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THE BIBLE ROCKS - TEXT ONLY
Daniel 2:35 "the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth."
So, Jesus is saying; "Peter you are 
rock, you are the rock that I am going to build My kingdom on, just like the stone in Daniel 2."
rock, you are the rock that I am going to build My kingdom on, just like the stone in Daniel 2." "Light is shed on the role of Peter as rock, as foundation of Christ's Church, by the book of Daniel. Vladimir Soloviev, a member of the Russian Church but an apologist for the Papacy, calls attention to a series of two verses, Daniel 7:13, 18, 27 and Daniel 2:34-35, 45. Daniel 7:13 is the key passage for the title "son of man" which our Lord applied to Himself (cf. Matthew 16:13). The verses from Daniel 2 tell of a fifth kingdom which comes like a gigantic stone to destroy and supplant the four pagan empires.
Although the New Testament does refer to Christ as Rock, he never applied the image to himself. Instead, he consistently used the language of Daniel 7:13, "son of man".
It comes to this. Daniel 7:18 and 27 state unequivocally that the fifth kingdom is that of "the saints of the Most High."
Obviously (says Soloviev) the fifth kingdom is the universal Church which Christ established.
Now both Daniel and Matthew give us the title "son of man" and "rock" of the Church. There can be no doubt that "son of man" in both Daniel and Matthew denotes the same person, the Messiah. By analogy, "rock" must bear in the same sense in both passages. In Matthew, Peter is rock. Therefore the rock (stone) in Daniel must "equally foreshadow the original trustee of monarchical authority in the Universal Church," that is to say Peter."
("THIS ROCK", April '96 p. 19)
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Throughout the Old Testament Yahweh is called the 'Rock'.
Psalm 95:1 (1) Come, let us sing joyfully to the LORD; cry out to the rock of our salvation.
You will see this in many of the Psalms and many places in the Old Testament.
Why is God called 'Rock'?
Because God is 'refuge', 'protection', and 'fortress'. The Jews take the image of rock meaning something solid, something concrete, something weighty and that becomes a term for God. Because it signifies God's protection. His integrity that He is always a solid refuge and fortress for those who call upon Him. Proverbs 18:10,"The name of the Lord is a strong tower, the righteous man runs into it and is safe."
Deuteronomy 32:18 "You were unmindful of the Rock that begot you, You forgot the God who gave you birth."
One reason some would be upset by the Catholic Church calling Peter rock is because they mistakenly believe only God can be called rock. We see in this verse an example of God being called rock.
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Isaiah 51:1 "Listen to me, you who pursue justice, who seek the LORD; Look to the rock from which you were hewn, to the pit from which you were quarried; 2 Look to Abraham, your father, and to Sarah, who gave you birth; When he was but one I called him, I blessed him and made him many."
There is only one other person in the Old Testament who is called rock.
The person is Abraham.
Isaiah 51:1 "Listen to me, you who pursue justice, who seek the LORD; Look to the rock from which you were hewn, to the quarry from which you were digged;"
What does that mean?
In v. 2, we are told what is meant by line 1.
"Look to Abraham, your father, and to Sarah, who gave you birth;"
So, look to the rock from which you were hewn - 'look to Abraham'.
He is the ancient 'father' of all the Israelites.
If Abraham is rock & father of Israel in the Old Testament then wouldn't it be fitting, if Jesus chose someone as rock & father of the New Israel, His Church, in the New Testament?
Jesus chose St. Peter to be the rock & father of Christ's Church on earth in the Gospel of Matthew 16:18-19. Mat 16:18; "And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it."
The rock & the quarry are metaphors for Abraham & Sarah, parents of all the Israelites.
So, here is an example of Abraham being called rock from which all the true Israelites are hewn.
We might not see that as anything significant. But for the Jews that is a phrase of great dignity, to be called a rock. Only Yahweh had been called rock except for Abraham, the Patriarch! For Jesus to call Peter rock, He is basically saying; "Peter you are so special in My Plan of Salvation that your name will be rock just like Abraham was rock in Yahweh's plan in the Old Covenant!
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1 Kings 18:31 "He took twelve stones, for the number of tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the LORD had said, "Your name shall be Israel." 32 He built an altar in honor of the LORD with the stones, and made a trench around the altar large enough for two seahs of grain."
