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Jesus gave the keys of the kingdom of heaven to Peter so that Peter could unlock the gates of hell and set the captives free.
But did Peter ever use them? Yes, he used them in three places in the Book of Acts.
The Question of the Kingdom
The book of Acts begins with the disciples asking if Jesus was now going to restore the kingdom (Acts 1:6).
Jesus answers in Acts 1:7-8. Most people think that Jesus basically says, “I’m not going to tell you because that is the wrong question, and... Read Full Story
| From : tillhecomes.org
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Tim Nichols wrote a fantastic article today about Theopoetics .
What are Theopoetics? Well, it is where I hope “theology” goes.
We must get away from studying God and the Bible as if they were science projects. They are not. But that is what theology does. Instead, Theopoetics invite us to relate to Scripture and God in ways that involve all the senses, using the full range of our creative abilities, rather than just spoken or written words.
Here is some of what Tim Nichols wrote... Read Full Story
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Remember the “End of the World” fiasco when Harold Camping duped many into believing that the End of the World would be on May 21, 2011?
When it didn’t happen, he said that it was just a “spiritual end of the world” but the real, physical one would occur on October 21, 2011. Those who weren’t saved on May 21, Camping said, “will be annihilated together with the whole physical world on October 21, 2011.”
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So here we are. One... Read Full Story
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Lots of churches and church leaders want to use Matthew 16:19 and Jesus’ statement to Peter about the keys of the kingdom of heaven as justification for judging and condemning others for their beliefs or their behavior. We saw yesterday in my post about Locking Others out of Heaven that there are two main views about Matthew 16:19.
Some think that we do have this authority, or at least, some church leaders (such as the Pope) have it. When a decision is made by the church, or one of these... Read Full Story
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After my failed attempt yesterday to review Scot McKnight’s new book, The King Jesus Gospel , I am taking a second stab at it today.
Scot McKnight is concerned that that most evangelicals have a very narrow and unbiblical understanding of the Gospel. Most of us, he believes, hold to something which he calls “a soterian Gospel” which is the idea that the Gospel message primarily concerns me and my salvation.
The soterian Gospel is found in most pulpits, pamphlets, and presentations of the... Read Full Story
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Jesus is the only judge of the souls of other people, but some believe that Jesus gave this authority to the church, or at least to certain leaders within the church.
Matthew 16:19 – The Keys of the Kingdom
The primary verse used to defend this idea is Matthew 16:19, where Jesus said, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven” (Matt 16:19).
Jesus is speaking to... Read Full Story
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Scot McKnight recently wrote a book called The King Jesus Gospe l . I finished reading it yesterday.
I know it is vain, but as I read it, I kept waiting for him to quote from a journal article I wrote back in 2006 called “ The Gospel is More than Faith Alone in Christ Alone .”
Of course, Scot McKnight never did quote from it.
So either he plagiarized me, or he never read the article… Hmmmm… I wonder which one it is?
The Gospel is about more than How to get Saved
In the 2006... Read Full Story
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The first major problem with the way doctrinal statements are used is that they tend to set up individual churches and church leaders as judges over the eternal destiny of others, rather than leave this up to Jesus. Yes, the church is supposed to judge others, but only in areas of personal disagreements and breaking the law (1 Cor 5:12; 6:1-6), not in the areas of eternal destiny.
Far too often, doctrinal statements are used to issue anathemas against other groups who believe different... Read Full Story
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Matt Aznoe is a friend of mine from High School and College. Like me, he seeks to do what he can to stop human trafficking in the United States and around the world, and has recently recorded a song about involvement in the human sex trade.
Check it out here:
“Another Long Day” by More Than I
Also, Anthony Ehrhardt alerted me to a movie that is coming out about human trafficking which is called “Cargo.” Here is the Cargo Movie website , and below is a trailer. Warning: Even the... Read Full Story
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From the simplicity of the Apostles’ Creed spawned an ever-increasing number of doctrinal statements, with ever-increasing length and complexity. Some of the more well-known and famous doctrinal statements of church history include the following:
The Nicene Creed (325 AD)
The Second Nicene Creed (381 AD)
The Definition of Chalcedon (451 AD)
The Canons of Constantinople (869 AD)
The Augsburg Confession (1530 AD)
The First Helvitic Confession (1536 AD)
The Council of Trent (1542... Read Full Story
