benefits are spreading more and more world wide, bringing life-giving knowledge of Jehovah God and of his reigning King Jesus Christ to the sheeplike people for their eternal salvation. (John 17:3) In God’s due time the remnant will finish their earthly ministry. According to the promise of Jesus Christ they will be united to him in heaven.—Luke 22:28-30.

34. How will those ministers then serve, and who on earth will get the benefits from God’s accomplished purpose of the new covenant?

³⁴ Then the “kingdom of priests” that God’s new covenant successfully produces will be complete. They will do kingly and priestly service With the great King-Priest, Jesus Christ, foreshadowed by Melchizedek. Then during the thousand years of Christ’s reign all the world of mankind, living and dead, will, as never before, get the benefits resulting from God’s having triumphantly accomplished the loving purpose of his new covenant.—Rev. 20:4-6; 21:3, 4.

Does Peter Now Use the Keys of the Kingdom?

IT IS a common belief fostered by some of the religious systems of Christendom that Peter is the gatekeeper in heaven, and that one can be either admitted by Peter at the gate or rejected. It is true that Peter is now in heaven, for he was a faithful disciple and apostle of Jesus Christ and died a faithful death. He had to await in death in the grave, however, for many centuries until the second coming of Jesus Christ to God’s spiritual temple, just as did the faithful apostle Paul. (2 Tim. 4:8) In 1918 he was resurrected to the heavens along with the other faithful members of Christ’s congregation who had died prior to that time. But Peter is no gatekeeper. Those who are resurrected to the heavens with Christ are to reign as kings and priests with him during the thousand-year reign. Then Peter will sit on a heavenly throne as one of 144,000 associate kings, members of the body of Christ, who share with him in his kingly and priestly rule.—Rev. 14:1-3; 20:6; Luke 22:28-30.

The questions therefore arise, What does Jesus mean when he says to Peter: “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of the heavens”? (Matt. 16:19) What are the keys? How many are there? When were they used and for what? Who benefits from the use of the keys?

Jesus gave us a clue to what the keys open up when he said to the Jewish Pharisees: “Woe to you who are versed in the Law, because you took away the key of knowledge; you yourselves did not go in, and those going in you hindered!” (Luke 11:52) The keys, then, would have something to do with unlocking knowledge. They would unlock something that had been previously locked up for centuries. They would have to do with the sacred secret of God, his administration of the universe by his heavenly kingdom. (Rom. 16:25;