Yes he was. And the Lord said to him as reported in
Matthew 16:19:
"I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven."
Yes, it's true, the exact words from the Holy Scriptures. These are not my words, but those of Jesus Christ, God Incarnate on this earth. If you have a problem with them as written, you will need to take it up with Him (Jesus) in the hereafter.
Jesus Knows I know what He meant and who and what He was Speaking to and about, when:
..."the Lord said to him as reported in
Matthew 16:19:
"I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven."
...
This is a similar Teaching to what Jesus Said about 'Forgiveness of sins":
John 20:19-23
19 It was the first day of the week, and that very evening, while the disciples were together with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them. “Peace be with you!” He said to them.
20 After He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
21 Again Jesus said to them, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent Me, so also I am sending you.”
22 When He had said this, He breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.
23 If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld.”
...
The 'keys to The Kingdom' is The Gospel.
Jesus Gave His Gospel to His Churches, as a Divinely Instituted Organism and Organization.
Jesus Gave His church that He Had Built, "The Great Commission", including The Gospel, by which lost souls could be Saved.
Peter was an Apostle and a Scripturally Baptised member of The church Jesus Established and Commissioned and Gave The keys to The Kingdom to.
Jesus Gave the keys to The Kingdom and The Great Commission to His Kind of church and Promised to be with them until the End of The Age.
That Promise was Given to His church, as a Divine Entity, not any individual person, at all.
All those members of that church Jesus Built eventually died.
Jesus' Bride has never died.
Those are His Kind of churches.
The woman who fled into the wilderness.
...
Here is, just plain, straightforward, sober, Bible Interpretation,
of
John 20:23,
Gill
Whose soever sins ye remit
God only can forgive sins,
and Christ being God, has a power to do so likewise;
but he never communicated any such power to his apostles;
nor did they ever assume any such power to themselves, or pretend to exercise it;
it is the mark of antichrist, to attempt anything of the kind;
who, in so doing, usurps the divine prerogative, places himself in his seat, and shows himself as if he was God:
but this is to be understood only in a doctrinal, or ministerial way, by preaching the full and free remission of sins, through the blood of Christ, according to the riches of God's grace, to such as repent of their sins, and believe in Christ; declaring, that all such persons as do so repent and believe, all their sins are forgiven for Christ's sake: and accordingly,
they are remitted unto them;
in agreement with Christ's own words, in his declaration and commission to his disciples; see (
Mark 16:16 ) (
Luke 24:47).
On the other hand he signifies, that
whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained:
that is, that whatsoever sins ye declare are not forgiven, they are not forgiven; which is the case of all final unbelievers, and impenitent sinners; who dying without repentance towards God, and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, according to the Gospel declaration, shall be damned, and are damned; for God stands by, and will stand by and confirm the Gospel of his Son, faithfully preached by his ministering servants;
...and all the world will sooner or later be convinced of the validity, truth, and certainty, of the declarations on each of these heads, made by them.
...
Jesus Gave His churches, as a Corporate Institution, The keys to The Kingdom, which was The Gospel, which The Holy Ghost Could Give Power to 'remit' sins.
The Power to bind and loose is The Doctrine of Church Discipline, Given to The Lord's churches, not The Apostles, or any individual, either.
...
I don't know if anyone on this board believes the Bible Teaching concerning the word, 'church', and it's Bible usage and meaning.
So, that is where Satan has Bible readers, here.
That would be a place to start to learn something about what God Says in The Bible about Jesus' churches that has apparently been lost.
It's as if the Testimony of most on this board is that The Two Witnesses, of The Lord's churches and The Preservation of The Inspiration of Scripture, are Dead in the street.
What about that?