Matthew 16:18 And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church,[a] and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. 19 I will give you the keys to 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.”
Your position needs clarification as the definitions of “Christians” and “protestants” are used by those who may not in fact be “Christians” or “protestants”. Many mainline Christians such as Lutherans and Anglicans do not claim the lable of protestant and groups such as JW’s or Westboro Baptist Church Claim to be Christian.
If your claim is that the keys to the kingdon are given to everyone then that would mean JW’s and WBC can use this claim for their purpose. If you want to limit their claim and say they are not true Chistians then you must define where this line is to be drawn. This line will vary among all “Christian” denominations to a grey area that can be seen even within protestantism itself.
So when a “protestant” draws their line as to what they consider ”the essentials are” and defines for their congregation what cannot be tollerated as truth but seperates themselves from other “protestants”, which protestant position will be considered the correct postion? Which protestant position will be considered to “have the keys” at that time? When pondering this situation you must fully consider all “Christian” positions.
Which translation of the Bible is that? In either King James (favorite of Protestants as I understand it) or New American Bible Revised Edition (Catholic), I get a slightly different meaning.
Getting back to your questions, is the above quote taken to mean that the Bible (his word) is the most important thing? Sometimes Protestants interpret “word” to mean Bible or Scripture, although there are many other meanings. For example, “honors his word” could mean honors his covenant with his people. What do you think?
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