“‘Binding’ and ‘losing’ are rabbinical terms, meaning ‘forbidding’ and ‘permitting.’ Naturally if a person continued to do or to believe what was forbidden, refusing to repent, he would be disciplined; conversely, if he repented from his evil way, he would be forgiven: the ‘ban’ would be lifted. Hence, indirectly the passage also has implications with respect to the good standing, or lack of good standing, of church members, as a comparison of Matthew 16:19 and John 20:23 indicates.” – William Hendricksen
by Pastor Glem Melo
Tomorrow morning, in our Biblical Theology class, we will continue our studies on the church, concentrating more and more on Matthew 16-18. By God’s grace and help, we will exegete the key texts together. And then we will examine the following statements:
We must not “read all the later connotations of ‘ekklesia’ (‘church’) into a word which in terms of its Old Testament background (where LXX [Greek OT] used it to translate Hebrew ‘Qahal’, one of the regular terms for the ‘congregation’ or ‘community’ of God’s people) would be appropriate to describe the ‘Messianic community’ of the disciples of Jesus… The new community of the purified people of God was at the heart of John the Baptist’s mission, and was the necessary outcome of Jesus’ ministry, with its effect of dividing men according to their faith or unbelief.” – Richard T. France
“The church… has authority…
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