CATHOLIC
The churches in Jesus Christ are "catholic" (meaning universal), being gathered from all peoples, nations, tribes and tongues. This should not to be conflated with the word "catholic" in the name "Roman Catholic Church".
Collectively we are called "The Church", since "There is one body and one Spirit, even as you are called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in you all." (Ephesians 4:5).
The saints are told that we must "endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." (Ephesians 4:5), doing nothing and saying nothing with a boastful disposition but "with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love" (Ephesians 4:2).
Jesus is our only Mediator and intercessor:
There is no other mediator between God and man except Christ who is able to mediate for anyone, because "there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (1 Timothy 2:5); and
"it is Christ who has died, but rather also who is raised, who is also at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us" (Romans 8:34),
who alone "is able also to save to the uttermost those who come unto God by Him, since He ever lives to make intercession for them." (Hebrews 7:25).
Jesus taught us to pray to God the Father in His name (John 14:13; John 15:16; John 16:23).
He did not teach anyone to pray to the spirits of dead people who have died in the flesh.
Besides this, Jesus said,
"Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." Matthew 18:20.
"Where two or three are gathered together in My name" does not imply either indoors in a building, nor outdoors, but wherever. Nor does "in My name" have any label, such as "Protestant, Baptist, Presbyterian, Pentecostal, Catholic, Anglican" etc, etc, or any other name except the Name of Christ.
Jesus is "the bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die." (John 6:50). And "He has appointed a day in which He is going to judge the world in righteousness by a Man whom He appointed, having given proof to all by raising Him from the dead." (Acts 17:31).
God's one and only true gospel and the entire New Testament is a parable to those Jesus calls "the tares" (weeds) in His parable of the wheat and the tares (Matthew 13:24-30), because "seeing they see not, and hearing they hear not; nor do they understand, and in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah which said, "By hearing you shall hear and shall not understand; and seeing you shall see and shall not perceive." (Matthew 13:13-15).
As a result, the gospel they follow and works they do (whether good or bad) is of the flesh, and from beneath - but "that which is born of the flesh is flesh". Only "that which is born of the Spirit is spirit" (John 3:6), and as Jesus said,
"Unless a man is born anew of the Spirit of God, he cannot see (perceive) the kingdom of God" (John 3:3).
The tares see but do not perceive, and hear but do not understand because they have replaced faith in Christ alone for their salvation, with the religious beliefs concocted in their own minds or in the minds of men, together with its religious doctrines and practices. They have added human tradition to God's one and only gospel.
The one and only Mediator between God and man is also the judge of all, since "it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgement" (Hebrews 9:27).
False religion will not save, does not save, and cannot save.
THE FOUNDATION AND THE ROCK
The apostle Paul said,
"According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master-builder I laid a foundation, but someone else builds on it. And each one must be careful how he builds. For no one can lay any foundation other than what is being laid, which is Jesus Christ. " 1 Corinthians 3:11.
"You have been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone." Ephesians 2:20.
John wrote.
"The wall of the city (New Jerusalem) has twelve foundations, and on them are the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb." Revelation 21:14.
Paul said,
"For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea, and all were baptised into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they were all drinking from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ." 1 Corinthians 10:1-4
Jesus once said to those who did not believe in Him:
"No one can come to Me unless the Father who has sent Me draw him, and I will raise him up at the last day." John 6:44.
Regarding the apostle Peter's faith in Him Jesus said,
"You are blessed, Simon son of Jonah, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father in heaven!
And I tell you that you are a rock [Pétros], and on this rock [pétra], I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven, and whatever you release on earth will have been released in heaven." Matthew 16:17-19.
[Strongs Greek 04074] Πέτρος Pétros, pet'-ros
apparently a primary word; a (piece of) rock (larger than 3037, a stone); as a name, Petrus, an apostle:--Peter, rock.
[Strongs Greek 04073] πέτρα pétra, pet'-ra
feminine of the same as 4074; a (mass of) rock (literally or figuratively):--rock.
The context of the passage is Jesus talking to Peter about his faith, and telling him that his faith in Jesus was revealed to Peter by God the Father Himself, and telling Peter that Jesus would build His church on the same rock of faith in Jesus Christ alone.
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