Catholics understand Protestantism. The Catholic Church ruled Western Christendom during the “Thousand Year Reign” between the fall of Rome and Martin Luther. Greedy people hated that! They hired second-rate theologians like Luther, Calvin, and the rest. “Give us excuses to weaken The Church. It is keeping us from stealing from our neighbors.”
As Mainline Protestants began to have budget problems, they fell farther. Soon, most of them promised Heaven to everyone who thinks “I am a good person.”
Today, there are 45,000 Protestant denominations. Catholics understand Protestantism.
A top-level Pastor Bob invents a Marketing Plan that turns into a denomination. Martin Luther, Jimmy Swaggart, John Calvin, and Joseph Smith are examples.
Ray Kroc, founder of McDonalds, is the business counterpart of a Class I Pastor Bob. Later Presidents of Mcdonalds are the commercial equivalents of Class II Pastor Bobs.
Class III Pastor Bobs operate at the level of the local McDonalds managers. They have some authority to collect and disburse money, but are required to send some to the Class I or Class II Pastor Bobs above them.
Class IV Pastor Bobs do the grunt work that helps the Class III Pastor Bobs drum up additional donors to replace the older, dying members of their particular Pastor Bobism. Many Class III and Class IV Pastor Bobs dream of starting their own denomination. They often spend a lot of time lining up the necessary financial support. If that should be discovered, they are frequently “let go with the greatest reluctance”, or transferred into “the mission fields”.
Catholics understand Protestantism. Its universal foundation is denying the clear words of Jesus about The Only Church He Founded: “Verily, verily I say unto you thou art Peter and on this rock I build My Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I give you the keys to The Kingdom of Heaven.”
Protestantism replaces 2,000 years of Catholic Teaching with “Building”, “Welcoming”, and, worst of all, being “Friendly”. None of those things were mentioned by Jesus as being among “the keys to The Kingdom of Heaven”.
His words were clear: “You are My friends if you obey My commands.”