Matthew 16
v. 13) When Jesus came into the coasts
of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His Disciples, saying, “Whom do men say that I
the Son of Man am?”
v. 14) And they said, “Some say that you
are John the Baptist: some, Elijah; and others, Jeremiah, or one of the
Prophets.”
v. 15) He said unto them, “But whom say
you that I am?”
v. 16) And Simon Peter answered and
said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”
v. 17) And Jesus answered and said unto
him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood have not revealed it
unto you, by My Father which is in Heaven.”
v. 18) And I say also unto you, “That
you are Peter and upon this rock I will build My Church; and the gates of Hell
shall not prevail against it.”
v. 19) “And I will give unto you the
keys of the Kingdom of Heaven: and whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be
bound in Heaven: and whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in
Heaven.”
Introduction
This will be the first
article in a series dealing with Matthew 16.
This wonderful passage above contains great encouragement for the church
of Jesus Christ. However, the Catholic
Church claims that this passage is
“proof” that they are the church that
Jesus has established from the beginning.
Here, they believe that Christ singled out Peter the apostle and made
him the first of many popes. They also
see in this passage a special gift given to Peter alone, and they believe this somehow points specifically to the
Catholic Church. They derive some of
their foundational doctrines by misreading these verses. But these Catholic doctrines are founded on
shifting sand (Matthew 7:24-27).
The Tactic
When someone accuses the
Catholic Church of teaching false doctrine, the Catholic will often say, “Oh,
no! If the Catholic church would fall
into error, then this would mean that Jesus’ words to Peter (“the gates of hell
will not prevail against it”) would be false.
You wouldn’t want to call Jesus a liar, would you?!! Therefore, the Catholic church cannot
possibly teach error. It is indefectible. It is infallible.”
Or so they say.
The Gift of Indefectibility?
In last
month’s article, we mentioned that the New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia stated:
“The gift of indefectibility is expressly promised to
the Church by Christ, in the words in which He declares that the gates of hell
shall not prevail against it.”
Well, the Catholic Church is not indefectible by any means, and this
supposed gift of indefectibility was not at all “expressly promised” to them,
or to anyone else, for that matter. This
is a misinterpretation of the passage. See
this article:
The Gift of Infallibility?
And neither is the church
infallible. “Infallible” means, in part,
that one cannot teach error. Since Peter was an apostle and since he wrote
two infallible books of Scripture (1 and 2 Peter), he did have access to infallibility
when teaching or writing under the inspiration of God. But there is nothing whatsoever in the above
passage that would suggest that Peter’s successors
would be infallible or teach infallibly.
The Catholic Church reads into
this passage a special privilege for themselves that no one else can claim. After all, according to them, they are the
true church of Jesus Christ. But every
article on this blog is a testimony to the fact that the Catholic Church is NOT
the church that Jesus Christ built.
The Gates of Hell Will Not Prevail
Jesus promised the true
church that the gates of hell would not prevail against it. There are several arguments over what exactly
this means, but basically, we know that Jesus is saying that the true church
will endure to the end and succeed in proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ
and His saving work on the cross, and winning souls, keeping those souls from
going to hell. This is how the gates of hell will not prevail. It has nothing to do with a particular group “never
teaching error.”
Error in the Church
Again, the Catholic Church believes
that this is a “can’t-teach-error” passage, and that it only applies to THEM. But if “hell prevailing” means that error was
taught, then hell did indeed prevail, because there were all sorts of error in
the early church. That’s the very reason
why the great majority of the epistles in the New Testament were written in the
first place. They were written to correct
FALSE TEACHING within the church!
Although the church did not experience a complete apostasy, error was present in different degrees and at
different times, even in the early church.
See these examples: Acts
20:17, 28-30; Galatians 3:1-3; 2 Thess. 2:3, 10-11; 1 Tim. 4:1-2; 2 Tim.
4:3-4; 2 Pet. 2:1; Jude 3-4; Revelation chapters
2 and 3.
Therefore, Matthew
16:18 must have a different
meaning than what they think it means.
It is not about an office of a “pope” with successors who could not
possibly teach error. It is not about
indefectibility or infallibility for a particular denomination. It is about the gospel, the good news of the salvation of Jesus Christ, the
True Messiah, Who is the head of the church, and Whose gospel is the power of
God unto salvation (Romans 1:16). THIS is
the foundation on which the church is built, and it has nothing to do with
Catholicism.
Qualifiers
Yet, the Catholic Church continues
to teach that this passage is about an infallible church. But they will “qualify” (limit or restrict)
the scope of this “gift of infallibility” by saying things like, “But this ONLY
applies to OFFICIAL teachings of the Church.
For example, the Catholic Church’s gift of infallibility only applies
when the pope is making an official pronouncement;
and it’s got to be directed to the whole Church. It’s not just when a pope offers his opinion or some unofficial comments about a teaching, nor for ‘disciplinary
decisions,’ but it has to be when he is formally
declaring something. Furthermore, it
is only a ‘negative protection’ for the Church.
This means that although the pope doesn’t necessarily always teach what
he needs to teach, this gift simply prevents
him from teaching error as truth, so it’s only used in a negative sense.”
But this is all special
pleading. The Catholic Church conveniently
tailors this “gift” with ridiculous qualifiers to suit the needs (and ego) of
the Church. There is so much read into these verses that the original
meaning of the passage is unrecognizable!
Their interpretation of the passage is a fantasy… and it is a perversion
of the Scriptures.
And using “supporting” verses
like 1
Timothy 3:15 (“the church is the
pillar and foundation of truth”) doesn’t help, either. Here, Paul’s instruction to Timothy was
basically, “You need to be a pillar,”
not “You are guaranteed to be an
infallible pillar.” See here:
And they also try to support
their interpretation of Matthew 16 with verses like Luke 10:16 (“he that hears you hears Me”), but this
was spoken by Jesus to the seventy, not to the apostles. So, when ANY believer shares the truth of the
gospel, Jesus is saying to that believer, “He
that hears you hears Me.” So, these
verses do not at all support the
Catholic Church’s twisting of Matthew 16 and their claim of an infallible papacy.
Conclusion
Two things we know for sure: 1) “The gates of hell have not prevailed
against the church” is a true statement, but NOT for the same reason that the
Catholic Church says. It is not because
the church cannot teach error. It is
because of the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20) of spreading the
gospel, which is the power of Jesus Christ for every believer. And 2) The
Catholic Church is NOT exempt from error, even in its official statements. There are far too many contradictions between
what the Bible says and what they teach.
We will continue addressing
Matthew 16 and the Catholic Church’s view of it in our next article.
