I once put that sorry mentality behind me and it grieved me that others would resort to some of the very things for which I repented when I became a Christian. Catholicism is widely recognized as a dead-letter religion. If I had been content with a dead-letter religion, I would have remained a Catholic. That fellow Christians, although erring, argue for dead-letter religion is no more compelling. In each case there is a sinful disdain for the authority of God and an unashamed, blatant preference for the authority of men.
Catholic doctrine imagines that authority resides in the church.
In truth, the Bible is the absolute, final, standard of authority in religion. It has been preserved for us by God. Further, the Bible alone is our only reliable information about the personality of God, the extent of his power, the acceptable way to worship him, redemption, godly conduct, the origin and destination of man, rewards bountifully afforded the righteous and punishment reserved for the wicked. To dispense with New Testament pattern, making it not applicable and binding today, sets humanity hopelessly adrift and irrecoverably lost in a sea of sin. If not lost, then unconditionally saved or universalism.