THE KEYS OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN.
By W. A. Spicer
[W. A. Spicer, in Present Truth.] WHAT did Christ mean when He said, "I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven"? We well know the priestly interpretation, by which a certain class of men assume the power to open or to shut heaven to the sinner. There was just such a priestly caste in Christ's day. He pronounced the wo upon the scribes and Pharisees: "Because ye shut the kingdom of heaven against men; for ye enter not in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering in to enter." Matt. 23:13. How did they shut the kingdom of heaven against men? Luke's report of this same wo tells us: "Wo unto you, lawyers! for ye took away the key of knowledge; ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered." Luke 11:52. Of what knowledge, then, had they taken away the key?—The knowledge of the kingdom of heaven. What gives us the knowledge of that kingdom?—The Word of God, the Scriptures, received by faith. How had the priests and doctors of the law taken away the key from the people, seeing that they had the Scriptures in every synagogue? Christ told them: "Ye have made void the Word of God because of your tradition." "Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God because of your tradition?" Matt. 15:3. The Word of God has been covered by the traditions of men, by church customs of human invention. Christ swept these aside and gave the people again the simple Word of God, the Holy Scriptures, the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Thank God we have the key! It is the Word of the living God, with no admixture of human tradition. Use this key! There are treasures of truth for this day, and God entrusts every soul with the key to all that heaven has to give now, and the same key is the way into the eternal kingdom to come. Yes, this blessed Word of God supplies the key to every problem of the soul. Is it a question as to where we stand in the world's history?—"There shall be signs." Luke 21:25. "Ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief." 1 Thess. 5:4. What is the work for Christians in these times when the spirit of war is filling all the nations? In Rev. 14:6-14 is the key to the situation, the message that all Christians ought to be giving in all the earth. Has God an answer for the spirit of lawlessness in these last days?—It is indicated in the prophecies of God's Word, showing that to meet latter-day lawlessness, the Gospel worker in these times will be lifting up the standard of the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus, and calling upon the people to turn from tradition to the plain Word of God. Rev. 12:17; 14:12; Isa. 56:1, 2; 58:12-14. The Pharisees thought Christ was bringing in new ideas, and that they themselves were standing for the old. It was exactly the reverse. They stood for the traditions and the commandments of men that had covered over the Word of God. Christ swept these all aside and stood for the Word and the commandments of God. He thus gave the keys of the kingdom of heaven to His followers, and His Word to us to-day is to take the same key and enter in. What a treasure of truth His holy Word unlocks to the one who will but use the key!