But you ignore what Jesus states about the “Apostolic Church” and the need to go out and be “fishermen of men”.
There are many ex-Protestants who have become Catholic, because once you delve into the profound Theology of the Fathers of the Catholic Church-—you realize their genius.....which is the melding of Faith and Reason, so there is no conflict.
That is their greatness—and St. Thomas, with the Summa, aligned Natural Law Theory (Reason) with Faith. IT is why Christianity led to the “Age of Reason” and the Renaissance-—because science also originated with Natural Law which was melded with Logic—by Aristotle, certainly—but St. Thomas is known for “baptizing” Aristotle.
So, by your “logic”-—you thought 98 % of people—who could never afford a “book” much less read it-—would have been lost souls-—for thousands of years, if there were no shepherds of the Church.
Remember-—reading and books were extremely RARE for thousands of years.
Most people in the world couldn’t read—much less own the Bible.
See-—how irrational your “thinking” is?
I’m not ignoring anything about what Jesus said. I have no idea where you got that from. Of course we Christians are supposed to go out and witness to others.
Yes there are ex-Protestants in the Catholic Church but there are also many ex-Catholics in many Protestant churches. One of the reasons Catholics have left the Catholic church is because of things like “the church/communion is necessary for salvation except when it’s not” kind of illogic.
I don’t know what you are talking about with the “98% couldn’t read” stuff. You do realize that the “Catholic” church wasn’t the first or only Church around. In fact Catholicism really takes off when Constintine makes the Roman Church the official State religion of Italy around 380 AD.
Read the New Testament, it is the record of the FIRST Christians and many of them could certainly read. Those that couldn’t committed large chunks of the New Testament to memory. What you are really referencing is the confusion created by the Roman Catholic Church in later centuries by maintaining the Bible restricted and printed in a dead Roman language (Latin). This restriction aided the Catholic Church in keeping the common person from accessing Scriptures themselves. But, again, the Catholic Church wasn’t the only church around, they were just the most powerful.
As for those who may have died before hearing the gospel of Jesus, they can still enter Heaven because Jesus (not Peter) stands at the perverbial golden gates judging who will be with The Father and who won’t. (John 14:6) What you also seem to forget is the day of Pentacost where thousands of people from all over the world recieved the Holy Spirit of God and they went back to their homes and elsewhere to preach the gospel. Those people weren’t the “Roman Catholic Church” they were simply Christians.
I see no irrationallity in my thinking, but I still see irrationallity in Catholicism, and you continue to demonstrate that by failing to recognize or address the one simple example I have given (”necessary” or not...Catholicism says it’s both).