“there is only one authority on earth that can definitively state what the canon is and it has this authority because it received it directly from Jesus as recorded in Matthew 28. that authority is the Catholic Church, it alone is the pillar of truth and it alone has been promised the Holy Spirit to lead it to all truth.”
Well, of course if I was a Roman Catholic, I’d agree with you. But since Roman Catholics are a minority of Christianity, I guess I’ll feel free to disagree that the Pope rules over all Christendom.
Lots of folks have rejected Papal authority and many of the Catholic doctrines from the beginning. Baptists as an organized body appeared around 1600, holding that scripture ruled over the church for matters of doctrine - which was NOT a new doctrine!
And thus we rejected doctrines long taught by the Roman Catholics, such as Purgatory.
The Baptists decided to engage in the creative interpretation of Scripture.
1.1 billion Catholics are hardly a minority of global Christianity. The next largest Christian groups are the Orthodox with over 300 million.
So between Catholics and Orthodox, apostolic Christianity constitutes the majority of global Christendom compared with Protestant sectarians who make up the remainder of the 2 billion Christians worldwide.
fascinating, please tell me more about the “lots of folks who rejected Catholic doctrines from the beginning”
other than the Gnostics and Arians, who else are you referring to?
when all the Catholic Bishops gathered in Nicea ( including Greek Catholics and Latin Catholics ) and said they “acknowledged one baptism for the forgiveness of sins”, this was heresy in your eyes wasn’t it?
where were the so called real Christians to oppose this heresy put forth in Nicea?