A lot of people will be shocked when they realize Heaven appears as it does in the Revelation with praying saints, interceding angels, the burning of incense, etc. and it begins to set in that they are about to enter into Judgment before... a heavenly liturgy. The Revelation is an entire liturgical structure.
As with the doctrine of the Trinity, Papal authority wasn't firmly established until it was questioned. It always existed. Peter and those who sat in the Seat of Peter have always had the Keys to the Kingdom. It just didn't become an issue until others rejected Christ appointed authority.
Let's look at the Bible since we both believe in Scripture. I don't find this in one passage. There's SO much to this, I'll try to keep it short and focused three passages, maybe four.
Matthew 16:17-19
New Catholic Bible
17 Then Jesus said to him in reply, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my heavenly Father. 18 And I say to you: You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of the netherworld will not prevail against it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
We see several things here. On account of Simon's profession of faith Jesus renames Simon, Peter (Rock). Then, using a play on words implicating both Peter AND his profession of faith as being the "rock" on which He would build His Church. Then Jesus gives PETER the keys to the kingdom and authority to bind and lose on earth regarding interpretation, tradition, and practice. This is born out by Christ's use of the Rabbinical term, "
Hebrew, asar ve-hittir" (to bind and loose/permit and forbid). Who were the keys given to??? Peter.
Also, Christ used this phrase that is actually not only a reference to asar ve-hittir, but also to an ancient Jewish office. We all know that in ancient Israel the King's mother served as Queen Mother. However, in the King's absence the Queen didn't rule, it was the "governor" or what we might call a Prime Minister today. Here we will read in Isaiah concerning Eliakim's prophesied appointment to governor...
Isaiah 22:20-23
New Catholic Bible
20 On that day I will summon
my servant Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah.
21 I will clothe him with your robe
and place your sash around his waist,
and I will bestow upon him your authority.
He will be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem
and to the house of Judah.
22 I will place on his shoulder
the key of the house of David.
When he opens,
no one will close;
when he closes,
no one will open.
23 I will fasten him like a peg in a secure place,
and he will become a throne of honor for his family.
Here we read how God would elevate Eliakim to governor over Israel, giving him the "key of the house of David", giving him authority to "open and no one will close" and "when he closes, no one will open". The governor was to serve as a peg in a secure place. An anchor. Any Jew listening to Jesus appoint Peter would realize that Jesus was appointing Peter as God appointed Eliakim. Peter would be governor under the King of Kings, having the keys to the kingdom of Heaven, with authority to bind and loose as it relates to authority in the Church in regards to faith and practice.
We see Peter's authority put to use here...
Acts 15:7-12
New Catholic Bible
7 After a long period of debate, Peter stood up to address them. “Brethren,” he said, “you are well aware that in the early days God made his choice among you that it would be through my mouth that the Gentiles would hear the message of the gospel and become believers. 8 And God, who knows the heart, bore witness by giving to them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us. 9 He made no distinction between them and us, for he purified their hearts by faith.
10 “Therefore, why are you determined to try God’s patience by laying a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither we nor our ancestors have found easy to bear? 11 On the contrary, we believe that we are saved in the same way as they are, through the grace of the Lord Jesus.” 12 On hearing this, the whole assembly fell silent, and they listened as Barnabas and Paul described all the signs and wonders that God had worked through them among the Gentiles.
You will note that here there is great debate within the early Church. Should Gentiles be forced to obey the Law of Moses and be circumcised? The debate raged on until Peter stood and addressed the group. After Peter addressed the debating Church, "the whole assembly fell silent". His word was authoritative. It was then that Barnabas and Paul felt free to take the floor and affirm Peter's declaration.
I keep posting this like a broken record, but no one reads it. lol The phrase to "bind and loose" is best explained by the Jewish Encyclopedia...
Binding and loosing (Hebrew, asar ve-hittir) . . . Rabbinical term for ‘forbidding and permitting. The power of binding and loosing was always claimed by the Pharisees. Under Queen Alexandra, the Pharisees, says Josephus (Wars of the Jews 1:5:2), “became the administrators of all public affairs so as to be empowered to banish and readmit whom they pleased, as well as to loose and to bind.” . . . The various schools had the power “to bind and to loose”; that is, to forbid and to permit (Talmud: Chagigah 3b); and they could also bind any day by declaring it a fast day (Talmud: Ta’anit 12a). . . . This power and authority, vested in the rabbinical body of each age of the Sanhedrin, received its ratification and final sanction from the celestial court of justice (Sifra, Emor, 9; Talmud: Makkot 23b).
By these words Jesus invested PETER with the same authority as that which belonged to the scribes and Pharisees who “bind heavy burdens and lay them on men’s shoulders, but will not move them with one of their fingers”; that is “loose them,” as they have the power to do (Matt. 23:2-4). Jesus used the same phrases used in relation to an appointed governor serving under a King. In the same sense, in the second epistle of Clement to James II (
Clementine Homilies, Introduction [A.D. 221]) Peter is represented as having appointed Clement as his successor, saying:
“I communicate to him the power of binding and loosing so that, with respect to everything which he shall ordain in the earth, it shall be decreed in the heavens; for he shall bind what ought to be bound and loose what ought to be loosed as knowing the rule of the Church” (3:215).
Thus Jesus invested PETER, and Peter his successors, with the power of making
halakah for the Christian community. This includes the setting of fast days, establishing holy tradition, and speaking to moral and doctrinal issues.
This cannot be denied by anyone truly educated in the Scriptures.
Only by those who misunderstand it.
When I was in the Army we learned in PLDC that leadership comes in three forms. Delegative, Participative, and Directive. Just because the office of Peter largely used delegative and participative leadership within the early Church doesn't negate the authority of the office to use directive leadership when necessary, as with the Filioque.