Thanks David. I'm not sure that I'm any more enlightened than anyone else in discussing this matter, but I do place a great emphasis on this particular subject as I'm struggling to find any institutional church where its leaders know the basic principles of the Christ faith. They may espouse many "truths", many of which are built on cultural understanding of Scripture and not based on deep study of the Word itself. I have been guilty of this myself, which is why I'm digging much deeper into the subject.

I very much appreciated your comment about "Papal Bull". :-)  You are spot-on with that comment. I have always wondered how some Christians who rely on Apostolic Succession for their authority can also claim the cloak of infallibility for their pronouncements when Peter is such a mess sometimes. He was so bad in one instance (Gal 2) that Paul had to severely reprimand him.

I appreciate you pointing put that Peter calls himself a "a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ" in 1 Peter 5:1. That's good stuff.