[Songs in the Night - March 28]
Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Matthew 16:19
THE declaration respecting Peter's authority to
bind and loose was a common form of expression in
those days, to indicate forbidding and permitting.
One
writer declares, "No other terms were in so constant
use in Rabbinic Canon Law as those of binding and
loosing.
They represented the legislative and judicial
powers of the Rabbinic office."
This authority was
shared by all the apostles (Matthew 18:18,19), and it is
because of our belief in this that we hold to the exact
presentations of the apostles as representing the divine
will, and allow no testimony by subsequent followers
of the Lord to have the same weight or influence.
Respecting the apostles alone we have the assurance
that they were divinely supervised—that whatever
they forbade or allowed was under heavenly guidance
and sanction. Z'06-174 R3789:6 (Hymn 227)