The Keys

Matt 16:19 “And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

The Family has a unique interpretation of the ‘Keys of the Kingdom’. Alone among Christians they believe these keys to be a mighty spiritual force available to those with enough faith. Or rather, available to Family members with enough faith, as other Christians haven’t even heard of them, and therefore do not believe.

Family members have been given hundreds of pages of material published on the keys, they are encouraged to memorise hundreds of specific ‘key promises’, to visualise the keys, call on the keys in prayer, and use them in any and every situation to obtain great spiritual power, supernatural strength and miraculous answers to prayer. The keys are, according to Family publications produced over the last five years, one of the biggest revelations God has imparted to mankind since Jesus’ first coming, or certainly in recent years. The Family is told that these keys are far more than a new prayer to memorise, far greater than anything previously possible. They are divine, they are ‘one with Jesus and the Word’, they are ‘magical’. The keys have become a core Family doctrine changing the way members pray, praise and see themselves.

Because of the immense power attributed to the keys, due to the crucial role imputed to them, and as they have been assigned such a pivotal position in Family members’ lives it becomes vital to ask the question, How do they fit into God’s plan as revealed in the Bible? It is a Biblical principle to test everything with Scripture. Jesus told the Pharisees that if they searched the Scriptures they would discover that the Old Testament spoke of Him. When Paul brought the Gospel to the Bereans, they dug into their Bibles to check out this new doctrine. After diligently studying their Bibles, the Bereans believed. Searching the Scriptures is especially important when it comes to new revelations, new doctrines we think the Lord has revealed. Have a look in Matthew 24 to see how many times we are warned to watch out for the Devil’s deceit in the end time.

The Keys and the Bible

When attempting to discuss this topic from a Biblical standpoint we run into an immediate problem, which is so significant that it is worth commenting on. We cannot make a study on ‘calling on the keys’ or ‘keycraft’ or on ‘using key promises’ etc because the keys are not in the Bible. Now of course Matthew 16:19 mentions ‘the keys of the kingdom of heaven’, and there are a few other passages in the Bible where the word ‘keys’ is used. However there is no question about this point, even in the publications sent to every member. The ‘keys of the kingdom’ as used by the Family, as a great and mighty spiritual force, as the end-time prayer-facilitator, as a vehicle for unlimited spiritual power unleashed in these last days, cannot be found in the Bible. The ‘keys of the kingdom’ as used in the Family are strictly a ‘revelation’ given specifically to the Family. ‘Calling on the keys’ is not in the Bible, and the publications do not attempt to say it is. The ‘keys’ are a revelation.

So how do we study something that’s not there? How are we supposed to ‘study to show ourselves approved unto God’ when the object of our contemplations can’t be found? And, importantly, what conclusions can we draw from the fact that the keys are absent from the Bible?

Please note that the purpose of this web site is to examine Family doctrines from a Biblical standpoint, not a ‘Family’ standpoint. Therefore there will be no quotes from GNs, no ML portions, no excerpts from Family publications used in this study. The authors of the material published here believe that the Bible is the ultimate standard of measurement, and before we mention any other writing, before we bring up any other teaching or prophecy we must take a long hard look through the Bible to see how things stand up. The Bible is the foundation of Christian faith, not Martin Luther’s writings, not the Pope’s encyclicals, and not the GNs. Family members are Christians because they believe John 3:16 not ‘Diamonds of Dust’. Conversely any Family members who have lost faith in the Bible cannot be called Christian no matter how strongly they adhere to every word the Family ever published. Therefore on this page we will confine ourselves to Bible study, not ML study.

Heb 4:1-2

1 Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it.

2 For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.

So, even though we hear the Bible, if we do not believe it, we cannot enter into the glorious peace of God, knowing that our sins are forgiven.

