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Topic: PETRINE AND PAULINE AUTHORITY
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Found in Him
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Member # 7596
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Please look at the passage. The Lord is simply saying: On this rock (foundation) I will build my church. On the foundation of WHO CHRIST IS. Jesus Christ, The Son of The Living God. He is saying that WHOSOEVER does the will of God... Whatsoever he asks of God will be done-- (God fearing folks).
A child can pray in Jesus' name and God honors it. It's the AUTHORITY of Jesus' name.
13When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?"
14They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets."
15"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?"
16Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ,[b] the Son of the living God."
17Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. 18And I tell you that you are Peter,[c] and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades[d] will not overcome it.[e] 19I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be[f] bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be[g] loosed in heaven." 20Then he warned his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ.
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~To Him That is able to keep you from falling and to present you before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy...to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.~ Jude 24
Posts: 1503 | Registered: Jan 2009
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WildB
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Member # 2917
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PETER AND HIS KEYS
In connection with the building of the Messianic church our Lord said to Peter:
"AND I WILL GIVE UNTO THEE THE KEYS OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN: AND WHATSOEVER THOU SHALT BIND ON EARTH SHALL BE BOUND IN HEAVEN: AND WHATSOEVER THOU SHALT LOOSE ON EARTH SHALL BE LOOSED IN HEAVEN" (Matt. 16:19).
On this verse, mainly, Rome bases her claims for papal authority. She argues that our Lord conferred upon a called-out group (Gr. ekklesia: church) full authority to act officially in His name, even to the remission of sins, and that such official acts were to be bound in heaven. She argues, further, that the authority of this church was centralized in the twelve apostles, over whom Christ placed one of themselves, St. Peter, as chief.
These claims are based upon the fact that while John 20:23 may have been spoken by Jesus to many of His disciples, Matt. 18:18 was apparently addressed to the twelve apostles, and Matt. 16:19 certainly to Peter alone. Thus it is claimed that authority in spiritual matters was given to the church, represented by the twelve apostles and personified in the Apostle Peter.
Rome's conclusion is that since the church of today is (according to Catholic doctrine) a perpetuation of the organization which Christ instituted and vested with divine authority, there must of necessity be apostolic succession. She contends that the apostolic body is perpetuated in her Sacred College of Cardinals with its twelve congregations, and that one of their number, the Pope or Bishop of Rome, succeeds Peter as their chief and the supreme head of the church on earth--that spiritual authority today is still vested in the church, represented by the College of Cardinals and personified in the Pope himself.
PROTESTANT INTERPRETATIONS
Protestants may lift their hands in horror at such claims, but their own interpretations of these passages are as weak as cotton thread. We list some of them:
1. The Catholic interpretation in modified form is found in the ritualistic creeds of many Protestant denominations. They make Rome's claims, with reservations and apologies.
2. Some Protestants argue that in these words our Lord merely gave the apostles authority to state the terms of salvation.
3. Others contend that the apostles were given the ability to discern and declare whose sins were forgiven and whose were not. That is, they could pronounce sins forgiven, not by any authority given to them, but because of God-given powers to discern the true spiritual state of those to whom they ministered.
4. Still others claim that our Lord meant to impress upon His followers their great responsibility and to warn them that through their behavior some would accept Him while others would reject Him; some would have their sins remitted, while others would have their sins retained.
But all of these arguments can be placed in one category: they wrest the natural meaning of Scripture and are easily answered by Rome as she points to the Book itself and insists: "But this is what it says."
THE SOLUTION
The solution to this problem and the answer to Rome's pretentions is again a dispensational one. It lies in the fact that from time to time God changes His dealings with men--a premise which must be granted by Romanists if indeed our Lord did confer such powers upon His disciples after several thousand years of human history had elapsed--and that the church of today is not a perpetuation of the organization which Christ founded while on earth.
Our Lord did in fact give to the twelve, with Peter as their chief, authority to act officially in His absence.
