Preface      Messages      Books      Printed Book Contents      More Sites      Contact   

 Back  |  Next  |  Bottom  

— SAINT PETER —

 

Message    1

 


St. Peter writes on his leadership of the Christian movement

May 9, 1955 Daniel G. Samuels

 

I am here, St. Peter.

I here with a considerable number of celestial spirits who have been listening to your discussions regarding the spiritual truths. I should like to corroborate what was just said in a previous writing regarding my life. The fact is that Jesus did not give me the leadership of the Christian movement while he was alive. I took the leadership upon myself, as it is explained substantially in the Acts of the Apostles, and I spoke boldly at the Pentecost and did work some miracles of healing. It was this and some other acts that I did that gained for me the leadership of the Apostles and the movement.

I would like to say a few words about the message that Jesus wrote to you tonight regarding the expectation of the Jews as to the person and personality of their Messiah to come. It is true that many of the Jews thought the Messiah must be an immortal being, for who except an immortal being could come directly from God? Thus, when Jesus appeared to Mary after his crucifixion, it dawned upon the Apostles and many of the Jews that Jesus must be the Messiah. This regardless of being rejected in the flesh, but he was accepted after his death and resurrection as an immortal being. It is further true that it was expected after his ascension to heaven that he would return to earth very quickly and reign as the great immortal king and establish the kingdom of God.

I must say that I also partook of this view and so did the Apostles; we all taught that the crucified and resurrected Jesus was the immortal Messiah who would soon reappear. It is true that this concept of the Messiah accounts for the idea of the early church that Jesus would come quickly after his death to establish his earthly reign. It was hard for people to realize that the Messiah had come to establish his kingdom in the celestial heavens and not on the earth.

As to my own leadership in the movement, I was the leader of the Apostles while Jesus was in the flesh and, with John, was among the few who received the Master's main confidences. We went with him to the Mount of Transfiguration. He used my fishing boat, and I went with John to arrange for the hall, or upper room, in which the Last Supper was held. There were many other things in which I was the leader. But, since Jesus did not expect to die, he did not bestow upon me any formal primacy as it is stated in the New Testament (Matthew 16:18). After his death, it was expected of me to take the lead, and I took it and, as I have said, preached at the Pentecost, healed, and continued the work of the Master, gaining as I did in God’s love and conviction as to the truth.

I was arrested, as it is reported in the New Testament (Acts 12:4), and I was released from prison not by any miracle of angels coming to take the irons from my wrists and opening the door (Acts 12:7), but because some of my jailers were converted by my teachings and were believers in Jesus and his mission. They had seen me heal and preferred the things of the spirit than to seeing me languish in prison and suffer the same fate as Jesus.

I continued to preach and heal on the Mediterranean coast in Joppa and elsewhere and converted some Romans, but I never raised the dead as it is reported in Acts (Acts 9:40) in the case of Tabitha, for the girl was in a coma and not dead. Thus, my reputation was enhanced, and I became involved in questions of interpretation and doctrine. It was to me rather than to James that the Jews looked, especially after multitudes of pagans accepted Christianity and the movement had to adapt itself to these people. I decided that many innovations had to be adopted if the pagans were to become believers in Jesus as the Messiah and in God’s love. Thus it was the great body of pagans and their beliefs that compelled the movement to turn from God’s love to Jesus as the motivating force.

I worked consistently to establish the Church along orderly lines and to eliminate undesirable traits and make it a firm religious institution. I eventually came to Rome and became the recognized leader because Rome was the leader of the known world at the time, and, as the authority of the greatest church in the greatest city of the world, I became the authority over the entire Christian world.

I was not in Rome for twenty-five years, but I was there for nearly fifteen. I visited Rome and other cities of the East while preaching in various parts of the Greek world. My leadership, therefore, is really the combination of my position among the Apostles and the fact that this leadership was combined with my position in the world city of Rome.

I think this answers some of the questions you may have had as to my life and primacy. So, with that, I shall close now, and also with my love to you and the Doctor and with my desire that you pray more for the love of God and move more toward increasing your spiritual and soul condition to take our messages.

I shall stop, Peter the Apostle