You were on a roll. Why'd you go to bed. :O)
You're absolutely correct. It is much more easier simply to pop into a Cathedal, say "Father I have sinned", pop a waffer in the mouth filling you with "God's grace, and be done until the next week.
Protestants-true Protestants-are required to "study to show ourselves approved". This is far more difficult than having someone tell you what to believe.
Excuse me? Have you ever heard of Catechism? Apparently not. Ignorance is bliss. And by whose standards are Proestants being "proved?" There is nothing easier than convincing oneself that what you believe is true and "guided" by the Holy Spirit.
Required for what? To earn your salvation, perhaps?
This whole issue of easy vs. hard is of course silly. Christ said that it is both: it is a burden, but He makes the burden light. What is that burden? -- it is the good works required for final justification, just as the scripture tells us, and just like every epistle of St. Paul tells us. For some these good works meant martyrdom; for most it is a life of charity, dying to self, regular oblations, and yes, also study.
It becomes trickier to figure out from the Protestant mindset. There, salvation is a one time event which begins the Christian life; any good works are not the product of man's free will, but rather a consequence of that mythical one-time salvation. Any sin that might occur is forgiven. The "saints" persevere much like a roller coaster car "perseveres" as it glides from top to bottom along the rail. So that is the easy part Kosta was, quite correctly, referring to. Now, we are told, there is some Herculean task involved of studying the Scripture "to show oneself approved". Work it can't be -- Protestants are not saved by works. Salvation it can't be, -- Protestants are already saved. Research it can't be, -- elementary rules of research such as linguistic and historical veracity are violated carelessly. But we agree, it is a supernaturally hard exercise. Most fools' errands are.
I guess people who can't read are in big trouble. I suppose the majority of people who didn't have a bible the first 1500 years of Christianity are eternally in hell because they didn't study their commentaries enough...
I hope that is not what you are saying. "knowledge puffs up, love builds up". I don't think the Scriptures tell us that we will be saved by intellectual knowledge.
Regards