Bible Studies

Finding The Time To Feast On God Part Two

by Doug Laird 
09/14/23
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Be it a supply problem with the pulpit or a lack of appetite in the pews, something has gone wrong. The Covid restrictions, that put an end to gathering together, merely brought to the surface a condition (spiritual starvation) that has been developing for decades.

Although on-line ministries are often looked upon as not “really being Church,” many of them continued on without skipping a beat while many traditional local assemblies closed down, and will not recover due to a lack of attendance and the accompanying financial support.

Oblivious to their own responsibility, many clergy do not see a supply problem with the pulpit.

If it were not for the ominous end-time prophecies of 1Tim. 4: 1 and 2Tim. 4: 3, 4, one would begin to question exactly what is going on in the Christian Community at large.

The true, intangible Church, consisting of the born-again believers of each generation, will endure (1) and pass the torch to the next generation until its Matt. 28: 19,20 mission is completed; and then the end will come (2).

This “end” is not the end of the Church, nor is it the end of the world (yet). It is the end of the Church Age here on Earth.
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Based on being given his Luke 22: 32 assignment, Peter might have come to consider himself as being a “cut above” his fellow apostles.

The keys to the kingdom (the unadulterated Gospel Message and the authorization to proclaim it) that would given to Peter in Matt. 16: 19, were given to all of the apostles (PRIOR to the start of the Church Age), and to all who would become Church Age believers (3).

Note that it would be James who eventually would take on the leadership role of the local assembly in Jerusalem, not Peter.

At NO time was there any office or one individual authorized in Scripture to assume the unquestioned leadership role of the Church-at-large.

It was under centuries of Papal leadership, created by Man, that the Church was led into what is now appropriately referred to as the Dark Ages, until the time of the Protestant Reformation.

If it was not a position of administrative leadership over the Church-at-large, what then was the Luke 22: 30 assignment given to Peter?

“I (Jesus is speaking) have prayed for you (Peter) that your faith will not fail; and you, when you have turned back (after having denied even knowing Jesus), strengthen your brothers (fellow Apostles who deserted Me). Luke 22:32 NASB2020 parentheses mine.”

I believe that Peter was given this assignment, not as a promotion elevating him to a position of superiority or on-going administrative authority, but as a living example to his fellow apostles of how one can commit the most grievous sin (denying even knowing Jesus), be forgiven, and then move on and continue to serve the Lord.

The “binding and loosening” spoken of in Matt. 16: 20 has to do with the blessings or consequences of either believing or disbelieving the unadulterated Gospel Message that the Church would be commissioned to proclaim.


Note that at THAT time, “He gave the disciples strict orders that they were to tell no one that He was the Christ (Matthew 16: 20 NASB2020) ,” as this would only promote the erroneous idea that He had come (at that time) to bring political liberation and independence to the nation of Israel.

He came to be crucified in order to pay the world’s sin debt(4).

The millennium kingdom was thousands of years away. It will not be established until the Church Age (in which we are presently living, and the Tribulation period that follows, has come and gone. The Church was NOT to be built on the person of Peter, but on INDIVIDUAL declarations of faith (like the one Peter made in Matt. 16: 16) that will be made by those who would be born again over the course of the Church Age.

End of Part Two … (1) Matt. 16: 18 (2) Matt. 24: 14 (3) Matt. 28: 19, 20 (4) 1John 4: 2