Jesus said, “Upon this rock, I will build My Church..” Matthew 16:16-18 There are many who claim to love the Lord, but because of this clear statement, declare Him a liar!! By agreement of nouns and verbs, there can be only as many churches built by Jesus Christ as there rocks, yes or no? Did Jesus mean to say what He said or did the apostle record His words incorrectly? How many rocks were there upon which Jesus said He would build? If there was ONE rock (statement of truth), there then can be only ONE church, yes or no?
No other church ever started with a pronouncement by God, the Father!! What an introduction!! It was not done in secret, nor under the cover of night, nor as a whisper campaign, god, the Father declared what man would have never confessed; “This, is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, HEAR YE HIM”!! Matthew 17:5 What was the rock? The Greek uses a word that would describe something so large and gigantic, it would be un-moveable. It would be the basis upon which Christ would build? Peter had just confessed Christ as the “Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus responded, “Blessed art thou, Simon Bar Jonas, flesh and blood hath not revealed this to thee, but My Father which is in Heaven.” What did this statement mean: it meant Jesus would be the NEW lawgiver, the NEW high priest, the NEW sacrifice, the NEW SOVERIGN LORD that was to be worshipped, and His authority and IT ALONE was all that had to be adhered to, no other law or testament was to be obeyed.
That upon which a house is built is usually called a foundation. The foundation has to be prepared. It has to close, that is it has to meet on all four sides. It has to be planned. No man ever built a house that he first did not set down and pre-determines its purpose. No house ever came together by accident. That which Jesus built was planned, prepared, did not come into existence by a mere co-incidence, nor was it built as it went. Jesus emphatically DID intend to build a NEW church when He started the Church of Christ, in AD 33, in the city of Jerusalem!! He NEVER intended to put a patch on an old garment. Christianity was NEVER intended to be another sect of Judaism. With denominationalism, this is not the case. No denomination that I know about was planned, prepared for before it came about, and was altogether an accident in coming to be. Most denominations I know about came about trying to reform another denomination that already existed!! They were an accident, not a planned development. Constantine did not intend to bring about a new church at the Council of Nicene, he was trying to bring the Church of Christ under his control so he could salvage his kingdom, and He knew there was only ONE church that should exist. The faithful church did and never allowed this to be true!! Martin Luther did not plan on bringing into existence the Lutheran church; he meant only to reform the Roman Catholic. King Henry VIII did not intend to bring about the Episcopalian denomination; he only wanted to marry Anne of Bolin. The Pope said “No!” Henry said, “Watch me”. John Wesley was not trying to bring into existence the Methodist church; he was trying to put some life in the old Episcopalian church in which he was a priest. The Separatist movement of the late 1500’s never intended to start a new denomination, all they wanted was to worship God as they deemed proper in England where the King of England reigned supreme and would only allow his denomination to exist.
No other church started in Jerusalem!! All the Old Testament prophets prophesied that the church was to start in the city of Jerusalem. Isaiah 2:2-4, Micah 4:2.
