When Jesus Went to Syria…

Syria is in the news. It’s good to remember that Jesus spent some of His ministry in Syria. Most importantly, Jesus Christ made Peter the first Pope while in Syria.

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Christ instituted Peter as Pope while in Syria

Now the New Testament mentions “Syria” eight times.

Matt 4:24And his fame went throughout all Syria, and they presented to him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and such as were possessed by devils, and lunatics, and those that had the palsy, and he cured them:
Luke 2:2This enrolling was first made by Cyrinus, the governor of Syria.
Acts 15:23Writing by their hands: The apostles and ancients, brethren, to the brethren of the Gentiles that are at Antioch and in Syria and Cilicia, greeting.
Acts 15:41And he went through Syria and Cilicia, confirming the churches, commanding them to keep the precepts of the apostles and the ancients.
Acts 18:18But Paul, when he had stayed yet many days, taking his leave of the brethren, sailed thence into Syria (and with him Priscilla and Aquila), having shorn his head in Cenchrae. For he had a vow.
Acts 20:3Where, when he had spent three months, the Jews laid wait for him, as he was about to sail into Syria. So he took a resolution to return through Macedonia.
Acts 21:3And when we had discovered Cyprus, leaving it on the left hand, we sailed into Syria, and came to Tyre: for there the ship was to unlade her burden.
Gal 1:21Afterwards, I came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia.

Christ traveled in Syria. Christ appointed Peter as Pope in Syria. Saint Paul converted there. Early Christian lived there. Pray for Syria.

In this book, I explain the significance of why Christ appointed Peter in Syria at Caesarea Philippi. Caesarea Philippi (now Golan Heights) was the place of a shrine to Caesar as God. Christ appointed Peter in this location so as to associate Peter’s ministry to Rome.

Christ took the Apostles on a field trip to a place where Caesar was worshiped and then instituted his Vicar there. This geographically linked Peter’s ministry with the Roman mission to displace the Caesar and adopt the Empire for the purposes of the God’s kingdom.

If you’d like to learn more about why the Catholic Church is Roman from a simple and biblical point of view, please check out my latest book The Eternal City: Rome & the Origins of Catholicism.

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With all the terrible things happening in Syria, please pray for this nation. It’s history is linked to Christ, the papacy and to the Catholic Church. It is dear to His Sacred Heart.

Question: Did you realize that Syria had such an important role in the Bible? You can leave a comment by clicking here.

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