Let us consider John 20:23 in the light of its context, beginning at verse 21:
"Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you AS MY FATHER HATH SENT ME, EVEN SO SEND I YOU.
"And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and saith unto them, RECEIVE YE THE HOLY GHOST:
"WHOSE SOEVER SINS YE REMIT, THEY ARE REMITTED UNTO THEM; AND WHOSE SOEVER SINS YE RETAIN, THEY ARE RETAINED" (John 20:21-23).
"As My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you." In the light of these words is it strange to find our Lord granting official powers? These words should be compared with the Lord's words to the twelve in Luke 22:28-30:
"Ye are they which have continued with Me in My temptations.
"AND I APPOINT UNTO YOU A KINGDOM, AS MY FATHER HATH APPOINTED UNTO ME;
"That ye may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel."
Does this mean, then, that our Lord committed even the forgiveness of sins into the hands of failing men? No, not failing men, for at Pentecost the Holy Spirit took supernatural control of them. In that foretaste of the millennium the believers lived together in a way that even the most spiritual believers cannot, or do not, live today. Indeed, we do not find the apostles charged with one single mistake until after the conversion of Saul. Moreover God gave them supernatural gifts to qualify them for their work.
It is understood, of course, that the apostles possessed no essential power in themselves to remit sins. It was delegated power exercised, as we say, under the control of God the Holy Spirit.
In Mark 2:7 the scribes find fault with Christ, saying: "Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God only?"
Are we, perhaps, prone to agree too readily with these scribes? We must not forget that our Lord Himself said:
"The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son."
"And hath given Him authority to execute judgment also, BECAUSE HE IS THE SON OF MAN" (John 5:22,27).
The Lord Jesus certainly had authority to admit men into the kingdom or shut them out from it. Surely He, as the Son of Man, could remit sins, and what He bound on earth was surely bound in heaven.
And now He gives these powers to His followers as officials in the kingdom:
"AS MY FATHER HATH SENT ME, EVEN SO SEND I YOU."
"AND I APPOINT UNTO YOU A KINGDOM, AS MY FATHER HATH APPOINTED UNTO ME."
Matt. 21:43 makes it clear that the kingdom was to be TAKEN FROM the chief priests and elders in Israel and Luke 12:32 makes it equally clear that the kingdom was to be GIVEN TO the "little flock" of Christ's followers. We quote these passages here:
Matt. 21:43: "Therefore say I unto you, THE KINGDOM OF GOD SHALL BE TAKEN FROM YOU, AND GIVEN TO A NATION1 BRINGING FORTH THE FRUITS THEREOF."
Luke 12:32: "FEAR NOT, LITTLE FLOCK; FOR IT IS YOUR FATHER'S GOOD PLEASURE TO GIVE YOU THE KINGDOM."
Matt. 19:28 makes it further clear that authority in this kingdom2 was to be centralized in the twelve apostles:
"AND JESUS SAID UNTO THEM, VERILY I SAY UNTO YOU, THAT YE WHICH HAVE FOLLOWED ME, IN THE REGENERATION WHEN THE SON OF MAN SHALL SIT IN THE THRONE OF HIS GLORY, YE ALSO SHALL SIT UPON TWELVE THRONES, JUDGING THE TWELVE TRIBES OF ISRAEL."
Finally, in Matt. 16:19 Peter is singled out as chief of the twelve when our Lord says:
"AND I WILL GIVE UNTO THEE THE KEYS OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN."
Peter is consistently singled out as the leader of the twelve in this way:
Acts 1:15: ". . . PETER stood up in the midst of the disciples . . . ."
Acts 2:14: ". . . PETER, standing up with the eleven . . . ."
Acts 2:37: ". . . PETER and . . . the rest of the apostles . . . ."
Acts 5:29 ". . . PETER and the other apostles . . . ."3
It is regretable that Protestants, instead of proving from the Scriptures the fact that the church of today is not a perpetuation of the organization our Lord founded while on earth, try in vain to disprove what Matt. 16:19 plainly states! Obviously, one who has the keys to a building has the power to admit others or to shut them out. A similar passage (Isa. 22:20-23) describes Eliakim as about to be given the key to the house of David; i.e., it was to be in his power to admit men to, or exclude them from, the government of Israel.
