[Iscool]

You also disagree with Jesus about having a “personal” relationship with him. He told the apostles, “Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them. Whose sins you shall retain, they are retained.”

In other words, Jesus gave the apostles the power to JUDGE, and then to forgive or refuse forgiveness.

Now, it would clearly be preposterous for Jesus to give this power to the apostles unless the faithful were going to TELL their sins to the apostles.

So, in John’s gospel, Jesus clearly says that our relationship with him here on earth is not absolutely direct, but is mediated by certain men.

But for those of us who read and believe the bible we see that in Hebrews that the church is directed to go directly to the T hrone of Grace to find mercy and help...And we know the one on that Throne is Jesus...

And Jesus told Paul to tell us in Romans for those cases where we don't know what to pray, the Holy Spirit inside of us prays to God for us...He certainly doesn't pray to a priest or bishop...

1Jn 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

That's a guarantee...I don't see where a priest can intervene and deny any forgiveness, do you???

Joh 5:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.

According to what Jesus says here neither you nor any other man can deny forgiveness to anyone...

[narses]

He told the apostles, “Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them. Whose sins you shall retain, they are retained.”

[boatbums]

It's almost pointless to try to explain to dyed-in-the-wool Roman Catholics that the way they have been taught to understand certain verses of Scripture doesn't necessarily mean that it is what these passages actually say. They read that Jesus said to Peter, "...on this rock I will build my church...", and that automatically MUST mean Peter is the foundation of the church - the Catholic one, of course. We can show them that many of their OWN church fathers and doctors taught it was Peter's profession of faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God that the church/body/bride of Christ would be built upon - that Jesus is the ROCK, but they mostly ignore them.

They MUST ignore them because they also believe Peter was the first "Pope" of Rome and will claim that they can trace ALL their Popes back to him, even though that is NOT factual and cannot be verified. There WAS no universal Pope for centuries after the last Apostle died. And even IF they could be, that doesn't automatically confer "Apostleship" on every man (or woman) that came after him or that he has an "infallibility" gift to declare true doctrine outside of what Scripture teaches. There were some pretty unsavory (putting it nicely) characters that played as Pope over the years - certainly NOT the kind that Jesus would have anointed and sent out to evangelize.

Jesus Christ is the Rock upon which our faith rests (not a church) and He is the chief cornerstone upon which the spiritual house of His body is built of which we ALL as believers are like living stones:

As you come to Him, the living stone, rejected by men, but chosen and precious in God’s sight, you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture: “See, I lay in Zion a stone, a chosen and precious cornerstone; and the one who believes in Him will never be put to shame. (I Peter 2:4-6)

Expect the barbs that will be shot at us because what they hold unto is based upon human pride and not the word of God. Because we believe in Jesus we will NEVER be put to shame. PTL!

[Arthur McGowan]

According to what Jesus says here neither you nor any other man can deny forgiveness to anyone...

"Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them. Whose sins you shall retain, they are retained." If you can't see that you are contradicting these explicit words of Jesus, you are wasting your time owning a Bible--or any other printed material. http://biblehub.com/john/20-23.htm