Haha time to chip in.
Anyway, RCs and Protestants. First and foremost, here is some
background information and history in general about
Christianity.
Jesus was a Jew. It is said that along with John and others, he may
have been part of the Essenes or an Essenes-influenced Jewish sect.
The Essenes were a sect of Jews that preached that the world was
coming to an end, something which Jesus shared. Jesus was trying to
change the Jewish religion from within - he probably never intended
to create a new Church.
After Jesus's death, the Jewish authorities persecuted his
disciples and followers. Amongst them, one of the persecutors was a
man name Saul. After the persecution, stoning and killing of
Stephen (Acts 7-8.1), he was enroute to persecute others when he
had a religious experience and guess what, he converted and became
one of Jesus's best followers. He was to become St Paul.
Well, the world didn't end and St Paul and the rest of Jesus's
followers decided that they needed more structure in their
organisation. That's when the physical body of the Church
organisation began to be formed. One of the issues that the new
Church faced was that because they were recruiting Gentiles as
well, the Jews in the Church felt, among other thigns, that the
Gentiles should be circumcised as well. It is here that the Church
was seperated from Jewism. St Paul decided among other things that
Christians did not need to be circumcised and stripped the Church
of its Jewish flavour.
Another thing to note is that the Bible was only written down
100plus years after Jesus's death. Also, Bible researches have
found out that the first 3 books of the NT, Luke, Matthew and Mark
are based from information from a book now known as "Q." Much of
the gospel was actually verbally transmitted and only written down
much later. In fact, there were many gospels (10 or 11?) with
different accounts. The Church decided which 4 fit the best and put
it in the Bible. The rest can are kept in the vaults of the
Vatican.
