re: Crazy Story from Mobile: Priest runs off to Italy with former student to perform exorcisms

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It is God that forgives sins. Jesus commissioned his apostles/priests to absolve sins in John 20.

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Um… sounds contradictory to me. Either Jesus serves as mediator or man serves as mediator. Can’t be both. There are many passages where the Bible says (and Jesus himself says) that HE is the only one able to serve as mediator (or propitiation) for us to God to forgive/absolve sins. Through his own sacrifice on Calvary. I think that scripture in John is taken completely out of context and has been used incorrectly in doctrine. The Bible does not contradict itself and God is not the author of confusion. I think Catholics may have been wise to research EXACTLY what was being said and why before structuring an entire church around a single verse taken out of context. If you think about it, why would he tell sinful men they can forgive sin when it took Jesus himself being the only one worthy to sacrifice himself for the redemption/forgiveness of sin. If they or a priest or pope or Mary can forgive sin, it completely mitigates the need for Jesus to be crucified for us. He could’ve just had Moses or Abraham or a million other “righteous” people do it.

Another good example is the translation for “stone” or “rock” when he is talking to Peter. The word he was referring to Peter is for a small pebble. The word he was referred to himself was the word for a large boulder. He was basically telling Peter that Peter was just a small pebble, but he himself (Jesus) was the large boulder he would build the church on. Yet If I’m correct , I think that Catholics and a lot of non-Catholics actually believe that Jesus built the church on Peter… which is absurd. Peter was a sinful man, and God can’t even bear to look upon sin. Why would he choose to build his entire church on sinful man? He wouldn’t and didn’t.