I was interviewed recently on the “Church Talk” podcast (https://www.buzzsprout.com/2019477/episodes/18597259) about my book, The Apostles’ Gospel. This is a short summary of what the book and the interview were about.

We all know Matthew 16:16 because we want to refute the Catholic claim that Jesus was establishing Peter as the first pope. Thus, we only know it negatively. Our argument is that Peter’s confession is "the rock" in that verse, but we only use it to refute the Catholics.

What we don’t do is pay attention to the fact that Jesus builds his church on the confession that Jesus is Christ and Son of God. As a result, we go on our merry way building the church on the confession that Jesus died for our sins, and we reap mountains of backsliders and nominal Christians.

It’s so bad that we read Romans 10:9-10, which tells us we’re saved by confessing Jesus as Lord and believing in the resurrection, then use the passage to teach converts to pray a sinner’s prayer focused and Jesus’ death and Jesus as Savior.