Christ designated only a handful of individuals and gave them the powers to bind and loose (the "keys"), and they, through the Holy Spirit, in turn to those they designated to succeed them.
The New Testament is clear on that, as it is clear that the Church, left in the hands of Christ's hand-picked Apostles, established hierarchy.
The Faith celebrated in the Apostolic Church which was established by Christ in Person, was and is a continuation of one and the same faith handed down to the Patriarchs onward, and the liturgical makeup of the service (liturgy) is a continuation of the Jewish liturgical tradition.
As such, the Church never understood the service to be anything but that done by designated priests in a manner of offering a sacrifice, and not by self-styled bible-thumping "ministers."
Likewise, the Torah was not something everyone could just read and make up his or her own religion out of. That concept of scriptural interpretation by the priestly class was carried over into the Church of the New Covenant seamlessly.
Therefore all this is not some "invention" of the Catholic church, but a continuation of Judaic practices.
You are dealing with a figure of speech, poetic imagery
Really? And this is your interpretation I suppose, and therefore must be right? I don't see anything poetic in His commandment, nor any need for poetic license, but a simple command which is very clear: ethnos means a tribe or nation, and His Apostles were to make disciples of all the nations of the world (Jews and Gentiles alike).
I have a hard time believing you are using these mediocre arguments to support a human run organization having spiritual sovereignty of all the people in the world and a gatekeeper to God Almighty Himself
And I have even greater difficulty believing that some people can be so in love with themselves as to believe they are the true interpreters of everything and all, dismissing corporate knowledge of 2,000 years of an unbroken organism.
Contrary to your imagination, the Church carefully recorded everything it did. Fragmentary and complete documents serve as verifiable recordings as to what the early Church did, what the liturgy looked like, how it was done, etc.
The only oral Tradition you so vehemently object to is that of our Lord Jesus Christ, for He wrote nothing, and what was written about His unwritten teaching is in the Gospels, reduced to writing anywhere from 30 to 60 years after the Pentecost. Until the Gospels were written, the entire Church was run on oral tradition passed on by the Apostles' memory.
He did make that happen. I can, right now, kneel and pray to God and He will meet my need, unless it is selfish
He did NOT! And your example is disingenuous. I wrote "If Christ wanted everyone to read the Bible and interpret it as they please He would have made that happen." Clearly, historically, verifiably, He did not! Otherwise He would have given everyone a Bible, with the New Testament in it, just as he multiplied the fish, He would gave given enough Bibles for everyone to read. And He would have said "Read and understand!" He did not do that. He commissioned hand-picked men to do the work of "making disciples of all nations."
How do we know any oral "Tradition" was really preached?
Simple: we believe it. The Apostles preached orally what Christ preached orally until they wrote the Gospels. By all accounts, the earliest Gospels were not written until about 65 A.D., some 30 years after Christ, and for those 30 years all the Apostles who knew Him preached what he said from their memory. But, we believe that, guided by the Spirit, sent by the Father through the Son, at the pentecost, the Apostles' memories remained true and incorrupt. Otherwise, we couldn't trust the New Testament. We must presume that the authors of all the books of the Bible were "insipred" by the Holy Spirit; otherwise everything is up for criticism and doubt in the Bible.
You need to read the history of the Bible to get an idea when things came into play. Needless to say, after the Gospels were written, the Church never preached anything based on oral tradition.
When an individual, thought his own agency, can reach salvation and eternal life, by seeking the Kingdom, which is within each individual
What you are saying here is not Christianity. This is closer to Buddhism, imo. An individual can not reach his or her own salvation. Christianity teaches that only God saves. We are not instruments of our salvation.
I will agree with you that some sects are drifting toward the heretical fringe
Really? And how do you define "heresy?"
but, then, the Catholic church is awash is sin and sodomy
I am pinging annalex to answer that. This comment is out of line. I will ask you to prove that the "Catholic Church is awash in sin and sodomy." [but be careful lest you eat your own crow with feathers on this one].
So you can't refute what I said?
No, it was so silly I had to laugh out loud.
Jesus was all the time reasoning with the scribes and Pharisees over scripture
Then, maybe, you can explain to me by virtue of reason the mystery of Incarnation, or Resurrection, for starters.
Truth is, Christ never reasoned with anyone. He simply told them the correct interpretation and the truth. That's what we believe, and that's not something we arrived at by virtue of reason, just as we blindly believe that He was and is God the Word Incarnate, that He suffered and died on the Cross and on the third day resurrected. We have no logical or rational "explanation" for this. Faith based on reason is not religion but rationalism.
You cannot hear what I say
You are saying the only church is you (self). Actually, Christianity is a communion of souls. We are one in Christ, but the NT is also clear that this means one theology not billions of individual and relative theologies, just right for everyone's taste and comfort. Relativism is not what Christ preached. Relativism is what you preach, or so it seems to me.
You also deny that there is One true Church, the one that was founded by Christ and given to the Apostles. This, then, Apostolic Church, established by Christ, holds on to the teachings and traditions of the Apostles, and their unbroken line of episcopal successors, as documented in great detail, draws its authority from the Apostolic commission of its clergy, has been universal before the last of the Apostles died at the very end of the first century A.D. (we know because it was written, among others, by +Ignatius, bishop of Antioch — ordained bishop by none other than +Peter, the Apostle who walked and talked with Christ — who called it catholic) and ever since.
This, then Catholic and Apostolic Church, the only One commissioned by Christ, is the true Church which you deny and offer instead a multitude of "personal" churches, based on "inner feelings," and God knows what else.
I hear you. Trust me. I hear every word you say.