​I have had many discussions about the subject of baptism with people, and it never fails that sometime during the discussion, they just deny what the scriptures say about the topic. They at times just say, “I deny what you are saying about baptism,” ignoring the fact that all I am doing is quoting verses about baptism. Another response I have gotten is, “You don’t have to be baptized!” Well, to this response I say, you are absolutely right! ​

Yes, you read the above image right! You do not HAVE TO get baptized! This is a true statement. You do not have to get baptized if you do not want to.

You only HAVE to get baptized if:

• you want to follow in the steps of Christ, who was baptized (Matthew 3:16);
• you want to become a disciple (Matthew 28:19);
• you want to be saved (Mark 16:16);
• you want to enter the Kingdom of God (John 3:5);
• you want your sins remitted (Acts 2:38);
• you want the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38, 5:32);
• you have gladly received the word of God (Acts 2:41);
• you have believed the preaching of the gospel of the Kingdom (Acts 8:12)
• you want to obey the commandment of God (Acts 10:47-48)
• you want your sins washed away (Acts 22:16)
• you want to call upon the Lord (Acts 22:16)
• you want to be IN Christ Jesus (Romans 6:3)
• you want to be IN the death of Christ (Romans 6:3)
• you want to be buried WITH Jesus and raised to walk in newness of life (Romans 6:4)
• you want to be united with Jesus in His death and resurrection (Romans 6:5)
• you want to be crucified with Christ (Romans 6:6)
• you want your body of sin to be done away with (Romans 6:6)
• you want to no longer be a slave to sin (Romans 6:6)
• you want freed from sin (Romans 6:7)
• you want to be washed and sanctified in the name of Jesus by the Spirit of God  (1 Corinthians 6:11)
• you want to be in the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:13)
• you no longer want to be under the tutor of the law (Galatians 3:25-27)
• you want to become a son of God by faith (Galatians 3:26-27)
• you want to be in Christ and clothed with Christ (Galatians 3:27)
• you want to be sanctified and cleansed (Ephesians 5:26)
• you want a spiritual circumcision of Christ, in which your body of flesh (sin) is cut away (Colossians 2:11)
• you want to be buried with Jesus and raised up with Him (Colossians 2:12)
• you want to be made alive together with Christ (Colossians 2:13)
• you want forgiven of all your transgressions (Colossians 2:13)
• you want to be saved by the mercy of God, regenerated, and renewed by the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:4-7)
• you want your heart and your evil conscience cleansed (Hebrews 10:22)
• you want to make an appeal to God for a clean conscience (1 Peter 3:21)
• you want saved through the resurrection of Christ (1 Peter 3:21)

 
So as I said earlier, you really don’t HAVE TO be baptized, but I pray you will be so you can partake of the above blessings that are given to those who are. 

We like to think we are independent, but nothing could be further from the truth. We need the Lord, and the scriptures make that clear. We could look at many verses in the bible to show this, but I think that they are all summed up in the fact that we are sheep in need of a shepherd.

Psalm 23 is just so loved by all. It just fills us with comfort and joy. God is the shepherd, we are the sheep. I’ve been thinking about this relationship. Have you ever thought of what this says about us as the sheep? Truthfully, that is not too complimentary! Sheep are weak and helpless. They are natural prey. They have no natural defenses. They constantly are going astray. Sometimes a sheep might fall onto its side, and start kicking and screaming because it cannot get back on its feet. It will dig its way into a bush to get one cusp of grass and then get caught there. It will start twisting and turning to get out, usually making the situation worse. It will get to the point where it is just so exhausted and collapse. Sheep are dirty, cannot clean or take care of themselves. They left to themselves would graze the same patch of land until there is nothing left. They will graze the same streams until they are contaminated and full of parasites. Left to themselves, sheep will kill themselves.

Psalm 23 is a beautiful psalm about our God and our relationship to him, but it also says something about us, we are sheep. It says something about us that few are willing to grasp and embrace and bring to ourselves. We are in need of care and guidance, and without our shepherd, there is no hope! We would left to ourselves die spiritually! We can fall into the danger of thinking we are doing good on our own, and sometimes we need God to give us that little extra nudge to make us better. But that is not what sheep are like. They are utterly dependent, and we need to be also!

We are helpless without our Shepherd!
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We just cannot be powerful enough to take care of ourselves against the enemy. Satan will devour us if we think that. We are defenseless and natural prey without the Lord. We need to be honest about who we are. There is nothing that we have that was not given to us by God. 

