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If interpreting Scripture is "just not that difficult" then why are there thousands of Protestant denominations, and the one you think has it right (i.e. the Orthodox Presbyterian Church) has only around 30,000 members worldwide, out of about 590 million Protestants worldwide (i.e. roughly .005% of Protestants are getting it right, in your view)?

Well, if "getting it right" means being 100% correct about the interpretation of every line of Scripture along with any and every doctrine derived therefrom, then I daresay NOBODY is "getting it right"...including the Roman Catholic Church. After all, if that were the case there would never need to be any more councils, proclamations, or any need for the Pope to speak ex cathedra ever again.

Those "thousands of Protestant denominations" do largely agree on several of the most fundamental doctrines. Many of the disagreements are on secondary matters, some of which are matters the Roman Catholic Church has not definitively or dogmatically defined and which therefore are *GASP!* open to the interpretation of the laity.

Read Newman's An Essay on the Development of Doctrine and you will why your conclusion does not follow from your premises.

Those "thousands of Protestant denominations" do largely agree on several of the most fundamental doctrines.

Is perfect unity (1 Cor 1:10) a fundamental doctrine, or not?

Many of the disagreements are on secondary matters, some of which are matters the Roman Catholic Church has not definitively or dogmatically defined and which therefore are *GASP!* open to the interpretation of the laity.

If so, then such disagreements do not justify schism.

-A8