There's a popular Catholic trope that goes something like this: Protestantism poses a dilemma for Protestants: why do you hope to find and join the right church when there are 30,000 candidates to sift through?
There are several problems with this trope:
i) "The 30,000 denominations" is an artificial, misleading figure, as even Catholic apologists like Trent Horn admit. However, let's grant the 30,000 figure for argument's sake.
ii) Catholics are unconsciously superimposing a Catholic paradigm on Protestants. It's not a Protestant dilemma. It's not a conundrum internal to Protestant theology. It's only a dilemma if you take Catholic ecclesiology as the frame of reference.
In Protestant theology, salvation isn't contingent on locating and joining "the right church". In Protestant theology, salvation is mediated by Jesus, the Bible, and the Holy Spirit, not the church. While the church often plays a vital role in disseminating the Gospel, in Protestant theology, we're not saved through the church in the traditional Catholic sense, where saving grace is piped through sacramental channels.
We don't need to find a needle in a haystack. God doesn't make salvation that elusive. We don't need to comb through 30,000 straws to find the needle. It's not about us finding God but God finding us. And the knowledge of salvation is available through multiple sources. In evangelical theology, you don't have to be in union and communion with "the right church" to be in union and communion with God.
iii) The Catholic objection is like a Hindu telling a Christian, "how do you expect to escape from the wheel of reincarnation unless you practice yoga to get in touch with your inner godhood?"
But that's not Christian predicament since pantheism is false and reincarnation doesn't exist.
Now, a Catholic might try to use a Catholic yardstick to measure the Protestant faith, but he can't reasonably expect a Protestant to accept a Catholic yardstick. Too many Catholics argument from their paradigm rather than arguing for their paradigm when debating Protestants. But that begs the question.
iv) In addition, the way Catholics frame the issue ironically generates a dilemma for their own position. If you have to find the needle in the haystack, then that means Catholics can only discover the One True Church® through exhaustive process of elimination. Since, according to them, there are 30,000 candidates for that singular distinction, they must compare and contrast 30,000 candidates to isolate and identify the true claimant. But of course, no Catholic engages in that winnowing process. No Catholic examines 30,000 individual straws to find the needle.
v) Finally, Catholics who raise this objection are operating with a defunct theological paradigm. According to the traditional paradigm, you had to receive valid sacraments to be saved. Valid sacraments were dispensed by Roman Catholic priests. There was no salvation outside the Roman sacramental system. But that's been shredded by post-Vatican II theology. For instance:
At best, Roman Catholicism has stretched the definition of "the Church" so that you can be in union and communion with "the Church" even if you're completely ignorant of Catholic theology, have never received Catholic sacraments. On that expansive redefinition, "the Church" becomes like oxygen: something universally available. Everyone can breathe it.
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