Two Claims, One Rock: Peter or Christ?
Few Bible passages carry more weight in Christian history than Matthew 16. The Roman Catholic Church builds its entire claim to authority on this chapter, teaching that here Jesus personally appointed the apostle Peter as the first pope, giving him "full, supreme, and universal jurisdiction over the entire Church" in matters of faith, morals, discipline, and government. This teaching is called papal supremacy.
This teaching rests on Matthew 16:18-19, where Jesus tells Simon: "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church... I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven." Catholic theology draws three conclusions from this verse". First the "keys" represent supreme authority, making Peter the chief shepherd of the church. Second, Jesus changed Simon's name to Cephas (Peter, meaning "rock"), showing a change in his role. Third, Peter later went to Rome, became its first bishop, and was martyred there, so his authority passed down through an unbroken line of popes, called apostolic succession. Built on top of this is papal infallibility, declared at the First Vatican Council in 1870, teaching that the pope cannot err on solemn rulings of faith or morals. Rome also calls the pope the Vicar of Christ, meaning he acts as Christ's earthly representative.
Scripture must interpret Scripture. This is the foundation of sound Bible study, and it is especially urgent here. The Bible does not leave its own key symbols undefined. When Scripture calls something a "rock" or a "foundation," it consistently tells us, in its own pages, what that symbol means. In this study we will let the Bible speak for itself, tracing the Rock from Moses to Revelation to show that Scripture identifies only one Rock and one Foundation: Jesus Christ Himself.
This matters because the stakes are prophetic, not just historical. Rome's claim mirrors an ancient rebellion, a being who once desired to sit "instead of" the Most High. Understanding who is this rock Jesus refers to is not simply about correcting a doctrine. It is about recognizing the spirit of antichrist at work, and returning our eyes to Christ alone.
Exegesis of Matthew 16: The Rock, the Keys, and the Equality of the Apostles
Consider the full exchange:
"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? And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. 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. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." (Matthew 16:13-19)
Notice the actual sequence of the conversation. Jesus does not begin by asking about Peter. He asks, "Whom say ye that I am?" The whole exchange centres on Christ's identity, not Peter's position. Peter's answer, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God," is the confession that Jesus calls blessed. This matters greatly, because it shapes what "this rock" refers to just two verses later.
On the matter of names, Jesus tells Simon he will be called Cephas, translated Peter, from the Greek word Petros. Then Jesus says His church will be built on "this rock," using the word Petra, the feminine form of the same root. Petros describes a stone or a piece of rock. Petra describes a large rock mass, a bedrock foundation. If Jesus meant the very same thing by both words, He would likely have used the same word twice. Instead, He shifts from Peter's stone-like name to a separate, greater rock, without saying they are one and the same.
Rome also leans on the "keys" and the power to "bind and loose" as proof of Peter's supreme, singular authority. But the Bible does not limit this power to Peter. Just two chapters later, Jesus gives the very same binding and loosing authority to all the disciples together: "Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (Matthew 18:18). This was never a private grant to one man; it was a shared commission. Likewise, Jesus warned that rejecting any apostle's word brought condemnation: "He that heareth you heareth me; and he that despiseth you despiseth me" (Luke 10:16). All the apostles carried Christ's authority as His ambassadors, not Peter alone.
Jesus actively rejected the idea of a hierarchy among His followers. He told His disciples plainly not to seek titles that elevate one believer above another:
"But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren. And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ. But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant." (Matthew 23:8-11)
When the disciples argued about who was the greatest, Jesus turned the idea of rank upside down, teaching that whoever wants to be chief must be a servant of the rest. The kingdom Jesus described has no room for a supreme human head standing over the rest of the body. Peter was not set above his brothers. He was one of many entrusted with the same responsibility.
This becomes even clearer when we watch how the apostles actually treated one another after Christ's ascension. If Peter held supreme authority as the first pope, we would expect the other apostles to defer to him automatically. Instead, we find the opposite.
- When Peter went to the household of Cornelius, the other apostles and believers in Judea contended with him and required him to explain himself (Acts 11:1-4).
- When the question of circumcising Gentile believers arose, Paul and Barnabas did not simply ask Peter to rule on it. They went to Jerusalem to meet with the apostles and elders as a body (Acts 15).
- Paul declared plainly that he was "not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles," showing he did not regard Peter as having higher rank (2 Corinthians 11:5).
- Paul publicly rebuked Peter in Antioch when Peter withdrew from eating with Gentile believers to please visiting legalists, correcting him to his face rather than deferring to him.
A supreme, infallible head of the church does not get corrected publicly by a fellow apostle. The Bible reveals the apostles as equals, unified in mission, with Christ alone standing over them as head.
Scripture Interprets Scripture: The Rock and the Cornerstone
If Peter is not the rock of Matthew 16, then who is? Scripture answers this question clearly and repeatedly, long before Peter was ever born and long after he died.
The Rock in the Old Testament is God alone.
Throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, "Rock" is a title reserved almost exclusively for the Lord. It describes His unchanging faithfulness and His role as the only true refuge for His people.
- "He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he" (Deuteronomy 32:4).
- "The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust" (Psalm 18:2).
- "Trust ye in the LORD for ever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength" (Isaiah 26:4).
This pattern is so firm that when the Bible does mention the "rocks" of pagan nations, it does so only to contrast their weakness with the true God: "For their rock is not like our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges" (Deuteronomy 32:31). The one exception where a human is called a rock is Abraham, in Isaiah 51:1-2, where Israel is told to "look unto the rock whence ye are hewn... look unto Abraham your father." Here, the meaning shifts from an object of worship to a picture of lineage. Abraham was the human father from whom God carved out the covenant family, but he was never worshipped or treated as a foundation of faith itself. He stands as the great example of faith for both Israel and the church (Hebrews 11:8-19), but Scripture never elevates him, or any man, to the place reserved for God as Rock.
The Rock in the New Testament.
The New Testament applies this settled Old Testament symbol directly to Jesus Christ, closing the door on any human claimant:
- "For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ" (1 Corinthians 10:4).
- "For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 3:11).
- "Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded" (1 Peter 2:6).
That last verse comes from Peter's own pen. Peter, writing under inspiration, calls Jesus "a living stone" and "the chief cornerstone," directly quoting Psalm 118:22: "The stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner. And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed" (1 Peter 2:7-8). If Peter himself understood the cornerstone to be Christ, and not himself, this settles the matter. Peter says the church, including himself, is simply built upon that stone: "Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house" (1 Peter 2:5).
A small, telling detail appears in John 1:42, where Jesus first meets Simon and says, "Thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, A stone"—the same Greek word, petros, used again in Matthew 16:18. Peter is a stone built into the structure, not the foundation it rests upon.
Jesus reinforced this truth in His own teaching, describing the wise man who "built his house upon a rock: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock" (Matthew 7:24-25). The rock in that parable is obedience to Christ's own words, not to any human successor.
Finally, Peter's own sermon in Acts settles where he believed the foundation rested: "This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4:10-12). Peter names Jesus, not himself, as the stone and the only source of salvation. Christ alone is the Rock and Foundation of His church.
The Spirit of Antichrist and the Throne of Pride
Once we see that Christ alone is the Rock, the papal claim becomes more than a doctrinal disagreement. It becomes a pattern Scripture warned about from the beginning: a created being desiring the position that belongs only to the Creator.
This pattern began with Lucifer. Scripture describes his fall: "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!... For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God... I will be like the most High" (Isaiah 14:12-14). Ezekiel gives a parallel picture: "Thine heart is lifted up, and thou hast said, I am a God, I sit in the seat of God" (Ezekiel 28:2). This is the same lie the serpent told Eve: "Ye shall be as gods" (Genesis 3:4-5). Lucifer was cast out of heaven for this pride (Revelation 12:7-9), yet he did not abandon the ambition; he transferred it to a beast power on earth, giving it "his power, and his seat, and great authority" (Revelation 13:2).
Paul describes this same spirit reappearing in the church itself, as a "man of sin" who exalts himself: "Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God" (2 Thessalonians 2:4). The Bible teaches that believers themselves are God's true temple (1 Corinthians 3:16; 2 Corinthians 6:16). This "man of sin" rules not from a physical building, but by placing himself, or his tradition, above the Word of God within the church.
This is exactly what papal claims do. The doctrine of the Vicar of Christ presents the pope as Christ's earthly representative. But the Bible already tells us who fills that role: not a man, but the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, "The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance" (John 14:26), and, "He will guide you into all truth" (John 16:13). Christ never left a human vacancy for a successor to fill. He filled it Himself, through His Spirit.
The Catholic Church's own historical statements confirm how far this claim has gone. Regarding the change from Sabbath to Sunday worship, C. F. Thomas, Chancellor of Cardinal Gibbons, wrote that the change was the church's own act, "a mark of her ecclesiastical power and authority in religious matters." The Catholic Record of London, Ontario, stated even more directly, "Sunday is our mark of authority... the church is above the Bible." And Catholic theologian Adrien Nampon wrote, "Tradition, not Scripture, is the rock on which the church of Jesus Christ is built." These are open admissions that church tradition has been placed above the written Word of God, echoing the very pride Isaiah and Ezekiel described.
Jesus warned that this deception would multiply as history moved toward its close: "Many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many" (Matthew 24:5). John confirmed the same warning: "As ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time" (1 John 2:18). The Greek word translated "anti" can mean "against," but also "instead of." The Antichrist does not necessarily oppose Christ openly; he deceives by standing in Christ's place, wearing Christ's titles, while pointing people away from the one Mediator: "There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (1 Timothy 2:5).
Israel's Warning and the Everlasting Kingdom
The question before every reader is the one Israel faced throughout its history: will we build our faith on the true Rock, or on a human substitute? Israel was warned again and again not to trust in man or tradition above God's own Word, yet apostasy still crept in. We are in danger of repeating that offence whenever we place a man, a church, or a tradition in the position that belongs to Christ alone.
Christ is the only head of the church (Colossians 1:18; Ephesians 1:22-23; 5:23), purchased by His own blood, not human succession (Acts 20:28). True worship is not found in ceremony or tradition, but in spirit and truth (John 4:23-24). Jesus alone is "the way, the truth, and the life," and no one comes to the Father except through Him (John 14:6), for He is the living Word made flesh (John 1:1, 1:14; Revelation 19:13).
Scripture closes this story with a promise. The Rock the builders once rejected will not remain a stumbling stone forever. Daniel's prophecy pictures Christ as a stone "cut out of the mountain without hands," one that will shatter every counterfeit kingdom built on human pride, including the spiritual heirs of ancient Babylon, and grow to fill the earth as God's own everlasting kingdom. The pope is not the rock. Peter was never the rock. Christ alone is the Rock, and it is on Him alone that His church still stands.