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When asked, Roman Catholics will say that Peter was the first pope. That Jesus Himself declared
this, and they'll use Matthew 16:18, to back this teaching up.
They'll tell you (because this is what the Catholic church teaches)
that Jesus gave Peter all His authority on earth, to be the "pope" or "head" of the church, in place of Jesus, and then subsequently,
with each new pope, he also has this authority to be the "head" of the church. This is what they call Apostolic succession
and it's very simple to understand. It's basically when the older "head" has been in position for a period
of time, for whatever reason (age, health) he is replaced by another, and so on and so on.
They
quote the passage as saying "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church". Since the name Peter means rock,
they say Jesus declared He was building His
church on Peter, the first pope.
Seems
logical, yes?
Only if you believe that line of reasoning, without studying this passage
for yourself.
Have you ever really looked carefully at Matthew 16:18, the harmony of the
other gospels (Mark and Luke) that record this conversation, and the passages of Scripture before and after this conversation?
Have you ever looked up the Greek words and definitions of the words used in Matthew 16:18? If yes, you'll know where I'm
going with this... if not, let's do that now.
I would encourage you to print out this article,
get out your Bible, and check everything you read, against Scripture. It's not what I say that counts, it's what the Word
of God says that counts.
I believe it's important to cross-reference Scripture WITH Scripture,
so that a fuller understanding of what was going on at the time, can come out of it. I believe you'll understand why I believe
this, by the time you're done reading this study.
First of all, lest Scripture ever be
taken out of context, lets start at the beginning of this section of Matthew 16, in verse 13, to get a better understanding
of what's going on here, at this period of history.
Jesus was with His disciples at a place called Caeserea Phillipi.
In the gospel of Luke (9:18) we read that Jesus was alone and praying, and then
He came to His disciples and asked them a question. The question He asked them was:
Matthew
16:13 "Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?"
Mark 8:27 "Whom do men say that I am?"
Luke 9:18 "Whom do people say that I am?"
His disciples answered Him and gave many answers. Among the answers gave, were John the Baptist, Elias,
Jeremias or one of the prophets. Then Peter answered Him. The
three gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, each record exactly
what Peter said, in this way:
Matthew 16:16 - Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God
Mark 8:29 - Thou
art the Christ
Luke 9:20 ??e Christ of God
The conversation between Jesus and Peter continues...
Jesus
responds to what Peter just said, and Scripture tells us this is what He said, or didn't say (very important here):
Matthew
16:17 Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven
Mark 9:30 And he charged them that they should tell no man of him. ( The gospel of Mark records that after this, Jesus
went on to teach them about how He would suffer, be crucified, and in three days rise again. Mark has no further account of
this conversation where Peter confessed that Jesus was the Christ.)
Luke 9:21 And he straightly
charged them, and commanded them to tell no man that thing. (The gospel of Luke, like the gospel of Mark, records that Jesus
went on to tell them that He would suffer, and die, and in three days rise again. The gospel of Luke, as the gospel of Mark,
also does not record any further conversation between Jesus and Peter, based on Peter's confession that he believed Jesus
to be the Christ of God).
Does anyone find it just a little odd, that there is only one
reference in the entire New Testament, to a supposed granting of earthly authority by Jesus, to Peter? The Roman Catholic
church teaches that this conversation between Jesus and Peter, (in the following passages) is proof that Jesus gave Peter
all authority on earth, to be the "head" of His church, aka - pope. However, Mark and Luke say nothing about this conversation
at all, after Peter confesses to Jesus who he believes He is. Interesting, at the very least.
Let's continue...
Since
there is no further record of this particular aspect of this conversation in either Mark or Luke, we'll focus now on the remainder
of Matthew, and reference Scriptures that come up there.
In Matthew 16:17, Jesus just told Peter that he was blessed
because it wasn't men who revealed this truth to him (the truth that Jesus is the Son of the living God) but that it was God
Himself that revealed that to Peter.
Now we come to the passage of Scripture that the Roman Catholic church supplies
as proof, that Peter was the first pope. Matthew 16:18.
Read it very carefully: "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."
Let's take
this verse apart, very carefully to understand exactly what Jesus just said to Peter.
In John 1:42 we read that Jesus changed Peter's name from Simon, to Cephas which
when translated, literally means stone.
This is where it can get a little confusing, so
please take the time to read this very carefully, and ask that the Lord reveal to you, the exact meaning of Jesus' words,
when He was talking to Peter here.
In Matthew 16:18, Jesus says "thou art Peter"
Now
John 1:42 already says that by interpretation, (Peter) Cephas means stone, so when you look up the word(name) Peter in the
Greek translation, you'll find that it actually means petros ??d the definition for petros is literally, a piece of rock.
This is important, so keep this in mind, Jesus changed Simon?ame to Peter (Cephas), which means, PIECE of rock (which is exactly
what a stone is, look up the word stone in any dictionary).
