“At the founding of Protestantism, all of the Marian devotion that this thread rejects, were fully embraced by your Founders.”
That the Reformers recovered the Gospel of Grace is more than one could hope for. To think they would set straight more than a thousand years of error in a brief lifetime is unrealistic.
They did work to make Scripture open and available to the common man and set off a reexamination to see what God revealed. In this sense, God used them to correct and recover.
No one claims they were perfect. No human is. For His own reasons, God uses flaw-ridden humans and an occasional donkey or fish.
what a fascinating theory...the revolutionaries (note that I didn't say reformers) {reform is within} just didn't have enough time yet to overcome the thousand years of evil Catholicism....O.K., I guess,... but what about Christ saying that I am with you from NOW UNTIL THE END OF TIME..I hate broken promises, don't you??
And luckily the Protestants invented the printing press....oh wait...nevertheless suddenly, because of protestantism, all people would have access to the Bible.
The FACT that the Catholic church had saved the bible from oblivion doesn't even occur to you. Catholics wrote, compiled, edited, copied (by hand) the Bible that you have today. Without the Catholic Church, you'd have to run down to your local Synagogue to read a copy of the Old Testament and that's all that would be available. Through the first one thousand six hundred years of Christianity, the Catholic church advanced civilization to a VERY great extent...kingdoms were Christian, Monasteries were established to advance Christianity, Libraries were established to save and preserve what were, at the time, precious, handwritten copies of the worlds books.As Moslem hoardes attempted to overtake the world, it was the Pope, kings, Emperors, who launched the Crusades to again, preserve Christianity...and they did a pretty good job of it.
about 11,600 years after the founding and preservation of Christianity by the Catholics, along came the revolutionaries ....They said, we decided that this particular thing doesn't appeal to us so we'd better get rid of it, we don't like that book in the bible so let's eliminate it...Jesus didn't really mean it when He Said "THIS IS MY BODY"...so lets just assume He was kidding.
recovered the Gospel of Grace....you are part of 30,000 or so "denominations" all of which think that they are right....They aren't, The Catholic Church is correct, always has been, and always will be. Christ said so...believe Him!!