Posted by
ValiantForTruth on Wednesday, March 05, 2008 10:56:28 PM
When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying,
“Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?”
So they said, “Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
Should this passage stand alone or should it be considered carefully in the light of the whole of Scripture? The answer is clear. This passage is used as justification for the apostate church to undermine the authority of Jesus Christ and for its persecution of His Church that He promised to build. It is used as authoritative to deny the authority of the Scripture. As the Pharisees misread the Old Testament and rejected their Messiah, these New Testament apostates misread Messiah's revelation and reject His Church.
Even standing alone this passage does not teach what the apostate church asserts. In the GREEK there is a play on words with the name Peter (PETROS) referring to a small rock (masculine) and the English word rock (PETRA) referring to a larger rock or foundation (feminine). It is clear that the word rock is NOT a reference to Peter, since the gender of the words is different.
Now we know that this argument has no weight with the apostates, so let’s expose their folly by searching the Scriptures, for therein will the truth be known. What is Christ referring to by His use of the word
rock if not Peter?