Are former Catholics dammed?

  • Thread starter Thread starter The_Catholic
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
T

The_Catholic

Guest
If someone is raised in the Catholic faith, or converts to it and recieves it rejoicingly, but after a few years go by , let’s say a Calvinist or a member of another religion comes along and teaches them “lies” about the church and that he/she should come and join their church, and eventualy he/she does, are they dammed?

I can see if someone is Catholic but grows weary or tired of it’s doctrines, like homosexuality is wrong, and so joins another church that teaches homosexuality is fine, I can see how such an act as that would possibly leave one dammed.

But I ask because there are plenty of God fearing and humble former catholics out there who also die never returning to their old faith, but I can’t see them being eternaly seperated from God because of that.

I mean if they honestly really REALLY knew that the fullness of truth was the Catholic Church, and THEN denied it, I can understand their souls being dammed. That’s like telling God to His face that he/she will not accept His truth. But what if it’s someone belonging to the Church who never really understood it’s teachings or truths, in all honesty and ignorance?
 
The_Catholic said:
If someone is raised in the Catholic faith, or converts to it and recieves it rejoicingly, but after a few years go by , let’s say a Calvinist or a member of another religion comes along and teaches them “lies” about the church and that he/she should come and join their church, and eventualy he/she does, are they dammed?

I can see if someone is Catholic but grows weary or tired of it’s doctrines, like homosexuality is wrong, and so joins another church that teaches homosexuality is fine, I can see how such an act as that would possibly leave one dammed.

But I ask because there are plenty of God fearing and humble former catholics out there who also die never returning to their old faith, but I can’t see them being eternaly seperated from God because of that.

I mean if they honestly really REALLY knew that the fullness of truth was the Catholic Church, and THEN denied it, I can understand their souls being dammed. That’s like telling God to His face that he/she will not accept His truth. But what if it’s someone belonging to the Church who never really understood it’s teachings or truths, in all honesty and ignorance?
Click to expand...
You’re asking us to answer a question that only God can answer.
 
Ok then, so the Church doesn’t know the answer to this question, I assume.
 
The Church has faced this issue many times. The Hebrews passage to which you allude makes the seriousness of running away from the Lord’s Church crystal clear. Yet, the Church has the power to forgive. Even that is limited by the level of apostacy offered by those who left. As an after math of the horrific persecutions of the thrid century the Church had to discern what to do about those who forsook the faith under persecution who now wished to return. It determined that the sincerely penitant could come and hear the message at Church but there could be no sure promise of eternal salvation because God did not give that power to the Church. Such a terrific question had to be left to God alone.

CDL

After I get a bit more rest I’ll investigate further.
 
Not quite. Nobody knows the ‘final destination’ of any given soul, save God.

It isn’t that the Church doesn’t ‘know the answer’ (as though it should know, or could know). It doesn’t work that way. The Church knows what ‘should be done’ to live according to Christ’s teachings, but only a given individual knows if he or she has ‘followed the rules’ and only God fully knows what is in a person’s heart–so the individual is the only one to ‘choose’ the destination, and God is the only one who will say of the person, “your will be done” --either the will to be with God (heaven) or apart from God (hell).
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top