We see from this verse that God saw each tribe of Israel as stones and He conveyed this through the Prophet Eli'jah.
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Deuteronomy 32:18 "You were unmindful of the Rock that begot you, You forgot the God who gave you birth."
One reason some would be upset by the Catholic Church calling Peter rock is because they mistakenly believe only God can be called rock. We see is this verse an example of God being called rock.
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Numbers 20:7 "and the LORD said to Moses, 8 "Take the staff and assemble the community, you and your brother Aaron, and in their presence order the rock to yield its waters. From the rock you shall bring forth water for the community and their livestock to drink."
We see here from the Book of Numbers that God provided water for His Chosen People as they sojourned through the desert for 40 years.
1 Corinthians 10:1 "I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea, 2 and all of them were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. 3 All ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank from a spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was the Christ."
St. Paul makes use of a Rabbinnic Oral Tradition, that the 'rock' followed the Israelites wherever they went, to show that this 'rock' that Yahweh provided for sustenance to His People Israel was actually "The Rock", Christ Jesus.
The use St. Paul makes here of Oral Tradition - we know that it is Oral Tradition, because there is no mention of the rock following the Israelites through the desert in the Old Testament - can be important for our apologetic defense of the Catholic Church, if we point out that both Jesus in Mt. 23 and here and elsewhere in the New Testament the New Church makes use of both Oral & Written Tradition.
We need to point out to those who follow Sola Scriptura that the concept they follow is anti-biblical. It is also anti-Christian!
Because Christ and His New Church both use Teachings outside the accepted writings of the time. And so, Christ's Church today would follow suit, using both Oral & Written Tradition.
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Revelation 21:14 "The wall of the city had twelve courses of stones as its foundation, on which were inscribed the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb."
In the above passage we have the Twelve Apostles names written on the foundation wall of the Heavenly Jerusalem.
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Matthew 16:18 "And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. 19 I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."
This passage is about Jesus Christ promising to build His Church on the apostle Peter. Jesus doesn't make this promise to any other person. He further promises that "the gates of hell shall [would] not prevail against it"! This promise shows that the Church established by Jesus would keep intact His teachings given to the apostles throughout all time without error. Or "the gates of hell" would have prevailed by allowing the misleading of God's People - the New Israel, the Catholic Church.
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Galatians 2:9 "and when they recognized the grace bestowed upon me, James and Kephas and John, who were reputed to be pillars, gave me and Barnabas their right hands in partnership, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised."
"Pillars"?
Pillars of the new Christian community, pillars of the New Church. Again the pillars that uphold the Church.
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1 Corinthians 3:10 "According to the grace of God given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building upon it. But each one must be careful how he builds upon it, 11 for no one can lay a foundation other than the one that is there, namely, Jesus Christ."
Jesus not only lays the foundation... He is the foundation! Deuteronomy 32:18 "You were unmindful of the Rock that begot you, You forgot the God who gave you birth."
He is the "capstone", the "cornerstone", the "rock foundation" - He is both the top and the bottom and He fills every "stone" in between!
Ephesians 2:19 "So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God, 20 built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone. (NAB) "cornerstone" (RSV, DR)
21 in whom the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord;
22 in whom you also are built into it for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit."
1 Peter 2:4 "Come to him, to that living stone, rejected by men but in God's sight chosen and precious; 5 and like living stones be yourselves built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ."
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Matthew 7:24 "Every one then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house upon the rock; 25 and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock."
Isn't it interesting that Matthew who makes the appointment of St. Peter as 'rock' & 'father' of Christ's Church so clear in chapter 16, also tells us that we have to build our home on the 'rock' in chapter 7:25.
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1 Corinthians 1:23 "but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles,"
We see here that Christ is again a block of stone.
The thing that I like about the idea of Christ as a 'block of stone' is that He can either be a 'stumbling block', which leads to eternal damnation, as He was for many in His day or he can be a 'stepping stone' to help us reach heaven. Christ = God remains the same (Heb 13:8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and for ever.), the only variable that matters is how each person interacts with Him.
We can apply this 'idea' to every situation in our lives. Whether we draw closer to God or away from God doesn't depend on what we are going through it is how we react to each challenge that counts.
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