@ knight
@ knight
In my opinion, to understand the place of the Roman Catholic Church you must understand a statement made by Jesus.
Lu 5:39 No man also having drunk old wine straightway desireth new: for he saith, The old is better.
The problem is this: If you have drunk old wine, you won't have a taste for new.
When the New Wine went out among the various ethnicities, it went out among people who had their old religions. Upon being introduced to a better way, they were willing to make changes and become true Christians. However, they liked to retain the flavor of the old religion, so they kept the old structure.
The old structure was Nicolaitan in procedure, and unsaved men could do the Nicolaitan procedure better than any. These were men like Diotrophes who entered privily to spy out the liberty. They learned how to talk like they knew God, but they rejected the decrees that came from the apostles and elders at Jerusalem. So, in works, they denied the Lord.
Thus, Christians got a little new wine and a lot of old until God would find some one like Huss, Calvin, Zwingly, Luther, Knox, Wesley, and others who would develop a taste for a little more new wine- and a little less old. However, the groups they started kept some old wine in the blend, and there adherents still preferred those blends.
Today, we have Charismatic wine/old wine, Calvin wine/old wine, Pentecostal wine/old wine, and Wesley wine/old wine, and Bullinger wormwood/old wine.
The old wine that is kept in the mix is the resistance to the commands which, when observed by the Jerusalem converts, was demonstrated by having all things in common as a priesthood does. Today, almost all churches are built around a few men and/or women licensed by the governments of men to be Nicolaitans- lording it over the flock of Christ.
So... all of ya denominationalists are theology gone astray. None of ya do it right. Good thing God desires compassion and not sacrifice.
But, mocking other groups makes people feel better about their own insecurities. Plus, it's necessary for gaining market share.
Gal 5:13 ¶ For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.
14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
15 But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.