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That's a typical Protestant cop-out.

And it goes back to the heresy that Luther proposed. Here's a question, if the Catholic Church is not the original church, then why is it that the first Pope is Peter, and why is it that after him we have this amazing continous line of popes up until the present time.

"That's a typical Protestant cop-out. "

As a batpized, confirmed Catholic, I'm highly amused by that.

"
And it goes back to the heresy that Luther proposed. Here's a question, if the Catholic Church is not the original church, then why is it that the first Pope is Peter, and why is it that after him we have this amazing continous line of popes up until the present time."

I did NOT say that Catholicism isn't the 'original' church. I said that "Roman Catholicism" isn't the original church, simply because, until 313 AD, the Romans were KILLING CHRISTIANS. eaten by Lions, Tigers, and Bears, oh my. Not until Constantine's conversion could the church possibly be considered "Roman", as to be anything other than a idol-worshipping/emperor-worshipping Roman citizen was punishable by death.

The original Christian church was Catholic. It just wasn't ROMAN Catholic. Read this last sentence slowly.

The first pope was not Peter. Insofar as the earliest Church had a pope (which it didn't, but let's just pretend for the sake of argument), it was the Lord's brother Ya'akov, called James the Just, who rendered judgment at the Jerusalem Council (Acts 15:19) and who ran the center of the Church while the Apostles did the job for which the Lord had called them out--carrying the Gospel forth as His Emissaries.

Simply being around for a long time or weilding temporal authority over much of Europe by no means proves that one is the Holy Universal Church: The proof of one's annointing by God is obedience to His word (Mat. 7:21ff) and exercise of His gifts of the Spirit--not just the supernatural gifts like prophecy, but the fruits of "love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, [and] self-control" (Gal. 5:21-22).

By both those standards, if the Roman papacy ever had the annointing of God, it lost it a long time ago. You've done well in some of your more recent prelates, but that doesn't change centuries of simony, adultery, self-aggrandizment, and false doctrine masquerading under the Christian banner.

And that is why there was a Reformation. The Reformers didn't leave the Church, the true Church (mostly) left Rome.