Positively Quixotic!
That CAN'T be right, can it? We "have been"...are you sure it doesn't say we "MIGHT have been"??? ;o)
My two cents.
It is obvious on this thread the faith the Romanists have in Apostolic succession, and the “Magisterium” (the “majestic ones” - we have you to thank for that one). One Romanist on this thread even put it like this: “Some people I never believe, but I always believe the Magisterium.”
Take note of what he said, I always BELIEVE the Magisterium. Seems to me, the Romanists have a very different take on “faith” from the rest of Christianity. The Romanists come into this world in non-faith, sprinkled (which they falsely call baptism) as a baby into the RCC.
Once they come to years they go through the motions all Romanists do in their sacerdotal religion of works: the Roman Mass, rosary beads, the “veneration” of Mary, and so on. They really BELIEVE all that stuff.
And why? Their Magisterium says so, case closed, the Magisterium cannot possibly be wrong. If the Magisterium says purgatory is true, that’s it, case closed, “I always BELIEVE the magisterium,” our poster says.
A Romanist is born a Romanist, born into a system of misplaced faith, into a religion of works. His faith is not in what he sees revealed in scripture, his faith is in the Roman magisterium, whether it can be found in the scripture or not makes no difference, “I always BELIEVE the Magisterium.”
The crux of the issue then, between Romanists and the rest of Christianity, is FAITH. What one believes. The rest of Christianity doesn’t find the Roman Mass, rosary beads, Mariolatry, purgatory, and many other such like things, in the scripture. Their faith is individual faith, faith in scriptural revealed truth. The Roman system, on the other hand, is Magisterium-based faith.
Which, in truth, is not true faith, the kind we see in the Bible, it is much more akin to collectivism, a kind of religious socialism. Not individual faith, like the collectivists who place their faith in the state, their faith is in the Pope and the Magisterium.
As to the Pope, who allegedly sits in the “seat of Peter,” Apostolic succession. If a Romanist BELIEVES the magisterium, he certainly, and especially, is going to BELIEVE in the Pope, who has the last word in the magisterium. But when we exercise true faith, individual faith, faith in the revealed word of God, Roman Apostolic succession instantly goes down the tube, loses all credibility.
Anybody who can read, and with half a brain, can see that Peter (nor the “Magisterium,” the apostles) did not teach Mariolatry, rosary beads, purgatory, etc.
In the political side of things, Americanism is an individualist system, as opposed to forms of statism/collectivism. Romanism is thus the very antithesis of what America is all about. Romanism is not based on one’s individual faith in scripture, it is a form of religious statism and collectivism, faith in the Pope and the Magisterium.