The Papacy in Scripture

                                          The Lord Jesus giving the keys to the Apostle St. Peter

Many people, particularly our Protestant friends are still having a difficulty regarding the Papacy and who is the rock that Jesus is referring to in Matthew 16:18. Let us read the entire passage of Matthew 16, starting from v.13 up to v.19. Here are as follows:

Matthew 16:13-19,"Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him,“Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

At first, I didn't believe in the Papacy when I was making a decision to leave the Roman Catholic Church since my mindset is that the Roman Church is the Whore of Babylon in Revelation 17, but now, I've noticed something. And this is, when Jesus took His disciples to the territory of Caesarea Philippi, He was asking His followers this to paraphrase it, "Who am I according to you?", then His followers based their answers from the people who followed Him. But when Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God", Jesus gave Peter three things:

1. The name "Peter" which means "rock"

2. That upon him, the Church will be built

3. The power of the keys

Now they will object saying, Jesus wasn't referring to Peter being the rock, He was referring to Himself. My answer will be, in the Old Testament, the people of Israel looks to Abraham being the rock, the quarry on which they are carved in Isaiah 51:1-2. But how come this is the case when in fact, Psalm 18:2 says that the LORD is a Rock? It only proves that the LORD shares His dignity with whomsoever He wishes like what He did to Abraham. The LORD is a Rock in other verses, but here, He shares His dignity with Abraham. That is proof also that this Scripture is true, "For the LORD is a great and glorious King, favor and glory are what He gives. He will not refuse any good deed to those who do right" (Psalm 84:11). The same applies with Jesus Christ, Jesus is shown to be the True Rock in 1 Corinthians 3:11, but He shares His dignity with Peter in Matthew 16:18. And also, Protestants will argue, but in Greek, the word that is used for Peter is "Petros" and "Petra" which means "small stone". My reply to that is, its not just small stone, but it also means "rock". And also, take note that the rock is a neuter, neither masculine nor feminine. And those are synonymous to each other in the 1st century Greek. Also, we have to go from the Greek to the Aramaic, the language which Jesus our Lord spoke. When we transliterate Matthew 16:18 to Aramaic, here's what it says:

Matthew 16:18, "You are Cephas and upon this Cephas, I will build My Church and the fires of Hell shall not prevail against it"

Remember, Greek and Aramaic have different grammatical structures. Greek is the lingua franca (universal language) in the Mediterranean. The Gospel of Matthew was originally written in Aramaic. Unfortunately, the Aramaic language was lost so all we have is the Greek. The proof that there's still Aramaic in the Gospel of Matthew is found in Matthew 27:46, when Jesus cried out, "Eli, Eli, lema Sabachtani?" (My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?). Now let's get to the "power of the keys". In Matthew 16:19, we read, "And to you I give the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you loosed on earth will be loosed in Heaven". Now, this verse reminds me of an ancient prophecy in Isaiah 22:20-22 and we read:

Isaiah 22:20-22, "And, when that day comes, I shall summon my servant Eliakim son of Hilkiah. I shall dress him in your tunic, I shall put your sash round his waist, I shall invest him with your authority; and he will be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the House of Judah. I shall place the key of David's palace on his shoulder; when he opens, no one will close, when he closes, no one will open"

Here, the Almighty Father replaces Shebna with Eliakim, son of Hilkiah. He will have the keys of office, now, this key of office means authority to execute the king's command. The Father makes Eliakim a Prime Minister of Hezekiah's kingdom with the keys of office symbolizing authority. Now in the New Testament, Jesus Christ, the New Hezekiah gives to Peter, the New Eliakim the keys of office. This key that Peter will have will give him authority to carry out Jesus' command after His ascension to Heaven. In fact, during the Last Supper, Jesus prayed for Peter that his faith won't fail and when he has turned, he must strengthen the brethren in Luke 22:32. Unfortunately, Peter denied Him three times, but eventually, repented and the Lord gave him a task to shepherd His Church and guide it in John 21:17. The proof that Peter has these keys of office symbolizing authority is this:

1. Peter is the one who led the Apostles during the election of a twelfth apostle who will replace Judas Iscariot, that is, Matthias (Acts 1:16-22)

2. Peter was the first to speak on behalf of the Apostles when the people said they were drunk (Acts 2:14-39)

3. Peter spoke to the Sanhedrin about the risen Christ (Acts 4:1-12)

4. He exercised his power to "bind and loose" when he said to Ananias and Sapphira that they were lying to God, which caused their death. He also rebuked Simon Magus for attempting a spiritual gift (cf. Acts 5:1-11, 8:18-24)

5. Peter was the one who stopped the debate between the Jewish Christians and the Gentile Christians about the Law of Moses being imposed on the Gentiles at the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15:7-11). Now Protestants will tell me, but it was James who stopped the debate and settled the issue. My answer to that is James was second the motion to Peter's decision. He affirmed it. Papal infallibility is different from impeccability. Impeccability means the Pope cannot sin, which is impossible. When Catholics say the Pope is infallible, it means that in terms of faith and morals, he is the final word as Peter was during Christ's absence. If Christ rendered Peter infallible (not impeccable) in terms of oral and written teachings like 1 and 2 Peter, why can't He render also his successors as such since He can forsee the anarchy that would come if He didn't?

 Even until today, the Popes carried this role of Peter. God bless the Roman Catholic Church!! This is the proof of Christ's Divinity! The unbroken line of successors! From St. Peter to Pope Benedict XVI!!!