THE OFFICIAL ACTS OF THE TWELVE
The first official act of the "little flock" was to appoint a successor to Judas as a twelfth apostle and, as we have seen, what they bound on earth was bound in heaven, for "Matthias . . . was numbered with the eleven apostles . . . And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost" (Acts 1:26, 2:4).
At Pentecost again we find the apostles fully exercising their authority. When those present were convicted and asked Peter and the rest of the apostles what they should do, Peter replied:
"REPENT, AND BE BAPTIZED EVERY ONE OF YOU IN THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST FOR THE REMISSION OF SINS, AND YE SHALL RECEIVE THE GIFT OF THE HOLY GHOST" (Acts 2:38).
And then the apostles (and perhaps others of the disciples) baptized them "FOR THE REMISSION OF SINS." Compare this with the words of our Lord: "Whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them" and "whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven." There is perfect harmony here.
But could not some shrewd person have deceived them? Did Ananias deceive them? He was carried out dead! As we have pointed out, "they were all filled with the Holy Ghost" (Acts 2:4) and endued with special miraculous powers (Acts 1:8), including "the gift of knowledge."
In Acts 3:19-21 we find Peter actually offering Israel "the times of refreshing" and the return of Christ. He did this with full official authority and there is every evidence that this offer was bound (accepted as binding) in heaven.
There are numerous such cases in the record of the apostles' ministry, but one of particular significance is found in Acts 10, just after the conversion of Saul:
Peter was not out of the will of God when he hesitated to go to the Gentiles. He well knew the prophetic program, that the nations were to be blessed through the rise and salvation of Israel (Isa. 60:1-3). Filled with the Holy Spirit, he had declared that God had raised up His Son Jesus to bless Israel first, in turning them away from their iniquities, so that the Abrahamic Covenant might be fulfilled and the nations might be blessed through them (See Acts 3:25,26 and cf. Mark 7:27, Luke 24:47 and Acts 1:8). Israel must first be brought to Messiah's feet.
But here Peter was sent by a special commission to go to the Gentile house of Cornelius, "nothing doubting." The others at Jerusalem later called him to account for his action, but after he had "rehearsed the matter from the beginning, and expounded it by order unto them" they, in turn, "glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life" (Acts 11:4,18).
Without in the least detracting from the kingdom aspect of this scene, it should be clearly borne in mind that when Peter went to Cornelius' household it was not according to the prophetic program or the so-called "great commission." He was not sent to these Gentiles because Israel had received Christ, but in spite of the fact that Israel was rejecting Christ. But what Peter had done on earth was bound in heaven and Paul's subsequent ministry was later recognized and endorsed by the Jerusalem church on the basis of Peter's action here (See Acts 15:1-18).
Still another, perhaps the final, official act of the apostles is referred to in Gal. 2, where they, through their leaders,4 recognized Paul as "the apostle of the Gentiles."
We quote:
"AND I WENT UP BY REVELATION [TO JERUSALEM] AND COMMUNICATED UNTO THEM THAT GOSPEL WHICH I PREACH AMONG THE GENTILES, BUT PRIVATELY TO THEM WHICH WERE OF REPUTATION, LEST BY ANY MEANS I SHOULD RUN, OR HAD RUN, IN VAIN."
"AND WHEN JAMES, CEPHAS, AND JOHN, WHO SEEMED TO BE PILLARS, PERCEIVED THE GRACE THAT WAS GIVEN UNTO ME, THEY GAVE TO ME AND BARNABAS THE RIGHT HANDS OF FELLOWSHIP; THAT WE SHOULD GO UNTO THE HEATHEN, AND THEY UNTO THE CIRCUMCISION" (Gal. 2:2,9).
