He never gave priests any authority to forgive sins. Please give me a scripture that would give you this impression. Peter was not a catholic and He was also not given the authority to forgive sins.
Jason, please listen! Christ clearly, undoubtedly gave Peter the keys to heaven. Matthew 16:19
“I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven;
whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
Peter had this power, and passed it on by the laying on of hands. Apostolic succession is a part of the “Whatever” that Christ promised Peter. That process is documented in Acts. Google the list of Popes. No, they weren’t always called that, but they all
did that. Every Catholic priest can trace his ordination back to one of the twelve Apostles. Think about that for a minute. That is an unbroken line of Apostolic succession-again, it started in Acts to replace Judas with Barnabas, and has continued to this day.
" the Catholic Church’s worldwide recorded membership at the end of 2005 was 1,114,966,000, approximately one-sixth of the world’s population.[4][5][6]" That narrow gate is going to be stretched beyond its limits.
You sound almost like a Jehovah’s Witness
. Lord have mercy! How small and impotent is your god,
if that’s true.
Do catholics believe that the catholic church is the only way to christ?
It is the way that Christ Himself established. You know of a better way? You
might be saved if you wilfully remain outside of his church. I cannot take that chance.
Do catholics believe that all catholics are Christians?
First: catholic means “universal”, that was the name given to it by the second century (way before the phony date in the 400s that someone told you). Of course Catholics are Christians, if they were properly baptized using the trinitarian formula. Their level of faith and devotion will be judged by Christ.
WHO COME IN MAY SEE THE LIGHT.
OK, so which “church” must we join, and vow allegiance to
before we “see the light”? Christ taught the public in open spaces, and taught the devout Jews in the Temples and Synagogues. No one had to perform a secret handshake or vow allegiance
before they could see the light. Christ is light to all.
Mathew 16 has nothing to do with the catholic church and I have not come to condemn anyone (except the Church!-po18guy). That is not any of our jobs including the popes, none but our Lord have that authority (true) . I have come to learn why you believe what you believe. From the time of the first pope in 440ad till around the 16th cent. the catholic church Was in control of the majority of the world.
Where in
hell did these ideas come from? The evil one? Since you already “know” so much about the church, are you really here to learn? Since ALL of your “facts” so far are untrue, someone has apparently lied to you about “catholicism” popping up in the 400s, about the Popes condemning anyone, about basically everything. And, what convenient lies! Catholicism “invented” right after the canon of scripture was settled at Nicea. How convenient! Even Luther gave credit to the Catholic church for scripture, and you should as well.
You believe that satan exists, right? Which church does he hate, and come against continually? The false churches? NO! They are actually helping him by leading the faithful away from the truth. He comes against the truth. He is even now trying to destroy the One Church from within by corrupting some of the faithful, and he is trying to destroy it from without, by lying to believers such as yourself.
