“The heritage of the faith I hold to goes back to the start every bit as much as Roman Catholics assert they do and I KNOW that because it is what the Bible says”.
If you are a protestant your “faith heritage” with Catholicism ended when the heretic Martin Luther broke away from the Catholic Church. For those that didn’t follow the heretic, drunkard German monk, they remain in the unbroken line of apostolic seccession and can trace their “faith heritage” to the early disciples.
Protestants trace their faith to the Reformation and the break away from God’s Pilgrim Church on Earth.
That some protestants close their eyes to historical fact about the history of Christianity is sad. It’s there for all to read. All the Church fathers were Catholic, their teachings on the Eucharist and the other sacraments have been followed by the Catholic Church for thousands of years. Protestants pick and choose what they want to believe. There is no authority. It’s every man for himself.
“Christ ‘established here on earth’ only one Church,” the document said. The other communities “cannot be called ‘churches’ in the proper sense” because they do not have apostolic succession — the ability to trace their bishops back to Christ’s original apostles”.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/pope-only-one-true-church/
Yup; them 7 churches in Revelation were Catholic, all right.
Where are they today?
You can repeat that claim until your fingers bleed but it won't make it true. My faith "heritage" is based upon the teachings of Jesus and the Apostles as they recorded them in sacred Scripture. I can show you every single doctrine I believe from Scripture. Can you? That is really all the "apostolic succession" one needs - a succession of the truth and not of who ordained whom and so on.
I think it is quite sad how so many RCs think Martin Luther was the be all and end all of the Reformation and that by picking on him they wound all non-RC Christians with one swipe. Get a history book and find out for yourself what is the truth about that time rather than the cleaned-up, we are the good guys, RCC modified version.
I fully agree that Christ established here on earth only one church - just that it's NOT the Roman Catholic Church in exclusion of all other believers in Christ, who are each living stones being built up into His spiritual house of which Christ is the chief cornerstone. Quit trying to hog the glory that belongs to Christ alone and which He shares with NONE others.
When you get to heaven (if?) you will have to get used to the idea that Jesus Christ is the Good Shepherd and His sheep hear HIS voice and He knows them and they know Him. You'll have eternity to adapt.
13 “‘I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is. Yet you hold fast my name, and you did not deny my faith[a] even in the days of Antipas my faithful witness, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells. 14 But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality. 15 So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. 16 Therefore repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth. 17 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.’