Now let's go back to verse 18, and continue...
Jesus
said "and upon this rock..." let's stop here. Jesus uses a different word now. We already know Peter is translated as petros,
which means piece of rock, but now Jesus uses the actual word rock, instead of petros.
If we look up "rock" in the
Greek, it's translated "petra" (not petros) and means mass of
rock.
So petros means PIECE of rock
and petra means MASS of rock
(two different words, which mean two different
things)
Going back to verse 18, we could take what Jesus actually said, and in place of the English words our Scriptures
are translated into, we could use the definitions of the Greek words, it was translated FROM. If we did that, it would actually
read this way:
"Thou art a piece of rock, and upon this mass of rock, I will build my church."
Jesus' words
take on a whole new meaning when you understand what the English words actually mean, in the original language of Greek, which
is what the New Testament is translated from.
Jesus did not say He was building His church on Peter, He said He was
building His church on the mass of rock, and that Peter was a piece of rock. So what's the "mass of rock" Jesus was talking
about??
If you go back to what Jesus said in verse 17, you'll see that
Jesus called Peter blessed, because God had revealed to Peter that Jesus was indeed the Son of God. Jesus continues that thought
in verse 18, He says (substituting the original Greek meanings for English words here) "AND I say also unto thee (Jesus was
responding to Peter just confessing that He is the Son of God) thou art a piece of rock, and upon this mass of rock I will
build my church".
Scripture says that Jesus actually said "upon this rock" The mass of
rock Jesus was talking about was the divine revelation given by God of who Jesus is, confessing that He is Christ, confessing
your faith in Him...
THIS is the "mass of rock" that Jesus told Peter He would build His
church on.
When we say "He is the Rock" who are we talking about, Peter, or Jesus? When
we read that someone was the cornerstone that the builders rejected, who is being referred to there, Jesus, or Peter?
The "rock" that Jesus was referring to was none other than HIMSELF, that faith in Him, given BY
God, and confessing Him as Son of God, was what His church was going to be built on, not Peter.
So
what Jesus was actually saying in Matthew 16:17-18 was this:
"You've been divinely blessed
Peter, because it was my Father who revealed to you who I am, and not any human being. And I'm calling you Peter, which really
means "piece of rock" because now you are a piece of the mass of rock, a member of the family, a member in the body of believers,
in your heart now resides the truth of who I am ??e SOLID stone, which is revelation to the minds and hearts of all, revelation
given ONLY by my Father, that I am His son, and that by faith, you will know this, you will believe it, and you will confess
it, and THIS is the foundation I will build my church on".
Let's continue with the "authority
of Peter" issue.
The Roman Catholic church teaches that:
1.)
Jesus told Peter that He was building His church on him,
2.) He was giving him (Peter)
all authority on earth to preside over that church.
We've already established FROM Holy
Scriptures that #1 is not true at all, so let's see what the Scriptures actually say about #2.
Verse
19 says "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."
Since
Jesus was talking to Peter when He said this, the Roman Catholic church teaches that Jesus was giving exclusive authority
in this matter, directly to Peter. If we believe that Jesus just told Peter that He was building His church on Peter, then
it would be a logical deduction that we also believe that Jesus was continuing His thought and in a sense saying "and by the
way Peter, you, exclusively, have all authority, being the head of this church I'm building". But is that what Jesus really
said?
Turn to Matthew 18:18.
Jesus said the exact same
thing, all over again. If Peter is the head of the chuch now, the one Jesus is building His church on, and Jesus just gave
Peter exclusive authority, then Jesus must be talking to Peter again in Matthew 18:18, and repeating to Peter what He said
in Matthew 16:19... right?
Well, what does Scripture say?
Matthew
18:1 says Jesus was speaking to the disciples
John 20:23 Jesus says this again, worded a little differently, but meaning
the same thing, and...
John 20:19 says that Jesus
was speaking to the disciples.
So if we go back to Matthew 16:19 where Jesus says "I will give unto thee", we can
easily see that while He was talking to Peter directly here, He never inferred that He was granting Peter exclusive authority
over the church at all. He was telling Peter what He was giving him. The same thing He gave to His disciples in the other
passages of Scripture. The same thing He's given to you, and me, and anyone else who ALSO confesses like Peter did, that Jesus
Christ IS the Son of God, has had that truth revealed to them by God, and by faith, believes this to be true.
So,
there it is. Scripture clearly shows that
1.) Jesus never made Peter the first "pope"
2.) Jesus Christ is the
Rock on which the church is built
3.) Jesus Christ is the head of the church on this earth
So if Scripture contradicts
this teaching of the Roman Catholic church, what other teaching does it contradict?
And if you have 2 sources of information,
and one is the Bible, which source is your final authority?
Just a few things to think about, pray about, and come
to a better, Biblical understanding of.
©
Carla Rolfe 1999
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