When Christianity was waxing, after Pentecost c.30 AD, whilst "God in heaven" was transmitting Holy Spirit to the Church on earth, Church leaders were able to argue against, and ban, numerous "heresies", so preserving the integrity of the "body of Christ". The Apostles argued against Judaizers, Jesus Christ argued against Nicolatians (Rev 2-3), and Church leaders argued against Gnostics. Thus, although "heresies" arose, they remained marginalized, so preserving Apostolic Orthodoxy, and the integrity of the Church.
Today, in the End Times (Rev 20:7-9), some say the Holy Spirit has (largely) abandoned the Church, which wanes. The numerous branches of Protestantism, nearly as numerous as the number of Christians, resembles what the early waxing Church would have looked like, if Jesus, the Apostles, and Church leaders, had never been able to reign in "heresies". Arguably, only Orthodox Christianity has never succumbed to such schisms. (Catholics modified the Creed of Victory (Nicene Creed), adding et filioque; and then from them, and not from Orthodoxy, dispersed the innumerable branches of Protestantism, according to (all the) history books, in the modern era of Church defeat.)
On some specific points, i perceive Protestants' arguments persuasive, e.g. "Babylon" in Revelation symbolizes Jerusalem, not Rome (which everybody can already hate, and evidently does, as the "Beast").
this writer offers a riddle to Catholics. i do not know, and want to know, whether the Apostle Peter actually had a Popish primacy. So, if the Apostle Peter was primus inter pares, then in the symbolic image of the "heavenly spiritual New Jerusalem" (Rev 21-22), wherein Jesus and the 11 faithful Apostles are symbolized as 12 "spiritual foundation stones", which foundation stone symbolizes Jesus Christ; and which the Apostle Peter ?
