In these days of angst and confusion, we must hold fast to our faith that Yeshua has overcome the world, and we are to do the same. It may look like Satan and his minions are gaining the upper hand, but they will not prevail.

Matthew 16:13-18 – “When Yeshua and his disciples arrived at Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say that the Son of Man is?’ They replied, ‘Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others say Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’ ‘But who do you say that I am?’ he asked. Simon Peter replied, ‘You are Ha’Mashiach, the Son of the Living God.’ And Yeshua said to Peter, ‘Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the Gates of Hades will not prevail against it.’”

Many prophecies have a dual or multiple fulfillment. This statement of Yeshua’s, or prophecy if you will, is one of them. Let’s examine the possibilities and see if we can determine exactly who or what are the rocks Yeshua mentions:

The Three Common Expositions:

1. Simon Peter Is The Rock (According to the Roman Catholic Church)

According to their doctrines, Simon Peter as the rock is the position upon which the Catholic Church has established its authority. This is stated by several sources:

— Catechism of the Catholic Church, #552: “Because of the faith he confessed, Peter will remain the unshakeable rock of the Church.”

— Pope Leo I: “Our Lord Jesus Christ . . . has placed the principal charge on the blessed Peter, chief of all the apostles.”

— Council of Ephesus: “Philip, the presbyter and legate of the Apostolic See in Rome, said: ‘There is no doubt, and in fact it has been known in all ages, that the holy and most blessed Peter . . . both lives and judges in his successors.’”

This is the position upon which the Catholic Church has established its authority, but this position is not supported by the Greek text.

Simon is called Peter: Petros in the Greek. The masculine word Petros [G4074] means: a piece of rock; a pebble, a grain of sand, a detached stone or boulder, a stone that might be thrown or easily moved. And an easily moved pebble is exactly what we see with Peter who doubted when he walked on water (Matthew 14:27-31), who denied Yeshua (Matthew 16:23, Mark 8:33 and Luke 4:8, Luke 22:55-60), and who Paul rebuked when Peter acted hypocritically by eating differently when Jews from Jerusalem were present (Galatians 2:11-14).

2. The Confession Is The Rock (According to many)

Luke 8:13 – “But the ones on the rock [petra] are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy.”

This position may have warrant. The feminine word Petra [G4073] means: a mass of rock, a boulder, literally a living rock, a bedrock! A feminine petra occurs several other times in the Newer Covenant scriptures:

— the petra of soil upon which belief grows or withers (Romans 8:5-8);

— the petra of rock upon which a house is built (Matthew 7:24-25, Luke 6:46-49).

In essence, Yeshua may have been saying, Blessed are you Simon, son of Jonah, also called Rocky, (easily swayed pebble that you are) [Petros], for the confession you have made is the bedrock, [Petra] upon which I will build my church.

3. Yeshua Himself Is The Rock (According to the Scriptures)

1 Corinthians 3:11 – “For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Yeshua Ha’Mashiach.”

Another common position taken by many is that Yeshua himself is the rock, and this has warrant and can be easily supported. There are several scriptures that call Yeshua the spiritual petra, the petra that is Yeshua and a petra of offense:

— 1 Corinthians10:4 – “They drank of that spiritual rock that followed them: and that rock was Yeshua.”

— Romans 9:33 – “Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense…”

— 1 Peter 2:6-8 – “Behold, I lay in Zion a chief corner stone… a rock of offense.”

Yeshua referred to himself as the stone [Lithos G3037] “upon which many would fall and be broken” (Matthew 21:44, Luke 20:18). Isaiah 28:16 calls Yeshua a stone [‘eben H68]: “Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation.” Daniel 2:35 also calls Yeshua the stone [‘eben H68] “that smote the image, became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.” However, lithos and ‘eben are not the same Greek or Hebrew words as Petra, although the metaphors are appropriate.

A Fourth Exposition

4. The Ground At Caesarea Is The Rock (According to Yeshua)

Matthew 16:18 – “On this rock I will build my church, and the Gates of Hades will not prevail against it.”

The Gates of Hades is the term describing the entrance to the underworld. According to Jewish tradition, the underworld is a gloomy desolate place situated in the center of the earth, the place where the dead reside. Ray Vanderlaan and Rob Skiba both believe, as do I, that this is the rock upon which Yeshua will build his church. Do you agree?

