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This is a pretty narrow take. Christianity has “laid the groundwork” for its own demise at least five times, as Chesterton points out in The Everlasting Man. The idea that Christianity is over was popular way back in antiquity with the Manichaeans, and as recently as the late 19th century with the beginning of modern science. Yet it still survives somehow.
Predicting the doom of a religion and having it actually die, despite being one of the most dominant religions on the planet, are two very different things.
There were many forms of ‘Christianity’ in antiquity which were often diametrically opposed to each other in the most fundamental respects (as in monism vs. dualism, not later pilpul over the natures of Christ). Out of this multitude only one sect survived, whose claim to being the original is in no way supported by evidence, and it was by no means necessarily what ancient critics had in mind. Islam and liberalism are both closer to orthodox Christianity than Marcionism or Valentianism was, so that even if the professing Christian faith somehow vanished, you could use them to ‘prove’ its supposed tenacity.
The fact is that most modern churches would likely be judged heretical by people from just a few centuries ago, and vice versa to some extent. So it’s a ship of Theseus kind of thing.
Most modern churches would judge most modern churches heretical. They just disagree about which ones.
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