Based on Biblical history and a Biblical insight into the divine nature and character, I find it's dubious to assume that the Our Lord would let 100% of His Church go disastrously astray for, say, 1500-2000 years.
Not if the Church is the Body of Christ and we are His members.
Not if Our Lord is the Good Shepherd who would leave 99 sheep on the hillside in order to seek and search for even one which was lost.
Thank you, Lord, for that Church of yours revealed in Revelation, a great multitude of every race, tongue and nation, so great that no man could number it.
Which recourse to a straw man is typical, but i never said that 100% of His Church went disastrously astray for 1500-2000 years, as in fact that would be impossible in the light of what i said.
Not if the Church is the Body of Christ and we are His members.
Indeed, and as said, it is " the body of Christ which overcomes and continues, by God's grace and to His glory. Amen.
But that the leadership of the visible church can come to the point where there is almost an entire abandonment of equity in ecclesiastical judgments; of discipline in morals, of reverence in divine things, and thus true religion was almost extinct, leading multitudes astray, and that the true Church had to be sought outside the then-visible institution, which required reformation, cannot be denied.
Even if some RCs imagine otherwise, as they do that a perpetual assuredly infallible magisterium is essential for discernment and establishment of Truth, and of what is of God, and that common people cannot be correct in disagreeing with the historical stewards of Scripture. .
Because your religion has existed for a long time and because it has the wisdom to have a Biblical insight that it is the 'real' church...
Thru out your religion's history it has claimed superior wisdom and ability to reason based on its knowledge of human intellectual philosophy...And this somehow gives you the insight into the divine nature and character of God...
But the God whom you claim to have an abundance of understanding about seems to disagree with you...
1Co 1:19 For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.
1Co 1:20 Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
When the anti Christ shows up he is going to attract a lot of people...It won't be Satanists who follow the anti Christ...It will be religious people...
The anti Christ will be an imposter...A counterfeit...People will think he is the real Savior...The anti-Christ has a church...This church has a prophet and has ministers of light...
2Co 11:14 And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
2Co 11:15 Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.
These Satanic ministers are going to look extremely religious...Very Pius...Their church will look the part of holiness...A counterfeit so good it will deceive millions of people...And it will teach a false gospel...
2Co 4:3 But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:
2Co 4:4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
2Th 2:9 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
2Th 2:10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
2Th 2:11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
2Th 2:12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
The church of the anti Christ will teach that salvation comes by water baptism...He will teach that no one can know if they are a saved child of God until they are face to face with Jesus...
Co 1:17 For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.
1Co 1:18 For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.
Satan's church will claim that the bible is impossible for a Christian to understand...
2Co 3:12 Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech:
Satan's church is built on the Law of the Old Testament...It has copied the aspects of the Jewish priesthood and temple where a veil stands between God and the people, accessible only thru the priesthood...It has imitated the garb of the O.T. priesthood...This church teaches its members are still under the Law...It will reek of holiness...
2Co 3:13 And not as Moses, which put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished:
2Co 3:14 But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ.
2Co 3:15 But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart.
2Co 3:16 Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away.
Satan's church has been around since Pentecost...Satan's church relies not on scripture but human reasoning to exist and function...
Gen_3:1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
Yet at one point the faithful in all the world numbered only eight. These were hid from judgment in the ark as the world drowned. Yes, Revelations shows an enormous number of the redeemed praising God, but there has never been so many alive in all of history as there are right now. God will find His numbers. That’s really not our problem. We are called to be faithful, even if, like Noah, our numbers are weak for a time. The Lord knows those who are His.
Peace,
SR