ANSWER TO MY FRIEND LESTER ABOUT PRIMACY OF PETER- THE LAST PART

It’s been almost a week now since i started answering the allegations and baseless accusations of my friend Lester to the Holy Catholic Church.

Now, we will continue to answer his text messages. This is also the last part of the inquiries.

On the first picture we can see the sentence

“It wasn’t god it was God.”

Here, he is trying to correct my English- writing skill for not using a CAPITAL letter G in the word GOD. I am admitted to the fact that the word GOD is proper noun and should be written properly but I just want to remind my friend that we are in the text world that time and at the same time I need to reply faster than usual because I’m still inside the Church and lastly he still have many messages waiting for my response. However, I don’t think we differ a lot as far as English is concern. Why? Because in his sentence construction he used the linking verb” WAS” which is a PAST TENSE (of IS), If we will try to understand the sentence we will come up with the conclusion that “God is only God before and no longer God today”. Now is GOD only GOD before? Let’s read the Bible and see if LESTER is CORRECT.

In Revelation 22:13 we can read:

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.

There, we can see that God is still God from the beginning until the end, so his sentence is not only GRAMMATICALLY wrong but BIBLICALLY as well.

In this message that he sent to me last April 14, He is denying the PRIMACY of St. PETER and  If we will try to analyze his claim, it seems that HE IS CERTAIN ABOUT IT. Now, is LESTER correct? Does Peter really was not able to reach ROME during His time? Let’s see if Lester can prove his claim beyond reasonable doubt.

Actually, it is indisputable Biblically, historically and archeologically that Peter was in Rome.

Let’s begin with the BIBLICAL PROOF that Peter was indeed in ROME.

We can read in 1 Peter 5:13 that Peter himself said that he was in “BABYLON”

"The Church in Babylon, chosen like yourselves by God, sends greetings, and so does Mark my son."(1 Peter 5:13)

In tagalong let’s start with verse 12; (1Peter 5:12-13)

12Sa pamamagitan ni Silvano, na tapat nating kapatid, ayon sa aking palagay sa kaniya, ay sinulatan ko kayo ng maiksi, na aking iniaaral at sinasaksihan na ito ang tunay na biyaya ng Dios: magsitibay kayo dito. 13Binabati kayo ng nasa Babilonia, na kasamang hinirang; at ni Marcos na aking anak. 14Mangagbatian kayo ng halik ng pagibig. Kapayapaan nawa ang sumainyong lahat na na kay Cristo.

In that particular verse Peter is sending it to various churches in Asia Minor suffering religious persecution.

From there we can easily understand that Peter was in Babylon that time, he is actually with Silvano (his secretary) who is the one writing what Peter wants to say to the various Church in Asia Minor.

Testimony and writings of the first Christians are unanimous that Peter was in Rome and was martyred there.

An archeological digging under St. Peter’s Basilica has produced the remains of the FIRST POPE right under the MAIN ALTAR of the church.

So, claims that Peter was not in Rome are baseless.

Now, the Question is “Where is Babylon?”

Historically, the “Babylon” in the Bible is none other than the ROME itself.

Numerous references attest to the earlier practice of using “Babylon” as a code for Rome.

Allow me to cite some of them.

“It is generally agreed that "Babylon" in 1 Peter 5:13 is a cipher for the city of Rome. The great city in Mesopotamia was no longer such in the first century. Diodorus of Sicily (56-36 BCE) writes: "As for the palaces and the other buildings, time has either entirely effaced them or left them in ruins; and in fact of Babylon itself but a small part is inhabited at this time, and most of the area within its walls is given over to agriculture." (2.9.9) Strabo, who died in 19 CE, writes: "The greater part of Babylon is so deserted that one would not hesitate to say . . . 'The Great City is a great desert'." (Geography 16.1.5) Also, no church other than Rome was claimed in ancient times to be the resting place of Peter. The Sibylline Oracles (5.143-168; 5.434), the Apocalypse of Baruch (10:1-3; 11:1; 67:7), 4 Ezra (3:1, 28, 31), and Revelation (14:8; 16:19; 17:5; 18:2-21) also refer to Rome as "Babylon." There was a reason for connecting the Babylonian and Roman empires, as Norman Perrin writes, "Rome is called Babylon because her forces, like those of Babylon at an earlier time, destroyed the temple and Jerusalem" (Jesus and the Language of the Kingdom, p. 58).”

Another one is “The History and Theology of the New Testament Writings, pp. 401-402”

“After 70 CE Babylon was used as a code name for Rome (cf. Rev. 14.8; 16.19; 17.5; 18.2, 20, 21), a clear signal for the initiated reader. In addition, the fact taht the Petrine-Pauline tradition was located in Rome (cf. 1 Clem. 5.4; IgnRom. 4.3) and the points of contact between 1 Peter and 1 Clement are other indications that the world capital was the point of origin for 1 Peter.

There is also an article written by a Baptist minister who supports the belief that the “Babylon” in 1Peter 5:13 is Rome. He provides objective and historical proof to that effect.

Understandably, this Baptist disputes that Peter was the first pope (what can we expect a person who opposes the papacy to do?). The important thing in his article is that—removing any bias—a non-Catholic, anti-pope minister cannot deny the fact that “Babylon” in 1Peter 5:13 refers to Rome.

You may read that article here:http://www.biblicalstudies.com/bstudy/miscstudies/peterrome.htm Was the Apostle Peter ever in Rome?

Other Biblical proofs that Rome is the Babylon were written in Holman Concise Bible Dictionary, Babylon, History and Religion Of. Page 59

Rev. 14:8, 16:19, 17:5; 18:2 and probably in 1 Peter 5:13 refers to Rome, the city which personified this idea for early Christians.

With these proofs above, we can therefore conclude that Lester is ignorant of the History of the Church and of the Apostles.  What he only has with him is the invented story by his Pastors in his new organization.