Your statement is not an answer and certainly is not in line with what our Lord promised to the Church. By implication, what I see you saying is that it was the predestined will of God that less than 100 years after Jesus left the earth, having PROMISED that the Church would never be overcome by the gates of hell, the second generation of apostles all went into apostasy and the world was cast into darkness and damnation until Luther and Calvin came along.

Remember, the Early Church was distinctly and ONLY Catholic, both Eastern and Western in variation, but nonetheless, Catholic. None of the doctrines of the Reformation were ever known prior to 1517. Therefore, if you, as a good Calvinist, believe that all those who reject Calvinism are damned and non elect out of hand, then the whole world prior to 1517 and for 1500 years went directly to hell.

And Jesus and the Holy Spirit failed to keep the promise of Matthew 16.

Is that what you are really saying?

Cordially in Christ,

Brother Ed