Sola Scriptura - By Scripture Alone Part 3: Does the bible support papal authority?

Matthew 16:18 “You are Peter and on this rock I will build my church” Peters confession of JC as the messiah was welcomed with an overflowing blessing. What did Christ really say? Was it to give Peter an authority and a papal succession that for ages to come would be His advocate on earth? Or did Christ mean something completely different? Let us examine scripture more closely.

Jesus is the rock. It is on faith in Jesus as Lord and God that he builds his Church. “Who is rock except Yahweh and who is a rock except our God?” Psalm 18:31. Jesus is that Rock. (Isaiah 9:6, John  1:43, Titus 2:13, Romans 9:5) Those who believe in Jesus in this way receive his blessing, Just as Peter received it (John 20:28-29). Jesus had given Simon the name Peter which means ‘a stone’. (Greek- Petra, Petros) He was the first of those given to Jesus by the Father (John 17:6) to first to be a member of the church of Jesus Christ- in his body.  To be apart of the capstone which is Christ. He was given the authority to bind and loose on earth in accordance with the divine mind (Matt 16:19), 2 chapters later Jesus confers the same authority on all his disciples (Matt 18:18) and repeats it in John 20:22-23 and Luke 24:47 as the Christian is set over all Christ's possessions (Matt. 24:47); for all who in faith acknowledge Jesus as Lord are incorporated into him and receive the Spirit of God and have the mind of Christ (1 Corinth 2), Thus all may declare the forgiveness of sins, binding and loosing with heavenly authority.

All Christians have been given the same privilege of knowing the mind of God, for they have been given the Spirit of God and the keys of his rule, or  kingdom that is the knowledge of how he rules (1 John 2:20, 22). They too may declare authoritatively the forgiveness of sins Just as Jesus stated to the leper.

The language and imagery Jesus used in Matthew 16 was drawn from Exodus 3:1 and 19:2, where Isreal camped in front of the mountain of God, and Exodus 19:20 - for God had come down and had stood on the rock of Sinai. Jesus drew his term church from this episode. God had gathered his people in front of him and had addressed them and they had responded, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do and be obedient” (Exodus 24:8). Acts 19:39-41 demonstrates how the word church is a common word meaning gathering and is used for all sorts of gatherings. Deuteronomy 4:10 “You stood before the LORD in Horeb on the day of the church when the LORD said to me, ‘Gather the people before me”.Stephen referred to this gathering at Sinai as “the church in the desert.” (Acts 7:38) Matthew had used the same three words “build on the rock” in chapter 7. Jesus said that the obedient hearer is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The epi (ἐπὶ) word which is the greek in Matthew 16:18 actually means that the church is not built on the rock but at the rock or in front of the rock. The greek does not mean build on the rock. It is in front of the rock that is, in front of Christ “The rock was Christ”(1 Corinthians 10:4) that he builds his church. It was Jesus with them through sending them the Spirit (John 14:3) which would be in them (John 14:17).

The new Testament regularly speaks of Jesus as now in heaven, seated on the throne at God’s right hand, exercising his kingdom (1 Peter 3:22; Acts 2:33-34, 3:21; Romans 8:34; Colossions 3:1; Philippians 3:20, Ephesians 2:6). It is there that Jesus gathers his church around himself. All Christians are members of that heavenly church from the moment that they recognize Jesus for who he is, and in faith pray to him as Lord. They are in heaven, in spirit. They have entered the heavenly gathering on Mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem, and are in the presence of God the judge and of Jesus the mediator, and of the angels and of all their fellow Chistians, justified and made perfect in spirit through forgiveness. God is present to them through his own Spirit present to each of their spirits. Christ has gathered them all into his presence into his gathering in fron of himself. Hebrews 12:23 calls this gathering the church of the firstborn, because it is a church or gathering of God’s people “The firstborn are mine” (Numbers 3:13). (D broughton Knox Selected works Volume 2 Church and Ministry edited by Kirsten Birkett)