The Catholic Church teaches that outside of the church there is no salvation. They also teach invincible ignorance. They also teach three forms of Baptism by water, desire and blood. Those whom God has predestined for salvation will be saved. No other shall. Though whomever is saved receives the grace necessary from God throught Jesus, and his church.
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To Christians
- Thread starter Corban
- Start date
That's just not true; we don't believe non-Catholic Christians are going to hell. Yes, we believe the Catholic Church is the one Church founded by Christ. Yes, we believe she contains the fullness of truth. But no, we don't believe that Protestants are automatically hellbound unless they came to truly believe that the Catholic Church was true yet deliberately refused to enter her. As for those who sincerely don't know about the Church and her teachings, in most cases they're invincibly ignorant. God, being a just and merciful God, will not hold anyone responsible for that which they, through no fault of their own, are unaware of. However, as I wrote in another thread, since non-Catholics don't have the sacraments of penance (which is how Jesus asked that we repent) or a valid sacrament of the Eucharist (of which Jesus said we must partake in order to have life within us), then it may be harder for them to be saved. You see, penance and the Eucharist provide unimaginable graces to avoid sin and stay in God's grace. Also, it's only via the sacrament of penance that a person is forgiven of mortal sins, which cut us off completely from God. If, however, a person doesn't have access to confession, perfect contrition will also procure God's forgiveness. However, perfect contrition is very hard to obtain. It arises out of nothing more than love for God and genuine sorrow for having offended him who we should love above all things, not out of lesser motives like the fear of hell or of being punished in this life. None of us can know for sure if our contrition is perfect.dan said:
Michael3210
Member
Maybe we should envision Heaven or hell as a type of final dream. It is pretty real while we are there and our concept of time is distorted in dreamland. A 10 minute dream may feel like eternity... after all time itself really only affects the physical. The important thing is that the dream becomes reality to the dreamer while he sleeps. The Man who lives in the invisible space which names the garden is the dreamweaver and the dream is based on the judgements we make while awake. For more on The Man visit 3rd day - 6th day contradiction in the debates.
A final dream? Dreams aren't real. Heaven and hell are. But they're outside of time. They're places, but more than that, they're states of being. Our soul leaves us when we die, so death isn't just a dreaming sleep you don't wake up from. Your soul actually goes to experience heaven, hell, or purgatory.