“Nice attempt at redirection”
I think you must mean misdirection as redirection is something a lawyer does when the cross examination of his witness goes poorly or something a web browser does when the page being sought no longer exists. But I was not redirecting, misdirecting or even just changing the subject. My point is the crux of the matter.
We can go on endlessly debating the meaning of these passages and will get nowhere primarily because you apparently regard the entity that identifies itself as the Catholic church, or more particularly the clergy of this entity, as a higher authority than the Bible. You attribute apostolic authority to these men who are in no way qualified by the Biblical requirements and tests of apostleship. You are unwilling to test their apostolic claim and oppose others who seek to follow the Biblical mandate that goes along with such claims.
The authority of Paul, Peter, John and all of the apostles is available for me directly by opening my Bible. These men passed the tests of apostleship and most Protestants fully accept their authority.
I am well aware of high-ranking Catholic clergymen who practice and advocate immorality that Paul said must be put out of the Church, but you are among those who insist that followers of Christ must subject themselves to these men, to make auricular confessions to them, and to seek their counsel and instruction to understand scripture. These men are not, nor ever were true followers of Jesus, let alone people who should be assuming leadership in the Church.
Like the Pharisees of Christ’s earthly advent, these men are not content to go to hell alone; they constantly lead others to follow them there. The message Christ gave to these men is plain and fearful: “Woe to you.”
Christ described them as stubbornly resisting the kingdom of God and of trying to prevent anyone else from entering as well. How could a godly entity attack a man like William Tyndale for trying to bring the Bible to the masses; kidnap, imprison, torture, strangle and burn him at the stake? Where is your so-called sacrament of CONFESSION for this atrocity? Has the Catholic church confessed and repented of this wickedness? I think not. Doing so would upset the fragile (and false) doctrine of apostolic succession.
Do you expect me to accept Pope Paul III as a legitimate holder of the same position you say Peter held in the Church? A man who had affairs and illegitimate children by them? A man who consented to the torture and martyrdom of William Tyndale whose dying prayer was answered by God in giving to the masses the Authorized Version of the Holy Bible?
Rather it is you who regard Protestant ideology as a higher authority than the Bible. The passages I have given show, without any appeal to Catholic authority, a clear Catholic understanding of the sacraments. By their plain meaning the biblical teaching given in these passages is Catholic.