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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
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