You wrote:
“What tortured doctrine, Vlad.”
Nope. Nothing torturous about it. God could have done anything to forgive us. Instead He chose to send His only Son to die on a Cross - after being born as a man and growing up in relative obscurity for 30 years. Torturous?
“Are you saying that one can only be a disciple of Jesus within the structure of the Roman Catholic Church?”
One can only be a true disciple when he is a true disciple. What does it take to be a true disciple? Can someone be a true, a full, disciple when he is in a sect, or a heretic, or a schismatic? No.
“And that Jesus is unable to disciple people outside of your denomination?”
It has nothing to do with Jesus’ ability. It has to do with Jesus’ choice. Jesus sent one Church, not 10, not 100, not 30,000.
“Your faith in Jesus is defective, Vlad, that you believe He only works within your church bureaucracy.”
And you’re a liar. I never once said Jesus works in only one ecclesial communion. That, of course, won’t stop you from lying about it, however. In the end, Protestants, like liberals, always resort to lying. Now, maybe you’re not lying. Maybe you’re just stupid. Could be. You might just be so dumb that you conflate two different ideas as one and pass them off as such. Let’s look at that.
Idea 1) To be a true disciple you must be in the Church Christ sent rather than in a sect, a heretic, or a schismatic. (Quite frankly the truth of that statement is obvious).
Idea 2) Jesus is able to work in only one ecclesial commuion. (I never claimed this, nor do I believe it, nor does any Catholic).
Clearly the two ideas have nothing to do with one another. It is also clear you cannot make a rational argument.
“Again, I appreciate what this discussion has made clear, that the Roman Catholic Church believes that salvation is not found in Christ, but in your denomination.”
Why do you have to be dishonest? Don’t you realize that lying is a sin? You cannot separate Christ from His body. To say the Church has nothing to do with salvation is to deny scripture. Again, read John 20:19-23. Jesus saw His mission, His ministry, is the same as the Church’s. He said so Himself. You, as a Protestant, must deny that. You must deny scripture. You must deny what the Church is. How sad.
“May readers’ eyes be opened to such heresy, and turn their eyes away from Rome and instead upon Jesus.”
What honest readers will see is your dishonesty. I never said Jesus is able to act only in one Church. That is your lie. And you, as Protestants always seem to do, had no problem putting a lie, a complete fabrication, out there. I always wonder why Protestants have no qualms about outright lying about what Catholics say, believe, or do. It seems to be testimony that they are not true disciples of Christ.
Your resorting to calling me a liar tells me that your argument has failed.
You degrade Scripture by saying that Christ no longer has disciples as portrayed by Scripture, that the disciples Jesus had when He walked the earth are substantially different from the disciples He has now.
Jesus connected directly with people. He called for people to be in personal relationship with Him. He engaged people directly. He said that He, personally, is the way and the truth and the life. Pretty much the only people that He condemned were the religious leaders, who insisted that people can only connect with God through the dominant religious establishment. You, Vlad, seem to have more in common with the Pharisees and their cabal than with Jesus and His friends.
Jesus, while He walked the earth, was a Protestant, protesting loudly against the religious establishment that injected itself between God and people.