Upon this rock I will build my church

Admin Fri 01 Jan 2016, 6:28 pm

Mathew 16:18
Upon this rock I will build my church; and The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxkLjhYsRrE

Published on 20 Jul 2015
CAESAREA PHILIPPI, THE PLACE OF CONFESSION In the Northern Galilee, at the foot of towering, snow capped Mt. Hermon, are the ruins of Caesarea Philippi. This ancient city had an idyllic setting since it was located at the beautiful springs forming one of the sources of the Jordan River.
· Caesarea Philippi (originally Panias) was located two miles east of the site of Dan, twenty-five miles north of the Sea of Galilee and forty miles southwest of the ancient city of Damascus. The site is 1,150 feet above sea level and ten miles south of the 9,200-foot Mount Hermon.
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· Pagan worship was often conducted near running water, a probable reason why Panias, originally a worship center, was located in the vicinity of the three streams flowing from Mount Hermon.
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· The site may be identified with Baalgad "in the Valley of Lebanon below Mount Hermon" (Josh 11:17) or Baalhermon (Judg 3:3).
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· A major feature of the site is a massive rock face from which flows one of the streams that form the Jordan River.
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· The first name associated with the site was "Panias," derived from worship of the god Pan there during the period of Greek control following the conquest by Alexander the Great. (The current name "Banias" is an Arab form of Panias.) Worship of the god Pan was centered at the cave and the spring at the high rock bluff. Several niches carved into the rock are identified as being dedicated "to Pan and the nymphs." Further reinforcing the site’s attraction for worship, Herod the Great built a temple there dedicated to Emperor Augustus, who had given him the town. In the past, the city had many names. In Old Testament times it was called Ba’al Hermon (Jud. 3:3), likely because the god Ba’al was worshipped there. In Hellenistic times it was called Paneas because the god Pan and his worship had apparently replaced the ancient Ba’als. The niches for Pan’s images can still be seen in the rock façade at the site. Of course, Pan was the ancient god of fright, who was half man and half goat and is often pictured as playing the flute. Later in New Testament times the name of the city was changed to Caesarea Philippi (Caesar’s City of Philip). In the New Testament era, Herod Phillip, one of the sons of Herod the Great, ruled the area of Gaulanitis on the east side of the Jordan River. He made ancient Paneas his capital city and renamed it Caesarea after Caesar Augustus. To distinguish it from the Caesarea on the Mediterranean coast it was named Caesarea Philippi. Much later, in the seventh century AD the Arabs captured the city and it reverted to its old name. Because of their difficulty in pronouncing the "P" sound, the name of the city became simply Banias as it still is today.
JESUS AT CAESAREA PHILIPPI The Synoptic Gospels in Matthew 16:13-23; Mark 8:27-33; and Luke 9:19-22 give an account of Jesus and his disciples visiting this beautiful area of the Galilee. We have no evidence in these passages that Jesus and his disciples actually visited the pagan shrine or even entered the city, but they certainly were in the area. Shortly thereafter we have the account of Jesus’ transfiguration. Some now feel that this event happened on nearby Mt. Hermon rather than on the traditional and smaller site of Mt. Tabor in the Jezreel Valley.