Individual Protestants certainly love God and believe in Him. Absolutely true. We do too.
Certainly there were things about the Catholic Church’s members and some of their actions in the 16th century which had turned to evil. Not the Church’s teachings. Those who ignored the teachings, those who listened to Satan.
But those who fought against the evil could themselves be corrupted by evil. This was indeed the case with the “reformers”; praiseworthy as their intentions may have been to start, there came a point with each major reformer, and later to each individual who chose to align with a reformer, where they themselves succumbed to evil. It starts out small, “It is not right to do this practice” said Luther (and he was right. If he had stopped right there, used his voice in line with the authentic Church teaching which he in fact supported–because the Church teaching was NOT to ‘sell indulgences’ but some people chose to disregard that teaching–we would probably be celebrating the feast of St. Martin Luther, as we celebrate the feast of St. Francis, who likewise faced instances where ‘people’ in the Church had gone against Catholic teachings, but St. Francis not only stayed in the Catholic Church, by his example he brought the wrongdoers back into the church as well. )
But (as we often do), Martin Luther looked for ways to justify himself. This is where he made his biggest error–because in following Christ, we should never try to justify ourselves, but only to follow Christ. He is our justification. The minute we start to justify ourselves, we have jettisoned Christ and made ourselves and ‘our’ judgment what is important. This is what Martin Luther, and also Calvin, Knox, Henry VIII, Archbishop Cramer, the Wesleys, etc. began to do.
Add into the mix anticlericalism --a not unexpected byproduct of seeing ‘clerics’ who acted less than holy, comparing them to (of course) oneself whom one could see as being first ‘more’ and then finally A LOT MORE HOLY than these so called ‘godly’ men. . .add in nationalism, a desire to govern England, or Scotland, or the Low Countries rather than ‘submit’ to “Rome”; add in greed (Church property was a rich prize. Not because the Church was itself all that greedy, but after 1500 years there were lots and lots of churches, and land–any land–was beginning to be at a premium (why else such a push for “new land” in the “new world”. . .don’t get me started on enclosures etc.), add in as well ‘itching ears’, the individualism that took a pride in being ‘as good as the next man’ rather than the humility of the more ‘old fashioned’ Catholic, add in more literacy, opportunities not just for printing a Bible but for printing one’s Bible, and other broadsides or treatises. . .
The splintering was multifactorial, and while many things were good (literacy is good, true reform is good, love of country is good), any and all could be twisted (and were) by Satan. And Catholics were (and are) not immune to Satan either (don’t get me started on ‘cafeteria’ Catholics, LOL).
But the actual teachings of the Catholic Church --those are not of Satan. And (depending on the Protestant Church) --some of those teachings can be, and have been, corrupted. And I know it’s hard for you with perhaps a 400 year history (and with examples of many good, true, and noble people you have known, or heard of, or read about) to think that anything at all in your church may have been at one time, or now, influenced by Satan. He tries to influence our Church too–and he has come close (with the Arian heresy) and through the years to weaken many members and cause them to fall. Again, Catholics are not immune to Satan’s influence and as I said, there are some even in the Church who have misread and misrepresented the ACTUAL Catholic teachings just as much as Luther may have misunderstood ‘faith’ and Calvin ‘double predestination’.
I know that if you came out and flat out said that Satan was the cause of our calling Mary a saint that I would not believe you. And some Protestants do believe this. Catholics can’t just jettison the beliefs Protestants object to in order to ‘come under the umbrella’; Protestants object to jettisoning beliefs that Catholics object to. If the only question were belief then it would be easy to say, “majority rule”–but it isn’t. One group has to be right and the other wrong.
Now you may be a Protestant whose belief is closer to actual Catholic teaching, and whose own actions are more in line with that teaching, than I, as a Catholic, might be. (Naming no names, but we know there are as many self-identified Catholics who, when asked about church teaching, disagree with just about every one of them yet insist they are 'Catholic).
We are not saying that because you are Protestant you are evil, anymore than you would say that because we are Catholic we are evil.
Protestants are Christians. The Catechism says so. Christians do not follow Satan.
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