I appreciate your view but it appears to be limited to the Roman church. There has always been organization in the church. Taking the or a worst example to make the argument really doesn’t do the discussion justice. There have been good and bad organizations. They are full of sinful men just as every man who self interprets is sinful also with a heart that is full of deceit. The organization and the individual are all subject to the same bag of sinful flesh and make the exact same errors.
The Roman church was pretty much the only game in town for over 1200 years of Christianity, and they were the epitome of ‘organized religion’. Some would say that referring to over 60% of the 2000 year history of the church absolutely does do the discussion justice.
Many guys on this board have repeatedly voiced their opinion about the ills of organized religion even nowadays on these threads…especially the control and money aspect…believers and non-believers, churched and unchurched alike. There’s a reason for that.
If believers truly are individually part of a kingdom of priests, and if believers truly can have an individual one on one relationship with Jesus, and if the same powerful Spirit of God that raised Jesus from the dead truly dwells within each individual believer and guides them into all the truth, then why on earth would any believer limit themselves to only believing what they are told to believe by organized Christianity…?
