Okay, I apologise for not looking up the following scripture references but I’m taking a few minutes of studying for my exams tommorow. As this is a particularly good question I feel I must answer. When Jesus gave the Apostles the authority to bind and loose (the entire college, not just Peter this time) he breathed on them. Not since Adam has God breathed on man! This shows the gravity of the power they received. Further if such a power was so great, so grave so as to make it justifiable to make immortal God breathe into sinful man it is near laughable to even suggest that such a power was meant only for the Apostolic age. Case and point, why would Jesus give a power to his Apostles using one of the if not the most powerful symbols/conveyors of grace in Biblical history, God’s own breath of life. We must therefore conclude that such an authority or power was meant to last unto the end of the age.