Many are called, few are chosen....Christ established a churcr which He intended should be followed....the Catholic church...for one thousand six hundred years all Christians followed it....and then suddenly it was wrong, blasphemous, heretical....diagnosed by Luther, Wesley Henry VIII, Calvin et al....Frankly, I'll stick with the true church.
And a visible church at that. Even the Orthodox agree with Catholics and that the Pope is the Pope they just disagree with what role the Pope should play
Wrong. Jesus never told anyone to follow His church. He told them to follow HIM.
Matthew 4:19 And he said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men."
Matthew 8:22 And Jesus said to him, "Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead."
Matthew 9:9 As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, "Follow me." And he rose and followed him.
Matthew 10:38 And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.
Matthew 16:24 Then Jesus told his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
Matthew 19:21 Jesus said to him, "If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me."
Mark 1:17 And Jesus said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men."
Mark 2:14 And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, "Follow me." And he rose and followed him.
Mark 8:34 And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
Mark 10:21 And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, "You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me."
Luke 5:27 After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, "Follow me."
Luke 9:23 And he said to all, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
Luke 9:59 To another he said, "Follow me." But he said, "Lord, let me first go and bury my father."
Luke 18:22 When Jesus heard this, he said to him, "One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me."
John 1:43 The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, "Follow me."
John 10:27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.
John 12:26 If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.
John 21:19 And after saying this he said to him, "Follow me."
John 21:22 Jesus said to him, "If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!"
Jesus said to follow Him not some church. A church can not save anyone but Jesus can.
"Faithful is He that calleth you, for He will also do it; many are called but few are chosen>"
Now, can you see why so few are THE Chosen? ... For a catholic it is so very hard to get this simple Truth ... so few are the Chosen because so few will let Him do it! And here's the practical application: is your spiritual problem attached to a drinking problem, an anger problem, a pornography problem, a chronic lying problem, etc.? To the degree that you take that to Him for His dealing with that problem, He will change you from the inside out; He will raise His babies up in the Way that they should go. BUT, if you continue in the problem not taking the problem to Him for His cure, thinking you can be good enough to be a member in His family by your efforts and the absolution imagined you receive from a priest, well, the problem remains in your heart, your behavior mechanism, festering and oozing out, never cured. Faithful is He that calleth you for He will also do it.
Just so you know, I have catholic acquaintances who have become so desperate that even they took their problem to Jesus despite the priestly assignments. They are the ones being transformed into the image of The Son.