The gospel does not unite, but rather separates between the true and the false, the good and the evil, the clean and the unclean, the holy and the profane.  This naturally brings along with it strife and contention, and this Christ affirmed when He declared that He did not come to “bring peace, but to bring a sword.”( Matt. 10:34).  We who follow the Captain of our Salvation know all too well that we are engaged in a very real “SPIRITUAL WARFARE” (Eph. 6), and must take up the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God as the weapon with which to engage the enemy, all those opposed to the Truth as it is in Jesus! (2 Cor. 10:3-5).  The Lord Himself is our battle ax! (Jer. 51:20).

With respect to his comment “the 1.2 billion followers can’t be wrong (democratically speaking) instead of your wee cult that would be lucky to have 100 followers.” Sir, Truth in religion is not determined by a consensus of opinion, but rather God’s Word alone is the arbiter of TRUTH.  Christ Himself made this evident when He said: “broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many there be on it” (Matt. 7:13) and contrasting it sharply with the “narrow way that leadeth to eternal life”. (Matt. 7:14).  God’s Word reveals that it is but a “remnant that are saved by grace”.

Those to whom Paul preached the gospel . . the Scribes and the Pharisees were the dominant religious leaders of his day, yet he did not fail to confront them and to denounce their doctrines and traditions as those which were contrary to God’s Word.

Those who regard the “church” of Rome as their authority in the vital matters of religion do so out of ignorance of the Scriptures!

Those who by the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ have been “set free” (John 8:36) from their sins . . their idolatry, and are yoked to Christ and His Truth (Matt. 11:28-30) are said to walk in the “liberty of Christ” (2 Cor. 3:17; Gal. 2:4; 5:1 ).

Of these things I do speak and know firsthand for I am a former Roman Catholic, made a Christian by virtue of the “new birth”.