Identity Theft (9 page)

“Good to know. I was hoping people didn’t dress like cavemen in Heaven!”

We had a good laugh. Ariel and I were becoming friends.

“Have you heard of Peter?” Ariel asked.

“Eh, yeah, he was one of the first followers of Je—I mean Yeshua, right? Wasn’t he the first pope?”

I thought Ariel was smiling because I began to refer to Jesus by His Hebrew name, but he was chuckling at my assertion that Peter was the first pope.

“Okay, D’vid” he used the Hebrew pronunciation of my name, “there are two issues with Peter—his
name
, and his
function
. Let’s start with his name. First of all, it wasn’t Peter. The word
Peter
, or
Petros
in Greek, simply means
rock
. Peter’s real name was Simon, or Shimon in Hebrew. However, on the occasion he received the revelation and declared that Yeshua was ‘the Messiah, the Son of the living God…’” Matthew 16:16 appeared at the top of all the previous passages that had been sent me on my tablet. “Yeshua announced that henceforth…”

“
Henceforth
? Who talks like that?” A strong, well-muscled individual with a big bushy beard now occupied the screen. He was confident and clearly had a sense of humor. “Angel, just let me tell my story. David,” he turned to me, “I really think you would rather hear it from me. I don’t use any of those three-dollar words like Professor Ariel over there.”

“Oh yes, you are a brilliant communicator. The problem is, you don’t know when
not
to talk!” Ariel then mimicked, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters—one for You, one for Moses and one for Elijah,” reminding the man of his ill-timed words on the Mount of Transfiguration (see Matt. 17:4).

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, you can remind us of that or you could tell him about my sermon on Shavuot…or before the Sanhedrin when they told us to stop preaching the Gospel! I remember it like it was yesterday, ‘Rulers and elders of the people! If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a man who was lame and are being asked how he was healed, then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Yeshua, the Messiah, that this man stands before you healed…salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under Heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved’ (see Acts 4:8-12).

“In truth it wasn’t that difficult. Even though He had gone, He was still with us. We couldn’t see Him, but man, we could feel Him. Yeshua’s presence was almost tangible. The miracle of healing we’d just witnessed—a paraplegic jumping up and down, praising God—and the fact that we were now doing what we’d watched Him do so many times, empowered us. We felt as bold as lions—not afraid of any man!”

“Okay, Fisherman, you got it right more than you got it wrong so I guess we could let you share for a bit.” They both laughed.

“Where were we…oh yes, when I had the revelation that Yeshua was the Messiah, the Son of God, He gave me a new name—
Kefa
!

“
Kefa
means “rock” in Aramaic, the commonly used language of the time. It’s very close to Hebrew. However, when the New Testament was written in Greek, in most places they did not transliterate my name. Do you know what that means?”

“Sure, that’s when you take a word from another language and spell it with the letters of your own language to enable you to pronounce it, even though you may not know what it means,” I offered.

“Exactly,” said Simon Peter. “My name was rarely transliterated to Greek which would be
Cephas
. In most places, they translated it to
Petros
—the Greek word for “rock,” which in English is
Peter
. Yeshua, however, never called me
Petros
, but only
Kefa
or
Shimon Kefa
.”

Scripture references appeared on my tablet: John 1:42; First Corinthians 1:12; 3:22; 9:5; 15:5; Galatians 2:9,11,14.

Ariel interrupted, “The problem with using the name
Peter
is the same as with
John
or
Mary
. They are fine names; they just take away from the Jewishness of the narrative. Your average Jewish person has no idea that the man Christians call Peter is actually Jewish.

“This brings us to the second issue, regarding his
function
. When Yeshua told Shimon that He would build His Church on this
rock
, He was referring, not to Peter the man, but to the revelation Shimon had been given, that He, Yeshua, was ‘the Messiah, the Son of the living God.’ This revelation would be foundational to receiving salvation—and to the nature of the
Kehilah
.”

“
Kehi
-what?”

“
Kehilah
. It’s a Hebrew word that means community. I want you to use it when referring to the community of followers of Yeshua. Many people use the word
church
. Church comes from the Greek word
kyriakon
, which is not in the New Covenant. The word that is translated church is
ekklesia
, which means, ‘called out ones’ or ‘those called to assemble’ and comes from the Hebrew word
kahal
, which means, “audience” or “assembly.”
Kehila
also comes from
kahal
and means ‘community.’
Ekklesia
is a great word, because those who follow Yeshua are called out from the rest of the world and are grafted into the Commonwealth of Faith, the Father’s household. No matter what you think of the word
church
, a word is only as powerful as its meaning to its hearer, and most people hearing the word church today think of buildings, not people.

“For instance, if someone said to you ‘David, look at that church,’ what would you be looking at?”

“A building, I guess?”

“That’s correct; at least in the way the word is most commonly used today. But if someone said, ‘I belong to a
community
,’ you would think of people, not a building, right?”

“Makes sense.”

“Okay, back on topic—the Roman Catholics misinterpreted Yeshua’s words to mean that He was bestowing special authority on Kefa. From this distorted interpretation, a doctrine later emerged that taught that
Kefa
or
Peter
himself was
the rock
upon which Yeshua would build his Church.

