Church history supplies convincing evidence that the three pillars of the hierarchical Catholic Church developed over three centuries after the time of Christ. The facts do not support the hypothesis that the papacy, episcopacy, and cultic priesthood were revealed by Christ and, therefore, are necessary to the life of the Church. Christ revealed the presence of a loving God to humankind; he did not reveal a mandated way of organizing believers into a believing community. To insist on a hierarchical church calls into question the validity of a church that has a lacuna for three centuries of these hierarchical components.
