Isa 22, Mat. 16 and Rev. 3

[JM]

And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. Isa. 22.22

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. Mat. 16.19

And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth; Rev. 3.7

Roman Catholics like to use Isa. 22 and Mat. 16 to support the idea of apostolic authority. It is believed that Christ governs His church through a succession of apostles, especially the Apostle who now sits on the throne of St. Peter in Rome… Of course, I object to this understanding, believing Christ has the “key of David” now (Rev.3).

The way I understand it; Isa. 22 is a prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem. The David entrusted the key to his servant until the time of the destruction was over. We see the same key given to the Apostles, not just Peter, in Matthew 16. After the destruction of Jerusalem in A. D. 70 Christ took back the key(s) from the apostles.

Thoughts?

Thanks.

 

[Tree of Life]

The Keys to the Kingdom are the church's authority to "bind" and "loose". In John's gospel this takes the verbage of the the church's authority to "forgive" or to "withhold forgiveness". In other words the church has the authority to recognize and affirm credible professions of faith and say: "this person is a member of the church." They also have the authority to recognize a non-credible or false statement of faith and say: "this person is not a member of the church." In that sense the church holds the "keys to the kingdom".

The church does this based on the authority of Christ and on the authority of the apostles. Thankfully their authority has been transmitted into and preserved in Scripture. They have no living successors nor do they need them.

 

[Awaken4Christ]

JM, couldn't it be that Christ said that he gave the keys to Peter because it is essentially the beginning of the Gospel message era. In reality Christ never stopped having the keys? One of those abiding in him and him abiding in us type things?

I think where the RCC goes wrong in their claim of the keys is the lack of Solas, because if they payed special attention to the solas, then they would see that the Word of God would dethrone any apostolic claims in their court. The Church is not a Blood line but it was bought with blood. There are in a manner of speaking spiritual successors, but let God be the judge, let the Word help us discern, and let the deceptions of man be revealed.