Matthew 16 and Islam

And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.  I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

The above verses are Matthew 16, verses 18 and 19.  This has always been the classical proof text for the Catholic view of the Papacy.  St. Peter was the first bishop of Rome and therefore his successors carry authority granted to no other bishop.

Historically, other groups such as the Eastern Orthodox and the Protestants have had their own various interpretations of this verse.  I’ve never heard an Oriental Orthodox or Nestorian comment on the verse so I don’t know what they say.  I imagine that it would be somewhat similar to the Eastern Orthodox view.

However, I want to take these verses and look at the implications for Islam.  If we zoom in on one part of this verse we can examine it a little closer:

I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it

Putting Peter and the keys aside, we see that Jesus Christ built a Church and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.  How does a Muslim interpret these words that come straight from their Messiah?

There are two possible ways that I can see for the Muslim to get out of this.  One is that Muhammad’s new religion of Islam is a fulfillment of this and that he is continuing Christ’s Church.  The only problem is that Muhammad never claimed this.  He claimed to be the last prophet of the Abrahamic tradition that certainly includes Jesus Christ, but nothing about being part of his Church.

The second option that the Muslims have is that they can say that the church that Jesus Christ established was still alive in the times of Muhammad.  This creates even more of a minefield.  In Surah 9:29 we read:

Fight those who do not believe in Allah, nor in the Last Day, nor forbid what Allah and His Messenger have forbidden, nor abide by the religion of truth—from among those who received the Scripture—until they pay the due tax, willingly or unwillingly.

If you read the next verse, you see that “those who received the Scripture” are the Jews and Christians.  Verse 29 says that the Christians don’t abide in the religion of truth and therefore have to pay a tax because of this.  That’s a little odd?  Jesus Christ himself said that the gates of Hades will not overcome His Church.

Like 99% percent of things Jesus Christ ever said, we don’t have any commentary from Muhammad or his companions.  This verse had been talked about by the early church quite a bit before the rise of Islam, including in Ecumenical councils.  In addition to adding a false prophet to the Abrahamic tradition like the Mormons, the Muslims have essentially gone with the Great apostasy theory.  Islam and Mormonism have more in common than a lot of people think.

My question for Muslims remain.  How do you deal with a verse like this?  I suspect the classic Adnan Rashid or Muhammad Hijab answer would be that it was a corruption in the text.  I’m betting that comments from a liberal “scholar” will follow that statement.