At the end of the book of Joshua, the future of the people of God looks bright. God had fulfilled His promise to Abraham to deliver His people from bondage and to bring them into the land which He promised. Joshua says that "not one word of all the good promises that the LORD had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass" (Joshua 21:45). The people made a covenant with the Lord, Joshua recorded all of these things in the Book of the Law, and then he sent all of the tribes to their inheritances to finish clearing the land of its inhabitants. All looks good, then we come to the book of Judges where we are told this in Judges 2:7-11:

"And the people served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work that the LORD had done for Israel. 8 And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died at the age of 110 years. 9 And they buried him within the boundaries of his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of the mountain of Gaash. 10 And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the LORD or the work that he had done for Israel. 11 And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and served the Baals."

Unfortunately, commitments are too easily forgotten. A generation later, things are completely different. One generation serves the Lord, but the next does not know Him. What happened? How can this be? How can you have a generation that remembered God's promises and was strong in taking the land, and then a generation later, have a people that do not know the Lord? This is an important question that we need to answer because this is a danger for God’s people today also! Statistics show that six in ten young people leave the church permanently or for an extended period starting at age 15, according to research by the Barna Group.

You may know people in which something like this happened. A parent was, by all looks of things, faithful in serving Christ, but unfortunately their children go in the wrong direction; not knowing the Lord. We need to learn from scripture how these kind of things happen so we don't fall into this trap. We need to make sure that we do what we can so that the generation that follows us knows the Lord. I believe there are at least three interconnected reasons why this happened to Israel that we need to learn from. We will look at the first in this article.

THEY DIDN’T KNOW THE WORD OF THE LORD.

Usually when people don't know the Lord, it can be traced back to a lack of knowledge of His word. Remember what Judges 2:10 says? The generation that didn't know the Lord did not know about “the work that He had done for Israel.” God's people are destroyed because of not being taught His word enough. This is what God says through Hosea in Hosea 4:6 to the priests who were neglecting their duties. But the priests in Israel’s history were not the only ones to blame for the generations who didn’t know the Lord. The parents were also at fault. They were the ones who were primarily given the duty of teaching the children (Deut 6:6-9, 20; Exo 13:14; Josh 4:6). If we want the next generation of the Lord's people here to not be like this generation in Judges 2 who did not know the Lord, parents (primarily the fathers) need to teach their children the word of God and talk about God often in their homes. The teaching that children receive in Bible classes and the assemblies is important. I don't want to discount that at all. Take them to Bible classes as often as you can so they can hear the word of God, but do not do it to the neglect of teaching your children at home. The teaching in our Bible classes should be a supplement to what is done at home, not the majority (or all) of the spiritual food that your children receive.

Ephesians 6:4 does not say, "Bible class teachers, bring up your congregation's children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord."

Ephesians 6:4 really says "Fathers... bring them [your children] up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord."

This is primarily the father’s responsibility. Men, we are too often guilty of neglecting our responsibility and pushing it off onto others. I say this from experience. I have already been guilty of this as a father. We need to understand that we are the ones commanded to be the spiritual leaders and teachers of our children, and if we are not doing so, we need to repent and pray that the Lord: 1) forgive us; and 2) help us to be consistent in helping our children to know the Lord. Knowing the Lord begins with knowing His word. If we don't want our children to end up like the Judges 2 generation that arose not knowing the Lord, we, men of God, need to fulfill the duties that God gives us in our homes to teach our children. We need to take this responsibility seriously and make sure we are reading and studying our Bibles so we can be equipped to do the job God has given us. 

What a great day for the kingdom of God it must have been when that first sermon was preached by Peter! The door into the kingdom of heaven was opened to the world. That first sermon led to the salvation of about 3000 souls.

Let’s put ourselves into the shoes of the people hearing this first sermon preached about Jesus Christ.
Some of these people were probably there on the day when Jesus was before Pilate being judged. Some may have even been part of the crowd that was yelling, “Crucify Him, crucify Him (Luke 23:21).” Their hearts must have been deeply pierced by the words of Peter when he, by the Spirit, said to them that they were guilty of putting to death the Son of God, the promised Messiah in whom they had been so anxiously awaiting (Acts 2:23, 36). We probably could not begin to understand the sorrow that was in their hearts for their wickedness in turning over the Son of God to the Gentiles to have Him crucified.

I don’t know what your response would be to the words of Peter, but the question that I would ask, begging for an answer, would be, “What must I do to be forgiven?”

