The Washington times., 1915-03-22


con, that Jesus did not mean that
n.od would abdicate His Divine author
,ty ana wisdom in favor of any twelve
Wnat the passage implies is that the
notd would so ovcrrule the utteranCcs
anu writings OF His twelve Apostles as
UhrrchS 'sSe Th, 1neln safe guides for Ills
Pentecost these Apostles wouId he on.
1owis,. 70 Understand which things of the
p'bunnnp Jaw were binding upon the
decisio,;; ai,,S ana which not binding. Their
ne te entire Church might have Confidence
or WI What the Apostles bound or loosed
dasSanh sasnh vas equally bound or loosed in
TO get 5ee baek AG5f i1fo lbs; n2Sns. %; ,,.,.
WIN each other. Gods people must
recosnize that only the words of the
ne" s testament Apostles and Prophets
ine the ho'nGri.ative, ni,iu properly represent
nave bound or loosed on earth. with
out recognition in Heaven. The things
necessary to the Church are found only
~ ,r,, the Bible, as St Paul declares.
Tinothy. S:l6. II.
The Church Upon the Rock.
Other Foundation can no nar io,
than that is laid, Jesus Christ" Il Cor
inthlans BID In the Divine arrange
ments Jesus Christ is the Foundatior
the Rock, upon which is built the entire
superstructure Of His Church-the ono
Catholic. worldwide Church. The New
Jerusalem, the church in glory. had
t"eiVe foundation stones built upon tho
one Foundation Rock the Lord Josus
christ. II would manifestly be orrone-
GUS therefore, to suppose that our Lord
aodicated His own place in the Church
IN ls'or OF st. Peter, as much as He
loved him. st. Peter was merely ono ~,
OF nra e.,
,What. then. did Jesus mean wbon
ne CALLED st. Peter a stone. smoke ~
ouliolng His Church upon this rock"
SHa 1a oeciared that the gates of Hell
against 1t? We reply, Jesus went
ao"n INTO the prison-house of death
Sheoi' Hades. the tomb: but on tbe
oa,l1 on,lu Gay these gates opened. and He
WI VIII not prevail against the Ch1,rcb
rms Is an assurance of the resurrer-
tion of the dead
10 understand our text we should read
,iS rs conteNt' The disciples had told Jesus
tne common talk respecting Himself
he then asked them. who say We thar
! am! st. Peter answered .'Thou ar
me Christ. the Son of the living God
ia MS was the first public declaration Of
Jesus Messiahship. Even the discipl"s
had only now come to recognize thcit
ieacher as the Long promised Messiah
Jesus answered. Blessed art thou. ST.
mon mon SOP or Jonas; for flesh and blood
hath not revealed this unto thee, but M
father In Heaven. Thou art Peter "a
stone. ready for the spiritual TempIe,
the nrst to publicly acknowledge Jesus,
ana upon this rock Uhe truth just de
clared. that I am Messiah) l will build
My Church"
In the Greek word Peter signifies a
stone OF moderate size. while the word
mere rendered rock signifies mass OF
stone. st. Peters statement was a re-
ton of the Divine Plan-Messiah. Upon
mat foundation truth, that Jesus is
Christ, the Church is built: and St
Peter was the first living stone to build
himself upon that foundation. st. Peter
himself gives us the same thought. Il
Peter 2:5-S) This entire Gospel Age has
been devoted to the building of these
living stones upon that great .Founda-
! Temple of God Is completed. the New
Dispensation will be inaugurated.
"The Keys of the Kingdom"
To st. Peter our Lord said. Il will
give thee the keys Of the Kingdom OF
| Heaven" We shall not suppose that
any who hear this discourse or read il
in the newspapers are stupid enough TO
think Jesus meant that Heaven Is locked
up, and that nobody could get in ex-
cept as st. Peter would admit them.
True. some have voiced such fantastic
notions. But we refuse to believe that
intelligent people could be in earnest In
any such view
St. Peter was honored in being per-
mitted to do an opening work con
nected with the Inauguration OF the
Church. The Bible shows us two az
! ferent opening works and two differ
ent keys. A key is symbol Of rower
or authority or an initiative. St Peter
used his first key Of privilege on Pen
tecost., When the Holy Spirit came
III = ta nrIN tipev of
explained the situation and opened the
door to the Church Of Christ for the
Jews. admonishtng them TO enter He
| told of the merit Of Chrsts death,
forgiveness of sins was. therefore,
preached in His name-Acts 2:14-Ss
The second key to the Kingdom OF
Heaven-the Church the embryo King
used three and a half years later.
| Then the seventieth week of Divine
favor prophetically appointed to the
Jews expired. and the time came that
with the Jews of the same Promise.
The opening work was with the house
hold of Cornelius. to whom St. Peter
preached Christ. Thus the Gentle door
into the Kingdom was thrown wide
! open.-Acts 10.
Repentance and Remission of Sins.
That repentance and remission Of
sins might be preached in His name
to all people" duke a:47) God never
gave power to bishops. priests or min
| listers of any denomination to forgive
sins. "Who can forgive sins but God
alone?" Nor did Jesus give authority
to His Apostles to forgive sins. They
might preach repentance and forgive
ness, but only in His name. Nowhere
in the Bible is there a statement to the
effect that the Apostles undertook TO
| forgive sins.
! In proportion as Gods people throw
| away their seCtarian spectaCles they
can read Gods Message in the words
of Jesus and the Apostles. Let us hold
fast the precious Word, which Jesus
exhorted us to search and which is suf-
| ficient that the man OF God may hs
thoroughly furnished. Let us remember
that there is only one true catholic. uni
vcrsal church. each member of which
is a saint related to God and the Lord
Jesus Christ through faith. repentance
and remission of sin and begetting Of
tho Holy Spirit; and that member OF
the Rcdy of Christ is a meHlhc? of that
I;ody any where. Now are we the BODY
Cf Christ. and members in particular
- Corinthians 1897.
r.