Who needs a Pope?

One of the first problems I had with the Catholic Faith was the idea of one man being the authority of Christianity on earth. What gives him the right?  Where does his authority come from and why is it justified? Why does over 1/2 of Christianity and 1/6 of the earth's population adhere to this authority on earth?

I first needed to find out who Catholics believe the first pope to be...Peter the Apostle. Over the past 5 or 6 years I've really learned how faith and reason do go together and one shouldn't go without the other. I used to read scripture kind of one sided...not really taking the time out to study geographical and cultural customs of the time. When scripture was written, it was written under Holy Inspiration, but another factor does play into it...it was written through the hands of men who were of certain customs and traditions. This plays a huge part in the scriptures and what the writer may have chosen to elaborate on or not elaborate on...and in the meanings of phrases or words. And we know that typology is used throughout scripture as well.

One of the first scriptures I looked at was Matthew 16:16-19 - "Simon Peter answered and said: Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answering said to him: Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona: because flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee, but my Father in heaven. 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. And I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth. it shall be loosed also in heaven."

I read it and can understand that something is going on, but what exactly? This is where reason comes into play. As always I'm now asking more why and what questions...Why did Christ change Peter's name and what does his new name mean? What does it mean to be given keys to a kingdom? How does this kingdom go along with other mentions of a kingdom in the New Testament? 

In scripture the changing of a name by God seems to have a pretty significant meaning. In Genesis 17 God changes Abram's name to Abraham in creating a covenant with him and giving to him and his ancestries nations and kingdoms. The name Peter (Kepha), in the aramaic language that Jesus spoke, has one meaning: Rock. This translates in to the Greek Petra (feminine) and then into Petros (masculine) and then into the english form Peter. Peter is Rock. And upon this rock Christ will build his church...In 1 Cor 3 Paul is telling the people of Corinth that the foundation of our Faith is Christ and we are the building. In Ephesians 2:19 Paul tells the people of Ephesus that they are the body or building that is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ as the Corner-Stone. So, the foundation of our faith chose a Rock to build His church on and Paul taught that we, the church, are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ as the chief cornerstone. So what makes Peter different than any o the other apostles?

Given the keys...What prophet talked about keys? One in particular comes to mind. I look in Isaiah 22:20 (about 250 years after the covenant with David) and see that Eliacim will have the steward's key of the house of David upon his shoulder and this gives to him great power..."and he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open."  Later on in the same chapter we see that this possession of power is temporary, but we read in Luke 1 that Jesus is given, by God, the throne of David His father and that this kingdom will last forever. The steward's keys represented exclusive dominion and the office of royal stewardship was successive in Israel. So, Christ was named the King of Israel and His kingdom would last forever...fulfilling the Davidic covenant that The throne of David will last forever. This is a problem because Christ wouldn't be on the earth forever. So how can this be?

Christ gives Peter and Peter alone keys to the kingdom...the same keys that God gave to Jesus. Then Jesus tells him that the gates of Hell will not prevail against the Church and that Peter now had the power to bind and loose and that authority would be honored in heaven. Now, reason comes in again...Jesus and His apostles followed Jewish customs and traditions. The stewardship or holding of keys is successive. So, Jews would certainly know their history and would know that the office would last forever by succession. We also see in scripture that Christ is called Rabbai. M. Vincent (a protestant scholar) explains, "No other terms were in more constant use in Rabbinic canon-law than those of binding and loosing. They represented the legislative and judicial powers of the Rabbinic office." Aramaic scholar George Lamsa writes, "'He has the key', means he can declare certain things to be lawful and others unlawful; that is to bind or to loose, or to prohibit or to permit, or to forgive." 

