Welcome to The Atheist Church

"And he arose out of the synagogue, and entered into Simon's house. And Simon's wife's mother was taken with a great fever; and they besought him for her. And he stood over her, and rebuked the fever; and it left her: and immediately she arose and ministered unto them" (Luke 4:38,39).

Simon's name was changed by Jesus to "Peter." Simon not only had a wife, but he travelled with her (see 1 Cor. 9:5). The Catholic tradition of celibacy wasn’t practiced by the papacy until around 1200 AD.

The Catholic church not only believes that Peter was the first "pope" (something I don't believe), it also believes that the Church is built upon Peter. But he was never head of the Church, and he refused even the slightest homage (see Acts 10:26). The Bible says that the Church is built solely upon the rock of Jesus Christ, and Him alone (see 1 Cor. 3:11).

The verse used to try and justify that Peter is the rock upon which the Church is built, says no such thing. The "rock" upon which the Church is founded is the revelation that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. When a sinner repents and acknowledges the deity of Christ, he or she becomes part of the true (invisible) Church (see Romans 10:9-10).

Another teaching of the Catholic church is that we obtain salvation through eating the actual flesh of Jesus Christ. However, when Jesus held the bread in His hand and said that it was His body, it couldn't have been His literal flesh, because He was physically standing there with His disciples, and they weren’t eating Him:

"And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body" (Mathew 26:26).

The words He spoke were "spiritual" (symbolic), something Jesus Himself said (see John 6:63). When we are born of the Spirit, we "taste and see that the Lord is good" spiritually.

Another teaching of the Catholic church is that Mary is still a virgin. Although Mary was a virgin when she conceived Jesus, she later had at least five more children, according to the Bible:

"Is not this the carpenters son? Is not His mother called Mary, and His brothers, James and Joseph and Simon and Judas?" (Matthew 13:55).

See also Mark 6:3, and John 2:12. These were not His cousins, as the Catholic church maintains. So she is no longer a virgin, nor is she sinless (see Romans 3:10), as the Catholic church believes.

It was the Catholic church that carried out the bloody Crusades in the name of God, the horrific Inquisition against true believers--Jesus warned that the time would come when those who killed Christians would do so, thinking that they were doing God a service (see John 16:2), and the famous persecution of Galileo.

These thoughts will no doubt stir up some demons, and I will be accused of being a Catholic-hater, but I'm not. I am against any deception when it comes to how to get the Heaven--because there is nothing more important. You and I can either trust in the traditions and teachings of men, or we can trust in the Word of God.

Whether you were born Catholic, Protestant, Jew, Gentile, Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim or atheist--you must be born again or you will not enter the Kingdom of God. Jesus said that, I didn't (see John 3:3-6). That means that you simply confess your sins to God, forsake them (through repentance), and trust alone in Jesus Christ for your eternal salvation (without works--see Ephesians 2:8-9)…and you will come to know Him "whom to know is life eternal."

I hope you have a great week.

Pic. Christ and Peter upon the sea. Matthew 14:28-33, Illustrated by Gerard Hoet (1648-1733),