The Rock
No, the rock I
am writing about isn't about the professional wrestler. It
may not be about a person at all. Let's look at the
following verses:
Matthew 16:16-18 (NASB95): "Simon Peter answered, 'You
are the Christ, the Son of the living God.' And Jesus said
to him, ' Blessed are you, Simon Barjona , because flesh and
blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in
heaven . 'I also say to you that you are Peter , and upon
this rock I will build My church ; and the gates of Hades
will not overpower it.'"
In the Greek, The name Peter is Petros which means stone or
boulder. The word "rock" in the verse is petra in the Greek
which means a mass of rock or the bedrock. The Greek for
"church" is ekklesia which can be an assembly of Christians
or can be all of the Christians wherever they are.
So we see that Peter and the rock are two different words so
Peter is not the rock Jesus is talking about here. And the
church is not one denomination but all Christians. So that
means that this is not the beginning of a denomination as
some think.
If the rock is not a person what is the rock that the church
is built upon?
We find the rock in verse 16: "You are the Christ, the
Son of the living God."
If Jesus was not the Christ, or the Messiah as some call
him, and was not
the Son of God then there would be no Christianity. These
facts are the
bedrock of Christianity. Those who don't believe that Jesus
is the Christ
and the Son of god cannot be Christians. This is the basic
fact of the
faith. Those that don't believe these things about Jesus are
stone cold.
By Dean Masters
©2003
Unaltered article may be used with the copyright intact