"Binding and Loosing"
In many areas the church is trying to use biblical teaching about binding and loosing as an instrument to deal with something it was not designed to deal with.
Download or email this sermon Jesus is the Rock
And Jesus answered and said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.
And I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not overpower it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you shall loose o earth shall be loosed in heaven." Then He warned the disciples that they should tell no one that He was the Christ (Mt. 16:17-20).
These verses are used as the basis for Roman Catholic heresy that Peter was the first Pope, that Peter was the rock. The Pope claims he can do whatever he wants because he has the keys. Whatever he binds is bound, and whatever he looses is loosed. But “Peter” means “pebble” in Greek. “The rock” is Christ.
For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and all ate the same spiritual food; and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ (1 Co.10:1-4).
None of the early church fathers ever said that Peter was the rock. They all say that Christ was the rock.
Galatians 2:11 records the fact that Paul opposed Peter to his face because of his hypocrisy. What? Paul rebuked the Pope? It is absurd. Who presided over the first Church Council at Jerusalem, recorded in Acts 15? Peter? No, it was James. James convened the first council, not Peter. The Catholics have no biblical or historical evidence for their doctrine.
If Peter was the first bishop of Rome, how come it was Paul that wrote the Epistle to Romans, not Peter? Peter's ministry was primarily to the Jews (Gal. 2:7). Giving these keys has nothing to do with “Papal authority”. This is ridiculous.
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Scripture taken from the New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation.