The Rock

     Although the name Peter means "rock," Peter is NOT the Rock on which the Christian Church was built. Ironically, though, Peter is believed to be buried beneath St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. The Church at Rome was physically where the western Church was built. However, contrary to their belief, they are NOT the only Church. "Catholic" means "universal." In early times, other churches were organized; to wit: the Coptic, Armenian, and of course, the churches of Asia. The Roman Church was no more important than any of the other ones. However, God picked it to grow.
     The catholic Church in Rome, like it or not, is the parent church of most of Christianity. Immediately, when that church became too powerful and worldly, it began to decay. In just a few hundred years, that Church divided into the Eastern and Western who today are the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches. The former is the catholic church of those to the west of the Baltic region, and the latter, those to the east. The Baltic States are eclectic in that they are a mix of each.
     A thousand-years later Luther's reforms for the Roman Catholic Church were introduced as he nailed them on the cathedral door at Wittenburg (The Ninety-Five Theses). The Roman church had become corrupt and the Theses were an attempt to correct the heresies. The Roman church rejected them, and Protestantism was born.
     Now, Protestantism is as rotten as the Roman church. Together, by the end of time, the corrupt "Church" will be the end-of-time blasphemous religion. (I have written before that the church of the Apocalypse will be a universal church much like the Univeralist- Unitarian church is now. It will include all religions, obviously led by Islam who will convert the world by the blade.)
     Many believe that Rome will be what John called, "the harlot Babylon." I have written before, that is not the case. Present-day Jerusalem is the "harlot Babylon:"

And the Lord said to Moses: “Behold, you will rest with your fathers; and this people will rise and play the harlot with the gods of the foreigners of the land, where they go to be among them, and they will forsake Me and break My covenant which I have made with them. (Deut 31:16 NKJV)

     That is important because Israel at this moment is the harlot. Now don't get me wrong, I support Israel, but that land is covered with harlotry. When Jesus comes for his millennial reign Israel, will be cleansed and consecrated to the Lord. The harlot Babylon is symbolized by Mary Magdalene.
     The shrine to the harlot stands today on the Temple Mount. It is the Dome of the Rock. There is much history and tradition about that particular rock. It is believed to be the Foundation Stone from which the earth was born.
     It is also believed that Adam was generated thereon! Furthermore, as the "threshing floor of Ornan," it will be the place of judgment as God threshes the good grain from the chaff. It's where Abraham was about to sacrifice his only remaining son as God would do years later. It is the very place Solomon's Temple and the second one stood. It's where Herod rebuilt them.
     Tradition has it that the Holy of Holies was beneath the Foundation Stone, and that the abyss beneath was the place water gushed forth for the flood of Noah's time, and where the damned will be winnowed to Hades.
     As the "navel of the world" the Foundation Stone is the spiritual, cultural, and even continental center of the world. (Pangea was the land before continental drift, and it seems to have rotated around that point to form the Earth as we know it today.)
    Peter is certainly not the "Rock" on which Christianity was founded! Who was then? God is the Rock of Salvation (Deut 32:15) and Jeshurun (Israel) scoffed at Him. Scripture tells why Moses was not worthy of entering the promised land. He struck the rock twice from which living water poured forth at Meribah Kadesh in the Wilderness (Deut 32:51). God was to bring forth the water but Moses intervened. That presented a blasphemous image to the eyes of the Israelites. By striking the rock, Moses was symbolically striking THE ROCK OF SALVATION. He struck Jesus. "Jesus?" you marvel! Study the  passage below:

1 Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; 2 And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; 3 And did all eat the same spiritual meat; 4 And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ. (1 Cor 10)

     There is no Jesus AND God; it is Jesus who Is God. Jesus, of course, is God in the Flesh, but he is also God in the fire, God in the cloud, God in the burning bush, God wrestling with Jacob, and God in the fiery furnace. It was even The Word "Jesus" who was the Voice in the Garden, Jesus who spoke with Abraham, and Jesus appearing as Melchizedek to whom Abraham tithed. It Is Jesus all the time in the Old Testament because there is but One God. To be honest, legalistic Jews never understood that, and many Christians do not to this day!  
      Wherever God is, it is holy ground. God communed with the priests in the Holy of Holies. He was beneath the foundation rock. Standing on that solid rock is standing on THE ROCK (Christ). Of course, "all other ground is sinking sand" as the song goes. The Church was founded the same place it was originally. On the Foundation Stone and on the "Rock" beneath... on God who appears to mankind as Jesus Christ.
      Catholics... desist with the pride. The Christian Church, yours included, was founded on Jesus Christ. The Foundation Stone was the solid rock on which THE ROCK spoke from beneath, and walked across as he cleared the Temple of the merchants who defiled it. Jesus threshed some that day, and I believe in the end, at the Great White Throne Judgment, that His "footstool" will be on that very Foundation Stone as sinners are cast into the abyss with their father, the Devil.
     Islam has their "rock." It is the Black Stone of Kaaba in Arabia. Their "rock" is not Jesus. Theirs is the Beast, Isa. They don't stand on the solid rock but the sinking sands of Arabia and Isa. The writer of the song got that right!
     Moses failed to enter the Promised Land, but saw it from a distance. Finally, before Jesus died, Moses saw God on the Mount of Transfiguration. In the cleft of the rock, Moses was required to look only at God's back, but at the transfiguration, Moses saw God - The ROCK - face-to-face. He was in the Promised Land after all those years. Because he saw Jesus face-to-face and lived, Moses will be one of the first resurrected when those dead in Christ are caught up with Jesus in the sky!
    The Old Testament is the "Plan" of God, and the New Testament fulfilment of the Plan. THE ROCK is the focal point of both testaments, and essentially, they are the same: Everyone who enters the heavenly "Promised Land" must stand on THE ROCK OF SALVATION! Prosperity was not the property Joshua was entering, but the Paradise of New Jerusalem in the end.