IMHO If God wanted to use His Holy Spirit living inside each of us to guide us to truth I believe He is big enough to do it. I also believe that God is big enough to be able to handle a 24/7 personal relationship with each one of us. If we resist His Spirit I do not think God whines about it much. He lets us be.
And in mine, I could accept that if it were not a fact that the many different truths born of individual interpretations have created chaos in the church and not unity.
On these forums I have rarely seen a protestant correct another, rather they are more a cheering section for each other in the sport of anti Catholicism.
Yet, we have Calvinist, dispensationalists, alienists, and individualists. There are those who believe in the rapture, those who don’t, just to name one glaring contradiction, yet there is no “attack” from other protestants against those beliefs. Beliefs which if in any way conflict or contradict with one’s own, would have to be unScriptural.
For, if one can accept that there is interpretation that is valid even if different that one’s own, then one would have to then admit that ALL interpretations are valid. Oh my, even that of Catholics.
Nor is there unity within the Catholic church. For all the Catholic criticism of Protestantism for differing *interpretations* etc, Catholicism is no better.
There is no unity within Catholicism. Catholics are in no position to point fingers.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/2678253/posts?page=357#357
(Courtesy ping to rogator for referencing a comment of his.)
“Catholics look on diocesan bishops (Catholic and Orthodox) as the successors of the apostles who founded the particular church of their locale. In this manner a person could be a member of the Church of Corinth, Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Tucson or Pittsburgh.
Those of us who prefer Roman Catholic (actually Latin Catholic) are emphasizing our connection with the Roman Pontiff rather than the (e.g.) Maronite or the Melkite Patriarch.
Emphasizing the connection with the particular church rather than the Roman Church is IME common among very liberal Catholics and liberal bishops, many of whom actually see Roman Catholic as a derogatory term.”
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Not to mention the different flavors of Catholicism such as.......
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sect
Sects
Roman Catholic sects
There are many groups outside the Roman Catholic Church which are regarded as Catholic sects, such as the Community of the Lady of All Nations, the Palmarian Catholic Church, the Philippine Independent Church, the Brazilian Catholic Apostolic Church, the Free Catholic Church, the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God, and others.
The Sodalitium Christianae Vitae started in Lima, Peru, has multiple cases of psychological abuses experienced by youth that were attracted to the movement.[16]
There is also Russian orthodox, Eastern Orthodox, Ukrainian Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Coptic (Egyptian) to name a few more.
They most certainly do not adhere to the doctrinal position established by Rome on a number of fronts which many FRoman Catholics consider critical to Catholic faith.