GHSTHA wrote:
garee wrote:
But they are the first Bishops of the Church and the Catholic Bishops of today
trace their lineage back to them. 

There is no lineage, 12 as a remnant of all the Apotles is the number Christ was shooting for, end of story.
Every Bishop of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches can trace their lineage back to the Apostles. This was done through the laying on of hands. Can Evangelicals/Fundamentalists/Protestants do likewise?

That is false.  When the Great Apostasy occurred, any Tom, Dick, and Harry horned their way in, and pushed out those who only wanted to abide by that which the Apostles taught.  Any any time that so-called "lineage" could be, and was, broken by an apostate bishop.  Then he passed down his heresies to then next.  The result is apostate catholicism both in the east and in the west and in between.