Here by a solemn agreement they, who had originally been sent into "all the world" and to "every creature," now promised to confine their ministry to Israel while Paul went to the Gentiles.
Were these leaders of the twelve out of the will of God in making this agreement? By no means! Subsequent revelation proves that they were very much in the will of God, both in loosing themselves from their commission to evangelize the world and in agreeing that Paul should go to the Gentiles, for Israel's rejection of Christ had brought about a change in the divine program.
Here alone is the answer to Catholicism.5 Here alone is the axe laid to the root of the tree, for in the light of these Scriptures it is impossible to maintain that the church of today is a perpetuation of the organization our Lord established while on earth. There is a vast difference between the kingdom of heaven, proclaimed by the twelve, and the body of Christ, revealed through Paul.
Thus by Rome's own argument there can be no apostolic succession, for by the authority given the twelve (an authority which Rome vigorously insists they had) they loosed themselves from their obligation to carry out the "great commission" to its completion, and recognized Paul as the apostle of the new dispensation. And mark well: what they bound on earth was bound in heaven, and what they loosed on earth was loosed in heaven.
The prophetic program had been interrupted. The kingdom was to be held in abeyance while the King remained a royal Exile. Prophecy had given way to "the mystery" of God's purpose and grace.
PAULINE AUTHORITY
Paul too was given great authority. Again and again we are reminded that he speaks by divine revelation, as the mouth-piece of Christ Himself. He makes it clear, too, that he did not receive this authority from men:
"BUT I CERTIFY YOU, BRETHREN, THAT THE GOSPEL WHICH WAS PREACHED OF ME IS NOT AFTER MAN.
"FOR I NEITHER RECEIVED IT OF MAN, NEITIlER WAS I TAUGHT IT, BUT BY THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST" (Gal. 1:11,12, cf. I Cor. 11:23, 15:3, Eph. 3:2,3, I Thes. 4:15, etc.).
He reminds the Romans and the Colossians of his special authority as the apostle of the Gentiles and the minister of the body:
"FOR I SPEAK TO YOU GENTILES, INASMUCH AS I AM THE APOSTLE OF THE GENTILES, I MAGNIFY MINE OFFICE" (Rom. 11:13).
"Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh FOR HIS BODY'S SAKE, WHICH IS THE CHURCH:
"WHEREOF I AM MADE A6 MINISTER, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfill the Word of God" (Col. 1:24,25).
To the unruly Corinthians he writes:
". . . IF I COME AGAIN I WILL NOT SPARE, SINCE YE SEEK A PROOF OF CHRIST SPEAKING IN ME . . ." (II Cor. 13:2,3).
It should be noted, however, that Paul's authority was not of a political nature; it was entirely spiritual and doctrinal. This is evident from such passages as the following:
"BUT THOUGH WE, OR AN ANGEL FROM HEAVEN, PREACH ANY OTHER GOSPEL UNTO YOU THAN THAT WHICH WE HAVE PREACHED UNTO YOU, LET HIM BE ACCURSED.
"AS WE SAID BEFORE, SO SAY I NOW AGAIN, IF ANY MAN PREACH ANY OTHER GOSPEL UNTO YOU THAN THAT YE HAVE RECEIVED, LET HIM BE ACCURSED" (Gal. 1:8,9).
"IF ANY MAN TEACH OTHERWISE, AND CONSENT NOT TO WHOLESOME WORDS, EVEN THE WORDS OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, AND TO THE DOCTRINE WHICH IS ACCORDING TO GODLINESS:
"HE IS PROUD . . ." etc. (I Tim. 6:3,4).
"The signs of an apostle" were wrought by Paul, but he did not have the "keys" to the body as Peter did to the kingdom, nor was he given authority to remit sins. Indeed, since baptism "for the remission of sins" had been set aside in favor of justification by grace, through faith, without works, he could have no part in remitting sins except indirectly by proclaiming the glad news. This will be considered more fully in another chapter.
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That is all.....
Posts: 8775 | From: USA, MICHIGAN | Registered: Mar 2004
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