Prov 13:13-14

13 He who despises the word will be destroyed, but he who fears the commandment will be rewarded.

14 The law of the wise is a fountain of life, to turn one away from the snares of death.

It is eternally self-destructive to despise or neglect the words of God in the Bible. Doing so proves that we are not of God.

John 8:47 “He who is of God hears God’s words; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God.”

A disbelief in the Bible also indicates our ultimate destination.

1 Cor 1:18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

Here’s a passage showing that we may read the Bible, but if the Bible does not ‘abide in us’ we won’t even want to come to Jesus. Note that here, Jesus was referring to the Old Testament. There is not the slightest suggestion that when Jesus says, ‘His word’ or ‘Scripture’ that He includes extra-Biblical teachings about God. Scripture is Scripture; read it in the Bible. If the Bible does not burn in our heart, if the Bible does not pull us to Jesus the Christ, if we reject the Bible as being ‘out of date’ or ‘not applicable’ we therefore have not come to Jesus and cannot be called ‘Christian’.

John 5:38-40

38 “But you do not have His word abiding in you, because whom He sent, Him you do not believe.

39 “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.

40 “But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.

Hence, in this study, and the others published on this site, we will let the Bible speak for itself. There is no need to compare it with quotes from MLs or excerpts from GNs. We will examine the Bible. As believers, we are required to do that. As we do so, we will find that the Bible can speak for itself. It does not need other people’s writings to prop it up − be they Family writings or those of the authors of this web site. Everyone is, of course, free to accept or reject what they read on this site. However, we reject the words of the Bible at our eternal peril!

Also, this particular study will examine the keys themselves, and will not address principles for new revelations. There is also a discussion on revelations received in prophecy posted on this site. Consequently, arguments such as ‘God showed it to us in prophecy’ or ‘It’s a special revelation’ or ‘I read such and such in a GN’ are irrelevant to this study.

Unless otherwise stated, this doctrine will be referred to as ‘the keys’. So, when there is a reference to ‘the keys’ on this page, in general it will refer to the Family doctrine of mighty spiritual power specially bestowed to the Family through ‘calling on the keys’. So when there is a statement like, ‘the keys are not in the Bible’ it is understood that we are talking about the Family interpretation of or revelation concerning the phrase mentioned in Matthew 16:19.

Returning to our earlier question, what is the significance of the keys’ absence from the Bible?

The key’s absence

The Bible is the living Word of God. It is the manifestation in paper and ink of what Jesus manifested in flesh and blood. Jesus is the Word made flesh, incarnate. The Bible contains the life and power of God. As such, it is all-important and therefore the first conclusion we can draw from the fact that the keys are not in the Bible is that they are inessential. Essential doctrines are in the Bible. Everything else falls into the ‘take-it-or-leave-it’ category.

So, if we live a Bible-centred life we do not need to worry about the keys. Follow the Bible and we will have God’s power manifested through us, we’ll bear much fruit, we’ll show the fruits of the Holy Spirit, we’ll be given gifts of the Holy Spirit. We’ll live the most spirit-filled, Holy-Spirit-powerful, fruit-bearing exciting happy life we could ever possibly imagine without ever calling on a single key. We won’t miss out on anything, we will never be lacking in God’s power, His strength will be always available to us. We won’t need ‘more power’ because we have God’s power. We will never be unprotected because we’ll have His angels watching over us. We will have Jesus Himself in us helping us to grow, learn, decide. There is absolutely nothing whatsoever that we would miss out on. The keys are inessential. That is, the Family doctrine of the keys being a revealed spiritual entity, a mighty yet freely accessible spiritual force, an extra, fourth, quasi-member of the trinity, this doctrine, so unique to the Family cannot be counted as an ‘essential’ doctrine. We don’t need it.

There is one other possibility that must be stated when discussing any extra-Biblical doctrine. There is the possibility that the keys do not exist. Maybe the Family prophets were mistaken or misled when they received messages on this doctrine.

