope because there was no arbiter where was the Pope where could I go I had to make the decisions for myself who was arbiter if me and a brother in Christ argued now I have the chair of Peter do you know that the chair of Peter was established and taught and understood a hundred and fifty years before the New Testament was ever collected into a book Cyprian of Carthage wrote and he said if you are not in union with the chair of Peter can you even consider yourself a Christian if you are not in the unity of the chair of Peter can you even consider yourself in the faith this was 250 AD the Canon of Scripture wasn't completed and put together until almost 400 how did these people know how to live the Christian life they had the bishops they had the chair of Peter which was established long before the Bible was ever put together infallibility I just have to touch a neck as I'm running out of time but infallibility this was another Bugaboo for me how can the Pope be perfect oh it never says he was perfect it never says he's impeccable the Pope goes to confession yeah I wonder what does a guy like him confess I I know what I confess well I wonder what this but he goes to confession he's not impeccable he knows he's a sinner so how can God use him to give infallible definitions in the church well somebody said to me you the Pope can't be infallible because God could never use a sinful man to give an infallible definition if he's sinful well the contraire have you read the book of Matthew Mark Luke and John who are they written I sinful man right and yet they're inspired Scripture how could God use sinful men to write inspired Scripture that's harder to do than to have a sinful man just give a proper interpretation of it isn't it of course it is and so then I thought about it too when remember Peter walked on the water and fell in sea there's a picture Peter's not infallible you can't even walk on water you know all the other ones didn't even try the others all stayed in the boat it was Peter who got out and tried and he walked down the water for a ways before he sunk in but then what happened Jesus reached down and picked up picked him up by the hand and we don't think about it but with Jesus holding his hand he walked on the water all the way back to the boat this is what infallibility is not Peters ability because he'll sink every time it's Jesus reaching down and assisting him and I remember I said that Peter in one chapter said something very profound from a revelation from God and then something very stupid as a revelation from the devil well I realized that if Jesus could say to Peter whatever you bind on earth I will ratify in heaven and whatever you loose on earth I will ratify in heaven in order to give a big mouth like that that kind of a promise he had to expect to intend superintend Peters mouth every minute of his life from that point on the Holy Spirit super intends the mouth of men to create in them the ability to be infallible under the right conditions now there's so many more things on to say but I'm going to close real quick by the way I want to show you one other thing the chair before I tell you about the RAF's remember the chair of Peter and the chair that I said was 2,000 years old look at this that's your history that's your genealogy that's all the Pope's from the beginning Peter Linus cletus Clement all the way down to John Paul the second and Benedict that's something you can be exceedingly proud of if you start a Baptist Church today it's guaranteed within twenty years it's going to split three or four times look at this and none of them ever spoke taught error none of them ever taught heresy look at this list of popes do you know that this is the longest existing office in the world the roman empire came and fell the barbarians came and fell the byzantine empire fell the ottoman empire fell the british empire fell and guess what we're going to fall someday and it looks faster all the time but always there has been a man seated on a chair of Peter in Rome for 2,000 years there is no institution or office that has existed longer than the papacy and there will be a man sitting there teaching and fala Blee with the pure water flowing out from the rock it'll be flowing there until the day Jesus comes back if it's ten thousand years from now because why I'm not building the church you're not building the church Jesus is building his church and because of that I can trust it and I'm glad to be a Catholic I am so happy somebody says oh so you're going to submit to the yoke of Rome you're going to cross the Tiber and submit to the yoke of Rome and I said yes I am and thanks for the title for my book that's where it came from I said you know when a knight in shining armor was galloping through the land of Europe in the middle in the Middle Ages on a white horse the epitome of Independence and freedom and the independence and justice and righteousness when he's galloping along and he finds a mazing king and Kingdom that is worthy of his obedience and fealty guess what that night in all of his Independence and strength gets off on his knees and he submits to that king and that kingdom and I have found such a king and a kingdom and I was proud to get off my arrogant high horse and submit the first time I met a bishop was when I was not even a Catholic yet I had already decided I'd read my way in a we were at a mass one of the first we'd ever gone to in our life and the bishop was coming up the aisle and I got out of my seat at the beginning of the mass and I ran back and I stopped the procession I hugged the bishop and thank you for letting me be a Catholic I hugged him I knelt and kissed his ring and everybody's wondering what is he doing and I I'm just blubbering all over the bishop and thanking him for being at my pasture because I did because it was the only time in my life I'd have a first opportunity to meet my pastor who was in the succession apostolic succession from the Apostle and I knew who he was and I would have followed him all the way into the Colosseum to be my Rome by Lions that day and I wanted to kiss