"Do you disagree with the notion that God gave His gifts of the spirit to the individual, to come to Him by choice, to discern good and evil?"
I don't disdagree, but this is only a partial truth; and as long as it remains partial, it's distorted. Jesus Christ founded a Church to carry on his mission to teach, to govern, to sanctify, a visible Church of which He is the invisible head. This church is intended by Him to function as His body here until He comes again.
A "church" is just a body of those who believe the same thing. Jesus didn't found a church, the church developed around the body of believers. References to Jesus and His church was Jesus knowing that a church will form.
A church is a body of Christian believers in an area and the members of all churches are the body of Christ. Like my tag line, the churches, including the Catholic church, make the church. Each individual is the repository of the Holy Spirit because each one is human.
That the leadership of a church governs is a consent of the governed, not a requirement of God, because He gave each individual the tools to be self governing.
God made each of us so that we don't need our relationship with God defined for us and our spiritual path in life. Where the rubber meets the road, our salvation is our responsibility. Every man for himself in the sense that nobody can do it for him.
