Your comment: “One would hope people would see the folly in this. Christ died for all sins and we are reconciled to Him when we accepted Him.”
So are you saying that when someone accepts God, then they do not commit sins after that time and thus there is no need to forgive these sins? How does one go from being a sinner to not being a sinner? Hoe does one achieve perfection in the eyes of the Lord?
Why did Jesus tell the apostles, “As the Father has sent me, even so I send you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained” (John 20:2123)? (This is one of only two times we are told that God breathed on man, the other being in Genesis 2:7, when he made man a living soul. It emphasizes how important the establishment of the sacrament of penance was.)
Please explain the following: “If God has already forgiven all of a mans sins, or will forgive them all (past and future) upon a single act of repentance, then it makes little sense to tell the apostles they have been given the power to “retain” sins, since forgiveness would be all-or-nothing and nothing could be “retained.”
When someone accepts CHRIST, they become the children of God, born into His family.
Nobody ever said that people don't sin after that. we all sin every day, but the record of our debt, all of it, was canceled in a judicial pardon by God.
We don't become perfect in this life but that doesn't matter. We're still God's child, still adopted into His family, and still saved.
The way we achieve perfection in the eyes of God is to accept Christ. We are then clothed in Him, and God sees the righteousness of Christ on us and sees us as perfect as Christ.
People commit sins before and after they come to Christ. The difference is, according to 1 John is that people do not "practice" sinning.
...Please explain the following: If God has already forgiven all of a mans sins, or will forgive them all (past and future) upon a single act of repentance, then it makes little sense to tell the apostles they have been given the power to retain sins, since forgiveness would be all-or-nothing and nothing could be retained.
You are making an assumption that the message in John was only to the apostles. If you read Luke 24:33 you will find it states:
Scripture also teaches that only God can forgive sin (Mark 2:7)
So what did Christ mean when He stated:
The way Catholics would interpret this would mean that 1) if some are going to hell then Catholics are withholding forgiveness from some, or 2) no one is going to hell because no one is withholding forgiveness. Each of these lines of reasoning is simply wrong.
A more simplier and harmounious interpretation is that Christ is saying if Christians declare that those who genuinely repent and believe the gospel, they will have their sins forgiven by God. Those who don't repent will die in their sins and they will go to hell.
It is no different then the following: