Allah is being very bad again. I just hope that there's no resurrection.

"A church that is unwilling to use the binding key has no business using the loosing key."

What is the Office of the Keys?

The office of the keys is that special authority which Christ has given to his church on earth to forgive the sins of repentant sinners, but to withhold forgiveness from the unrepentant as long as they do not repent.

Where is this written?

St. John the Evangelist writes in chapter 20: The Lord Jesus breather on His disciples and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven." [John 20:22-23]

What do you believe according to these words?

I believe when the called ministers of Christ deal with us by his divine command, in particular when they exclude openly unrepentant sinners from the Christian congregation and absolve those who repent of their sins and want to do better, this is just as valid and certain, even in heaven, as if Christ our dear Lord dealt with us himself.--Luther's Small Catechism, p. 27, 1986, CPH

Before I really went to the meat of what I was going for with that earlier statement, I thought that a short review of what the Office of the Keys is, and there is no better place than Luther's Small Catechism. I am going to hold off on where I am going, however. Let me just say this: I'm going somewhere with this that no one would expect me to, not even pastors.

Update: Because of the above link, Allah has finally made his way onto my blog roll.