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Foundations

  1. 1 Sola Scriptura vs. Scripture & Tradition
  2. 2 Sola Fide vs. Faith & Works (Justification)
  3. 3 Mary & the Saints
  4. 4 The Eucharist (Real Presence & the Mass)
  5. 5 Papal Authority & Apostolic Succession
  6. 6 Purgatory & Indulgences
  7. 7 Church of Christ-Specific Issues
  8. 8 Calvinist-Specific Issues (TULIP vs. Grace & Free Will)
  9. 14 The Canon of Scripture (Why Catholic Bibles Have 73 Books)
  10. 22 What “Justified” Means (and Paul vs. James)

Sacraments

  1. 9 Confession & Reconciliation
  2. 15 Baptism (and Why Catholics Baptize Infants)
  3. 19 Holy Orders & Priestly Celibacy
  4. 20 Confirmation (Is It an Extra Ceremony?)

Pastoral

  1. 10 Salvation Outside the Church

Practice

  1. 11 Images & Repetition (Statues & the Rosary)

Marian Dogmas

  1. 12 Immaculate Conception & Assumption
  2. 18 Mary’s Perpetual Virginity (and “the Brothers of Jesus”)

Capstone

  1. 13 The Nicene Creed, Line by Line

Church History

  1. 16 The “Great Apostasy” Claim (Did the Church Fall Away?)
  2. 17 The Abuse Scandal (Can This Be Christ’s Church?)
  3. 21 The Church Fathers (Who They Were and How to Cite Them)

Showing reference sheets.

Reference · Teaching 5

Papal Authority — Cheat Sheet

Positions at a glance

PositionClaim
Reformed"Rock" = Peter's confession of faith, not Peter himself; no ongoing office.
Church of ChristBishop = elder = presbyter, local plurality only, no supra-local bishop.
CatholicPeter given a personal, unique primacy continued in his successors as bishops of Rome.

Key texts

TextUsed for
Matthew 16:18-19"Rock" and "keys" — Aramaic kepha/kepha resolves the Greek wordplay objection; keys echo Isaiah 22's steward office.
Isaiah 22:20-22Royal steward office transferred to a successor — background for "keys of the kingdom."
Galatians 2:11Reformed: Paul rebukes Peter. Catholic: behavioral correction, not doctrinal, doesn't disprove primacy.
Titus 1:5-7Church of Christ: "bishop" and "elder" used interchangeably for local congregational leadership.
Clement's 1 Corinthians (c. 96 AD)Catholic: Rome's bishop intervenes authoritatively in another city's dispute, one generation after the apostles.

Types

TypeFulfilmentNamed bySource
EliakimPeter, holder of the keysPatristicIsa 22:20-22; Matt 16:19; Ephrem the Syrian

The one-line argument to remember

Kepha is kepha. Jesus likely spoke Aramaic; the same word for "rock" appears in both halves of "you are Kepha, and on this kepha I will build my church" — the Greek Petros/petra split is just grammatical gender, not a change in who's being pointed at.

Nuance to hold onto