Caesarea Philippi, which stood at the base of Mount Hermon, was perhaps one of the most evil cities of the day. Historically it is the place where Jeroboam built the golden calf. By the time of Yeshua, it had become the religious center for worship of the Greek god, Pan, and was known to the Greeks as the city Panias. The cliff walls above the city, called by scripture the “high place,” had been carved out and dotted with many shrines and temples to Pan, and the cave entrance formed what many considered the gate to the underworld where Pan and the fertility gods lived during the winter. At that time, water flowed out of the cave to form one of the main tributaries to the Jordan River.

For Yeshua to bring his disciples into this arena must have been appalling to their minds. But a lesson was in play – when Yeshua asks them who people said he was, Peter must have been taking in the sights of dozens of statues of Pan, who was thought to be the “god of the shepherds, the son of the living god” and the altar to Pan that stood in front of the cave. Off to the right of this cave was the Fortress of Nimrod. Just to the left was the location called The Gates of Hades!

Peter, perhaps for the first time in history, gets it! He boldly declares, “You, Yeshua, are the Son of the Living God!” To which Yeshua replies, “I will build my church on this petra, and the Gates of Hades will not prevail against it.” Yeshua’s church would be built on the petra of Caesarea Philippi, facing the gates of Hades! At that time, gates were the main defensive structure for a city. The gates were meant to keep attackers out. So, when Yeshua tells his disciples he is going to build his church right in front of the literal Gate of Hades, he is declaring that they are to attack evil, to build his church as an offensive agency against the moral and evil corruption of the world – to keep it penned in and on the defense.

Conclusions

Many prophecies have a dual or multiple fulfillment. Yeshua’s prophecy of the rocks is one of them.

— Peter is not that rock, but Yeshua is the rock indeed, the foundation upon which all else stands.

— Abraham is not that rock, though Yeshua is indeed his promised seed.

— The confession is not that rock, though the confession that Yeshua is the rock is made by many.

— The rock soil of Caesarea, in front of the Gates of Hades, is that foundation upon which Yeshua would build his church that would prevail against any attack that Satan could bring against it. Hades will not prevent the righteous dead from rising when Yeshua calls them to resurrect. What do you say?

The Challenge

Matthew 28:19 – “Go therefore and make disciples of all… for I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Today Yeshua asks you and I the same question he posed to the disciples, Are you willing to confront the evils and corruption of your time? If so, stop hiding in homes, stop hiding in fancy mansions that you call churches, stop hiding in plain sight. Stop being politically correct, stop cringing at truth. For crying out loud, STOP acting as if you are on the defense – it is hell and Hades that are on the defense – you and I are on the offense!

We are on the assault, on the offense, and hell’s gates will not stand before us. Not the other way around, as many suppose. Hell’s defenses are unable to withstand the power of Yeshua’s blood, Yeshua’s name, Yeshua’s word of testimony.

Website: https://raptureparty.net/

Email: jeff@raptureparty.net

A reader emailed me… saying, “the closer I look at prophecy and fulfillment, on an every-day basis, the gloomier it all seems. I know I can’t be the only one feeling that – we all must struggle with that…”

The prophecies of the Bible for the last days ARE a lot of doom and gloom — the very purpose of the Tribulation is to judge a Christ-rejecting world. It is called the Time of Jacob’s Trouble, the Day of Wrath, etc.

It is the time of God’s judgment on the world — and there isn’t much cheering going on. Three-quarters of the world will die of the plagues and judgments during this period (Revelation 6). One third of the trees on earth will burn up (Revelation 8:7), a third of all sea life will die, a third part of the ships will be destroyed in a sea turned one-third to blood (v.9).

The judgment extends from the earth to the heavens: “And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise” (Revelation 8:12).

It isn’t a pretty picture to contemplate. Especially in light of the very next verse:

“And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!” (Revelation 8:13).

No wonder much of the Church prefers the replacement theologian’s view that all prophecy was fulfilled with the Destruction of the Temple in AD 70 and that Revelation and Daniel are figurative or allegorical rather than predictive.

Sir Isaac Newton is reputed to have observed, “About the time of the end, a body of men will be raised up who will turn their attention to the prophecies, and insist upon their literal interpretation, in the midst of much clamour and opposition.”

Now that we live in that time, Newton’s observation sounds almost prophetic. There is a HUGE clamor surrounding the study of Bible prophecy. And any of you who’ve read the forum debates over replacement theology know how strongly they oppose studying Bible prophecy.

In any case, the prophecies for the last days are so terrifying, many would rather allegorize them away.

We are not living during the Time of Jacob’s Trouble. But our world is preparing itself for that time as we sit back as astonished eyewitnesses. The chaos that seizes the planet during the Tribulation has its beginnings during the last days of the Church Age.

