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I think Peter is one of the most important people in our faith. I think we can agree he was less important than Jesus. I believe that Jesus is the head of the church, He is the husband and we are the bride. If you consider the traditional Jewish family, the Husband was the head of the family.

No Catholic denies that Jesus is the most important. However, I think most Protestants overlook an obvious fact: Jesus isn't here. Jesus left us and is going to come again. Now, He didn't leave us orphans, but Jesus Christ isn't present here on earth to tell people what's true and what's not true about Himself. Further, it is insufficient to say that the Holy Spirit will guide the individual hearts of men to the Truth because there are over 70,000 different denominations of Christianity. There are nearly as many beliefs about Jesus Christ as there are people. So either everyone is right, which is illogical, or the Holy Spirit is very confused.

Jesus did not leave us orphans and knew that people would challenge our beliefs about Him. He left us with the Church to guide us in uncertainty and we believe the authority of the Church because the Church existed before the Bible did.

The fact of the matter is it doesn't matter which denomination or "non-denomination" you join, there is always a Pope, an infallible interpreter of God's will: either the one in Rome or yourself.

When I read the passage, I see Jesus referring to himself as the rock the church is built upon.

Then why would Jesus confuse people by naming Simon "rock" and say he is the "rock" upon which He will build His Church if He was the only rock?

If it helps, think of the building of house. Jesus, as the Rock, is the solid ground upon which we build a house that spans as far as the eye can see, but Peter, as the "rock" is the concrete foundation of the house built on that very rock.

The Pope isn't the source of our salvation, Christ is. But Christ isn't standing before us, telling us who is wrong and who is right. Christ isn't here to tell us that Arianism is a heresy, or that God is three in one person, etc. He entrusted Peter with that job until He comes again.

I have enjoyed our conversation but I feel a little guilty using freerepublic bandwidth.

My friend, freerepublic bandwidth has been wasted on far less important matters. :-)

I just want you to know that I think you are a brother in Christ and I have entered this discussion because it was enjoyable, not to stir up any antagonism.

God bless you brother, it has been a pleasure.

You wrote: "There are nearly as many beliefs about Jesus Christ as there are people. So either everyone is right, which is illogical, or the Holy Spirit is very confused."

There's another option: that everyone is right enough about the things the Holy Spirit cares about, and that the things that the 70,000 Christian denominations bicker about, which separate them from each other, are simply not interesting to God and God doesn't CARE what we think about them. It may be that God cares about a few ESSENTIAL TRUTHS, and that everybody who adheres to those is blessed by Him. And that the rest of these things we bicker about and which we think are important and which divide us are just poppycock and the valiant strivings of dust with other piles of dust.

In other words, the Holy Spirit isn't confused at all. We are. We are conceited enough to believe that God cares about the silly things we bicker about.