Him Dear John:

I think Anthony already tried all that. At least that's the gist that I got from his post.

But on the subject of apologetics to Protestants all of the verses that you mentioned and a lot more are always helpful. In fact, I tell people that I can prove the Catholic Church and Catholic teaching from the Bible, even from the King James Bible. All of the teaching of the Catholic Church is either explicitly or implicitly in the Bible. Even the dogma of Mary's Immaculate Conception, virgin birth of her son Jesus (which Protestants do believe), her perpetual virginity, and her Assumption can all be supported from biblical principle.

On Matthew 16, however, Protestants will not be convinced that Jesus appointed Peter the first Pope if you only mention Matthew 16. It is critically important when talking about Matthew 16 about Jesus building his church upon Peter and Peter having the keys of the kingdom that we also mention Isaiah 22:19-24:

I will thrust you from your office, and you will be cast down from your station. In that day I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and I will clothe him with your robe, and will bind your girdle on him, and will commit your authority to his hand; and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. And I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David; he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. And I will fasten him like a peg in a sure place, and he will become a throne of honor to his father's house. And they will hang on him the whole weight of his father's house, the offspring and issue, every small vessel, from the cups to all the flagons.

This is the passage that converted me from a Baptist preacher to the Catholic. When Jesus said that he was going to give Peter the keys to the kingdom he was quoting from Isaiah 22:22. Jesus did not quote a Scripture flippantly. The disciples, who are well-versed in Scripture, surely knew the passage in Isaiah and thus knew exactly what Jesus was saying to them.

In the Isaiah passage everyone, Catholic and Protestant, agrees that the story is about the succession of office of Prime Minister. The Prime Minister here was being fired and Eliakim was being installed as the new Prime Minister. The King is the King, but every king has his Prime Minister.

I was in a Baptist chatroom one time answering questions or should I say answering objections to the Catholic Church. I answered every objection that this Baptist minister put to me. I proved each point from Scripture and Scripture alone. When we talked about Matthew 16 I said that Jesus spoke in Aramaic and that Peter's name in Aramaic is Kepha. Thus, there is no difference in the words that refer to rock. Jesus said in Aramaic. "Simon, thou art Kepha and upon this Kepha I shall build my church."

Thus, I resolved the issue that Protestant use that the Greek name Peter means only pebble instead of rock.

Next, came the quotation from Jesus about giving to Peter the keys to the kingdom. I explained that Jesus was quoting from Isaiah 22 which is unquestionably about the succession of the office of Prime Minister.

The Baptist minister had every one o his objections answered. So he finally said, "okay, but the word Pope is not in the Bible."

I replied, "Au contraire, the word Pope is in the Bible and is in the Bible referring to the Prime Minister. I quoted him Isaiah 22:21 which says, "he [prime minister] shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah."

The word "Pope" is merely an English transliteration of the Greek, Pateras, and the Latin, pater, and the Italian, Papà.

When I finished pointing out this biblical fact, the Baptist minister said nothing, but left the room. Keep in mind this was his room. But I had proven to him from Scripture the papacy and there was nothing he could say to rebut it.

It was this passage in Isaiah and the words of Jesus about the Eucharist in John 6 that made me realize that the Catholic Church is the true church of Jesus Christ. It was at that moment that my eyes and heart were opened and I became Catholic.