oh, the Word of God is perfect -- however, MAN's interpretation of it is fault (as we ARE faulty, unlike God) -- so we as INDIVIDUALS err when trying to understand scripture on our lonesome. You read scripture in a community, don't you FC? You go home and ponder on your own as well, but you learn it with a group of people? Well, we do the same, only our community of people extends back 2000 years and includes the Apostles. That's what so many Protestant miss out on -- the depth. They are like seeds planted on shallow dirt, lacking the richness and the depth. We as individuals make mistakes -- and the Church Fathers as individuals make mistakes. But when united by the Spirit in the ONE Church, the CHURCH does not err...
When the RCC was burning people at the stake for professing faith in Christ and for having a Bible, who was in charge then?
That right there precludes the Roman Church from being a true church because it was an enemy of Christ and his Word.
Revelation 6:9 ¶And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:
10 And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?