I agree with this point. I'm sorry to go into a religious rant but I will try my best to explain.
There is and can only ever be
one true Church that was founded by Jesus Christ. Surely we all agree He didn't found muliple Churches, right? We all agree there was
one Church at the beginning, right? From there it's just a matter of looking at history and using a little bit of logic and common sense to follow the trail and understand where things stand today.
"Catholics" used to be a part of the "Orthodox" Church in the first millenium - which in those days was simply "the Church" - and now they aren't. There were 5 patriarchates - Rome, Constantinople, Antioch, Alexandria, Jerusalem. One of them pulled an Eric Cartman. Another way to look at it is like a band member that leaves the band and keeps using the name, claiming to be the
real band, because they think their contributions were oh so more important and valuable than the rest, meanwhile the other 4 original people are still there, doing their thing, and they have nothing to prove to anyone. The person who left may even get super famous but they will never be "the Beatles", or whatever.
So let's look at what these words mean. "Orthodox" in our context means correct, traditional, authentic; some would translate it as "right or correct belief". What is meant by this is that the "Orthodox" Church is
the one true,
Catholic (which means universal) and
Apostolic Church. There are minimal if any changes from the original. Apostolic means we can trace authority from today all the way back to Jesus and the Apostles. We literally know the name of every single man who laid hands on another man and transferred the authority, all the way back to Christ Himself. It is a factually and historically true statement which cannot be argued against in good faith.
The disagreement is primarily that "Catholics" claim that the Orthodox left them and thereby lost some (or all, depending on who you talk to) legitimacy at some point, and the Orthodox claim the opposite (which is objectively true and correct), but there is
no doubt of the historical authenticity and lineage of the Orthodox Church going back to Christ and the Apostles. The two Churches also recognize each others sacrements to some degree, though they are not in communion. This is why Catholics are often Chrismated into the Orthodox Church (not fully re-baptized), and don't require full baptism (Catholic baptism is also lacking, as it often isn't done with a full triple immersion, which is a bigger deal than it sounds, but that's another issue).
Protestants (speaking as someone who was raised in various flavors of protestantism) are a whole other can of worms. It goes without saying that while protestents certainly may enjoy the Grace of God, Christ, and/or the Holy Spirit to some degree, they cannot ever claim to be members of the original, one, true Church, and they do not have any direct legacy regarding it. Protestantism is a new innovation which copies some aspect of the Orthodox faith but has no connection to the original. It is like coke and pepsi.
That being said there are a ton of really wonderful, genuine, well-meaning people who genuinely do love Christ and are protestants or Catholics. These people are equally worthy of love and respect as any Orthodox Christian. I'm also not going to suggest that it's impossible to achieve salvation outside of the Orthodox Church, because only God really knows who is truly saved, but they are most certainly missing out on receiving His most pure body and precious blood and cannot ever be considered as part of the universal body of Christ in the same way that Orthodox Christians are.
This is unfortunately "the truth" as it stands today as I understand it, and I've done a LOT of research and debate on this subject, before coming to this conclusion and seeking out the Orthodox Church. The reason I say it's "unfortunate" is that some folks are really missing out, and there's simply no other way to sugar coat it. Personally I would love nothing more than for
all followers of Christ to unite and be part of the one true Catholic and Apostolic Church founded by Jesus Christ. I am encouraged every day and I see so many Orthodox Catachumens and that is probably the largest reason why I donate so much of my time to this forum. I pray that my efforts may in some small part bring even one single person person closer to the truth and taking that step towards Christ and His Church.
I rarely post these kind of passionate rants so I hope everyone will forgive me this one time. I love you all and I pray that every one of you will truly come to know Christ and find the salvation that only He can provide.
Take care & God bless.
In Christ,
SoC