Matthew 16:18
Matthew 16:1818And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.
JWs agree the "rock" is Christ, not Peter, citing their 1977 "Rock-Mass" article and . The verse is then used to argue that because Christ promised his congregation would survive, a visible channel must exist today — identified as the Governing Body functioning as the "faithful and discreet slave" of .
The decisive argument is not the petros/petra Greek distinction (which both JW and some Protestant scholars downplay) but , where identical binding-and-loosing authority is given to ordinary gathered disciples — no Peter, no keys, no institution. Combined with (the apostles and prophets are the foundation, with Christ as cornerstone — a foundation is poured once and never re-laid) and (where Peter himself calls Christ the Stone), the passage cannot support a perpetual governing body. Peter in adds: "no one can lay any other foundation than what has been laid, which is Jesus Christ." The promise that "the gates of Hades will not overpower it" guarantees the church's survival, not the existence of a specific organisational headquarters.