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Sunset Schedule
For: Cambridge, MN
7:38 PM Sep 10, 2010 (Sabbath Starts)
7:36 PM Sep 11, 2010 (Sabbath Ends)

 

Bible Q&A

Q: Did Jesus really give authority to forgive sin to the apostles and the church in John 20:22 and Matthew 16:19?

A: This requires a lengthy explanation so bear with me.

1. Matt 16:18 can easily be understood that the “rock” that Jesus says his church will be built upon is not Peter the man but on Peter’s statement concerning Jesus. The original Greek supports this as much as the other interpretation. So that fact drops this verse into the category of “cryptic.” In other words, since we disagree about what the verse means then we must set it to one side and explore the rest of the Bible’s teaching on the topic. Once we have a clear understanding of the general biblical direction then we can pick this verse back up to see if it can be understood in a way that fits the rest of scripture, which it easily can be.

2. Peter didn’t oversee the early church. James did. So really if anyone at all would be considered the head of the early church it should be James, (Acts 15:13, 19; cf. Acts 1:13; 12:17; 21:18; 1 Cor. 15:7; Gal. 2:9, 12).

3. If the early church assigned the kind of authority to Peter that the later church assigned to him (i.e. being able to speak for God even beyond scripture) then Paul would have never “opposed him to his face” when he was “clearly wrong.” (Gal. 2:11-14).

4. Concerning loosing and binding in heaven what is bound on earth, this is like number one. If we don’t agree on what the verse means it’s time to set it aside and do a Bible study on the subject without that verse. In other parts of scripture can we support of the idea that God gave sinful humans the power to absolve other sinful humans of sin? I can’t. 

But we can support easily God’s power to forgive sin. The Bible is replete with the general principle that God alone forgives sin (Acts 20:21; Mk 2:7; Lk 5:21; 1 Jn 1:7, 9; Mt 6:14; Acts 5:31). Even the Pharisees understood that, and Jesus didn’t refute them. So once we see a clear direction of scripture without the particular verse in question then can we pick that verse back up and try to understand it in a way that agrees with the rest of the Bible. 

As far as I can think of this is the only reference given for the idea that the church can forgive sin. On the other hand it’s easy to understand this reference in another way: The church has the responsibility to “call sin by its right name.” If someone is living in direct, obvious disobedience to God the church has the responsibility to say so. If that person truly repents the church also has the responsibility to judge and acknowledge the response of forgiveness that heaven has already given. The literal translation of the verse is not what will happen in heaven but what has already happened: “what you loose has been loosed and what you bind has been bound.” 

5. The Bible is conspicuously absent of any reference of anyone but Jesus saying, “Your sins are forgiven.” It’s also absent of any reference to someone asking anyone but God to absolve them of their sin. 

6. The entire Old Testament sanctuary service is bound up in way heaven deals with sin. To accept the idea of humans forgiving sin on God’s behalf you really have to throw out the all of the symbolism of the sanctuary service.