Jesus breathed on the disciples and said they could forgive sins. My question for protestants: why would Jesus, as he was starting his church, give a handful of his followers the unthinkable, unprecedented ability to forgive sins, and now... nobody in your church does this? The catholic (and orthod...

Not to start an argument about whether these things are true, but only to clarify what (Reformed/Protestant) believers actually confess: First, this is not even a question for us, because we 'protest' the idea that justification is--in any sense whatsoever--based on our works. Hence the by grace 'a...