I guess we will have to agree to disagree on this matter.
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Catholics, Protestants, and History (the faith of the early church)
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Salvation wrote:
“The Catholic Church came before the Reformation. In my way of thinking the reformers are the teenagers.”
This is so tired an excuse for not dealing with the real issues. So, let’s take your tired analogy and flesh it out for what it really is. Rome is like neglectful, disinterested parents too imbued with the idea that they should be obeyed by their teenagers without any explanation or justification for their rules and decrees, no matter how obviously and transparently wrong they are. Rome, like such parents, has no ability for self-examination and self-criticism, and thus when its teenagers leave home and never talk to them again wonder how such a thing could ever have happened to such fine parents as they. Such is the self-delusion of Roman magisterium.
The Reformation happened because mom and dad Rome were neglectful and self-satisfied parents who did not love their children and, worse, did not know that they, like all parents, are only stewards of their children, for their children are God’s.