On the contrary.
The cause of Christ has been damaged by the idea that there is no need for the Church which He established. All one needs is a book and one's own personal understanding of it. There's no need for me to tell you where that idea was born.
It follows from this that if one doesn't need a Church, why bother going? Each to his own. Find your own path to salvation.....or wherever you want to go. The Church has greatly aided this process with its own faithlessness and minimalism as it has attempted to ingratiate itself with a culture which will never love it. If the Church does not appear to consider it's message to be important, its certain that this sentiment will percolate through to its members and non members.
The disastrous results are now obvious.
Absolutely not.
It is through Jesus that one is saved.
And yes, people can pick up a Bible and come to salvation through reading it because it points to JESUS.
A church, any church, is NOT necessary for someone to be saved, because God saves, not churches.
I don't think you do know where that idea came from...Here's where it came from:
Eph 3:3 How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words,
Eph 3:4 Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ)
It's not just a book...It's the instruction manual from God...
The apostle Paul tells us to read it...And study it...And divide it into sections:
2Ti 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
You guys chose to let someone else read the bible for you and tell you what it means...The priests that teach you that that is what you need to do have been blinded...Why does your Catholic religion NOT teach you scripture like that which I have posted???
Luk_6:39 And he spake a parable unto them, Can the blind lead the blind? shall they not both fall into the ditch?