SEMESTER 1
305 – The Foundation of the Church
BIBLE INSTITUTE OF CORRESPONDENCE
COURSE: ECCLESIOLOGY I LESSON # 5
THE FOUNDATION OF THE CHURCH
Read carefully: Mat. 16:13-20
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INTRODUCTION:
1. This is the first biblical mention of the church and thus should have great consideration in studying the church’s foundation.
2. Let me again assure you, I use the term “the church” generically or institutionally, not universally.
3. Since this Scripture is frequently appealed to, to establish universality, I shall take it as our text often, and see if any such interpretation is necessitated.
4. Let us consider several Bible truths necessary to understand the church’s foundation.
I. THE FALSE PAPAL CONCEPT
1. That is, the teaching that Peter was the (Pope) foundation upon which the church was built.
2. This idea holds that the “keys to heaven” were actually committed to Peter, and his successors.
3. It holds that he, and they, became God’s vicars on earth and that they in fact leave the sinner bound over to Satan, or grant absolution, and that that action is honored in heaven.
4. If this Scripture were of “private interpretation” such a notion might have some weight.
II. FLAWS IN THE PAPAL NOTION
If a tree does not qualify, neither can its fruit. Thus, since the whole idea necessitates Peter’s qualification and succession therefrom, let us note the biblical problems with Peter’s papacy.
1. Peter’s wife: Which the pope may not have. (Mat. 8:14, Mk. 1:30, Luke 4:38, I Cor. 9:5)
2. Peter’s peccability; i.e., his ability to sin. (Mat. 16:23,Mat. 26:69-75)
3. Peter’s lack of authority over the others. (Jn. 21:20-22, Acts 15:7 compared to Acts 15:13-19)
4. Peter’s fallibility; i.e., his tendency to error. (Gal. 2:11-21) Thus, I conclude that the papacy of Peter interpretation, of Matthew 16:18-19, is totally contrary to the body of New Testament revelation.
III. THE RIGHT INTERPRETATION AND THE TRUE FOUNDATION (RE-READ MAT. 16:18
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1. Scofield (in his reference Bible) says here “we have a play on words,” then gives the meaning of petra and petros, etc.
2. I say this is not a mere play on words, but a careful discretionary use of very different and specifically meaningful words.
3. The word petros appears 116 times in Scripture, it means a stone, or a piece of rock, each time it refers to Peter’s name.
4. Petros appears 1 time (Jn. 1:42) translated a stone.
5. Each time the name is to denote the smallness and dependency of Peter, not the opposite.
6. The words rock and stone in Greek and in Scripture carry a very significantly different meaning.
i. A stone (petros) is something mutable, movable (a piece of rock).
ii. A rock (petra) is (a mass of rock) immovable, as in Mat. 7:24-25.
III: Rocks were never thrown.
iii. The only crossover of translation is in the case of the hewn sepulcher.
7. When the word rock is used symbolically, it speaks exclusively of Christ; as in Rom. 9:33, I Cor. 10:4 and I Pet. 2:8.
8. Note that the “surnaming” of Mk. 3:16, took place in Mat. 16:18.
9. Thus, the interpretation of the verse and the revelation of the church’s foundation is this: “Thou art petros a little stone, (such as can be thrown, turned, carried, changed, etc.) and my church shall be built upon petra the immovable, immutable rock, and thus the gates of hell and (the winds and waves that beat upon it) shall not prevail, because it is founded upon the immutable rock.
IV. THE PETRA – PETROS INTERRELATIONSHIP
1. Is the use of these words in this passage mere “play on words?”
2. No, it is a precise, biblical, and necessary relationship, brought together in the revelation of this passage.
3. Peter (petros) (a little stone) has vital relationship with and origin in the (petra) rock. (Mat. 16:16-17, II Pet. 2:5-8)
4. But none of those “lively stones” may forget his vulnerability, weakness and mutability when separated from the rock, the chief cornerstone. (Mat. 16:22-23, Lk. 22:34)
5. Thus, we have not only the foundation (Jesus Christ) and the lively building stones (Peter) and the mortar of union (thou art the Christ) but we have the necessity of an organized union and interrelationship (Christ’s church).