Like so many other Bible haters who arrogantly but ignorantly think they’re landing killer punches against Christianity when they expose holes in the Catholic Church’s so-called Bible-based tenets, Lloyd Graham, in his book, “Deceptions and Myths of the Bible,” relishes in sharing discrepancies between the famous statements by Jesus Christ in the New Testament and those that founded the Roman Catholic.

Regarding the Church’s most basic claim that Peter founded the Papacy and holds the keys to heaven, blah, blah, blah, Graham points to Christ’s famous words to Peter in Matthew 16:

“Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
[19] And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

Graham argues, “Thus the Catholic Church is founded on Peter, whom, four verses later, Jesus openly calls Satan (when he says to him) ‘Get thee behind me, Satan, thou art an offense unto me’ . . . Thus if the Catholic Church is founded on Peter, it is founded on Satan—a fact we have long suspected . . .

“Peter’s story is the veriest nonsense—one mortal man endowed with the power over all humanity for all eternity; we thought that only God had this authority. In things religious, Catholics are indeed credulous but can the be so credulous as to believe that pre-Christian sages like Pythagoras, Plato, Socrates, and even Buddha require this ignorant Jewish fisherman to bind and loose their souls? And what of those pre-Christian Initiates from whom these ignorant religionists got their knowledge? Are they too bound and loosed by Peter? No, and neither are we. Such a man as Peter never existed.”

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So, here’s how Jordan explains this same passage from Matthew 16:

“Jesus Christ asks His apostles in verse 15, ‘Whom say ye that I am?’ and tells Peter, ‘Upon this rock I will build my church,’ but then says to his disciples ‘that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ.’

“That’s a strange thing to do, isn’t it? He says, ‘Pete, on this rock I’m gonna build my church. You’re gonna be the head dude, just don’t tell anybody what you just figured out.’

“You know, if you were following the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John as your ministry template and you came on that verse, what would that do to your outreach evangelism program?! It would kind of mess it up, wouldn’t it?!

“The next verse reads, ‘From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.’

”You need to underline that word BEGAN. Can you understand why He went out and said, ‘Don’t tell them that I’m the Messiah’? Up to that time they’d been telling people. He’d been demonstrating it.

“But now something’s happened in Israel and He begins to tell them, ‘Before I go to the throne, I’m going to go to the tree. Before the glory, there’s the suffering.’ ”

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The passage goes on, “Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee.
[23] But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.”

Jordan explains, “Peter says, ‘Nobody’s gonna put a hand on you Lord!’ I’ve always liked Peter myself. People talk about him being impetuous and this or that, but Pete was a commercial fisherman.

“People talk about how at the crucifixion Peter was a coward, but you never met a commercial fisherman who was a coward. They will fight at the drop of a hat, and if you’re not careful, they’ll drop the hat!

“Peter wasn’t afraid of dying. Jesus did the one thing Pete didn’t understand. He gave up without a fight. You understand, if you’re a person who is not afraid of a fight, giving up without a fight doesn’t compute in your psyche. And at the very moment Peter whips out the sword because the Lord said, ‘Okay, now is the time to get a sword,’ and he swings at Marcus’ ear . . .

“You know good and well, to cut a guy’s ear off with a sword, well, the dude had to be ducking; that’s the only way you can get his ear . . . I’m sure Pete’s ready to come back the other way and the Lord stopped him and put the dude’s ear back on!

“I can understand Pete being a little confused. Christ says, ‘I’m gonna go, I’m gonna die. You’re going to be the chief apostle in the kingdom, Peter, but first I’ve got a meek and lowly coming.’ And Peter said, ‘This shall not be unto thee,’ and Christ responded, ‘Get thee behind me Satan . . . If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.’

”He’s not just talking about dying, he’s talking about being willing to surrender life. Not for your sake—for your right—but for another. Take up His cross …take up a willingness to be rejected and set it nought. Whoa! That’s what kingdom living was about.

“Pete didn’t stay up with the program. You see the change in things there, right? It says, ‘He BEGAN to tell him.’ There’s information Peter didn’t previously have that he needed to grow into. Peter, though, instead of growing into it, stops. He says, ‘Stop! Not me! That isn’t gonna happen!’ The lesson is you better stay up with the plan of God even as it changes. Satan doesn’t want you to do that.”