Study of Peters letters

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INTRODUCTION

Since Peter is proclaimed as the first Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, I thought that it would be advantageous to go through the epistles of I and II Peter and glean out anything that would be useful in witnessing to a Roman Catholic. I used The New American Bible which is an easy-to-read Catholic version that is put out by the Catholic Biblical Association of America. It is a study Bible and has the approval of the Vatican.

The following are passages and explanations of how I see their usefulness in witnessing to Catholics. I did not pick passages that need a lot of explanation or need explanation from outside of I and II Peter.

I PETER PASSAGE PURPOSE OF THIS PASSAGE 1:2 I will stress “… consecrated by the Spirit to a life of obedience to Jesus Christ and purification with His blood.” Discussing what is meant by the purification of Christ’s blood is an important place to start. 2:4-7 This passage can be compared to Matthew 16:18 to show that Christ is the cornerstone. 2:9 This passage can used to show the priesthood of the believer over a chosen few who are called priests by the Catholic Church. 3:18 This passage talks about “The reason why Christ died for sins once for all … might lead you to God.” This passage shows why Christ died and His victory over death. 5:1 “To the elders among you I, a fellow elder …” shows that Peter did not see himself above the other elders of the church, but as an equal.

II PETER

PASSAGE PURPOSE OF THIS PASSAGE 1:1 “Simon Peter, servant and apostle of Jesus Christ …” shows that Peter is the servant of Jesus and not of Mary. 1:17-18 This passage tells of the time that Peter and the apostles heard God talk from heaven saying that He was well pleased with Jesus His Son. I have had Catholics say to me, “How can we really be sure that there is a God?” This would be a scriptural passage from that of an eyewitness, Peter himself. 1:20-21 This passage can of course be used to show Peter’s claim to the inspiration of the scriptures. 2:4-15 This passage shows that God did not spare the angels that sinned, the people from Noah’s time, and the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, but that He did spare Lot, a righteous man. It then goes on to show that God does judge the wicked. Purgatory, salvation through Mary, Joseph or the saints is not mentioned here even though a wicked life has been lived. 3:6-13 This passage shows that Christ will come again and that He will be as a thief in the night. He will come for the purpose of judgment. To sincere Roman Catholics, this passage will make them think about their system of salvation by works and if they are really going to heaven. This would be a good passage for creating doubt in their minds. 3:15-16 This is a great passage showing the fact that Paul’s writings are scripture. Tying this back into II Peter 1:20-21, I can then take them (with Peter’s consent) into any other part of scripture, but especially Paul’s writings to give them a clearer salvation message.