State College Church of Christ

In Matthew 16:15 and following Jesus is speaking, "He said to them, 'But who do you say that I am?'" Simon Peter answered and said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus answered and said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. 18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it."

From this passage it is very obvious that Christ is the founder of the New Testament church and that He calls this church His church. Any church founded by someone other than Christ is not Christ's church. David, in the Old Testament, announced a great truth when he said, "Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it" (Ps. 127:1). In the New Testament we learn that the "house of God is the church of the living God"(1 Tim. 3:15).

Not only is Christ the founder of the church but He is also the foundation of the church. The rock was not the apostle Peter or any other man; rather it is Christ and his divine relationship to God - the fact that he is God's Son. The apostle Paul makes this abuntantly clear when he states, "For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ" (1 Cor. 3:11).