“Centuries later, this misinterpretation extended to the Roman Catholics’ claiming that Shimon Kefa was the first pope.”

Shimon began to laugh, “I don’t know what’s crazier, that there was a pope in the first century or that he was
Jewish
! Can you imagine me, Shimon, wearing that outfit the popes wear, or letting people kiss my ring? And how about that hat?” We were all laughing now.

“It’s called a mitre, Shimon, and we need to move on now,” Ariel gently chided the fisherman. Still laughing, Shimon disappeared from the screen.

“Romans Catholics maintain,” Ariel continued, “that Peter was the primary leader of the early believing community, and that he eventually moved to Rome and became the first bishop of Rome. Through apostolic succession, every bishop of Rome after Peter would be the head of Christianity.”

“Apostolic
what
?” I asked.

“Apostolic
succession
. It is the belief in the uninterrupted transmission of spiritual authority from the apostles through successive popes and bishops. Roman Catholics mistakenly maintain that Peter passed his authority down to the next pope and so on and so forth. Many denominations believe in the idea that there has been unbroken transfer of apostolic authority from the apostles to the present, but the Roman Catholic Church additionally believes the Pope’s authority on matters of faith and morals is divinely inspired and sanctioned.”

“So you are saying that Peter’s authority was passed down to the second pope, and then he gave it to the next one, all the way down to today’s pope…and that they are therefore incapable of making mistakes?”

“No,
I
am not saying that,
Roman Catholics
say that. This bishop of Rome, or the Pope, was regarded as authoritative when it came to issues of doctrine and morality for the Church. It was maintained that, without its leaders, the Church would move into deception. Later on, they would declare that the Pope’s dogmatic teachings on faith and morality were infallible.
¹

“It is true that the Father raises up leaders to guide His people…” The text message sound prompted me to look down:

So
[Messiah]
himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of
[Messiah]
may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of
[Messiah].
Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming
(Ephesians 4:11-14).

“…But they are always subject to the authority of His Word. God never expects us to blindly follow a man, especially one who claims he is incapable of making mistakes. As the passage says, leaders are given to His followers to bring them to maturity, so they can think for themselves—not to keep them enslaved to one man’s dogma.”

I remembered again how I allowed my rabbi to make me feel guilty over my interest in Yeshua. I know he meant well, but he was basically asking me to trust him and not seek truth on my own.

“Either it is ridiculous,” Shimon was back, “or Yeshua changes His mind a lot, because Roman Catholic doctrine has changed quite a bit over the centuries, with a number of popes contradicting the edicts of other popes. There are even examples of violence and intrigue between popes and would-be popes.

“Believe it or not, David, many of the popes were far more
political
than
pious
. The first bishop to adopt the title of pope was a guy named Saint Damasus. He was accused of adultery and led murderous raids against his enemies, killing over one hundred and sixty people! He was anything but a genuine believer.

“Another pope, Symmachus, around the year 500
CE
conducted what can only be described as a holy war against his enemies. As the two groups fought in the streets, killing scores of men, one of the pope’s ardent followers declared that the pope was ‘judge in the place of the Most High, pure from all sin, and exempt from all punishment.’ All who fell fighting in his cause, he declared, enrolled on the register of heavens.’”
²
The quote appeared on my tablet.

I responded, “Throw in a few virgins, and this sounds eerily similar to the radical Islam of today.”

“You’re so right,” exclaimed Shimon. “Religion is religion no matter what name you give it. It is easier to get people to fight for your cause if they are willing to die, and it is a lot easier to get them to be willing to die if you promise them paradise on the other side—plus something extra to appeal to their carnal lusts, like seventy-two virgins. For a destitute, uneducated Arab teenager who doesn’t see much of a future ahead of him, this promise is very attractive.”

“It was the same with a lot of the Crusaders you showed me, right Ariel? Many of them were poor peasants who suddenly found purpose and identity through fighting for the Church, even if it was misguided.”

“You are catching on quickly, David,” responded the angel.

“Another pope, Stephen VI,” Ariel was not to be distracted, “had the body of a previous pope exhumed and dressed in his Episcopal robes so he could stand trial. He was found guilty. This mock trial also declared all of Pope Formosus’s ordinations to be invalid. Apparently he was not as infallible as once thought.”

“This is crazy!” I maintained. “How can this be true? I see the Pope on TV and he hardly seems capable of such things.”

“Fortunately the Catholic Church has changed—for the better, I might add—over the years. And to be clear David, there have always been true followers of Yeshua in the Roman Catholic Church. Many of the bishops throughout the centuries truly loved Yeshua and sought to serve Him. In fact, there were several popes who genuinely sought to serve the Lord, but this sad history, one that most Roman Catholics don’t even know, did indeed take place. And David, it is important that I prepare you for your future task ahead and that requires taking an honest look at history.”

“Okay guys, I’ve already heard this, so I’m going to leave now. David, it was an honor to meet you.” And he was gone.
Future task ahead? An honor to meet me?
I wasn’t even sure if I believed any of this was happening—and here was Peter of the Bible telling me that he was honored to meet me!

Ariel interrupted my reflections, “Now concerning Peter or Kefa and the belief that he was the first pope…” suddenly on my tablet opposite the Scriptures, under the heading, “Notes” were listed four points.