I thought you were giving me the typical Catholic answer that Peter is the holder of the keys. That is a flawed interpretation of scripture.
Christ is the Rock and cornerstone.
The keys signify authority.
Christ knew he wouldn’t be around (and alive) so he passed that authority to Peter and the line of Popes.
Being Catholic, I am not at all familiar with the bible, so I can’t offhand cite the scripture where Jesus called himself ‘the rock’. I do know that He did call Peter the rock on which he would build his church.
How do you explain without personally interpreting Christ’s words exactly what he meant by ‘rock’ and why it would be different for his description of himself and Peter? And why would your interpretation that these were different meanings of the word ‘rock’ be any more valid than someone else taking them to mean the same thing?
If Christ’s meaning for Peter to be the foundation and leader of the Church was to be limited to Peter and not his successors, what was to happen to the church after Peter died? Is it supposed to go on with no chosen leaders? Or to die with Peter? If the Christ-named ‘foundation’ wasn’t the best person to guide the church to find the leaders God wanted, who was?
O2