[Colofornian]

All non-Catholic/Orthodox Christian churches teach this, do they not?

No. In fact, most don't.

Even those that broke away directly from Catholicism (like Lutheranism) tried to reform the church -- vs. restore it from ground zero.

In fact, the Lutheran church got its start because the Catholic leadership ex-communicated Luther!

[Mrs. Don-o]

Luther may have wanted at one point to restore or reform the Church. Early on in the process he could have done so, since all or most of his 95 Theses were not irreconcilable to the Church, which was acknowledged on both sides.

But he ended up in mutiny instead, mostly because he called the pope "the Antichrist" in 1518 (obviously he was not in communion with the Pope at that point!) and was declared excommunicated in 1520 --- not so much a decree as a declaration of what had long been a fact.

Not that I want to re-argue the whole history of the wrongly-called Reformation, which was rather, a rebellion. Just like, if you leave your wife, that's not reconciliation, that's divorce.

The larger point is, all those who left the Church ended up claiming that the Church was apostate,though they don't all agree on when the Church went apostate. Some claim it happened before the death of Peter and Paul! They all agree ---- as far as I know --- that at some point, the Church failed.

Just Petered out, I guess.