Romish antichrist zombies want your brains!

"If you will not be turned... then YOU WILL DIE!"

Bob,

If the pope can become the anti-christ, then the gates of hell can prevail against the Church... something Christ Himself promised SPECIFICALLY to Peter would not happen RIGHT AFTER He gave him the keys.


If you think that has happened or even that it can happen, then do not become Catholic. I am not sure what Protestant option is any better, but whatever.

As I have said a dozen times, a hundred naughty popes do not add up to the gates of hell prevailing against the Church unless they TEACH heresy. That is the ONLY way they are protected. They are not protected from being assholes! As far as bishops other than the pope, they are basically only protected from error corporately in ecumenical council. The goofball from Africa was not in council last time I checked, and the pope is not teaching doctrine by not immediately hammering him. Perhaps he was hammered, I don't even know. It happened 11 years ago, which is about 2 minutes worth of Rome time. The nickname is "Romanitas", because the Vatican moves so incredibly slow. Many heresies take a hundred years or more to resolve. The Reformation was already generations old by the time Rome finally got around to finishing the Council of Trent in 1563! And to some that was moving pretty fast! The Reformation was going full bore for 30 years before the council even started! And it took 18 years to conclude!

Was that stupid of the Catholic hierarchy to delay so long? YES!

Does it prove they are not the Church Christ founded? NO.

Your Hitler analogy works mainly in the fact that there have been some naughty popes. (some of the things you have brought up however are But Hitler was not divinely protected from teaching error, so obviously that is a big difference.
Show me where the magisterium has TAUGHT error.

"This is why I call it blinders. You Can't Leave. The anti-christ himself can sit on the chair of Peter, speak ex-cathedral,..."

No, a potential antichrist pope would not be able to speak falsehood ex cathedra. He could murder people, but he could not teach error with the full power of his office. At least not according to Catholic doctrine. Again, you are simply mistaken on a basic point.

Your "cant leave" thing is a huge fail. What it seems you want is the ability to overrule a judgement of the Church in favor of your own judgement. Once again, Catholicism is not for you then. I recommend being a Quaker or E. Free if that is how you want to roll. You get to decide every single thing for yourself.

If you think the Church can fail, what is the alternative? Making the Church in your own image somehow magically means it wont fail? Huh? Why will that prevent it from failing? Rejecting 2000 years of tradition for your own opinion is better than submitting to the magisterium established and maintained by Christ himself? If you believe that then stay E. Free or whatever. Just have church in your living room pastor Bob, then your family will BE SURE to be getting the straight dope on all these important topics ...right?

"...set up idols in its halls with people bowing down and wearing them away with their kisses - and you HAVE to stay in the church. "

That would be teaching error. If a pope were to teach people with the full authority of his office that they should bow down and worship an idol, that would be teaching error, which is not possible according to Catholic doctrine. Of course according to Protestant doctrine, any Protestant leader could potentially teach error at any time. At least Catholicism claims an ability to carry out what Jesus promised about hell not prevailing, Protestants will warn up front they might be all messed up in their doctrine.

I am starting to realize that you don't really have a problem with authority like I though you did, it is just any authority above your own that you don't like. Complete submission is demanded at that level however.

Unlike the bootstrapped Protestant churches, the Catholic Church does demand your complete obedience, just as Jesus demands your complete obedience, but somehow because you can think of Jesus as being in the "spiritual" realm, you can see yourself as being obedient to him when really it is YOU you are obeying. YOUR interpretations. Your likes and dislikes. If something rubs you wrong, your out of there. Your "Church" is hard to find because it is in the mirror. Let me say that again for emphasis:

You are having some difficulty finding a Church home because what you want is YOU.

Like a lone man on an island looking for human life, you are searching for something that subsists only within yourself, and therefore your search will be eternal. Because you will only be truly happy with a church that fits your whims EXACTLY. The Catholic Church will let itself be molded by you a bit, even letting you be an anarchist if you wanted probably, but it will not budge for you where you need it to. And it never will. When I realized that, I was drawn to it like a moth to a flame. My personal whims are exactly where I will not find the truth, I knew that more than anything else.

Unless you drop this way of thinking you should seriously just start a home church. (I honestly recommend this) I recently had an email exchange with a woman whose husband has been doing just that for the past few years. They were moving from church to church for years and he finally decided that they were all wrong and he started doing home church. Get this, she said to me that he was "tired of denominationalism". !!! Notice anything wrong there? He is now his own denomination! He has become the enemy he hated!

I think that if he is open to the Holy Spirit, he might eventually see this irony better in a home church than in a bigger denomination. And realize that submission to a plausible authority claiming to be THE Church is really the only logical answer. I hope the same for you. Take some time to be your own pastor, and see if you feel like you are part of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church founded by Christ.
Do you really believe that when you find the Truth it will match up with what you though it would be? Personally I have "found" enough "truth" in my many searches to know FOR SURE the Truth cannot be what I think it is. Truth is something we submit to. You can do it with blinders if it scares you, or you can do it with both eyes wide open, but either way, it will rub you the wrong way.

Peace,

David