Are you saying that God allowed His Truth to be pasted over for centuries - that He permitted generation after generation to live without access to Him? Are you saying that the traditions of men thwarted the desire of God that all men be saved?
Yes, I am saying that the traditions of men damage His purpose... Thwart is probably too strong a word.
I will leave you with the example of the Temple and the Pharisees. The tradition of the pharisees existed many hundred years before Yeshua came to set things right - And every prophet fought the traditions of men, every one... Traditions that were leading generation after generation down the wrong road... And the people seldom listened to the prophets without wrath being brought down on their heads.
So my question to you, don-o, is why one would think that the same condition is not present and working even now, in spite of the fact that John said that the antichrist spirit was already working in his day?
Why place confidence in tradition? St Paul told Timothy to commit the message to other faithful men who would then pass it to other faithful men. The epistle of Jude speaks of the faith once delivered to the saints. .
But, perhaps what I mean by tradition is not what you are denouncing. If your beef is with the Roman Church, I cannot enter into that - I am an Orthodox Christian - surely a poor example of one, for sure.
My journey to Holy Orthodoxy made me grapple with the question of the origins of the church, if such could be found. I began as pretty much a Baptist successionist, I suppose. I thought "The Trail of Blood" pretty much summed it up. Don't believe that anymore.
The epistles of St Ignatius rocked my world - especially his words on the Holy Mysteries (Eucharist) and the role of the Bishop.
He was martyred - eaten by lions - rather than renounce around 67 A.D. I found a church that counts him in their number.
But, again, I do not know that this holds any weight for you. Are you a Son of Noah - a righteous gentile? I know only a little of that. I heard Vendyl Jones speak once and was on his mailing list for a time.