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Ah, but what are the true teachings of the Church? And how much of what is now considered the teachings of the Church are not the work of God, but of the Corrupt Men who would make the Church the Whore of Babylon? These questions are no more clear today than they were 500-odd years ago. Your answer to Dr. Scarpetta's question actually raises more quetions than it answers. I don't purport to have the answers, but I am sure this will not blow over or go quietly into the good night.

Why don't you go read the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the scripture and patrisic references and then come back and tell us where you think the Church diverges from the teachings of the Triune God. Then we could discuss what is necessary at the this time.

While the Protestant Rebellion 500 odd years ago may have been an enormously important event to you, it is of little importance to me. The Rebels may have had some valid complaints about corrupt practices, but they all drifted into schism and heresy. The actual Teaching of the Church is protected from error by the intervention of the Holy Spirit. The Lord Himself promised the he would found His Church on Rock, that the Gates of Hell would not prevail against it, and the He would be with us until the end of the age. I trust His promises. Some evil men have wormed their way into the Church. These corrupt men have not changed the teachings of the Church, they have openly flouted them. Do you consider buggery anything other than a serious sin? The Church has always taught that buggery is sinful, see St. Paul for example. These evil men are modern day Judas Iscariots, betraying Christ's Church as Judas betrayed Christ Himself. They're doomed. They're fighting against God. Frankly, I consider the claim that the Church is or will become the 'Whore of Babylon' to be blasphemous nonsense.

If you want to know what the Church actually teaches, it's not hard to find out. The Church has a 2000 year history of writing her teachings in the Bible, in the proceedings of councils, in creeds, and in catechisms. All of these are widely publicly available.

Dominus vobiscum,

AB

And how much of what is now considered the teachings of the Church are not the work of God, but of the Corrupt Men who would make the Church the Whore of Babylon?

How do you reconcile your statement with the words of Scripture:

1 Tim 3:15
if I am delayed, you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God's household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.

Is he speaking of an "invisible" Church? Then how would you explain the following passage:

Matthew 18:17
And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican.

If we didn't have the infallible interpretation of scripture by Protestants to guide us, one could only logically conclude that Jesus was advising us to take our disputes to a visible Church, His one Church, the "pillar and foundation of truth."

"And how much of what is now considered the teachings of the Church are not the work of God, but of the Corrupt Men who would make the Church the Whore of Babylon?"

From the sixth century down-wards Christianity was a mongrel system ... Baronius confesses that in the sixth century few in Italy were skilled in both Greek and Latin. Nay, even Gregory the Great acknowledged that he was ignorant of Greek. "The main qualifications of the clergy were, that they should be able to read well, sing their matins, know the Lord's Prayer, psalter, forms of exorcism, and understand how to compute the times of the sacred festivals. Nor were they very sufficient for this, if we may believe the account some have given of them. Musculus says that many of them never saw the Scriptures in all their lives. It would seem incredible, but it is delivered by no less an authority than Amama, that an Archbishop of Mainz, lighting upon a Bible and looking into it, expressed himself thus: 'Of a truth I do not know what book this is, but I perceive everything in it is against us.'"