I have noticed a vast increase in the number of people visiting this site from Mexico and South America, and wonder if it has anything to do with the child abuse problems and natural disappointment in the Roman Catholic Church regarding its leaders such as Cardinal George Pell.
People do wonder why this problem has been so prevalent in the RC Church and suspicion has fallen upon the celibacy of its priests, which was unknown in the early Christian Church and only introduced in the 12th century.
It may even have been prophesied in 1 Timothy 4:3. ‘They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth.’ NIV
The RC Church bases its authority on its Popes who are claimed to descend from St Peter, who they claim to be the first Pope of Rome, but we find that first Pope may well be mentioned in the Bible – but he was not Simon Peter the Apostle of Christ. Acts 8:9-11, ‘Now for some time a man named Simon had practiced sorcery in the city and amazed all the people of Samaria. He boasted that he was someone great, and all the people, both high and low, gave him their attention and exclaimed, “This man is rightly called the Great Power of God.” They followed him because he had amazed them for a long time with his sorcery. ‘ NIV. Acts 8:18-23, ‘And when Simon saw that through laying on of the apostles’ hands the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money, Saying, Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost. But Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money. Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter: for thy heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee. For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity.’
The reason Luke describes the intention of this man is the profound effect he would have on God’s Church in Asia Minor, Greece and Rome. Lange’s Commentary says Peter here was uttering a prophecy by the Holy Spirit. He was telling what this Simon was to become: “Peter’s words literally mean: ‘I regard you as a man who whose influence will be like that of bitter gall [poison] and a bond of unrighteousness [lawlessness]….He meant that Simon would be responsible for the introduction of pagan beliefs and idolatry into Christianity. Read Deuteronomy 29:16-18 to understand this figure of speech.
Yes, he was called Simon, but he was a priest of the Babylonian mystery religion, where Semiramis was the original “Queen of Heaven”, who invented the idea of celibacy for her priests. It didn’t last long then because it was so unnatural, and its results are so evil, as we have seen.
Christ’s Apostle Peter was never the Bishop of Rome. The early Church historians had difficulty in separating Simon Peter the apostle and Simon Petor ( the opener or interpreter of the Babylonian mysteries) also know as Simon Magus.
The ‘New Scaff- Herzog Encyclopaedia of Religious Knowledge’ states , ‘The 25 year episcopate of Peter at Rome is evidently due to the statement of Justin Martyr regarding the labor of Simon Magus at Rome.
In Rome, Magus bewitched the inhabitants with his magical (demoniac) powers. It is said that he could levitate and fly, but in the end he was killed crashing back to earth.
However his powers had impressed many and it was easy for his followers to claim that he sat in Peter’s chair, for the church which became the RC Church had accepted the practices and symbols of the oldest pagan religion on earth! (See the book ‘The Two Babylons’ by Alexander Hyslop)
This great worldwide church, pictured as a woman, you can read about in Revelation 17:4-6. She is the mother of all protestant churches and also of abominations to God such as Sun worship (She Changed the holy Sabbath to Sunday) and celibacy. ‘And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.’