Note to any current Family members reading this: please do not allow yourself to be offended at this statement, because any honest Bible student must take as his first question, ‘Is it right or wrong, is this truth or error?’ When judging whether the keys are a true doctrine or a false doctrine, you cannot use any Family publication as the basis for your faith, because it is the Bible that is the Word that shall never pass away. It is the Bible that is the standard for measurement, and if a doctrine cannot pass the Bible test, no matter how many prophecies are published on the topic, that doctrine must be discarded as untenable.

We also cannot take supposed answers to prayer as proof. Remember that the Devil will do miracles specifically to deceive Christians.

Matt 24:24 “For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.

We must look to the Bible for our decision regarding the keys, not to MLs, not to testimonies of miracles, not to personal prophecies we receive. Just the Bible. God did not give us the freedom to invent our own doctrines. He expects us to receive and believe those He had written down in the Bible.

Where is the Power?

Col 2:6-10

6 As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him,

7 rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.

8 Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.

9 For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily;

10 and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.

Jesus Christ is the foundation for our faith. We are planted in Him. We send down roots, we grow, we bear fruit. We must constantly be on guard that we are not deceived by false teachings. And verse 9 says that all God’s power, all His majesty, all His might is in Jesus. Verse 10 is the amazing one, though: we are complete in Him. The ASV says ‘in Him ye are made full’; the NIV says ‘you have been given fullness in Christ’. As we walk in Jesus, as we let Him live in us, we allow Him to express all of His fullness. His mighty power floods through us, filling us fuller than ever possible in any other way.

Jesus has all the mighty power of God, and through Him we likewise have access. As He is in us and we in Him, He works through us and in us and by us.

Matt 28:18-20

18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

(KJV)

Jesus has all power. Our job is to teach, His job is to be with us in power and authority. It is not our job to do the miracles, heal the sick, raise the dead. That’s His job. Our job is to go and witness, teach, baptise. As we yield to Him His power pours through us accomplishing whatever He wants to do.

1 Pet 3:22 who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to Him.

Jesus rules! And that means rules! Everything is subject to Him, including angels, worldly governments, each one of us, and any spiritual power whatsoever (eg the keys). Check out the authority He has in this next passage!

Eph 1:19-23

19 and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power

20 which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,

21 far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.

22 And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church,

23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

He fills all in all. TLB: He is the Author and Giver of everything everywhere. NIV: He fills everything in every way.

The point is that there is no greater power than that Jesus has, and if we call on anything else we inevitably get less. To spell it out, call on the keys instead of calling on Jesus and we cut ourself short. We just don’t get all Jesus has. We can’t say, “Well, I call on the keys in Jesus’ name” because the phrase ‘in Jesus’ name’ is not a magic spell, an abracadabra that transforms wrong to right, a formula to ensure compliance with Scripture. Remember the people in Matthew 7:22 who did many wonderful things ‘in Jesus’ name’ and yet were rejected from the kingdom of heaven? Jesus Himself has all power over all powers. The keys cannot be an alternate source of power, no matter how they are described. They might be a far inferior power, they might be powerless, they might even be ‘negative’ power, but they cannot possibly have as much power as is available through calling on God in Jesus’ name, through letting Jesus Christ Himself live in us.

Another note to current Family members: please do not allow yourselves to be offended at the mention of the possibility that the keys have ‘negative’ power. The purpose of this web site is to examine Family doctrines from a Biblical perspective. There will be no personal attacks published here, whether on individual members, past or present leadership, or on your own personal day to day life. By making the above statement we are not suggesting that you are praying to the Devil. We are, however, outlining the alternatives possible concerning the doctrine of the keys, or indeed any new, extra-Biblical, ‘revealed’ doctrine promising to give power to believers. According to what we have read so far, any such doctrine, definitely and specifically including the keys, must fall into one of the three categories mentioned: far less power than Jesus, no power at all, or the power of the enemy.

John 17:2 “as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him.

