The Record Is Clear: St. Peter Taught in Rome, and Died in Rome

[WarriorAngel]

6 Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.

7 Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner

And if you know anything about foundational building the corner is first laid on which to build the foundation. But ask an expert.

Peter was Christs foundation and He Himself the cornerstone.

Translation: I am the Savior and the Gospel.
You are My Steward and you shall teach My SHEEP and LAMBS.
You shall strengthen your brethren.
You shall be the servant to all as I HAVE SERVED. The teacher was the servant.
Jesus was Teacher, King, Had the government on His Shoulder [the keys carried on a string and thrown over the shoulder to open and shut see Isaiah 22 for King and Steward]

Time and time again Jesus humbled Himself as an example to what His steward would be, without being in error.

 

[prodromos]

Peter was Christs foundation and He Himself the cornerstone.

That isn't what John was shown by the angel.

And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.​

Revelation 21:14​

 

[Strong in Him]

Peter was Christs foundation and He Himself the cornerstone.

Peter was Christ's foundation???

Christ, Jesus, the eternal Word was present before the foundation of the world. All things were made through him, and for him John 1:1-3, Colossians 1:15-16. Christ is eternal, holy, perfect. He does not have, nor need, a foundation.
Peter was a finite human being - Christ was HIS foundation.

 

[Darren Court]

I don’t dismiss the great things that Peter did…He was given the keys to the kingdom which he faithfully excited. And his continued faithfulness proclaiming the truth throughout his life.
Keys open things…. and Peter in Acts 2 opening the kingdom to the Jews…. and Acts 10 opened the kingdom to the Gentiles….

I will dispute that Jesus build the church on him.

Church (ekklēsia) simply means called out …It is even used as a “mostly peaceful” protest in Act 19:32, 39 &41 as “assembly”. But the epistles are quite clear that the “called out” (church) in this administration (dispensation) of grace is not built on Peter… or any man.

And the comparison of Jonah being in the fish for 3 days falls short ….since the gospels declare that Peter denied Christ six (6) times not just three

To correctly understand any part of scripture, we cannot take isolated verses out of context. To do so not only misses the point being made in the bible but more importantly makes a point never intended.

This is precisely just one of a series of mistakes Catholics make in relying on “And I tell you that you are Peter, and on THIS rock I will build my church…” and to claim power is being given to Peter with the keys...
The context for this whole passage is sandwiched between two points in Matthew 16:13-20.

1. When Jesus asked “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” v13
2. When Jesus “he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.” v20

In other words, the point of this whole section of scripture is related to who Jesus is.

So, what is happening…

• Jesus asks “Who do people say the Son of Man is?””
• The disciple answer
• Jesus askes “Who do you say I am?”
• Peter answers ““You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” (The Confession)
• Jesus responds and builds upon this confession
• Jesus commands them “not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah”

It’s important to see Jesus response in this context or we’ll get the wrong understanding and the wrong conclusioin.

So when Jesus says, ““Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” HE IS NOT SAYING that a person, ie. Peter is what He is building His church upon. The “THIS” in the statement isn’t Peter but Peter’s confession (that Jesus is the Messiah). It is the confession is the rock and foundation of Christ’s church, not a person.

Lest we get confused about this the bible goes on to make THREE other points!!

1) “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven…” Think about this phrase …keys of the kingdom of heaven. Note this phrase isn’t about keys to a church. It's about "keys of the heaven". It’s therefore, weird to try to use this verse to claim that it has anything to do with Peter being given authority of a church that doesn’t yet exist.

Furthermore, as you point out, keys are things which open and lock doors. The keys Jesus speaks of there are the keys to heaven, which means without this key heaven is locked! Thus keys are clearly symbolic in providing access to heaven. What provides access to heaven? Catholics claim it’s Peter? If Peter is the means by which we enter heaven then he is an intermediary between us and Christ, and there is no intermediary! More than that, if Peter has the keys then he’s the one who decides who he opens the door to heaven to and who he doesn’t… and Jesus abdicated, which is sort of what Catholics claim for later verses.

The other problem here is that Jesus is talking about keys plural. In other words, there is more than one. The Catholic view has no explanation of this plurality because they misunderstand the context.

So what are the keys and why are they plural? They are the confession, that Jesus is the Messiah. Symbolically the ONLY thing that opens heaven for us is a key, and that key is the confession that Jesus is the Messiah……….and as such we all need a key, hence the plurality of keys!

2) “and….whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be[e] loosed in heaven.”

I love this verse because few other verses demonstrate the foolishness of many people's theology so clearly. If we are to allow this verse to speak of the authority that Peter is being given here, then Peter is literally being given the power to decide who gets into heaven and who doesn’t. Many people really don’t like this truth and all the more so when it’s made plain by two simple questions…. i)”Are there people in heaven who are bound?” ii) Are they people in hell who are loosed?” The obvious and clearly biblical answer is that there can’t be, and on that basis this bible verse doesn’t read like many want it to read.

In fact, the verse is completely translated wrongly and should read something more like, “and… what has been bound in earth will be bound on heaven and whatever has been loosed on earth will be loosed in heaven…. And this fits with the context here that Jesus is the Messiah. Namely that declaring Jesus is the Messiah on earth means we’re loosed on earth and hence loosed in heaven and not declaring Jesus is the Messiah on earth means we’re bound on earth and hence bound in heaven.

3) ..and lastly just in case we missed the entire point of this passage the bible records Jesus instruction “not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah”
In other words, Jesus was telling them to keep all the things He had revealed after Peter’s confession secret and they are all connected to Him being the Messiah!

This entire section of scripture is essentially about ONE THING…. that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, and the confession that He is the Messiah, is both the rock upon which He will build the church, and the keys that opens heaven and the power through which we can bind and loose in His name. Hallelujah! (...and for those who really study Jewish culture deeply and understand the structure (in both Greek and Hebrew), this is called "poetic parallelism. In simple terms, it's using two images to reinforce the point, just as Jesus did there)

Bottomline is that Jesus isn’t building a church on a person, He isn’t abdicating and giving any of His authority to anyone and EVERYTHING in this context revolves around the truth that He is the Messiah!


The truth shall set you free from the bondage of lies