* I don't think you understand the fact that authority resides with you. That is your arguement. In deciding who has authority over you, you are really, without realizing it, illustrating you are the one with authority.
You didn't write the New Testament. The nascent Catholic Church did. And it was Jesus who established that Church. He established it as His ark of salvation until He comes again.
You have free will to either accept or reject what Jesus authoritatively established. You have no authority in the matter. It is a matter of will, not authority.
Good luck in choosing wisely in exercising that free will
I have resigned myself to understand that you will not take a serious approach to refuting my post.
I will continue to trust in the fact that God changed my wants/will when He regenerated me according to His will not my will; a will which was dead in trespasses & sin.
I understand how you can boast that you have chosen the correct path while so many others have failed. Excuse my insult as intended only to make a theological/scriptural point that you boast in attributing your act of choosing to your free will according to this:
Ephesians 2:8-10 (King James Version)
King James Version (KJV)
Public Domain
A Public Domain Bible KJV at Zondervan Zondervan
8For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
9Not of works, lest any man should boast.
10For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
God creates faith in those who are of the elect; His church (small c); His body of believers chosen from before the foundation according to Eph 1.
I will avoid wishing either of us Good Luck; and I certainly do not need yours although I appreciate your seriousness in that expression.
My luck has already yielded salvation when for reasons due only to His free will, not mine, He caused me to be re-born/regenerated from among the sons of Adam into His church - & He did that before the foundation (Eph 1).