Caesaria Philippi

The rock face in the picture in Jesus’ day was called Caesaria Philippi. In the early days of his ministry, Jesus arrived at this place which in that day was a pagan outpost. There was a great deal of pagan worship and sexual immorality that went on at this place and for that reason and others it was called the Gates of Hell. It was on this spot that Jesus told his disciples that ‘upon this rock I will build my church’. The niches shown in the picture at one time contained satanic idols, and the area was filled with temple prostitutes and human sacrifices. Jesus was saying, ‘This used to be your territory Satan, but I’m going to use it to build my church and with it I will defeat you.’ The commonest understanding of useage of the term ‘rock’ has been that it refers to this cliff face. It can also refer to the solid foundation of faith in Jesus Christ, and it is in this sense that we use it in this blog.