it appears the two of you agree that on the fundamental tenants of the Faith, the Church went apostate quickly.
maybe you differ on a hundred years or so?
of course Jesus Christ said this was impossible, not because of man, but because the Holy Spirit is able to guide the Church into all truth and it is IMPOSSIBLE to fool the elect.
i hope everyone can see where this 16th century doctrine of the early Church apostacy has led to.
Also, why did the Hebrews fail when they had the Law and the Prophets? One reasons was that they placed their traditions before God.
To say that everything the church did was pure is false. There has always, always, been an admixture of error with truth, and even Christ does say that. And that is why John gave us the admonition:
1 John 4:1-3 "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world."
The Gnostics refused to believe that Jesus was God in the flesh, so to the OP. The Gnostics refused to believe God could be flesh, the OP see Jesus as some demi-God, but not God.
Grace and Peace