Prior Book | Prior Chapter | Prior Verse | Next Verse | Next Chapter | Next Book | Viewing NASB and Amplified 2015 | |
NASB | Matthew 16:18 "I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Matthew 16:18 "And I say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades (death) will not overpower it [by preventing the resurrection of the Christ]. [Eph 1:22; 4:15; 5:23; Col 1:18] |
Subject: His "Church"? |
Bible Note: In Matthew Chap.10:5-23 is an unbroken narrative of the Lord sending out the twelve to preach the gospel of the kingdom that ends at His Second Advent where there is nowhere a break for the present dispensation. In Chap. 22:2-10 is a parable of three offerings of the kingdom and still no mention of the present assembly of Christ that is between the second and third offer. The third offer of vv. 8-10 is the same as the Lords words in Matt. 24:14 after the rapture when the gospel of the kingdom for the third and last time will be preached to “…all the world”. In Acts 1-3 is found the second offer of the kingdom as in Matt. 22:4-7 where Peter preached the same Gospel of the Kingdom after the cross that they and Lord preached before the cross. We know vv. 4-7 was after the cross because that is the first persecution of his servants and the result in v. 7 where the Lord sent His armies under Titus and burned up Jerusalem. In Acts 1:3-6 when after teaching the disciples for 40 days about things concerning the kingdom they asked the Lord if He would at that time restore the kingdom to Israel. In verse 7 He did not correct them, but simply told them, it was not for them to know when. If they were confused, that was the appropriate time to correct them, but we find no such thing. When it is said that the present church did not begin on the Day of Pentecost with Peter’s preaching, immediately we are told that the Lord said He would build his church and the gates of Hades would not prevail against it. The confusion has been caused by the erroneous translation of the Lord’s words in Matt. 16:18 when He said that He would build His “Church.” If the word church, simply means the “the called out ones,” as we are told, then the word ekklesia translated “church” is just as appropriate when applied to the Ephesian idol worshiping mob who would have killed Paul (Acts 19:32, 39, 41), as when it is used to identify the present assembly of Christ. Would we say the idol worshipers were the “called out ones? Because the translators want to believe the present assembly of Christ was what the Lord spoke of, they have deliberately misled the present assembly of Christ for two thousand years by translating the Greek “ekklesia,” to “church,” when the common word ‘ekklesia’ simply means is an assembly, of any kind or thing. If the word in Matt. 16:18 means church as used today, then we have a contradiction when the Lord said He would build His assembly and then immediately give Peter the keys to what identified in the next verse 19 as the kingdom of heaven. They are most certainly not the same as Doc points out. The term “kingdom of heaven” is used for a total of 33 times in Matthew alone, so there is no doubt as to what the keys were to open in spite of what scholars and church leaders tell us. Neither is the church a kingdom par-se of any kind. It is a clear example past and present of those who know better yet deliberately mislead the Lord’s people. They are not to be excused of the absurdity and harm that they have wrought in the body of Christ. They are determined to prove that the Lord was speaking of the present assembly of Christ in Matthew 16. When we say church assembly, we are actually saying the redundant, assembly assembly, or, assembly congregation. Yet we still continue to perpetuate the same nonsense because we have been misled by the philosophers and translators into the belief that the present church was what the Lord spoke of in Matt. 16:18. Of the original Greek word “ekklesia,” the very qualified Merrill F. Unger says: "The word ekklesia, however, is employed of any assembly, and the word in the Greek language implies no more". Merrill F. Unger, Unger’s Bible Dictionary, Moody Press. 1960, p. 204. A. T. Robertson certainly did not agree with me on many things, nevertheless as a recognized authority on NT Greek, his words are weighty, and even he has to agree on the meaning of the word “ekklesia” as found in Matt. 16:18, and 18:17 and it’s origin. He says: “What is the sense here in which Jesus uses it? The word originally meant “assembly” (Acts 19:39, but it came to be applied to an “unassembled” assembly….”And the name for the new Israel, ekklesia, in His mouth is not an anachronism. It is an old familiar name for the congregation of Israel found in Deut. (18:26; (sic) 23:2) and (Psalms 22:36) (sic), both books well known to Jesus….” It is interesting to observe that in Psalm 89 most of the important words employed by Jesus on this occasion occur in the LXX text”. A. T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament, Baker Book House, 1930, Vol. 1, p. 132. Robertson clearly identifies the original Greek having a meaning of assembly. And that is what is being said here and so identified by the Lord Himself when He gave Peter the keys to the “kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 16:19) and in other places as the kingdom of David. In His grace Movingon |
Up | Down View Branch | ID# 240128 | ||
Questions and/or Subjects for Matt 16:18 | Author | ||
|
Edd | ||
|
Movingon | ||
|
DocTrinsograce | ||
|
Movingon | ||
|
DocTrinsograce | ||
|
Jasper72 |