Jesus warned that there would come wars, rumors of wars, famines, earthquakes, pestilences and so on. He warned that, “All these are the beginning of sorrows” (Matthew 24:8).

The signs of the times are all around us, and they are scary. They are scary even to many saved Christians who know the signs mean the Day of the Lord is at hand. They are scary to Christians who believe the Rapture will occur before the Tribulation begins.

There is nothing in Scripture to suggest that the Church Age will escape bad things in the last days — just that it will be removed before the beginning of the Time of Jacob’s Trouble.

Bad things are already happening. The wars. The rumors of wars. Famines. Earthquakes and pestilences. All on an ever-increasing scale of frequency and intensity. But Jesus said, “all these things MUST come to pass, but the end is not yet” (Matthew 24:6). The ‘end’ He refers to is the ‘end of the [Church] age’ (Matthew 24:3), so we know it’s going to get uglier.

Assessment

Those are all good reasons to get depressed with the ‘doom and gloom’ of Bible prophecy. It’s easy to get caught up in it — especially when examining the ‘nuts and bolts’ of how things fit together, and what Scripture says should be next on the global agenda. Since nothing particularly pleasant is prophesied to come upon the earth, studying it in detail gets pretty depressing.

And there are all the people we know that are not yet saved — we know that time is running out, that they won’t listen, and that is even more depressing.

We see all the tiniest details of God’s plan being played out before our eyes, but the details obscure the bigger picture.

This is GOD’S PLAN! Before the world began, God knew exactly how things would play out. He told us in advance of each event. He told us that fulfilled prophecy was His Signature;

“Tell ye, and bring them near; yea, let them take counsel together: who hath declared this from ancient time? who hath told it from that time? have not I the LORD? and there is no God else beside me; a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside me” (Isaiah 45:21).

Also, “Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear” (Isaiah 59:1).

In this generation, we live in an age of miracles. There appears that there is nothing that science won’t be able to accomplish eventually, thanks to the advent of computers. We can replicate almost any miracle except one.

We cannot predict the future. It simply can’t be done. No computer could calculate every detail of every life in advance, which is what would be necessary. Should one person do something unexpected, then the whole course of future history would change.

Bible prophecy was given to the Church in the last days for the same reason that the Apostles were given miracles, signs and wonders following Pentecost.

In both instances, God’s Authority is proved by God-given signs.

It was by the Authority of God, authenticated by miracles, that the Apostles proclaimed the birth of the Church Age at Pentecost.

It is by the Authority of God, authenticated by fulfilled prophecy, that the Bible proclaims the end of the Church Age in this generation.

Taking into account the bigger picture, Bible prophecy isn’t ‘doom and gloom’ at all. It is incontrovertible evidence that cannot be shaken by modern scientific ‘miracles.’

When the skeptic argues for evolution and random selection, trotting out fossils, skeletons and diagrams, it seems pretty convincing – maybe the Bible isn’t all that literal, after all. Maybe science has got something there…maybe…(!)

But when one compares the accuracy of the Bible’s account of the unknowable future to the ever-changing scientific ‘explanations’ for the distant past, doubts melt away. The skeptic has multiple explanations for static events that have already happened.

The Bible gives a single explanation for a fluid, changeable series of events predicted to happen thousands of years in the future — the events that define our present day. Which is more convincing?

Bible prophecy proves Jesus was the Son of God, regardless of the latest scientific, archeological or historical discovery. No matter what else might be offered as ‘evidence’ to the contrary, there is no other explanation for Bible prophecy. It is our generation’s unique miracle.

It proves that He remains in charge of the affairs of men. Scripture records His Promise in all three Gospel accounts: “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away” (Matthew 24:35; Mark 13:31; Luke 21:33).

“We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts” (2 Peter 1:19).

Bible prophecy is proof positive that God remains on the Throne, that His Word will NOT return to Him void, and that all the chaos and terror of the world notwithstanding, all continues to go according to His plan.

Given the unbeliever’s explanation of uncontrolled chaos, Bible prophecy isn’t all that depressing, after all. What WOULD be depressing would be to be among the lost, not knowing what this world is coming to, and believing the world is in a state of uncontrolled chaos.

For the believer, Bible prophecy can be pretty encouraging, which is what the Lord intended for the last days’ Church all along:

“But these things have I told you, that WHEN THE TIME SHALL COME, ye may remember that I told you of them” (John 16:4).