Are non-Christian religions acceptable?

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Actually, to speak a bit more accurately, there is absolutely no person saved in ignorance ever.

An ignorant person, if they live according to the natural law, will come to true faith in Christ before death. If they do not, they were not really well disposed.

Remember, St. Thomas Aquinas teaches ignorance of the truth is a punishment for sin, either original or actual.
 
You mean this St. Thomas Aquinas? Summa Theologiae, part 2 question 10, Article 1.
If, however, we take it by way of pure negation, as we find it in those who have heard nothing about the faith, it bears the character, not of sin, but of punishment, because such like ignorance of Divine things is a result of the sin of our first parent. If such like unbelievers are damned, it is on account of other sins, which cannot be taken away without faith, but not on account of their sin of unbelief. Hence Our Lord said (John 15:22) “If I had not come, and spoken to them, they would not have sin”; which Augustine expounds (Tract. lxxxix in Joan.) as “referring to the sin whereby they believed not in Christ.”
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You misunderstood me. I’m not lumping all of Christianity together as one religion.

What I’m saying is, given the quotes from Scripture in the OP state that people must believe in Jesus, the gospels, and be baptized, then at a minimum, these quotes condemn non-Christian religions like Judaism and Islam.

Tackling all of the sects that consider themselves Christian is a whole different matter. Obviously Catholicism is the only valid religion of all of them, but that is for another discussion.
 
Looking at the quotes from Scripture in the OP, Islam was already condemned before it ever existed. As soon as Mohammed didn’t believe Jesus was God, and didn’t believe in baptism, his religion was condemned.
 
If you look at my post where I posted the graphic map of the world’s religions, I stated that there are 4 categories of “major religions”. I was talking about the religious categories with the biggest percentages across the globe. If you look at the pie chart in the upper right of the graphic, all religions are accounted for and you will see Judaism makes up only 0.2% - its not one of the major religions so I didn’t mention it.

Obviously there can be more than one religion in a category, but the ultimate point is, if ANY religion on that diagram does not believe in Jesus or the Gospels, and does not perform baptisms, they are GUARANTEED condemned according to Jesus.
 
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Looking at your question, I have to ask you, can anything in a catechism override what is in Scripture?
 
Eddie18 said:
but the ultimate point is
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The ultimate is that you should not be attempting an amateurish reading of the scriptures based on the Protestant principles of sola scriptura and “plain reading” and look to the Divine Tradition of the Magisterium for guidance in how to interpret scripture. They’ve been doing it for 2000 years now.

Overall, no offense intended, I have to say that you have a rather un-Catholic approach to things like this. If you are a recent convert, you might want to speak with your pastor. If you are a cradle Catholic, something went awry during your catechesis and it would be a good idea to brush up.
 
Catholics must believe that God consists of three Divine persons; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This Is part of our Creed! If a Muslim refuses to recognize Jesus, he is denying the Son and the Blessed Trinity. This is not the same God. This is a traditional teaching of the Church.
 
Eddie18 said:
This is not the same God. This is a traditional teaching of the Church.
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Absolutely not. That has never been a teaching of the Church. Ever. I have no idea where you could have gotten that idea from, but it wasn’t from the Church.
 
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It’s not specific.
It’s clergy grabbing their bibles, reinterpreting in order to make sense of their present.
Hindsight may be 20/20, but as I said ”not specific”.
 
Eddie18 said:
Catholics must believe that God consists of three Divine persons; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This Is part of our Creed! If a Muslim refuses to recognize Jesus, he is denying the Son and the Blessed Trinity. This is not the same God. This is a traditional teaching of the Church.
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Really?
The Catholic Church disagrees with you.

Clearly you did not read this, snipped directly from the CCC.

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See 841? “…these profess to hold the faith of Abraham, and together with us they adore the one, merciful God, mankind’s judge on the last day.”

And there’s 842: “All nations form but one community. This is so because all stem from the one stock which God created to people the entire earth, and also because all share a common destiny, namely God.”

Muslims believe in the same God. They do not hold that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and they do not believe in the Trinity. They do believe that Jesus was a divine prophet, but not as the Son of God.
 
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So, then. You agree that it is possible for those who have no knowledge of Christ to be saved because that’s what St. Thomas Aquinas says.
 
I believe it is possible for those who are ignorant to be enlightened, and that if they follow the natural law they won’t die ignorant.

St. Thomas Aquinas also says in De Veritate-

Found it! It is Aquinas, but from his work De Veritate, not the Summa-

“1. Granted that everyone is bound to believe something explicitly, no untenable conclusion follows even if someone is brought up in the forest or among wild beasts. For it pertains to divine providence to furnish everyone with what is necessary for salvation, provided that on his part there is no hindrance. Thus, if someone so brought up followed the direction of natural reason in seeking good and avoiding evil, we must most certainly hold that God would either reveal to him through internal inspiration what had to be believed, or would send some preacher of the faith to him as he sent Peter to Cornelius (Acts 10:20).”

The source is here-

http://dhspriory.org/thomas/english/QDdeVer14.htm
 
StAugustine said:
I believe it is possible for those who are ignorant to be enlightened, and that if they follow the natural law they won’t die ignorant.

St. Thomas Aquinas also says in De Veritate-

Found it! It is Aquinas, but from his work De Veritate, not the Summa-

“1. Granted that everyone is bound to believe something explicitly, no untenable conclusion follows even if someone is brought up in the forest or among wild beasts. For it pertains to divine providence to furnish everyone with what is necessary for salvation, provided that on his part there is no hindrance. Thus, if someone so brought up followed the direction of natural reason in seeking good and avoiding evil, we must most certainly hold that God would either reveal to him through internal inspiration what had to be believed, or would send some preacher of the faith to him as he sent Peter to Cornelius (Acts 10:20).”

The source is here-

http://dhspriory.org/thomas/english/QDdeVer14.htm
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You are misreading St. Thomas Aquinas. No where in your quote did he say that they ARE condemned.

He is saying that it is reasonable to believe that God can reveal himself to anyone.

So, there is no way that you or I can know if such a revelation has occurred. Neither you nor I can even begin to comprehend the will of God or the extent of his mercy. I suggest you be very careful with that penchant to judge. You might not want that yardstick to be used against you.
 
What do you mean judge? Did I name
Anyone? Rash judgments are judgments made against individuals without knowing the full story. I abominate rash judgment.

Rather, it is knowing the reality of the situations we fall into coupled with the fact that most are not saved. If the ignorant are damned, it is on account of other sins, not their ignorance.

But if they die in ignorance it is certainly no mark of divine favor if he would go out of his way to enlighten those who sought after him in this life.

If anything I am intransigent, not so much judgmental. 😉
 
Think about it for a minute. If you approached a Muslim and a Jew to talk about how we supposedly all worship the same God, and you told them that God consists of the Blessed Trinity, they would both consider it idolatry to worship such a God.

Looking up the definition of idolatry in, “A Catholic Dictionary” (Attwater, imprimatur 1957), it states, “The giving of divine worship to anyone or anything but God; in itself the greatest of mortal sins.” Further down it continues, “To worship God in a wrong way (e.g. by joining seriously in the worship of the Jews) is also a form of idolatry.”
 
I quoted Scripture in the OP, so I’m wondering why you suggest looking at the CCC for the true understanding. Scripture obviously trumps all and cannot be changed.
 
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