Soul Food - 12/15/08

From today's reading: Matthew 9-10, 14-18, Mark 6-9, Luke 9, John 6-8

anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

- Matthew 10:38-39

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her."

- John 8:7

To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

- John 8:31-32

POINT OF INTEREST:

In today's world, there are only a select few who will ever have the option of pastoring a megachurch with thousands upon thousands in attendance.

The same was true of the early Christian church except that the exclusive churches of the day were the ones that had been founded by one of the original disciples.

Above all, many claimed that the church in Rome, founded by the apostle Peter was to be the seat of Christendom and that the Priest who ran that church was then the head (Pope) of the entire Christian church.

As justification, those that claimed the special status of the Roman Church point to the following scriptures:

When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?"

They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets."

"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?"

Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."

Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."

The Greek speaking churches disagreed with Rome's interpretation of the scripture and did not recognize Roman authoritative power. In the 11th century, partly due to Rome's insistence on it's supremacy, the Greek Orthodox Church split from the Roman Catholic Church.

Obviously, the Protestant Reformation also disagreed with Rome's interpretation of these passages and consequently did does not recognize the Pope as having Biblically authoritative power.