22 May 2015

Matthew 16:18-19

Posted by joncooper

Matthew 16:18: “And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”

It is so very important to realize that ‘Peter’ means ‘small stone’, not rock. The rock upon which Jesus will build His church is Himself – after all, the point of this conversation was “Who is Jesus?”, not “Who is Peter?”. Even Peter testified that Jesus was the chief cornerstone. This can be found throughout the Old Testament and New Testament. God did not build the Church upon Peter, but upon Jesus.

So, then, this whole Catholic idea of “Peter is the head of the church, etc.” is completely wrong. The Bible testifies repeatedly that Jesus is the corner stone, the stone that the builders rejected, and the head of the Church. Not Peter.

Matthew 16:19: “And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

Catholics point to this and say that Jesus was making Peter the first Pope (which is a Church office that the Bible doesn’t even mention), and that He was giving Peter all kinds of power. However, notice that the Bible says “whatsoever”, not “whosoever”. This power to bind and loose applies to things, not people – and yet Catholicism is all about binding people, forgiving people, excommunicating people, etc. The truth is that there’s simply no Biblical basis for what Catholicism is doing – but since I’ve already discussed this elsewhere I won’t repeat it all here.

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