Quote:
Originally posted by Theodoric
So, for a period of over 1000 years God appears to have been quite prepared to tolerate this "false" church. Why?
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God has tolerated a lot more than the wayward Roman Church and for a lot longer than 1,000 years. To answer your question fully would be impossibly difficult as I would need God's overall perspective on the whole sweep of human history if I were going to try to explain his vast wisdom. All I can say is that God:
1. Has had his followers, and therefore a witness to his truth, in every generation.
2. Is extremely patient - 'slow to anger' and 'pouring blessings on the children and grandchildren of those who are obedient to him'.
Sorry for the overtly religious language but it was an overtly religious question ...
To address your other point, the Reformation, and other 'revivals' and 'awakenings' that have happened since, have been characterised by a desire to 'do' Christianity as it is written in the Bible, and not as it has been modified by 1,500 years of Roman church tradition and superstition. It is unsurprising then that Christians who meet for Sunday worship in a plain hall with a beat-up piano find it hard to see themselves as in the same religion as one that dresses priests up in robes (there is no distinct priesthood set apart from the rest of the believers in the new testament), waves incence all over the place and turns the breaking of bread and pouring of wine, intended by Jesus as a simple illustration of his sacrifice, into a major mysterious ritual full of superstitious nonsense (none of which is in the Bible).