The facts are they are NOT the true Church and Catholicism does NOT stem back to the Apostle Peter or to Jesus. They base it on the scripture from M...atthew 16:18 "... thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." This verse did not, nor does not mean that Peter is the literal rock of the church. “The Lord declares that Peter is one these living stones, made such by his confession of faith, and ready to be built into the church, the spiritual temple, formed of living stones, and built upon the rock. So is every confessor of Christ. In order to settle what the Savior does mean by the rock, we must consider the Matthew 16:18 Matthew 16:19 together, and keep in mind the entire figure. This figure portrays (1) a Builder, Christ; (2) a temple to be built, composed of lively stones, the church; (3) a foundation for that temple, the rock; (4) the gates of an unfriendly city or power which shall seek its destruction, hell, or more correctly, Hades, the unseen abode of the dead, the grave; (5) a door-keeper of the church, or spiritual temple, with his keys, Peter. Peter's place in the figure is not that of the foundation, but that of the key-holder, or turnkey.
The only difficulty is in settling what the Lord means by the rock. Since this rock is the foundation of the church, the central principle, the fundamental idea, we are aided to a correct decision by the teachings of the Word elsewhere.” We learn from 1 Cor. 3:11 , "That other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." This excludes Peter or any human platform. Christ is often called a stone: "the stone that the builders rejected," "the chief corner stone," "the stone that is the head of the corner," "the spiritual rock which is Christ."
It is Peter's grand confession, faith in the Spiritual Rock, the faith that lays hold of Christ, belief that he is the Anointed of God, the Divine Savior, that the Lord pronounces the rock upon which he will found his church.
The powers of Hades are represented by its gates. Hades is not hell (Gehenna), but the unseen abode of the dead that holds the departed within its gates. Just after these words, the Lord talks of his death, or entering Hades. Six months later the Sanhedrim sent him to death for making the same confession Peter had just made. See Matt. 26:64-67 . They expected to demonstrate that the confession of his divinity, which he had made, was false by sending him to Hades, which they supposed would hold him and prevail against the confession of the ROCK. He was sent there from the cross, but the gates of Hades did not prevail, for they could not hold him, and the living Savior, rising triumphant from the tomb, was the unanswerable argument that his own and Peter's confession was a rock that could never be moved. His resurrection demonstrated that he is the Rock. Hades did not prevail.
Catholicism contends that the Lord was referring to Peter as the rock, and has since built the entire Catholic religion upon that premise. But all other pertinent Scriptures declare that Jesus was referring to Himself as the rock, not Peter: 1 Corinthians 10:4”….for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them and that Rock was Christ.” How could one religion be SO wrong in their thinking, clearly the Bible says that Jesus is the Rock and cornerstone of the church not Peter. The medieval popes claimed that they were in direct line of the inheritance of Christ Jesus “Jesus gave a kind of guarantee given to Peter, and hence to all the popes, in Luke 22:32. Christ says to Peter "I have prayed for thee that thy faith may not fail." Another frequently quoted verse was in John 21: 15-17, where Jesus gave Peter command, feed my sheep three times. Tradition was, that Peter visited Rome during his life and, more importantly, he was martyred there (his remains are believed to be beneath St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City). The papal office was/and is understood to be the direct descendent of the apostle Peter whom Christ appointed to the head of the church. Pope Damasus used the Matt. 16:18-19 as a foundation for this doctrine. The Roman Catholic Church was regarded as the first in the empire to be established by the Apostles.
The only difficulty is in settling what the Lord means by the rock. Since this rock is the foundation of the church, the central principle, the fundamental idea, we are aided to a correct decision by the teachings of the Word elsewhere.” We learn from 1 Cor. 3:11 , "That other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." This excludes Peter or any human platform. Christ is often called a stone: "the stone that the builders rejected," "the chief corner stone," "the stone that is the head of the corner," "the spiritual rock which is Christ."
It is Peter's grand confession, faith in the Spiritual Rock, the faith that lays hold of Christ, belief that he is the Anointed of God, the Divine Savior, that the Lord pronounces the rock upon which he will found his church.
The powers of Hades are represented by its gates. Hades is not hell (Gehenna), but the unseen abode of the dead that holds the departed within its gates. Just after these words, the Lord talks of his death, or entering Hades. Six months later the Sanhedrim sent him to death for making the same confession Peter had just made. See Matt. 26:64-67 . They expected to demonstrate that the confession of his divinity, which he had made, was false by sending him to Hades, which they supposed would hold him and prevail against the confession of the ROCK. He was sent there from the cross, but the gates of Hades did not prevail, for they could not hold him, and the living Savior, rising triumphant from the tomb, was the unanswerable argument that his own and Peter's confession was a rock that could never be moved. His resurrection demonstrated that he is the Rock. Hades did not prevail.
Catholicism contends that the Lord was referring to Peter as the rock, and has since built the entire Catholic religion upon that premise. But all other pertinent Scriptures declare that Jesus was referring to Himself as the rock, not Peter: 1 Corinthians 10:4”….for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them and that Rock was Christ.” How could one religion be SO wrong in their thinking, clearly the Bible says that Jesus is the Rock and cornerstone of the church not Peter. The medieval popes claimed that they were in direct line of the inheritance of Christ Jesus “Jesus gave a kind of guarantee given to Peter, and hence to all the popes, in Luke 22:32. Christ says to Peter "I have prayed for thee that thy faith may not fail." Another frequently quoted verse was in John 21: 15-17, where Jesus gave Peter command, feed my sheep three times. Tradition was, that Peter visited Rome during his life and, more importantly, he was martyred there (his remains are believed to be beneath St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City). The papal office was/and is understood to be the direct descendent of the apostle Peter whom Christ appointed to the head of the church. Pope Damasus used the Matt. 16:18-19 as a foundation for this doctrine. The Roman Catholic Church was regarded as the first in the empire to be established by the Apostles.