Constitutional History of the Western World

The Christian scriptures tell us there is a True Church. In Matthew 16. 13-19 Jesus tells us He founded His Church on a rock, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. In John 14. 23-26 we're told that those who love Christ keep His words. John 14. 23-26 gives those of us who are Christians yet another reason to respect Matthew 16. 13-19. John 15. 6 more or less says that those who abide in Christ are the True Church. Those who don't abide in Christ are like sticks which are gathered and given to the flames. Ephesians 4. 4 says there is 'one body,' and in Paul's terminology this means there is one True Church. Revelation 20.15 mentions a Book of Life. At the Last Judgment, those people with their names written in the Book of Life are the True Church, and they enter heaven. Those who don't have their names written in the Book of Life are cast into a lake of fire.

The Church of Rome either leads people to heaven or else it leads people to perdition. The Church of Rome has either fallen away from the True Faith, and is not the Church which Christ founded on a rock, in which case it leads people to perdition, in which case everyone should renounce the Church of Rome, or else the Church of Rome has not fallen away from the True Faith, and Rome is the Church which Christ founded on a rock, and therefore Rome leads people to heaven. If Rome leads people to heaven, if Rome is God's True Church, then everyone should obey Rome and her teachings.

Chapter 1 focuses mostly on the Church of Rome and Eastern Orthodoxy. 2 Thess 2 mentions a 'falling away'. A church, any church, is either the Church which Christ founded on a rock or else it is a false church which leads people to perdition. Any church, or any person for that matter, has either fallen away from the True Faith or else he / she / it has not fallen away from the True Faith.

You have to weigh the probabilities. You have to weigh the evidence for and against the churches.