[wrfrmers]

That's a lot of talking around the actual question

>that has kept his Tradition alive through the centuries and alive fundamentally unchanged

the answer to which is an emphatic, "No." Which is why Protestantism exists in the first place.

The fundamental conundrum is whether or not you believe god is operating through people who are clearly behaving in self-serving ways, as many Catholic officials have in the past. There's nothing empirical about such a question and no use becoming indignant over some taking the perfectly sentimental (if not also reasonable, though that's beside the point) stance that they simply don't trust those dudes. The appeal to being the Church which is Jesus who is God, and therefore you can't question anything a church official says, is, like... the whole point of tension.

[nyokodo]

> the answer to which is an emphatic, "No." Which is why Protestantism exists in the first place.

Early Church scholarship makes it impossible to maintain the Protestant contention that the teachings have changed in their essence, obviously vocabulary has changed. Some recommended reading on the topic that is a mix of popular and scholarly works:

* The Fathers Know Best by Jimmy Akin

* Upon This Rock by Steve Ray

* Four Witnesses by Rod Bennett

* The Faith of the Early Fathers Volumes 1 to 3 by William Jurgens

* The Early Papacy: To the Synod of Chalcedon in 451 by Adrian Fortescue

[wrfrmers]

The medium is the message, as it were. Changing vocabulary changes the essence, since the minds and souls that would provide consistency across shifting intonation aren't still here to speak/bare them, respectively.

I think you overestimate my interest in soil-testing when I'm removed enough from the scene to see the mountain for myself. I suppose it could be a mirage; that's the best you can hope for.

[achierius]

Is it a no? Many archeological finds since the reformation have shown that the early church was indeed very much alike to what the Catholic Church later claimed. What differences in doctrine or practice do you know of?

[wrfrmers]

There was a famous list that a guy once nailed to a church door. That was a few hundred years ago.