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Heidelberg Catechism, Question 83

Question 83

What are the keys of the kingdom of heaven?

The preaching of the holy gospel, and Christian discipline, or the excommunication out of the Christian Church: by these two the kingdom of heaven is opened to believers, and shut against unbelievers. (Matt; 18;18).

Scripture references for paragraph 1

Berean Standard Bible. Public domain text and source credits.

Matthew 18:18

18Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

Matthew 16:19

19I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

John 20:22

22When He had said this, He breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.

John 20:23

23If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld.”

2 Corinthians 10:4-6

4The weapons of our warfare are not the weapons of the world. Instead, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.

5We tear down arguments and every presumption set up against the knowledge of God; and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

6And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, as soon as your obedience is complete.

Source and edition

Heidelberg Catechism. RCA English, E. R. Good & Bro., Tiffin, 1879. RCA English, E. R. Good & Bro., Tiffin, 1879

Public Domain (historic text); CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikisource transcription). Source transcription.

Transcription licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0.

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