My Closing Statement

Closing Statement

I wish to thank Perplexity for carrying out this debate with me. I have learned some interesting things, developed some new skills, and generally enjoyed myself in this. If I have insulted or have been offensive to Perplexity or anyone in any way, I sincerely apologize.

There is no word limit to the closing statement, however I will try to keep this brief, and I will not bring any new information or arguments into this, as some sort of odd ‘parting shot’, which would be unfair to Perplexity. I still do believe that my first post in itself remains unaffected, due to the fact that the main topic of this essay was about whether Matthew 16 supports the Papacy. I assumed this would be an exegetical debate with regards to the text in question, though Perplexity has presented this ‘source criticism’ factor into this, which is a bit new to me. For orthodox Christianity, I will suppose that my Scriptural arguments towards the Papacy with regards to Matthew 16 (and other verses which have been mentioned before) should suffice if someone is ever to ask me or another Catholic where we find the Papacy in Scripture. If I can be honest, I do find that the playing field is slightly different for both Perplexity and myself, as we are working with two different presuppositions (the inspiration of Scripture, to be precise). Though now I consider it, (having put writing my post off again), I could have presented the support for the interpretation of Isaiah 22 which Perplexity asked for. I apologize, and I hope to present this either in a later blog post, or perhaps in a post on this thread. I do think that this debate would have changed dramatically if we were to agree upon Scriptural inspiration, but I digress. I propose that we must go to Matthew 16 itself to understand was Jesus was saying to Peter, and I believe this is what I have done.

I have presented what Scriptural evidence I have to support the claim that Matthew 16 supports the Papacy, and I have responded to the objections to the best of my ability. Again, I do thank Perplexity for giving me this opportunity, and I hope that all people “to the knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2:4). In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.