This is exactly how the people responded to Peter and the other Apostles. We see the peoples’ response to the word of God in Acts 2:37: “When they heard this, they were pierced to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles: “Brothers, what must we do?” I’m sure that they, just as any of us, couldn’t wait for the answer to this question! What would the answer be? What would they need to do to be forgiven of their sin against God?

Did Peter answer by giving some of these answers you commonly hear today:

• “You don’t have to do a thing. Jesus did it all on the cross just 50 days ago for you!”
• “Just say this prayer with me and Jesus will come into your heart.” How about,
• “It seems like you already believe what I’ve said, so you are already saved!”

 
No, he didn’t say any of these things, because these were not what the Lord told him to say to the people on how they could receive forgiveness. So how did Peter answer this great question? Peter, being inspired by the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38).”

Peter tells them that if they wanted to be forgiven of their sins each of them needed to as believers “repent and be baptized” for the remission of those sins. These were the things they needed to do! We see that there were about 3000 people who did just that! Acts 2:41 says, “those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them.” When these people received the word of God, they obeyed it by being baptized for the forgiveness of their sins. It should not surprise us that Peter would give this answer to the people because Jesus Himself gave this instruction in the great commission. Jesus said, “He who believes and is baptized will be saved (Mark 16:16).” It is interesting that there are so many who claim to be Christians today who would not have responded gladly to the command of Peter in the passage. They would accuse Peter of teaching “works salvation”. But Peter is not teaching this at all. The Spirit was using the words Peter was preaching, convicting people to come to faith, repentance, and baptism so that God would save them and forgive them. Those who were convicted and brought to faith and repentance by the Spirit would also be convicted to be baptized for the reason which Peter told them to, in order to receive remission of their sins. This conviction and obedience to the command of Peter was the work of the Holy Spirit, not the work of the people to earn their salvation.

“Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins” is the answer to the great question, “What shall we do?”

Have you been told to do something different than what was instructed to the people in Acts 2? Have you been told that you do not need to do anything to be saved, or that you just needed to say a prayer? That’s not what Peter (and the other Apostles), inspired by the Holy Spirit, said to do! 

Some respond to what has been written here by trying to retranslate what Peter says in Acts 2:38. What is argued is that the Greek word “eis”, which is translated in EVERY major translation in this verse, can also be translated as ‘because of’. So they say that Peter is instead saying, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ [because of] the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” There are a few problems with this retranslation of the verse:

1. Every major modern translation translates it “for”, showing that one must repent and be baptized in order to receive forgiveness. Why reject the translation that hundreds of Greek scholars for over 500 years have given. Do they not have more experience with the Greek than you and I? When someone must retranslate a passage to get it to fit their belief system, the problem is usually not with the passage, but the belief system. One must read their presuppositions into the text to translate it differently.
2. When ‘eis’ is translated ‘because of’, one is forced not only to say that baptism is ‘because of’ the remission of sins that was previously done, but also that repentance comes because remission of sins already happened prior. Most who prefer to retranslate the passage believe that both repentance and faith are necessary conditions to receive forgiveness, but in retranslating the passage, they shoot themselves in the foot and deny that repentance is necessary also, bringing themselves into contradiction with Jesus (Luke 13:3).

 
Acts 2:38 means what it says. It means what it has been translated by hundreds of Greek scholars for hundreds of years to say. The only reason to believe otherwise is because one is bringing a presupposition to the text which contradicts the text as it is written in our translations.

The people that obeyed the gospel on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2 were added by the Lord to the church and were set free from the bondage of sin. Will you gladly receive the word of God just as they did, by repenting of your sins and by being baptized for the forgiveness of your sins?

Infant baptism is objectionable for several reasons.

First, infant baptism is an unauthorized change in God’s pattern for baptism. God tells us whom to baptize. He tells the conditions people must meet in order to be baptized, but babies do not fit. To baptize babies is to act by human authority without divine authority. All things that we do as God’s people must be done by the authority of Christ (Col 3:17). How can we presume to do something in Jesus name and say it is approved by Him when He does NOT command it or say it is pleasing to Him? We cannot! Below I have provided two reasons that infant baptism is contrary to the pattern given by God:

• We do not see one example of babies getting baptized in the New Testament. It is assumed into passages where we are told that whole households were baptized, but there is no evidence in the passages that babies were included. This is only an assertion without any other scriptural evidence.
• Also, we are told in scripture that there are prerequisites to baptism. One must hear the gospel (John 6:44-45; Romans 10:14-17) believe (Mark 16:16), confess Christ (Romans 10:9-10), and repent (Acts 2:38) before baptism. The one who does not do these things has not been baptized Biblically. There is no Biblical precedent to change the order of these conditions for salvation. Man has no such authority to do so. The one who is not baptized based on what the Bible teaches has not received forgiveness of sins. Jesus says we must believe AND be baptized to be saved, and Peter says we must repent and be baptized to receive remission of sins (Mark 16:16, Acts 2:38).
• Infant baptism is almost always done by sprinkling or pouring, not by immersion. The Bible says that baptism is a burial (Rom. 6:4; Col. 2:12). A person must go down into the water and come up out of it (Acts 8:38,39; Mark 1:9,10). Bible baptism requires much water (John 3:23). Also, the Greek word for baptism means “to dip, plunge, or immerse.” When baptism is commanded in the Bible by Jesus and His Apostles, they are commanding immersion, because this is what the word means! Infant baptism does not fit God’s pattern on any of these points. The evidence clearly shows that Bible baptism is an immersion, not a sprinkling or pouring.

 
Second, infant baptism leads people to believe they are saved and part of God’s covenant community when they are not. God requires people to be baptized for the remission of sins when they are old enough to make their own decision about the matter. But many people have been baptized as babies. Then, when they are old enough to be responsible for their conduct and to make the decision to be baptized, they refuse because they believe they have already done so. But their infant baptism was not Scriptural. So the person goes through his whole life never having been Scripturally baptized, and therefore he never has received forgiveness of his sins! The false doctrine of infant baptism leads people to suppress the truth and to think that they have been forgiven by God when they have not been Scripturally.

Third, baptism is meant to forgive sins that are committed, but a baby has not yet committed sins. Since baptism must be done for the purpose of receiving forgiveness of sins, a baby could Scripturally be baptized only if he/she was guilty of sins and needed forgiveness. But is a baby guilty of sin? The answer is ‘no’. Sin is defined in scripture as transgressing the law of God (1 John 3:4, James 1:14-15) and it is the sin that we commit that separates us from God (Romans 3:23, Isa 59:1-2). A baby is not guilty of sin, so they do not have a need to be baptized. ‘Sin’ must be redefined (contrary to scripture) to make a baby a candidate for baptism.
 
What should a person do if his baptism was not done the way the Bible teaches? He should realize that he simply has not yet obeyed God, and he needs to obey God by being baptized according to the Bible (see Acts 19:1-6).

A very dear brother of mine showed me an approach that he uses to show people the truth about what one must do to be saved and what Jesus actually says about baptism. He looks at the five common views of different churches/religious groups of Mark 16:16. Here are those five views:
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1.  He who believes and is baptized “will not” be saved. Those who hold this view are the religious systems of atheism, Judaism, Muslims, and other religious groups who believe Christianity is false.

2.  He who “does not believe” and “is not baptized” will be saved. This would be a belief held by Universalists who believe that God will eventually save everyone regardless of their beliefs and practices.

3.  He who “does not believe” and “is baptized” will be saved. This is believed by those who baptize infants and believe that these infants receive some kind of forgiveness, such as Roman Catholics and Lutherans.

4.  He who believes and “is not baptized” will be saved. This is believed by the majority of protestant denominations and many protestant “non-denominational” churches.
When we compare these first for popular views of baptism to what Jesus actually says in Mark 16:16, we see that all four of them fall short of what the Son of God actually says.

Jesus says:

5. “He who believes and is baptized will be saved…” (Mark 16:16). This view takes the words of Jesus at face value. This is the only view of the five that quotes the passage “as-is.”

The other four views of Mark 16:16 bring the very truth of the words of Jesus into question, denying what Jesus actually said. For instance, view number three, which is held by Catholics, denies the need for faith which Jesus does give as a condition of receiving salvation.

