Matthew 16:18...?

Question

"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."

How does this prove that the Catholic Church is the one and only true church and that Peter is the first Pope?

Just curious about how you get that out of this verse...

Please -- serious answers from serious Catholics only!

Thanks

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I've had many Catholics quickly refer to this passage in support of the above...
I just want to know why they can justify this...

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Okay, if this doesn't seem to support the above, what scripture IS used to support the fact that the RCC is the true church and that Peter was the first Pope???

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Okay, at

It states that Jesus made Peter head of the church (thus the Pope) due to a special blessing... how is that so? Jesus gave the SAME blessing to the rest of the disciples later on, so why does the RCC call out only Peter as the first Pope above the rest of them???

Where is this justified or declared in the Bible?

Answer 1

>>How does this prove that the Catholic Church is the one and only true church and that Peter is the first Pope?<<

Not by itself. It needs to be read in context along with other verses. Matthew 16:19 and John 21:15-17 were more what helped sell me.

Answer 2

Christ does at least three things in the above scripture,
(1) He institutes the Church. Many people argue that all organized religion is invalid, and that we should simply follow our own hearts when serving God without the mediation of any kind of human organization. Christ Himself ordains that there will be a Church on earth to offer support and guidance to all who follow him.
(2) He elects Peter to be the "rock" or foundation of this Church. It is evidently His will that the Church should have a leader, rather than be a Church where everyone holds equal authority. This is the start of the hierarchical notion of Church structure.
(3) He gives Peter, as the leader of the Church, the power to make decisions that will be accepted in heaven, and should be accepted on earth as well. This is why the power Christ transferred to Peter is not an empty gesture but has the blessing of God Himself.

I went on a retreat recently at a convent and on the wall they had a picture of all the popes starting from Peter and going all the way to the present day. Yes I know there were some controversies about who was pope at certain times in history but these have all been resolved and now you can trace the succession clearly all the way back to Peter. Just as Christ handed Peter the "keys" of authority, so have the keys been handed from pope to pope down through the centuries. This is why the Church still maintains the same authority that was originally given to Peter, namely that whatever the pope (and by extension his bishops and priests) binds on earth shall also be bound in heaven, and whatever the pope frees on earth shall be freed in heaven. The title "pope" was created after Christ to refer to the man who holds this power.

Answer 3

I am not a Catholic so I guess you only want a Catholic answer. Kind of limiting yourself - there are answers that will better explain the verse from the Greek rendering of the word
"Rock" in the context of the verse as it stands.

EDIT: Peter is not the rock. Christ is, and this Catholic heresy
will never stand on the day of judgment.

Answer 4

How did you get all of that from this scripture?

This is teh full verse and I dont get from it.. what you have...

13 Jesus came into the country of Caesarea Philippi. He asked His followers, "Who do people say that I, the Son of Man, am?" 14 They said, "Some say You are John the Baptist and some say Elijah and others say Jeremiah or one of the early preachers."
15 He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" 16 Simon Peter said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."

17 Jesus said to him, "Simon, son of Jonah, you are happy because you did not learn this from man. My Father in heaven has shown you this.

18 "And I tell you that you are Peter. On this rock I will build My church. The powers of hell will not be able to have power over My church. 19 I will give you the keys of the holy nation of heaven. Whatever you do not allow on earth will not have been allowed in heaven. Whatever you allow on earth will have been allowed in heaven." 20 Then with strong words He told His followers to tell no one that He was the Christ.

Explain please...
.

Answer 5

The Catholic Church was the first unified church, and traces all the Popes back to Peter. They appear to be able to do that. See the link below.

Maybe Jesus was just saying "Thou art Peter" on the one hand, and pointing to a big rock... sort of saying, "Hey, Pete! In this rock over here I'm gonna build my church!" Peter might have misunderstood and though he was a metaphorical rock.

However, since the Bible is to be taken literally from cover to cover, we certainly can't suffer any metaphors hanging out there, so Peter must not be the rock. Jesus must have been pointing to a literal rock. If we can find that rock, on top of it must sit the first church!

Answer 6

I always interpreted Jesus as being the Rock, based on the scriptures quoted in context by "Happy 2 Be.." ...especially since all of His followers were known throughout the land as "little Christs" (i.e. Christians), even after the Resurrection. He's the rock of MY salvation....not a pope or any other human being.

Answer 7

John 21:15-17 states:

When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you." He said to him, "Feed my lambs."

He then said to him a second time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you." He said to him, "Tend my sheep."

He said to him the third time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" Peter was distressed that he had said to him a third time, "Do you love me?" and he said to him, "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you." (Jesus) said to him, "Feed my sheep.

Matthew 16:17-19 states:

Jesus said to him in reply, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."

The Catholic Church believes the Lord made Simon alone, whom he named Peter, the "rock" of his Church. He gave him the keys of his Church and instituted him shepherd of the whole flock.

The Pope is the senior pastor of 1.1 billion Catholics, the direct successor of Simon Peter.

The Pope’s main roles include teaching, sanctifying, and governing.

With love in Christ.

Answer 8

Priests are into Peter.

Answer 9

Sounds pretty straight forward.

Answer 10

They just strangle the verse until it confesses what they want to hear.