Jesus has all authority. He told us to abide in Him. Calling on the keys can only dilute the power available to us.

Does Jesus Work through the Keys?

What if Jesus has confined Himself to operating through the keys? Couldn’t we just say that Jesus uses the keys as some kind of agent to transmit His power? Then we could happily call on the keys knowing that we are accessing Jesus’ power, not some inferior power and certainly not the Devil’s power.

The simple answer to this question is that this theory is not in the Bible. The Bible does talk at length about miraculous answers to prayer, the power of the Holy Spirit manifested through God’s children etc, but it does not say that Jesus send His power through the keys. As we are studying the Bible, we must be careful to state plainly what is there, and what isn’t there. As mentioned previously, revelations published in GNs are irrelevant to the purposes of this discussion. Does Jesus say in the Bible, ‘I will manifest My power as you call on the keys’? No, He does not.

Secondly, if the keys were merely the conduit of Jesus’ own power, they would be superfluous. There would be no point in using the keys when we could by-pass the whole rigmarole and obtain any and everything we needed directly. Saying that the keys are merely the vehicle for the same power available to all Christians immediately makes them redundant.

Thirdly, the reason that there is such an emphasis on the keys in current Family life and teachings is that they have been loudly and emphatically proclaimed to be the means whereby members may access greater power than otherwise available. The Family teaches that we can get more power by calling on the keys than by simply praying in Jesus’ name, claiming Bible verses etc. So, if we say that the keys are no more than the manifestation of Jesus’ own power, we instantly negate the possibility of ‘greater power’. The keys are proclaimed to have a life of their own, almost like a fourth member of the Trinity, to bestow extra power upon believers who call on them. Therefore we cannot say that we are merely praying to Jesus, to get the same power as before.

The Authority given to Believers

Matt 18:18-20

18 “Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

19 “Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven.

20 “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.”

Do believers walk around doing miracles whenever and wherever they choose? Has the authority been given to Christians to choose when and where God will do a miracle? Do Christians control the power of God manifest on earth? No, the power promised in verses 18 and 19 can only come because of the conditions stated in verse 20. The verses are connected. Jesus did not walk around handing out individual promises from His heavenly promise box. He came to show us the plan, how everything fits together, how we can access eternal life, how we sinners can enter the presence of God. The things He said fit together. And He gives power to bind and to loose, to move the hand of God only as He is in the midst of us. We have no power unless Jesus manifests it through us, unless the Holy Spirit pours forth in our lives.

John 15:5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.

The power in Christians comes as Jesus works through them, not as they conjure up their own supernatural abilities. ‘When I am weak, then I am strong’. Remember that the man who said that lived a life overflowing with miracles and power.

1 Cor 1:27-29

27 But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty;

28 and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are,

29 that no flesh should glory in His presence.

God has chosen the weak things, that no flesh should glory in His presence. The miracles come only as His power burst through our weakness. 1 Corinthians 12 describes many spiritual gifts available, but makes it very clear that they are all manifestations of the Holy Spirit, not our own spirit. Read the chapter (1 Cor 12) and see how many times we are told that it is the Spirit that is responsible for the various manifestations.

In every situation where the Lord gives power to believers, it is the Holy Spirit who moves through them. Jesus promised that they would be clothed with Holy Spirit power.

Luke 24:49 I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.” (NIV)

The Holy Spirit is like clothing, it covers us with anointing so that Jesus may work through us. It is not us. We are not transformed into superhuman beings with angelic powers, rather we are weak and base creatures who’ve been given the gift of being the means whereby Jesus may work. Not only the power but also the control of the power rests in Jesus’ hands.

“The Keys are Jesus; they are the Word”

Again, there is a simple response to this statement. This grand pronouncement is not in the Bible. The Bible shows all truth, or at least it shows all the important truth. An affirmation with such far-reaching consequences cannot be thrown about lightly as if it was of the same order as a statement like, “Well, the Bible doesn’t say if we may drive cars or not!” Asserting that the keys are Jesus, that the keys are ‘one with the Word’ is assigning such importance to this doctrine that the Trinity is no longer a trinity but a quaternity. A doctrine of this immense magnitude must be in the Bible or it cannot be true.