his ring because I'd never have another first opportunity and I kissed his ring and I thanked him for being a priest and I wanted I wanted everybody to know the whole world all the angels in doubt and the wicked spirits and the angels and the devil himself to know that I was now submitting to the Church of Rome and kissing my pastors ring and I found out that our deacon had warned the bishop and said we have a new convert here and and we don't know what to expect so be prepared for anything but if I have two minutes left I know him a little over two minutes I got started late though so I did keep track of this the ship and the rafts I'm going to conclude with this because this is I think puts it in a nutshell why I'm so proud to be a Catholic and why converting into the Catholic Church is important it's not just another alternative imagine the founder of a country building amazing ship to take people over to a new country he found it on the other side of the ocean and he gathers them he summons them special with a special invitation some come and some don't but those who come arrive on the port and they see this beautiful ship prepared for them to go across the ocean and they look across the ocean and they can already see the glow on the horizon of a city called the celestial city and they get on this ship and it's so exciting and they have the introductory meeting and they meet the captain and the crew and they're shown all of the navigational equipment and the documents so they know where they're going in they're in good hands and there's got food and showers and they have all this wonderful stuff on the ship to get them across to the other side and the ship is the church the land they're being called from is the world the captain is the Pope the clergy are the crew the navigational equipment are the scriptures and the tradition and down below there are places to take showers baptism it cleaned up confession a great meal provided every day the Eucharist all of these wonderful things and the ship sets sail two songs and everybody's happy and to speed it up here a little bit we get halfway across the ocean and some people get disgruntled and they say who is this captain to be telling me what to do and the crew isn't so friendly anymore and they're getting bossy and some of them aren't even that good and the people aren't as friendly as I used to be and some of them don't even smell so good anymore and the captain's telling me what they do in my own cabin he has no business to do that and they all make a plot and they go down below in the bottom of the boat and they find wood and they find ropes and they lash them together and they make rafts and at night they throw their Soph the side of the boat and they get off and now they're free no longer do they have to submit to this captain telling them what to do and what to believe no longer do they have to eat that wretched food day after day and no longer do they have to go take that shower and tell some guy what they did wrong they're free how many rafts are there floating now around the ship 33,000 or who knows how many you count them I was my own the closer those rafts stay to the ship the better chance they have to get to the other side and everything good that they have on the raft where did they get it from I didn't realize as a Protestant that everything I had good I had gotten from the ship the Canon of Scripture I threw five sacraments out but the two I had where did I get them from the definition of the Trinity and the hypostatic union of the two nature's of Christ where did I get this oh I didn't invent this I didn't come up with it I got it from the ship but you know I realized something later on that I was not one of those who jumped off the ship I was born on a raft I didn't even know there was a ship I thought this is the way God planned it all of you get on your rafts and we'll see on the other side take your suffering well then one day I see this big thing on the horizon and I say to the Rapp people in my rep what's that we don't want to talk about it so I yell to the raft next to me another hey what's that over there we don't want to talk about it we said why not because it's the ship what ship what are you talking about ship what am i doing out here on a raft if there's a ship do you remember the rain storm last night I would have wait a minute I said I started reading the few scraps of information we had on our raft that we had taken from the ship I started reading and thinking and asking questions and before you know it I get back on the ship January on May 22nd 1994 my family we got back on that ship and I went straight to the captain and I said captain they're a bunch of we pronounced it wrong it's not Protestant it's protest n't captain there's a bunch of protestin sout there they're rebels let's load up the cannons and blast them out of the water that's not what I said I felt like it the first year or two because my wife her first comment was after going to our very first masses I am so angry I said why are you angry she said I'm angry at my Protestant past for lying to me but I'm even more angry at the Catholics because they never told us we were wrong they never explained this to us my first reaction on the ship was give me the biggest loudest megaphone you have because I my mom and dad are out there my brothers and sisters out there my brothers and sisters in Christ are out there and I don't know they may even love the Lord more than some of the people on this ship they may love the founder of the country but they don't know about the ship and if they do they've been lied to give me that megaphone and I started for the rest of my life I'm going to be doing this I'm shouting off the bow of that ship to all of those who need to be called back into the fullness of the faith because on that ship we have a captain we have navigational equipment we have the fullness of the faith and if you want to get to heaven and you want to bring your families with you you better be on the ship and don't ever try to get off and thank you very much and God bless you you you
