[ottbmare]

...their doctrines did not exist from the very beginning, that, actually, their doctrine developed over time, even their claims to the Papacy and the primacy of Rome, and that their religion directly contradicts the teachings of many church fathers.

Many another Protestant has thought as you do, until he started reading the early Church fathers--Irenaeus, Polycarp, Augustine, Clement, John Chrystosom, Ignatius, etc.--and found to his dismay that from the beginning, Christianity held to the same fundamental truths about the Faith, which Catholicism still teaches.

It's a shock, I know. The Catholic professor of philosophy Dr Peter Kreeft, raised an ardent Calvinist, went through this exasperating process of reading and discovery in the original sources and found himself compelled to admit that the earliest Christians believed and worshipped as Catholics do. Peter Kreeft

So did the brilliant young strict Calvinist pastor and Bible scholar Dr Scott Hahn, whose intense study and agonizing intellectual honesty compelled him to admit the truth of Catholicism. Dr Scott Hahn's Reluctant Conversion

And so did I. I am a simple person and not a great scholar, but though raised as a Protestant, I too had to admit the uncomfortable fact that the earliest writing in Christianity substantiated Catholic doctrine, and that since the sixteenth century, one fracture after another, one doctrinal dispute after another, one prideful man after another who thought he could interpret Scripture better than any of his predecessors in prior centuries, has deviated from the earliest teachings of Christ's apostles.

I invite you to watch those videos. Perhaps intellectual curiosity and honesty will inspire you to read the fundamental works by those men who were instructed by the Apostles themselves. You might be surprised.

[metmom]

Many another Protestant has thought as you do, until he started reading the early Church fathers--Irenaeus, Polycarp, Augustine, Clement, John Chrystosom, Ignatius, etc.--and found to his dismay that from the beginning, Christianity held to the same fundamental truths about the Faith, which Catholicism still teaches.

Now, about Mary and all the stuff surrounding her......

What are the sources showing the early church fathers believe in her perpetual virginity, her immaculate conception, her alleged assumption?

[boatbums]

I was raised as a Roman Catholic and had to admit that the faith I had been born and raised into was teaching a false gospel. I put myself through Bible college so that I would know what is the truth according to God and not men.

Do you accept that sincere, intellectually curious and honest people can arrive a different conclusion from those you mentioned?

[daniel1212]

So did the brilliant young strict Calvinist pastor and Bible scholar Dr Scott Hahn, whose intense study and agonizing intellectual honesty compelled him to

Men such as the cultist Swedenborg were brilliant, but not wise, and Hahn certainly was not. In addition, his defense of Rome like that of others has been shown to be specious for years, thus he has been unwilling to debate men such as James's White. I would even challenge him here myself.

And as part of this conversion to error, Hahn was so enamored by the Mary of Rome that his wife Kimberly was jealous of his long walks and talks with her. Get back to me when you find even one place in all the Bible, with its multitudinous prayers , where anyone except pagans prayed to anyone else in Heaven but the Lord. Which absence is unthinkable for what is such a common practice among Catholics. PTDS is simply not Scriptural.

He feedeth on ashes: a deceived heart hath turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand? (Isaiah 44:20)