As it is not in the Bible, it is impossible to defend.

Other symbolic keys mentioned in the Bible

‘Keys’ are used figuratively or symbolically several times in the Bible apart from Matthew 16:19.

Luke 11:52 “Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter in yourselves, and those who were entering in you hindered.”

Rev 1:18 “I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.

Rev 3:7 “And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write, `These things says He who is holy, He who is true, “He who has the key of David, He who opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens”:

Rev 9:1 Then the fifth angel sounded: And I saw a star fallen from heaven to the earth. To him was given the key to the bottomless pit.

While there is great debate about the interpretation of some of these passages (particularly the passage written to the church in Philadelphia), there is one very clear fact: there is not the slightest suggestion that these keys are in any way connected with each other or with the passage in Matthew 16. None of these Scriptures indicate great power given to believers, none signify an extra means of Christians appropriating power, none testify to a mysterious entity ‘one with Jesus and the Word’. It would be a gross misuse of Scriptures to link them together in support of the Family’s doctrine.

Conclusion

The most significant fact about the Family doctrine of the keys is one that instantly consigns it to the ‘unimportant’ bin: this doctrine is extra-Biblical. It is wholly unsupported and utterly without Biblical foundation. It just isn’t there. The only reason it does not remain in the ‘unimportant’ bin, slowly collecting dust, is that the Family has insisted on holding it aloft, loudly trumpeting that it is a crucial, epochal, earth-shaking new Christian doctrine. Remember, we are looking at the keys from the position that the Bible is the standard by which we judge all truth and error. We look at principles for new revelations elsewhere, in a separate study on this site, because regardless of the conclusions drawn from examining what the Bible says about prophetic new revelations, the Bible must still be the criterion for determining whether the keys are truth. If this doctrine does not stand when confronted with Scripture, we may not cling to it, regardless of the quantity of prophecies published about it.

The very fact that the Family elevates this doctrine to such magnitude is grounds for discarding it as potentially dangerous. Magnifying something out of all intended proportion causes us to lose perspective on the things that are of true value. When we place an exaggerated worth on one item in our spiritual collection, we neglect the others. The danger lies in neglecting what the Lord in the Bible has already shown us to do in favour of a minor theory that should in no way have any bearing on our Christian life.

This is similar to the case of the defrocked priest so fixated on the endtime that he disrupted the marathon in Athens, or those so convinced that heaven is already full of the 144,000 that they themselves have no place, or the Mormons who place such emphasis on the revelations sent directly to their founders that their Christianity does not extend below the surface, or the Jehovah’s Witnesses who have re-written the entire Bible to accommodate some of their doctrines which unfortunately were not supported in the original, or the scientologists or the Moonies and so on and so on.

The Bible is the core and foundation of our belief. The instant it does not occupy that place, we may no longer refer to ourselves as Christians. Christians are defined as those who follow the teachings of Jesus Christ as revealed in the Bible. Now, of course God still speaks, don’t misunderstand that point. But we cannot put this strongly enough. Family members must believe the Bible first and foremost. It is the Bible that is the inalterable eternal Word of God upon which we depend for salvation, for the plan of God, for the mind of Christ. It is the Bible alone that is the foundation rock of our life. If we build on any other foundation apart from the Bible, including teachings from famous Christians, including Biblical commentaries, including the explanatory writings published on this web site, including GNs and MLs, our life will not withstand the storms, we will never have sufficient strength, faith, courage, and worst of all, most horrific, when it comes our time to stand before the Lord we will watch in dismay as our good works turn to ashes and smoke.

Conclusion? Live the Bible. Is the Family’s key doctrine there? No.

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