by Phillip Williams
Every Christian institution — Coptic, Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant — has at some point claimed the promise of Matthew 16:18 for itself: "On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it." In the Coptic Church's dispute of 2006, a breakaway bishop claimed that his lineage traced to the Apostle Peter rather than to Mark, and that Christ's promise therefore protected his congregation. The established Church made the same claim in reverse.
Phillip Williams reads the passage differently. The rock is not an institution. The rock is the individual act of confession — Peter's solitary answer to the question "But what about you? Who do you say I am?" The group had offered its answers: John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, one of the prophets. Peter stepped outside the group's consensus to speak from his own interior certainty. It was that act — the individual expression of faith despite group pressure — that Jesus named as the foundation of his church.
The implication is radical: the church of Christ is not any religious group. It is the individual expression of faith in God's role in one's own life.
Churches would have their followers believe that Christ was referring to their group formation by that promise. The Coptic Church claims that its priesthood — the most visible symbol of its group rules — is protected by Christ's promise to his church. In doing so, every religious group claims their rules "holy" and deceives their followers into accepting those group rules as sacred.
What did Christ actually mean when he promised that his church would not succumb to the forces of evil? What is Christ's church?
Christ's church is not a religious group — not the Coptic Orthodox Church, not any other Christian denomination.
Christ's church is the individual expression of faith in God's role in one's life, despite what the group rules force people to believe.
Christ's promise was made in response to Peter's individual expression of faith, spoken in defiance of the question "Who do people say the Son of Man is?" — to which the disciples had responded with the group's answers:
"Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets."
— Matthew 16:14
Christ's church was born from the expression of individual faith beyond group pressure, without worry for earning the group's respect:
"But what about you? Who do you say I am?"
— Matthew 16:15
This is the church of Christ — the individual expression of faith:
Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."
— Matthew 16:16
It was toward this individual expression of faith that Jesus made his promise:
"Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it."
— Matthew 16:17–18
The church of Christ is therefore not the Coptic Church with its structure of priesthood and rules. Neither is it any religious fraternity with its doctrines and rituals of worship. The church of Christ is the individual expression of faith — which enables the person in their journey for spiritual triumph over the bounds of the groups, and releases the individual into the freedom of God's spirit.
"I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."
— Matthew 16:19
God Bless You,
Phillip
Colophon
Written by Phillip Williams and posted to the Usenet groups talk.religion.christian.coptic and soc.culture.egyptian, 25 November 2006. Part of a series of essays on the theological dimensions of contemporary Coptic and Egyptian religious life. Original Message-ID: <za0ah.368710$5R2.217045@pd7urf3no>.
Preserved from the Usenet archive for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.
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