>Scripture is fine so long as it doesn’t contradict their leadership’s pronouncements<
Which is exactly the same thing Protestants do. Whoever keeps posting these threads for the pure sake of causing arguments would do well to remember Jesus’s words of pull the plank from your own eye before trying to remove the splinter from another. Clean your own house and the evil that is lurking within it. Then come criticize ours.
Yes, Protestants do that as well, and not surprising since they came from Catholicism. First century Christians didn’t have that problem, since they were neither Catholic nor Protestant.
We should each be one those those, not sheep blindly following non-biblical organizations created by men. To them, “ekklesia” which we translate as “church” meant only “a called-out assembly of people.” It was the same word used for the secular assembly in Acts 17:5. In the case of Christians, it meant called out from the world. The idea of “church” being used to describe a building, or to define a broad organization beyond each local, independent congregation, was totally foreign to them and the apostles. One does not have to be a Greek scholar to know this— just read the scriptures and see what’s not there.
What became the Catholic “church” evolved over centuries. It was a man-made organization that began as an adjunct of the Roman empire, and it adopted that government’s structure. The so-called church fathers that modern catholic apologists like point to knew nothing of such an organization or a pope. http://www.bible.ca/ntx-organization-historical-development-papal-patriarchal-systems-33-606AD.htm
Finally, dear lady, the “mote-beam” teaching has to do with leading an egregious sinful life while accusing others of sin. Pointing out biblical truth is never sin— in fact, Christ requires it. You would be wise to run from any group or teacher that does not encourage individual bible study and understanding of such passages, apart from the officials pronouncements of some group.
But again, that’s a choice each of us makes..
Isn't that what Luther TRIED to do?
Which is exactly the same thing Protestants do. Whoever keeps posting these threads for the pure sake of causing arguments would do well to remember Jesus’s words of pull the plank from your own eye before trying to remove the splinter from another. Clean your own house and the evil that is lurking within it. Then come criticize ours.