Thanks for this response, which was helpful and to the point.
Could you tell me more about the general apostasy to which you refer? I mean historic facts or a least strong inferences about the time, the place, the people involved: names and so forth. Anything that could count has historic evidence. You say "first or second century," but that is a little vague: the last of the Apostles didn't even die until AD 100 (St. John). So if it happened in the 1st century, then the Church disappeared before the Apostles did.
It's interesting to me that the Mormons, the Muslims, and the exponents of the Radical Reformation all agreed that Christ's (original) Church failed.
I apologize in advance if this becomes lengthy.
...agreed that Christ's (original) Church failed.
The LDS view is that the Church didn't fail, but the people failed the Church. Which was and is their God given right to choose for themselves good or evil.
We see evidence of this in the NT where Paul says:
2 Tim 1:
15 This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me; of whom are Phygellus and Hermogenes.
Paul's statement that all that are in Asia, which included Ephesus have turned away from him shows the magnitude of the great apostasy even at that time.
This was prophesied about by Amos, Daniel, Paul, John and Jesus.
An awesome article on the great and abominable church
"This period might be called the blind spot in Christian history, for it is here that the fewest primary historical sources have been preserved. We have good sources for New Testament Christianity; then the lights go out, so to speak, and we hear the muffled sounds of a great struggle. When the lights come on again a hundred or so years later, we find that someone has rearranged all the furniture and Christianity has become something very different from what it was in the beginning. That different entity can accurately be described as hellenized Christianity."
This article defends the Catholic church to some degree...
The historical evidence of the apostasy is pretty extreme. Torture, murder, and war are all part of the history of Christianity. Such as when the Pope failed to have queen Elizabeth I assassinated, he called on the king of Spain to launch an invasion force to take back England for the Catholic Church. This was known as the Spanish Armada.
The torture deaths by fire of tens of thousands of people in the late 16th century for refusing to accept the doctrine of infant baptism.
A thousand years of death and oppression. However, this didn't cause the great apostasy, this was because of, the great apostasy.
None of which was taught or practiced by the Apostles or Jesus. Therefore, if Jesus isn't running it, it isn't Jesus true Church.
The historical evidence of the fact that God has called and spoken directly to prophets face to face even from the time of Adam. But God has never spoken to a Pope ever.
Rev 11 speaks specifically of two prophets on the earth that are killed and resurrected as the second coming happens. There are no prophets in the Catholic Church, nor is there any place for them in the hierarchy.
Therefore, these prophets aren't Catholic. But I digress.