There is no need for an institutional church at all. People are free to receive God's gift of eternal life without the *help* aka interference, of any church or institution.
God offers eternal life to INDIVIDUALS by convicting them through the Holy Spirit of their need for Him. Once the person accepts by faith, that God is going to do what HE promised He would do, that person is saved and sealed, guaranteed a place in heaven.
The Holy Spirit is doing the sealing. Baptism does not seal anyone.
A person can refuse to accept the gift of eternal life and thus they remain lost.
But once accepted, there is a transfer of ownership and the eternal life belongs to the person who received it.
Catholics do try to earn heaven. Nothing else explains the hoops they demand that one jump through to make it there.
I will E-mail the Vatican as we speak....the millions of dollars that they spend on buildings, salaries whatever, could be better spent, until they dried up, on preventing global warming. In today's reading, Nehemiah, it says that he read from the book of the law of God INTERPRETING IT so that all could understand what was read. Kind of sounds like what the Catholic church does...gives you a PROPER interpretation of scripture....unlike the one that you or your next door neighbor, or your sister-in-law, or your store clerk or.......you get the idea.