You can try to spin it all you want but the simple answer is....and always has been.... that you folks picked the wrong horse. You should have called Paul your first Pope and then your shaky ground would have been a little more firm.
Don't get me wrong. Paul would not have participated in such a sham either....but at least you folks wouldn't look so silly trying to convince the uninformed of your false traditions!
Does not the Scripture you quote relate to Jesus’ instruction to the disciples relate to the Galilean ministry? Taken absolutely, the Church would never have grown beyond Galilee, but the other Scriptures you offer tells us it had been extended to Asia, and not by Paul’s work alone. Make up your minds.