Posted on 05/11/2008 5:40:22 AM PDT by Gamecock
But yeah.
My boeuf with the hypothesis was that as Long as I think ->I<- am doing everything right, I am not doing everything right.
“You may not understand the symbolism that the keys represent. I would ask you to compare this to Isiah 22, looking at Eliakim. The keys are not associated with binding and loosing. The keys are associated with imparted authority. (You will note in Matthew 18, Jesus imparted the authority to bind and loose to ALL of the apostles; he only furnished the keys upon St. Peter...a small little detail).”
But to appropriate that to a worldwide visible church authority is, in my view, wrong placement. The authority spoken of in Isaiah 22 (and by extention, Matthew’s Gospel), is for a prophesied time. No visible Church of the current “age” (I mean, our age) was prophesied, nor has any that imparted authority.
I believe that it is for the Church (the believing assembly of Israel and Gentiles who accept Israel’s Missiah and national position) AFTER this unprophesied age is over, and the Body of Christ is removed from the earth.
Preophesy’s clock (stopped, I believe, since somewhere around Acts chapter 28) will resume, and THEN the Church of Matthew 16 will be built; that “imparted authority” will rest with the original 12 Apostles, reigning literally over the Twelve Tribes of Israel (Matthew 19:28; Luke 22:28-30 — yet unfulfilled).
I believe that that reign by the twelve apostles over twelve tribes, and the building of the Matthew 16 church, could have begun prior to the first decade after the Resurrection of our Lord had ended, but was conditional upon Israel’s repentance as per instructed in Acts 3:19-26.
Since Israel rejected the offer made to them by the Holy Spirit under the authority of the twelve apostles (in the capital of the Jews), and since the offer was rejected by the chief of the Jews of the dispersion (in the capital of the dispersion, Rome — Acts 28), the kingdom and that Church/Assembly is now in abeyance. We are now in an UNPROPHESIED time.
The only true ekklesia now is IN CHRIST seated far above all heavens, and may be typified in testimony by a relatively small number of visible assemblies which are independent, depending only upon the Head of the Body, Christ, and the leadership and gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Am I correct in understanding that this is not an argument, as such, but a statement of a point of view?
Well, we are at least being civil, or at least I take you as very civil and kind. And I will try to emmulate.
Thank you. I have here a small list of people I would like you to tell that to so that they would, for crying out loud, get off my BACK!
(heh heh heh)
And I would like to return to compliment. This is a good conversation. My personal opinion is that even if in this or that matter, one of us is wrong and the other right, still the total of our ignorance, unless God give us knowledge, so overwhelms our little bit of knowledge, that we ought to band together to fight against the enemy ignorance rather than delight that ancient enemy by fighting with each other.
Being a sinner, I don't follow my own advice as I ought.
(By "argument" I don't mean "fight" but rather, train of reasoning leading to a conclusion. It was in that sense that I meant my remark, but the other also holds. Yours is a peaceable presentation of a point of view worthy of thoughtful consideration.
(So I'm going to try to consider it thoughtfully and see where I end up, and maybe will have something useful to say later today or tomorrow.)
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