“Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
What do YOU think this means?
Why are you calling these words of Christ, “the slimmest of reeds”?
Are you claiming for yourself infallible interpretation of Scripture?
Well; a list of loosened things might be of help here...
I wonder if these guys were examples of Good Works in the Catholic Religious Organization:
Pope Stephen VI (896–897), who had his predecessor Pope Formosus exhumed, tried, de-fingered, briefly reburied, and thrown in the Tiber.[1]
Pope John XII (955–964), who gave land to a mistress, murdered several people, and was killed by a man who caught him in bed with his wife.
Pope Benedict IX (1032–1044, 1045, 1047–1048), who "sold" the Papacy
Pope Boniface VIII (1294–1303), who is lampooned in Dante's Divine Comedy
Pope Urban VI (1378–1389), who complained that he did not hear enough screaming when Cardinals who had conspired against him were tortured.[2]
Pope Alexander VI (1492–1503), a Borgia, who was guilty of nepotism and whose unattended corpse swelled until it could barely fit in a coffin.[3]
Pope Leo X (1513–1521), a spendthrift member of the Medici family who once spent 1/7 of his predecessors' reserves on a single ceremony[4]
Pope Clement VII (1523–1534), also a Medici, whose power-politicking with France, Spain, and Germany got Rome sacked.
What do YOU think this means?
Why are you calling these words of Christ, “the slimmest of reeds”?
Are you claiming for yourself infallible interpretation of Scripture?
I think I'll throw this in to the mix......
Here's the context of the passage in question....
Matthew 18:1-3 At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” 2 And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said,.....
Now drop down to the passage in question.
Matthew 18:15-20 “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.
If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.
Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”
OK, context here is that Jesus is talking about disputes between Christians (brothers) and that if one brother has something against another, he is to go and try to be reconciled. This is nothing about going to a priest to make confession, especially as the Catholic church teaches it.
So if someone offends me, I go to them to be reconciled. If we are, there is forgiveness and we agree on it and it is bound in the spiritual realm (heaven if you will). That settles the issue there and effectively closes the case. I think what happens is because it's settled, Satan can no longer access it for us in spiritual attack against either party.
The context indicates that it can be any believer because it's got to do with the parties involved. It does NOT say that we are to confess our sins to a priest to be absolved.