The fourth view denies the need for baptism by trying to make the second part of the verse (” …but whoever does not believe will be condemned.”) contradict the first part of the verse. They say that “Jesus didn’t say ‘whoever doesn’t get baptized will be condemned.'” But this treatment of the verse does contradict the first part of the verse where Jesus plainly states that both belief and baptism are conditions to receive salvation. Let me use an illustration to prove this point. I believe the words of Jesus would be on par with saying, “He that eats and digests his food will live, but he who does not eat will die.” What we see in this statement is that the natural thing which happens to the person that eats is that they will digest their food and live, and it is the case if they do not eat they will die. But nowhere in this statement does it say “whomever does not digest their food will die.” So does this mean that I don’t have to digest my food to live? Of course not. But the person who uses the second part of Mark 16:16 to negate the first would have to say ‘yes’ to be consistent. There is a reason why Jesus did not say, “‘whoever doesn’t get baptized will be condemned.” It is assumed that the natural thing that the person with faith will do is get baptized, and thus receive the salvation promised in the passage by faith at baptism. There is no need to negate baptism in the second part of the passage because those who “do not believe” will not get baptized, just as it is the case that there is no reason in our illustration to say “whomever does not digest their food will die,” because those who do not eat their food will not have food to digest. Do you see the point?

The third view rejects the instruction of Jesus that those who are baptized must believe. Once again, Jesus says that belief + baptism = saved. Those who believe one does not have to believe (infants) have created a manmade tradition that contradicts this passage. Also, most forms of infant "baptism" also contradict the command given to be baptized because the word itself means to be immersed, not sprinkled. In the greek, Jesus is saying here, "He who believes and is immersed will be saved..." 

Which of the five views do you believe? Did Jesus speak the truth when He said “He who believes and is baptized will be saved”?

One of my favorite passages of scripture to share with someone that I am talking to about how to obey the gospel is Ephesians 2:1-10:

“And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world…But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” (Ephesians 2:1-2; 4-10).
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This passage shows us the gospel message and it’s response clearly. We were dead in our transgressions before coming to Christ, and it is through Christ we can be saved. This salvation comes by the grace of God through faith when God makes us alive together with Christ and raises us up together with Him. Most churches and professed Christians will agree with this. But the question that gets many different, contradictory answers is this: “When is it that God saves us by grace through faith? When is it that God raises believers (those who have faith) up together with Christ and makes us alive together with Him?” There is only one verse in the New Testament that answers this question: Colossians 2:12-14. Let’s compare Ephesians 2 and Colossians 2, two sections of scripture that Paul wrote at about the same time:

Colossians 2:12-14 clearly answers the question “when does God raise us up with Christ into new life and make us alive together with Him?” The parallels between the two passages are undeniable. The answer to our question is: When we by faith are baptized. There is not another answer that the Bible gives to this question. At this point we are made alive together with Christ and forgiven of all of our transgressions by God (v13). This happens, not because we are working to try to earn our salvation, but because we have “faith in the working of God” (v12). Salvation is of the Lord. We receive it by faith. If you want to receive the spiritual circumcision of Christ and have your sins “cut away” from you by God, then you must in faith be buried with Christ (immersed) in baptism. At this point in time, we are saved by the grace of God through faith. God is doing all the work. We merely accept His gift by submitting ourselves with a believing, repentant heart to baptism.
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Just as in the Old Testament, it is not just going through the motions that saves us. They couldn’t just kill animals without knowing why to be forgiven. They also couldn’t just believe in sacrifice and not act. They needed to perform their sacrifices in faith, and when they did so, they received God’s gift of forgiveness. The same is true in the New Testament with Christ’s sacrifice. We cannot mentally believe in the sacrifice of Christ and not act. We must trust that God will keep His promise, that when we are baptized, He will cut away our sins with the spiritual circumcision of Christ. God tells us how His grace is accepted by faith, and to receive it, the repentant heart that has been convicted by the Holy Spirit will be baptized for the remission of their sins and to receive the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38).

I have studied the issue of baptism with many people over the years. There is one thing that ends up happening most of the time that makes it impossible for people to accept the view that I hold on baptism, and as I am discussing this issue with many people, I see this error many times. The error is this: Even though we may be discussing the subject of water baptism, the majority of the time, the person I am debating instead wants to change the subject from baptism to the subjects of faith and grace.

You may be asking why this is a problem? Here is the main reason: we are trying to find God's will about baptism, not faith and grace. What so often happens in these discussions is that the person I am talking to finds it impossible to accept what the passages say about baptism (or even retranslate the passages) because they are looking at all of the passages through the lens of their "faith alone" beliefs. This is a dangerous way to study scripture! (This approach is also logically fallacious. The ‘red herring fallacy’ is committed in this instance.)

