The Chief Cornerstone

Who can tell me the truth about the canon? The Bible tells me that the church is the pillar and foundation of truth. What is the church? I think Christians would say that only Jesus—who is the way, the truth and the life, really would have the authority to say. If Jesus is in fact God omniscient, this stands to reason: look around you; many different people have many different and contradictory opinions. Therefore all human “truth” is subjective, unless Christians are right, and only Jesus is “The Way, the Truth and The Life.” He would be capable of truth. So if the church was capable of choosing the canon, then Jesus would have to give the church the authority (i.e. “capability”) to do so.

So what (or where) is this church that bears God’s authority? When he established His church Jesus said, “Upon this Rock I will build my church.” If the church is the pillar and foundation of truth and it was established and built by Christ, then it, presumably, is the only body that can tell us authoritatively which books are in the canon of scripture.

When Jesus said He was establishing the pillar and foundation of truth (which alone can tell us what is in the Canon), what did He mean by “the Rock?” Was it Peter (as Catholics argue), was it Jesus Himself, was it Peter’s faith?” Presumably if we can find the “rock” we will know where Christ’s church is.

Mike, where or what is the Rock? Please give me your answer. But, perhaps more importantly (and sincere) respect, please give me reasons why I can believe that you know the true answer to this question.


Tom’s next questions are quite good and reasonable. What is the Church and how do we know?

I’ll start with the last question first. Why would anyone read further? I know what I’m saying is true because I see it in the Bible, the Word of God. If I’m wrong in my ordering or exegesis, I would be happy to change my mind. But the correction would need to be based on the Scripture and right understanding of Scripture. God’s word does not change, though I might misread it. But on the things I’ve said below, I don’t think so.

Tom is correct to notice that Christ is the rock, the final authority, the truth, etc. but what do we mean by all these terms and where do they come from?

Deuteronomy 32:4 tells us that God is the rock of our salvation. He is filled with justice, mercy and truth. He has given his people birth into a new life (cf. the context, esp. vss. 15, 18).

Isaiah 44:8 tells us that there is no other rock besides God. There are, of course, a lot of passages between Deuteronomy and Isaiah which tell us what kind of rock God is: that he is loving, kind, merciful, loves to give forgiveness, etc., but we are headed in a particular direction here.

What is the God of Israel’s name? Who is he as distinguished from the gods of the other countries surrounding Israel? YHWH is his name. We sometimes call him Yahweh, or Jehovah and most modern translations of the Bible translate his name as Lord (small caps) to distinguish it from Lord, who might be a human person. The point here is that it is not just any god who is the Rock, it is Yahweh who is the only Rock the foundation, the savior of God’s people.

Isaiah 40:3 says that a prophet will come telling the people to “prepare a way for the Lord (Yahweh), make straight a highway for our God (as opposed to the gods of other lands). Then the Apostle Matthew tells us that John the Baptist was the one “who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, "The voice of one crying in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight'" (Mat. 3:3). Matthew’s point here is that the one John was announcing was God on earth. And when you go back to various passages in the Old Testament you can see that God had promised that he would indeed live on earth and save his people from their sins by dying on a cross. He would also prove it to be the case by rising from the dead three days later.

This coming one, as it turned out, was Jesus of Nazareth, Immanuel, God with us. YHWH in human form, walking around, eating and drinking.

But the Bible takes the image of a stone and uses it to talk about a building, made up of the people of God. In Isaiah 28:16 God says that he will set a tested stone to be the cornerstone in the Kingdom of God. And previously Psalm 118:22 had said that the Jews would reject the stone, but that it would become a precious cornerstone. Jesus understood that he was that stone, tested and precious, when he said to the Jews, “"Have you never read in the Scriptures: "' The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes'? Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits” (Mat. 21:42-43). Contextually he is saying that the Jews would reject him and that God would take the Kingdom of Heaven from them and give it to those who would believe.

Further, the Apostles understood that Jesus was not only YHWH, but that he was the Stone as well, rejected by his people and having become the cornerstone of the Christian Church, the Kingdom of God, made up of all who believe and are baptized. We see this specifically in 1 Peter 2:6-9 when Peter says that these same verses and more refer to Jesus the Christ. Jesus is not only God on earth, but he is also the Stone of offense, the Stone the builders rejected, and the stone that has become the cornerstone of the whole building.

A building does not only consist of a cornerstone, however, it also includes a foundation and an actual building. The New Testament writers said that Jesus is the cornerstone of the building, the church, with the apostles and prophets as its foundation (cf. Eph. 2:20-22). The building that rests on this foundation is made up of the church itself, you and me and all those who down through history have believed and been baptized (1 Pet. 2:1-10). So the picture is that the building is made up of bricks, a foundation, and a cornerstone. It makes up the Church itself.

To get back to Tom’s questions, then, Jesus is the Stone that holds the whole thing together. The Apostles, including Peter, are the foundation of the building. And the saints down through history are the bricks that make up the building.

There are several metaphors the Bible uses that are helpful here. One of them is that of a body. The Church is the body of Christ and Christ is the head of the body. What Christ wants to do his body follows him in doing. As the building grows, the kingdom grows and so the body grows. But bodies grow in several ways at the same time. It grows out and up, and it also changes its look. So too the body of Christ. As the Gospel spreads through the world the body grows (e.g. the Mustard seed for example). And because sin is in the world, the body has various ailments, sprains, breaks, pimples, cancers, etc. But because the body of Christ is Christ’s body, it can never be killed. It has already been killed and is risen. Christ has also promised to make his bride beautiful over time (to mix the metaphors) and so we know that because Jesus is Lord, the body will be changing over time.

In history, the church has held various councils and meetings to establish certain key truths about Christianity. God has not left us without a Word, he has given us teachers, preachers, parents, and the Holy Spirit to help us understand his will for us in the world. It is important to remember that the whole thing is organic. There is no human structure like the empire state building, which will eventually fall over. Christ’s building is eternal because it is made up of baptized believers, who are loving, serving, worshiping, and living in Christ.

We do not worship the Bible, we worship the God of the Bible. But we do read and diligently study the Bible. It is the repository of what God thinks and desires. It is our source of specific knowledge of God and how he wants us to live as we wait for him. In addition to studying the word itself, we study what others through history have learned and gleaned from it. They are not authoritative in the same way the Bible is, but because these saints have gone before us in the power of the Spirit of God it would be folly for us to ignore their discoveries. The Church of Christ is the presence of Christ in the world and what the Church has believed through the years is what we believe and teach. This is because this is what the cornerstone of the Church believes.