Catholic Distinctives: Prelimary Questions

Enoch: "Since you are mischaracterizing evangelicals, looks like you are under some kind of delusion."
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As a longtime evangelical pastor and theology professor, I'm confident that I grasp evangelical attitudes better than you, who insipidly pontificate about the demise of evangelicalism with little allowance for individual differences. You will be held accountable for ignorantly slandering the greatest soul winner in Christian history, Billy Graham.

Enoch: So let's take one example" (3) Why do evangelicals ignore Jesus' authorization of His disciples' role as mediators of divine forgiveness? "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven. If you retain the sins of any, they are retained (John 20:22-23)."
And according to Scripture there are only twelve apostles of the Lamb."

Nope! In the first century the title "apostle" is far broader than that (e. g. 2 Corinthians 8:23; Romans 16:7; Didache 11:3-6).

Enoch: "2. Apostles had special apostolic authority in the NT churches to resolve issues. To either have the church forgive sins or withhold forgiveness until repentance was evident."

To use your misguided logic, spiritual principles and faith promises revealed to Jesus' apostles don't apply to us today. Your limitation of the authority to "forgive sins" is a totally arbitrary perversion of the Gospels' role as a model of spirituality for future Christians. If the apostles "can forgive sins," so can Spirit-filled elders. What you don't get is this: The authority to forgive sins is enfolded in the apostles' authority to "bind and loose (Matthew 16:19)," but Jesus then extends the authority of to bind and loose to the entire church (18:17-18)!

Enoch: "And the whole concept of the confessional is foreign to Scripture. 4. In James, it says "confess your faults (Gk paraptoma) to one another. But the Catholic bibles have changed that to confess your sins -- not to "one other" but to Father Confessor. "Bless me Father, for I have sinned"."

First, this comment exposes your ignorance of Greek: "paraptoma" means "sin" as in sin against God (See BAG p. 627).
Second, James' command to "confess your sins to one another" is given in the context of the leadership role of "the elders," the precursors of Catholic priests (5:15-16).
Third, mature spiritual leadership is required to hear confessions and pronounce absolution because the sincerity and clear understanding of confessors must be discerned. So confession to priests or, in the case of evangelicals, to mature leaders is advisable and included in James' phrase "to one another."
Fourth, in my experience, most evangelicals act as if confession to God is sufficient, and so, they see no need to regularly confess their sins to each other. The other day, I overheard 2 Catholics who had just been to confession. They were discussing the need for increased self-awareness to discern sins of omission and unconscious sins of thought and motive. Their priest had given them a book to assist them in this introspective task.
By contrast, I have never seen a widespread evangelical concern for regular confession. Evangelicals act as if post-baptismal confession is optional because failing to do so won't affect their salvation. Such evangelicals should let Socrates famous saying sting: "The unexamined life is not worth living."

In the 19th century the Methodist revival was so widespread that in 1870 40% of all Americans were Methodist. The secret of this revival was the requirement of a weekly class meeting in which they had to confess the inner and outer state of their soul. By the 20th century, Methodists voted to suspend this confession requirement. Their numbers have slowly declined ever since!

II. QUESTIONS PREMINARY TO A DISCUSSION OF THE REAL PRESENCE OF CHRIST IN THE ACT OF PARTAKING OF HOLY COMMUNION:

Academic commentaries on John rightly note the shift in focus in John 6:35ff. from believing in Jesus as the bread of life to Eucharistic eating and drinking of Jesus flesh and blood (6:53-58).

"Those who munch ("trogo") on my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them." Trogo" ('munch") is not used in a merely figurative sense and the clear implication is that by drinking Jesus' blood (=the Communion cup) produces a mutual abiding of Jesus in us and we in Jesus--in other words, the real presence of Christ during this sacramental act. This concept of mutual abiding is again applied to the Eucharist in the Parabolic vine and branches imagery of the Last Supper Discourse (15:1-7). In the first century such imagery is applied to Jesus only in a Eucharistic context:

"Concerning the Eucharist (Communion) give thanks like this: First for the cup: We give thanks to You, our Father, for Your holy vine of David (Jesus), Your servant, which You made known to us through Jesus, Your Servant (Didache 9:1-2)."
"But you have blessed us with spiritual food and drink and eternal light through your Servant (Didache 10:3)."

Jesus' teaching in John 6:56 that He is really present in the Eucharistic act explains these 5 otherwise inexplicable facts:
(1) Why Jesus relocates His discussion of Holy Communion from the Last Supper (John 13:2ff.) to John 6
(2) Why Jesus teaches that He comes to abide in "those who munch on (Greek: "trogo") my flesh and drink my blood (John 6:56)?" "Trogo" is never used figuratively!
(3) Why Jesus says, "My flesh is real food and my blood is real drink (6:55) and then adds, "Whoever eats me will live because of Me (6:57)?"
(4) Why Jesus does not try to prevent the mass exodus of offended disciples who take Him literally (6:66)?
(5) Why the consequences of failing to discern Christ's body in the Eucharist are so uniquely severe: "many of you are sick and ill and many have died" because you "eat and drink (the bread and wine) without "discerning the Body (1 Corinthians 11:29-30)?"