A Catholic friend on FaceBook posted about the long history and traditions of the Catholic church. He compared it to Protestant history and doctrine. The conclusion drawn from his post is that the longer doctrines, ceremonies, rites and beliefs are held onto, the truer and better they must be.
I will state once again that Christian faith is not a religion, but is a relationship with God through the life death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and obedience to the promptings of God’s Holy Spirit within us. There is nothing wrong with tradition, ceremony or doctrine unless they distract us from that personal relationship. The Church universal, which is referred to in scripture as the bride of Christ, is made up of individual believers regardless of which church they attend here. Even one of the two thieves crucified next to Jesus joined that church before he died and Jesus took him to Paradise with him.
I have had that relationship with Jesus, my Heavenly Father and the Holy Spirit for 69 of my 80 years of life on this earth and Jesus has promised me that I will soon join Him and that former thief and all other believers in His kingdom.
One last warning; beware of false doctrine, run everything (including my blog) past the Holy Spirit and God’s word. Those are the sources of eternal truth. Satan’s lies will not become truth even if everyone believes them and God’s truths will remain true even if no one believes them.