Let's go even deeper with the Aramaic translation (again the language that Jesus was speaking) in Luke 22:31-32, "And the Lord said: Simon, Simon, behold Satan hath desired to have you (plural), that he might sift you (plural) like wheat, but I have prayed for thee (singular), that thy faith  fail not: and thou (singular) being once converted, confirm thy brethren." Yet again Christ is separating Peter from the others and is praying that the Rock will be able to support and guide his fellow brethren. This perfectly exemplifies the way the Catholic Pope's primacy and authority relates with his collegiality with the other Bishops...because we must first remember that in Catholicism the Pope is a Bishop, the Bishop of Rome, who is head of the all the other Catholic Bishops on earth. 

Let's go even farther... In John 21:15-17: Here Christ tells Peter to Tend and to feed His sheep 3 times (kinda interesting that Peter denied Christ 3 times)...the same flock that Christ is the Shepherd of. Reason, yet again, needs to be used here because it's important to know that the Jews would understand, according to contemporary usage, that the words "feed" and "tend" meant to teach, govern, and rule...as a shepherd governs a flock of lambs. (See Ezekiel 34:23 where God talks of raising up David to feed his flock.)

These scriptures show us Christ's preparing Peter before His death and His command to Peter after His resurrection. Scripture is filled with other "little" details as to Peter's seniority...We see in John 20 that when John and Peter ran to the tomb, we are specifically told that John arrived first but did not go in and waited for Peter who went in first. 

Of the 12 apostles, Peter is mentioned by name most often in scripture, 195 times. John being next at 29 times. When the 12 are listed by name (Matt. 10:2-5, Mark 3:16-19, Luke 6:14-17, Acts 1:13), Peter's name is always first and Judas Iscariot is always last. In Acts 1:13-26 Peter leads the other apostles in choosing Matthias as successor to Judas and in Acts 2:14 he leads the apostles in preaching on the day of Pentecost. Peter performs the first Pentecost miracle in Acts 3 and in chapter 4 he speaks in the name of all the apostles and the Church before the Sanhedrin for trial. Peter is the one in chapter 10 that recieved the revelation of God concerning Gentiles being accepted into the Church and in chapter 11 he's the first to welcome them. At the council of Jerusalem, it's Peter's authority and dogmatic pronouncement that is accepted and causes all disputes to cease in chapter 15. After Paul's conversion he visits Peter to have his teachings confirmed in Galations 1:18. Back in Acts chapter 5, it's Peter who handles the case of Ananias and Saphira and he tells them that by lying to him they have lied to the Holy Spirit.

Through all of this we see that the keys of the kingdom were something to behold and gave a great responsibility to the key holder. We see that Peter's authority abounds in scripture and we see that the apostles saw the need to have successors like Matthias...similar to Paul finding Timothy and then telling him to go and find other's that could be trusted to teach. Telling him to hold true to the traditions that had been handed down, not only through written letter , but also by word of mouth. Succession is needed to maintain the kingdom. Because of this need for succession, there has been someone in that seat that Peter held for over 2000 years to date. 

So the answers to my questions had been found...Christ gave Peter the right, the Pope's authority comes from Jesus Himself by the power of the Holy Spirit through apostolic succession, it's justified throughout scripture and throughout hundreds of writings from the Church Fathers for the past 2000 years, & so many follow this authority because it was the only Christian authority on earth, after Christ's death & resurrection, until the 16th century when men like Luther and Calvin decided that they had a better plan than God did for over 1500 years. Now there are around 33,000 different Christian denominations other than Catholicism out there who all argue on what Christians should believe and they all believe that they have the correct doctrine. There are more Baptist sub-denominations than I have teeth in my head. Where's the unity that Christ expressed He wished us to have...to be one, as He and the Father are one. 

Thanks to Dr Scott Hahn & to many Church Fathers for defending the faith for thousands of years. Thanks to Stephen Ray for writing a great book titled "Upon this Rock" which also helped point me along in finding these answers that have been around for thousands of years. 

Vincent's quote: M. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Teastament, (grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1887, 1990), 1:96

Lamsa's Quote: George M. Lamsa, Old Testament Light (New York, NY: Harper)