I would like just **one Catholic to tell me specifically what they think these keys **are that were given to their church.
Who? Jesus the Christ [Mt. 16:16] The Son of God. All Knowing - all Wise - all everything Good. A key element of Gods Perfect Goodness is that God is and has to be “All-Fair and All Just.” Otherwise He would not be God.
The words used by Jesus are carefully selected to insure proper understanding.
[Mt. 16: 15-19] He [JESUS] said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, [Peter is in a personal one on one conversation with Jesus here] “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And [JESUS]I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock [ON YOU PETER] I will build my [SINGULAR] church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it. [19] I will give you [PETER / My new Church] the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
The choice of words selected by Christ. To “bind” and to “loose” were common, rabbinical, legally binding at Law terms for exactly that! Complete, and free governance. Jesus, Peter and all that heard knew exactly what Jesus meant! Exactly what Jesus meant!
WHERE Mt. 16:13: “Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do men say that the Son of man is?” “
Caesarea Philippi is in the hill country of Judea. It was a by their standards, a large town. **It was also the site of the areas Major Pagan **Temple.
The location Jesus chooses is a clear indication of the Mission of His Church, and Peter and the Apostles. “Overcome, do away with pagan worship.” Jesus not only gives His Church this Mission, He gives His Church all of the tools and authority needed to accomplish it!
Why? The “Keys to the Kingdom of Heaven” is a literal statement of FACT! [Mt. 16:19] Jesus speaking directly to Saint Peter at the occasion of Founding His [now Catholic] Church: “[19] I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."
This is what Jesus said, did, intended and has accomplished. It’s what the Word of God clearly says and clearly means. Amen!
**Back in the time if Jesus all major cites were walled in for protection from attack. These cities actually had two real GATES, with REAL KEYS. ** A minor gate and the Main gate.
Now under independent rule, each major city also had there own king, and thus a “kingdom.” So there were many Kings and many kingdoms. A brief reading of the Old Testament list many Kings (who often merged with other kingdoms for the purpose of self-defense) because they were usually too small to be completely independent against other NATIONS, who too merged all of their kingdoms resources to do battle and gain territory.
So the Apostles and the Jewish people of that time period would have been familiar and comfortable with the idea of a King and his Kingdom, a Prime Minister who is the Keeper of the Key’s.
Typically a Prime Minister had complete, autonomous control of ALL day to day activities. The Prime Minister answered to NO-ONE except the King Himself
This is the common understanding and the very reason for the specific reference to “Keys” and the “Kingdom.” There would have been absolutely zero doubts about what Christ was saying, doing and mandating for Peter, now the “Prime Minister” for Christ!
This account is historically provable. Indeed Christ intended to start His (ONE) Church, and to give Peter and those “prime-ministers” (POPES) complete and autonomous control and governance of His Church.
**
Isaiah 22: Re: PETER**(and Jesus)“22 And I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David; he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. 23 And I will fasten him like a peg in a sure place, and he will become a throne of honor to his father’s house. 24 And they will hang on him the whole weight of his father’s house, the offspring and issue, every small vessel, from the cups to all the flagons
**Mt. 28: 19-20 **“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age."
John 10: 1"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door MY CHURCH] but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber; 2 but he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.
Rev. 3: [RE: PETER] . "And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: 'The words of the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one shall shut, who shuts and no one opens.
Eph. 2:19 19 So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple [SINGULAR] in the Lord; [singular] in whom you also are built into it for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.****
So, while the ‘keys’ represented authority and his position as the one being in charge … wouldn’t it be a bummer if Peter got to the Pearly Gates…and started looking in his robe…
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Thus in giving the key’s to access to heaven to Peter and Peters Successors, in the very next breath God grants the power and authority to determine who, how, why, one will or will not gain aces to heaven.