[ealgeone]

...gave us also the Sacraments, praying for the dead, praying with the Saints in Heaven, veneration for Beata Maria Semper Virgineand other beliefs and practices still carried on by over a billion Christians to the present day.

Yet we see none of that in Scripture you say they "gave" us.

The correct phrase would be to say carried out by over a billion catholics.

There is a difference between Christianity and roman catholicism.

[Elsie]

You noticed too; eh?

[Syncro]

And how many of those 1B+ Catholics really follow all of that stuff?

Most likely WAY more than 1/2 of them are “Cradle Catholics” and relate to Catholicism solely for that reason.

They just accept the branding (the “mark” branded on them by posters here if they were “baptized” in the Catholic sprinkle ceremony) and go on their merry way as “Catholics” and know nothing of basic Christianity, salvation and a personal relationship with Jesus.

What a system which allows to say Catholicism is made of over one billion *ahem* ‘Christians’ who are waiting to die to see where they end up.

Thank God for the simple salvation message that Jesus sent us through the Gospels.

May many misled sincere Catholics find it through all the clutter of extra Biblical “traditions” made up to keep people corralled in a belief system that does not feed them spiritually.