But you were looking through “judging” eyes to prove that your church was better. You were not seeking truth.
Does your church teach the Bible or does it teach the man-made creeds?
Does your church allow an option to buy forgiveness for sins? What is that based on?
Does your church install a man that you bow down to above you? We do not find anywhere that we are to establish a man above us as intermediary between us and God. That intermediary is Jesus for us - we need no other man.
The intermediary between God the Father and man is our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus. God the Holy Spirit still is working in us to further the sanctification process within us.
The role of all the parts of the body complement each other per His Plan, hence the importance of us remaining in fellowship with Him.
You are correct, regarding academic understanding of Scripture as something which may also be used as a counterfeit to faith. On the contrary, through faith, our daily intake of Bible doctrine is used in our thinking processes by God the Holy Spirit to further sanctify our heart, souls, and minds.
God has provided different spiritual gifts to different members of the body to work together per His Plan.
I was looking at performers.
The conservative preachers strut and prance like bantam roosters. It is no different than the televangelists who posture and emote. They call upon the name of God. They pound their Bibles and shake it in our faces. I looked around the congregations that I was in and found some fear, some boredom, some apprehension, but little cognizance.
Our Church teaches from the words that Christ left for us. He commanded us to teach the world and so over the centuries we amassed volumes of work that assisted us, one of which is the 72 books of the Bible.
What Scripture do you use? And how do you determine that it is the Word of God? How do you interpret it? How do you know that that interpretation is correct?
Answer: you don’t.
Our Church does not allow people to buy off their sins. When Jesus gave Peter the keys and when Peter was instructed to tend / feed / tend His sheep, we have our leader for Jesus on earth to tend to things until He comes again.