| (Copyright 07-26-2025) by Rod Reynolds (Wentzville, Missouri) |
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| Dear Friends and Brethren, Last Sabbath I posted a sermon that I had edited titled “Jesus and James.” However, after posting the sermon and sending it out, I realized I had neglected to include a link to the sermon in the newsletter. It’s not difficult to find any article or sermon posted on our website as we have a searchable index listing them, and also an archive page that includes a number of sermons from previous years, most of which have not been edited. As explained in a previous post I have been working on editing them to make them more listenable and hopefully more effective in accomplishing our goal of proclaiming the gospel and making the true teachings of the Bible more clear and understandable to a confused and deceived world. I decided to correct my omission for the convenience of anyone interested with this notice and add some additional comments on the subject of the apostles, and James in particular. The Catholic Church claims that there is a line of succession from the Apostle Peter, supposedly the first “Pope,” to the current occupant of that office. This claim is false partly because there is no evidence either from Scripture or any authentic historical source that Peter was ever the Pastor of the church in Rome, much less the first “Pope.” James, however, the brother of Jesus, made the final decision at the conference in Acts 15 where the discussion involved a controversy about the circumcision of adult male converts who were Gentiles (Acts 15:19). Unger’s Bible Handbook notes, “By A.D. 44 James was a leader in Jerusalem (Acts 12:17), heading up the first church council (Acts 15:13, 19; Gal 2:1, 9-10) and overseeing the Jewish church there (cf. Gal. 2:12)” (p. 783). And further, “As leader of the Jerusalem church James was overseer of Jewish believers everywhere, since these came annually to the great feasts held in the capital city (cf. Acts 2:5-11) from every part of the Roman Empire” (p. 784). If Peter was the first “Pope,” as alleged, why was it not he but James who supervised the conference in Acts and made the final decision? This is just one of the indications that James was presiding leader of the New Testament Church under its Chief Apostle, Jesus Christ (Hebrews 3:1), during most of the early decades of its existence, although there were certainly other “pillars” of the Church which included men such as Peter and John as well as others. The Church of God is “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone” (Ephesians 2:20). Peter’s role was overseeing the preaching of the gospel to the “circumcision” (Israel), as Paul’s was of overseeing the effort to take the gospel to the Gentiles (Galatians 2:7-8). Eusebius quotes Clement of Alexandria, stating, “For they say that Peter and James and John after the ascension of our Saviour, as if also preferred by our Lord, strove not after honor, but chose James the Just bishop of Jerusalem” (Church History, 2.1.3). This James is identified in the context as the one referred to by Paul as “James the Lord’s brother” (Galatians 1:19). “It is clear that at least by the time of the events recorded in Acts 12, he [James] was the leader of the Jerusalem church, which is further confirmed in Acts 15 and Galatians 2. Others conferred, but James concluded. Others evangelized or acted as apostles or missionaries, but James authorized. It was James who wrote the encyclical letter to the Gentile Christians according to Acts 15, and it was James who wrote the encyclical letter to Jewish Christians that we call the letter of James in the New Testament. James stood at the center of things; missions and messengers went out from him and came back and reported to him” (The Brother of Jesus, Hershel Shanks and Ben Witherington III, p. 124). Unger’s needs to be corrected in what is stated above, however. There was no “Jewish church” among Christians in Jerusalem. Nor was he merely the “overseer of Jewish believers everywhere.” The Church in Jerusalem (not Rome) was recognized as the headquarters of the entire Christian (not Jewish) Church of God, until well into the second century. When a controversy arose at Antioch regarding physical circumcision of male converts to the faith, a conference of Church leaders convened in Jerusalem to consider the matter (Acts 15:1-6). And Christians, including Gentile converts, kept the feasts of God wherever they were, but when possible, no doubt some at least went to Jerusalem for the annual feasts (I Corinthians 5:8; Acts 20:16). For this Sabbath I have edited and posted a message titled “Was Peter the First Pope?“, and also posted an article by the same title. In Christian love, Rod Reynolds Editor’s Note: We do not listen to video links or read print material that is linked to items we print, so we may or may not agree with those links. We only look at print material that is sent to us for print. Laura Lee ————————————————————————————- Reprinted with permission from: Messenger Church of God https://www.cogmessenger.org/ ————————————————————————————- |
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