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[Loving the Ride]

> Thanks for tuning me in to it.

I am so glad that you realized that. Our common enemy is out to make the whole church and faith look bad. I would grant anyone that this current Pope is making it too easy for our detractors, but hopefully some greater good will come of it. In my opinion, that "journalist" should not have any reputation left to stand on.

> "it is not Doctrine!" Duh. I know this.

Great! Not only is Doctrine restricted to strictly to the teaching of Faith and Morals, the declared Doctrine must be addressed to the Church as a whole, and spoken in the context of the authority of "From the Chair" or "Ex Cathedra". Everything else is debatable.
I respect that you have disagreements on Doctrines such as the Immaculate Conception Mary, or the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, and I don't expect any sudden change. My purpose here is to make sure you are able to filter out and qualify everything that is not Doctrine. The Church has a lot of warts and sinners because we operate in a fallen world. I expect to find that in any protestant Church as well. The Doctrine is what is definitive, and is what each church should be evaluated on, agreed? The superficial stuff can look bad, so it reminds me of how some Jews only the superficial aspects of Jesus. They saw Him use the bathroom and then dragged naked through the mud with all His worldly faults. Besides rising from the dead, what really mattered is what He taught (Doctrines!). Matthew 13:55 "Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brethren James and Joseph and Simon and Judas ?"

> The Scripture came in the 1st century.

We both agree on the dates of scripture, but we fundamentally disagree on what came first. I just want to make sure that you understand the claim of the Catholic Church. I and the Catholic Church contend that the Catholic Church came first in approx. 33 A.D., when Jesus ordained Peter (Matthew 16:18). The Church does not claim to be anything else, from anywhere else, from anyone else, or from anytime else. Please let me know if you have another understanding. If the Catholic Church was instituted outside of Jesus's command, then it has no more authority than a protestant church does today. There are many good reasons I believe it, historically, logically, scripturally, theologically, and by personal experience, so maybe we can discuss some of that later. (i.e. the powers of death shall not prevail against it...and those who are not with me scatter.)

> But this teaching is not restricted to the officials of the church, as is obvious from 2 Timothy 2.2.

Amen, the Catholic Church wants everyone to "teach" about Christ. When I say "teaching authority", I mean defining Doctrines, such as the Trinitarian nature of God. I trust you agree that there are too many bad teachers out there. Ultimately, it is the Holy Spirit that converts people...not us, but we should try to stay on the same page.

> Matthew 16:15 I'm guessing you mean 16:18? Or do you mean Acts 15.15?

I mean Matthew 16:15 because it demonstrates God's revelation of knowledge. "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven". In other words, people should not sit around and "figure out" doctrine based on "flesh and blood". Doctrine is a gift of God by revelation.

> I have far too many doctrinal, dogmatic, and catechetical differences with the RC Church to ever turn in that direction—differences where the Scriptures teach differently than the RC Church

I don't expect anyone to make sudden changes. I would have told someone they were crazy if they told me that I would join the Church. I was a harsh critic of it for most of my life, so I had to drop all my pride to accept it. I had been going to non-denominational Churches first. I later found that was the best thing that ever happened to me (dropping pride). I am not trying to imply that pride is stopping you, but just pointing out that it is one of several stumbling blocks. Confusion about Doctrine is another major one. Propoganda about the Church is another one. Bad Catholics/examples are another stumbling block. My acceptance/realization was many things, but at first with was the deep and beautiful analysis of scripture from Catholics such as Acquinas, Haydoc, Cornelius a Lapide, Bernard Orchard, etc. Many Catholics today are terrible with scripture, so please allow me to apologize for that. We are working on it. The Church has a long deep history of those who have dedicated their lives to preserving and analyzing it, so I hope you are aware of those too.

God bless !