With a few translational variances we all agree on what He said, we all disagree frequently on what it means. This isn't a simple Catholic versus Protestant disagreement, but a cacophony of voices between and among the Church and the 33,000 denominations all claiming a unique and infallible interpretation of Scripture.
Unless you assert that this ever increasing fractioning and balkanization of Christendom is the stated objective of the Holy Spirit you must conclude that Jesus intended for there to be a teaching authority to facilitate His call to unity. You can call it what you will, we call it the Magisterium.
Peace be with you.
33,000 denominations? You'd think there were more wouldn't you.
Natural Law wrote:
“Unless you assert that this ever increasing fractioning and balkanization of Christendom is the stated objective of the Holy Spirit you must conclude that Jesus intended for there to be a teaching authority to facilitate His call to unity. You can call it what you will, we call it the Magisterium.”
It seems to me that your statement has several problems.
First problem: “Unless you assert ... you must conclude ...”. Logically, that doesn’t hold water.
Second problem: Do the Scriptures not say that faithlessness and factionalism will increase as the end nears. I think so. Why would the Lord, who desired unity, foresee disunity? Did He not know whereof He spoke? (Doubtful) Or did the unity whereof He spoke consist in something the eye may* not see? (Likely) * I say “may” and not “can” because on the last day, God will allow the eye to see what He has always seen, the unity of the Church, the unity that is in Christ.
Third problem: Why must the unity of which our Lord speaks be defined in so crassly materialistic a way? That, it seems to me, is a way of thinking foreign to the prophetic and apostolic word. In fact, it is a worldly way of looking at things.
Finally, one can attain a state of confusion and misbelief through sectarian factionalism, that is true, as you point out. But one can also attain it through centralized groupthink. Both of which have manifested themselves in mankind throughout the centuries. I don’t find any comfort or certainty in either. I take no comfort or certainty in one pope or 33,000 popes. I do take comfort and certainty in the one Christ, Son of God and Son of Man, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever.