Posted on 01/29/2006 5:25:55 AM PST by NYer
It's a stark sentence. Some Catholics even love its shock value, waving the doctrine like a flag in the face of their enemies. Other Catholics flatly refuse to believe it, and claim that this teaching was repudiated by the Second Vatican Council. Both groups are wrong.
Despite what some may think, this dogma is infallible, and all Catholics are required to believe it. This was repeated clearly at Vatican II, which said: "Basing itself on Scripture and Tradition, the Council teaches that the Church, a pilgrim now on earth, is necessary for salvation."
At the same time, this dogma was never meant to be a sectarian battle cry, as if only Catholics may go to heaven.
So what is the correct interpretation of this sentence? What does the Catholic Church mean when she proclaims that Outside the Church there is no salvation?
OUTSIDE THE EARTH THERE IS NO LIFE
Saying that the Church is necessary for salvation is like saying that the earth is necessary for human life. Outside the Church there is no salvation, and outside the earth there is no life.
It's true, of course. The earth is our God-given home. If you leave here, you will die.
But if this is so, how do you explain the 445 astronauts who have flown into space and returned safely? If "outside the earth there is no life", how did Neil Armstrong ever walk on the moon?
The answer, of course, is simple: They didn't leave the earth; they just brought it with them. While they slept and walked on the moon, they were eating earth's food and breathing earth's air. Everything they had came from back home.
So when we say "outside the earth there is no life," we are saying that all of the means for survival are found on this planet. And when we say "outside the Church there is no salvation," we mean that all of the means of salvation -- doctrines, sacraments, and so on -- are found here, uncorrupted by error.
Some of these means can exist outside the visible bounds of the Church. For example, Protestants have most of the Bible, along with two of the seven sacraments. Nevertheless, these things are like the food and water on the Space Shuttle: they're life-giving, but they came from a place where they're far richer, more abundant and complete.
WHAT IT ALL MEANS
We may draw several conclusions from this.
First, if a person even suspects that the Church is necessary for salvation, but refuses to act on it before he dies, he will go to hell. As Vatican II stated, "They could not be saved who, knowing that the Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God through Christ, would refuse either to enter it or to remain in it."
Second, if a person fails to enter or stay in the Church through no fault of his own, he may still be saved. Pope Pius IX said: "By Faith it is to be firmly held that outside the Apostolic Roman Church none can achieve salvation. This is the only ark of salvation. He who does not enter into it will perish in the flood. Nevertheless equally certainly it is to be held that those who suffer from invincible ignorance of the true religion are not for this reason guilty in the eyes of the Lord."
Finally, it's not enough simply to call yourself Catholic. There is nothing magic about registering at a parish. To go to heaven, you have to take advantages of the means offered by the Church. This includes praying often, giving alms to the poor, spreading the Gospel, going to Confession and believing in all of her teachings -- even the hard ones.
Pope John Paul II summed it up best: "People are saved through the Church, they are saved in the Church, but they always are saved by the grace of Christ. . . . This is the authentic meaning of the well-known statement Outside the Church there is no salvation."
* Kevin Knight lives in Aurora, CO, he is the webmaster of www.newadvent.org, the Catholic website which provides both Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologica and the Catholic Enciclopedia.
How does he know this? This is a very weak and high-handed statement to make.
It would seem that all it would take to invalidate his entire argument would be to discover extraterrestrial life.
Protestants have ALL the sacraments.
When we walk into heaven, we are going to be surprised at who is- and isn't there.
Outside of Christ there is no salvation. If you are in Christ, by grace through faith, you are, by definition, the Church.
Protestants have no sacraments.
Gal 1:6 I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel:
Gal 1:7 Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.
Gal 1:8 But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.
Gal 1:9 As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.
You really need to get out more!
So what then of the righteous Jew? The righteous Muslim? The Hindu? The (gasp) righteous atheist?
And here I was just defending the Catholic church.
Because you say so?
Well, I'm not outside the Church.
As I've asserted repeatedly (and Scripture bears out) Heaven will be populated by Roman Catholics, Orthodox, and Protestants who have believed and accepted Christ (and for my Calvinist friends, those who Christ has saved with no effort whatsoever on your part).
See y'all there!
Christ instituted 7 Sacraments. How many do you have in your church?
They need to trust Jesus (or Yeshua) as their Messiah or Savior.
Now, a lot of that responsibility falls on the church (those who are already saved.) First, we need to proclaim the Gospel in the demonstration of the Spirit and power, not some theological head knowledge. Jesus called it the 'Gospel of the Kingdom'.
Then, we need to back it up with a sacrificial life of service. There are too many people giving lip service to God and not much else. No wonder it's not convincing.
And by the way, Jesus said He wasn't coming back until the whole world has heard this. (Matt 24:14)
It's not so much the unbeliever's fault as it is the church's. Now, once someone has made the decision to reject Jesus Christ, the responsibility falls upon his own head.
Isn't that the story?
As many as are necessary ~ point being that Protestantism is far more complex than your understanding of it. (BTW, we have an awful lot of ex-Catholics wandering about the pews on Sunday, and they say they never noticed a real difference, theologically speaking that is.)
Let's see, baptism, communion, confession, confirmation, holy orders, matrimony, annointing of the sick/dying. Yep, got 'em all.
* Baptism
* Penance and Reconciliation (informally called Confession)
* Eucharist (informally called Communion)
* Confirmation (in Eastern Catholic Churches and the Orthodox Church, equivalent to chrismation)
* Holy Matrimony
* Holy Orders
* Anointing of the Sick (also called Extreme Unction)
We do all of these. We don't make big complicated ceremonies out of them, except for marriage, of course.
So, when you anoint the sick, do they ever get healed? They very often do in my church.
What about foot washing? You guys don't honor that command? What about baptism with the Holy Spirit and fire?
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