Whenever you want to learn what the Bible teaches on the subject of the Lord's Supper, do we look at all of the verses on other subjects? Whenever you want to learn what the Bible teaches on the subject of repentance, should we look at the verses dealing with confessing Christ? No, instead, if we want to know what God's word teaches on a certain subject, we study what the Bible says on that specific subject! If we want to know what repentance is, we need to first discuss all of the passages that talk about repentance. If we want to discuss or debate the subject of faith, we need to examine all of the passages that talk about faith. And if we want to discuss the topic of baptism, we need to deal with the specific passage that mention or allude to water baptism.

Only after we do this, then we should try to harmonize what the Bible teaches about faith and grace and baptism. We should not allow the passages on one subject to lead us to retranslate the passages on another subject to mean the opposite of what they currently say in all of our translations unless we have first studied those passages and made sure that there is no possible way to harmonize them. We do this with any other supposed contradiction in scripture, why not do it on this subject also? Why assume that if scripture says baptism is the point our sins are remitted that this contradicts the idea of being saved by grace through faith?

At times, when we study the Bible, we are way too quick to assume that the Bible cannot mean what it says on some subjects. In my opinion, this is commonly the case regarding the subject of water baptism. When the passages are taken at face value, they do exalt God's work in baptism way above what the majority evangelical Christians believe about the issue. 

​This passage of scripture is hotly debated in the religious world. You have the Roman Catholics saying that this passage teaches that Peter would be the first great leader (Pope) to the Roman Catholic Church. Others respond by saying that the “rock” that Jesus will build His church on is not Peter, but the truth that Peter spoke in His great confession, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Mat 16:16). They believe it is only the truth of Jesus’ kingship that the church is built upon. So which is it? I believe neither gives us a full picture of what the context shows and that the truth is in the middle of the two positions. Often when we approach this passage, I believe we tend to over-react to what we believe is false teaching. I do agree that the passage is not saying that Peter was not the first “Pope” of a hierarchal organization/church. This text cannot be used to substantiate this claim because 1.) this passage is not talking about a physical head of an earthly organization (which became the Roman Catholic church hundreds of years later); and 2.) the rest of scripture does not show that Peter was the supreme bishop over all of Christ’s church & its bishops. The rest of the New Testament shows this was not the case. The only way, I believe, to come to the conclusion that the Roman Catholic church comes to is to read into the text their preconceived bias.
 
Also, this passage is not merely showing us that Peter’s confession is what the church is built upon. It shows us so much more than this. It DOES talk about Peter being given special authority from God, and we tend to completely ignore this fact as we respond to false teaching. Peter is told by Jesus, “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.” Jesus is giving Peter a special level of authority here. He is telling him that he would be given the keys to kingdom, which shows us that PETER would be the one to open the gates to the kingdom (with the “keys”) so men can enter. This is what ends up happening in the book of Acts. Peter, in Acts 2, uses the authority given to Him by Jesus, preaches the Gospel (the keys) to the Jews, and in Acts 10 He does the same with the Gentiles (Cornelius and His household). Peter opened up the door for all nations to enter the kingdom. It was the teachings that Peter gave (revealed to him by the Spirit); words that came from his mouth, which would begin the building of the church‘s “foundation.” Jesus chose Peter to be the one to do this.
 
So as we consider what Jesus is saying in Matthew 16, it is possible that Jesus is saying that Peter is “the rock” that Jesus would use to open the gates of the kingdom of heaven and to teach the people of God as an Apostle of Jesus. Jesus would build the great foundation of His church upon Peter’s inspired preaching. But this does not necessarily mean that Peter himself is the great first leader/pope of the church. Jesus is still the head of the church (Colossians 1:18) and is its builder and owner (Matthew 16:18-19), and Peter was only one man of many who Jesus used to build the foundation of the church. Peter may have started building the foundation, but he was not the only one who built upon it. In Ephesians 2:19-21, Paul says, "you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God's household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord.” This passage shows that all of the Apostles and prophets of Jesus are the foundation (the “rock”/authority) the church is built upon. They all gave us inspired teaching that Jesus used to build His church. They gave us the teaching that we must build our lives upon (Matthew 7:24-25). This passage says that these men are the ones the church is built upon, and Jesus is the cornerstone that gives every stone its direction. I do believe the teaching of all of these men (given by Jesus) is inferred in these passages, but it does show us the special place that these men had in God’s plan to build His church. Let’s not ignore this fact as we respond to false teaching about Peter and his contemporaries.

Below is a series of eight videos that I made awhile back on the issue of same-sex "marriage" and the sin of homosexuality. Hopefully you find them helpful as you interact with people in the world who hold some false views about these subjects.