In further proof that Jesus was here fixing in the minds of his disciples that he is the Christ, note his words after this discussion: “Then he sternly charged the disciples not to say to anybody that he was the Christ.” (Matt. 16:20) So in concluding that discussion he makes no mention of Peter nor does he speak of any primacy given to Peter.

All the Scripture proof is conclusive that the building of the church or the congregation was to be, not upon the apostle Peter, but upon Jesus Christ, the “foundation” or “precious cornerstone.” And Augustine admits as much. In Haydock’s Catholic Bible, it says with reference to Augustine, whom the Roman Catholic Church made a “saint”: “It is true S. Augustine, in one or two places, thus expounds these words, and upon this rock, (i.e. upon myself) or upon this rock, which Peter hath confessed”—not upon Peter himself, but upon Jesus whom Peter confessed to be the Christ. This shows Augustine understood it right. Archbishop Kenrick in his book Inside the Vatican Council says that the great majority of the “church fathers” did not apply Matthew 16:18 to Peter. Of eighty-five leading ones only seventeen held that Peter was the rock on which Christ built his church, whereas forty-four held that it was the truth that Peter spoke, while sixteen believed the rock to be Jesus himself. So not only does the Roman Catholic Church disagree with the apostle Peter, who, as shown by his words at 1 Peter 2:4-7, taught that Christ is the foundation stone, but it also disagrees with the man whom it “sainted” and reveres as “St. Augustine” and with others of its “church fathers.”

If Peter were the head of the early church or congregation, then we should find the apostles and others ascribing to Peter a place of preeminence such as the pope of Rome has today. But we find no such honor accorded to Peter by either the apostles or the other disciples. Peter never makes mention of himself as pope. Neither Paul nor any others of the Bible writers refer to any primacy of Peter. When the apostles and other older men gathered in Jerusalem to discuss the question of circumcision, we find that it was not Peter but the disciple James who summed up the matter. (Acts 15:12-21) Surely had Peter been the chief and in Christ’s place he would have done so. But he did not.

Clearly, Peter was not the head of the Christian congregation. It is not built on him as its foundation cornerstone. It is built on Jesus Christ himself, the sinless Son of God.—Heb. 7:26.

Neither the early Christian congregation nor the early “church fathers” held that Peter was the rock-mass on which the church was built. For the rock-mass is none other than Jesus Christ himself. And woe be to him who even tries to lay any other foundation: “For no man can lay any other foundation than what is laid, which is Jesus Christ.”—1 Cor. 3:11.

Darkness in Christendom

● Darkness hovers over mankind in both the East and the West, Christendom’s religions notwithstanding. “It would be a travesty of the truth to suggest,” asserted English minister Falkner Allison, “that the darkness which broods over human life in this country of ours, the darkness which results from rejecting the light, is any less than the darkness of ignorance which broods over India and the other so-called non-Christian lands.”