nice hint (?) lol

I see many churches in Protestantism that are amazing. Many have searched history, Scriptures, Tradition very thoroughly and cannot come to grips with the corruptions the Catholic Church has endured. I may be one of them. The idealism of the CAtholic Church for me is wonderful, if it only it were as simple and good as you say it is. As you say many Protestants have become so Catholic in their thinking that they do not know it. Luther was one of them. Why did so many break away from Luther? Because he was seen as more CAtholic than the Catholics… The mass became hungry for the Church prior to the Roman control; a church without corrupted liturgy, a church without indescriminate baptism (a horrible tragedy of the RC that many still cannot forget, though it would be good if they forgave and forgot), secular bishop rule, the sexual sins of the popes, the list just keeps going on and on.

I find the Catholic Church so compelling, as does one of my other friends of whom I have spent my time studying theology with. However, there is an incredible amount of things that we have trouble coming to grips with (see above). One thing I am certain of Protestantism, it has saught to re-establish Christian worship in the way it was originally prior to Roman rule. And since the Reformation Christians everywhere have taken more seriously not only the Scriptures but what the Scriptures teach us. I have entered a number of Catholic Churches and I fail to find much spiritual life in them, not even from the priests. I can think of so many Protestant churches where I have seen so much life in the members that I cannot look to CAtholicism unless Christ himself showed me that only Catholicism works. Or, perhaps, unless I saw the same faith in a Catholic Church and the same fire. sigh… My congregation worships with their whole heart, soul, and mind and for me that is where I must also place my worship. If this church is to be called a “Protestant” church, then so be it. If I found this in a Catholic Church, then perhaps I would have no problem attending there.

Those who belong to the Church of Christ worship him in spirit and in truth.

And all God’s people said, amen.

There is no historical evidence of any Pope receiving authority through Peter, ideologically it makes sense that the mass has chosen bishops through the work of the Holy Spirit over a couple hundred years but this is guess work that no council agreed upon.