No Salvation Outside the Church

Catholic Answers ^ | 12/05 | Fr. Ray Ryland

[bdeaner]

Lord Jesus Christ, who said unto Your Apostles, "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you," regard not our sins, but the faith of Your church, and grant unto her that peace and unity which are agreeable to Your will, who live and reign, God, forever and ever. Amen.

O Lord, increase in us the faith.

My God, unite all minds in the truth and all hearts in charity.

[GeronL]

No Salvation outside of Christ.

Not the ‘church’ or cult.

Anything else would not be Christian

[bdeaner]

You didn’t read the article, did you?

[GeronL]

No. I presume this came from the same kind of Catholic Cult mentality that some of those ‘Radio Replies’ come from.

Sorry if thats not the case.

[bdeaner]

Here is a short excerpt

When the Church infallibly teaches extra ecclesiam, nulla salus, it does not say that non-Catholics cannot be saved. In fact, it affirms the contrary. The purpose of the teaching is to tell us how Jesus Christ makes salvation available to all human beings.

Exact opposite of what you attacked in your statement. How's that for defying expectations? I am guessing you didn't know this is the Church's teaching. Am I right? Or not?

[GeronL]

I am simply getting used to those ‘Radio Replies’ posts that attack non-Catholic institutions as illegitimate

[bdeaner]

Ok. I hadn’t really been following the “Radio Replies” posts.

[GeronL]

They have gotten me biased as to any Catholic... so sorry about that

[PugetSoundSoldier]

Too bad that is not what the article concluded:

The Catholic Church is "the single and exclusive channel by which the truth and grace of Christ enter our world of space and time" (Karl Adam, The Spirit of Catholicism, 179). Those who do not know the Church, even those who fight against it, can receive these gifts if they honestly seek God and his truth. But, Adam says, "though it be not the Catholic Church itself that hands them the bread of truth and grace, yet it is Catholic bread that they eat." And when they eat of it, "without knowing it or willing it" they are "incorporated in the supernatural substance of the Church."

Highlighted text is quite relevant. Thankfully no one comes to God except through Christ. Not the pope, not a church. Christ. That's biblical, the dogma (which is the word the author used) highlighted above is not.

[bdeaner]

No one comes to God except through Christ, absolutely -- and, if you read St. Paul, the Church is the Mystical Body of Christ on earth. So, no one comes to Christ except through the Body of which He is the Head -- the Church.

Now you took the quote out of context, possibly because you jumped ahead to the "conclusion," because the point of the article is that ALL Christians are part of the Catholic Church; however, if not a practicing Catholic, not in full communion. Christ and the Scriptures are clear: He wants us in FULL commmunion, as a unity, not fragmented.

[bdeaner]

so sorry about that

No problem. God bless.

[Alex Murphy]

ping to read later

[Prophet in the wilderness]

The only salvation that any human can obtain is through the sacrificial work on the cross.... nothing but the blood of Jesus Christ....

[PugetSoundSoldier]

No, read the quote explicitly:

The Catholic Church is "the single and exclusive channel by which the truth and grace of Christ enter our world of space and time"

This literally says that the only way any man can be made aware of the message of Christ is via the Church. That is, IMHO, non Biblical. The Church is not the only way men can be made aware of Christ.

The Church is not the gateway to Christ. The Church is not the gateway to salvation. The Church is one way that Christ may be revealed to pre-Christians but it is NOT the only way.

[Quix]

NONSENSE to the title.

THE BIBLE . . . GOD’S WORD

declares that whosoever calls on the Name of The Lord, shall be saved.

[bdeaner]

THE BIBLE . . . GOD’S WORD

Where do you think the Bible came from? You think it dropped from the sky? No, it was canonized by the Church. We know it's God's Word because the Church said so and it had the teaching authority to make that declaration, because it's teaching authority was established by Christ Himself through the apostles and apostolic succession.

[bdeaner]

THE BIBLE . . . GOD’S WORD

Where do you think the Bible came from? You think it dropped from the sky? No, it was canonized by the Church. We know it's God's Word because the Church said so and it had the teaching authority to make that declaration, because it's teaching authority was established by Christ Himself through the apostles and apostolic succession.

[Quix]

Depends on how one slices it often enough.

I knew that well informed RC’s assert, evidently from quality official documents, that The Vatican asserts that folks can be saved outside the Vatican/RC organization.

However, in terms of what’s often pontificated hereon, it’s easy to lose sight of that because some very strident folks

MAKE IT SOUND LIKE

that’s simply not the case and anyone outside the RC edifice is eternally beyond the pale.

Sometimes, it seems, like RC’s like to have their cake and eat it too.

[Quix]

Hogwash.

The RC/Vatican edifice was politically collected together roughly about the time of the Council’s collaborative decisions about the Canon.

Political maneuvers by bureaucrats usually are in antipathy to Christ and His Body . . . not the creators of anything close thereto.

Also, witness Christ’s attitude toward such 2,000 years ago.

[bdeaner]

Sometimes, it seems, like RC’s like to have their cake and eat it too.

It might sound that way. But I think the Church's expression is a reflection of the Lord's infinite JUSTICE and infinite MERCY. They seem to be in conflict, but they are not. The justice part comes in because the Church rightly asserts there is ONE, SINGULAR, UNIFYING TRUTH of Christianity, and strongly rejects relativism. Christ promised He would always be with us, and that He would not leave us like orphans. Teaching authority for objective scriptural truth must therefore be founded on something rock solid, or else Christ was not telling the truth. The See of Peter and his successors is the most obvious "rock" for the maintenance of the Lord's Deposit of Faith. At the same time, the Lord is infinitely merciful, and surely would not submit to eternal damnation someone who was sincerely seeking Him, but somehow didn't pass the theology exam. Both sides of the issue are expressions of the Truth of the Lord, both in his infinite Justice and infinite Mercy. They seem to be contradictory, but actually it's a paradox in which both the mercy and justice of the Lord are in perfect harmony and infinitely Good.