Basic Catholic Salvation

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slewi

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So I had a protestant friend ask me via instant message what the Roman Catholic Church teaches about salvation. I am trying to respond in the most basic terms. I was thinking about replying that salvation “is by baptismal regeneration and is maintained through the sacraments, unless a willful act of sin is committed which breaks the state of sanctifying grace.”

Would you say that is it in a nutshell, that that is the most basic Catholic teaching on salvation?
 
slewi said:
So I had a protestant friend ask me via instant message what the Roman Catholic Church teaches about salvation. I am trying to respond in the most basic terms. I was thinking about replying that salvation “is by baptismal regeneration and is maintained through the sacraments, unless a willful act of sin is committed which breaks the state of sanctifying grace.”

Would you say that is it in a nutshell, that that is the most basic Catholic teaching on salvation?
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Don’t leave faith out though. Baptism as a response of faith through grace.

I like to speak in broad terms I guess. I’d say that salvation involves a turning to and communing with God and away from sin (a state that was always meant to be the case for man), made possible by the reconciling work of Jesus Christ who came to reveal the Father and His love for all humankind, sacrificing Himself to prove that love and win forgiveness for us and the state of sanctifying grace (God’s life) in us. This is a walk of faith which the sacraments help us to navigate throughout our lives. In the end God, alone, knows with 100% certainty whose names are written in the Book of Life. We can always turn back away from God. Meanwhile we’re working out our salvation with He who works in us.
 
Salvation is a gift of God’s grace. God gives grace and allows for man’s free response to it. Man is called to cooperate with God’s grace.
 
slewi said:
So I had a protestant friend ask me via instant message what the Roman Catholic Church teaches about salvation. I am trying to respond in the most basic terms. I was thinking about replying that salvation “is by baptismal regeneration and is maintained through the sacraments, unless a willful act of sin is committed which breaks the state of sanctifying grace.”

Would you say that is it in a nutshell, that that is the most basic Catholic teaching on salvation?
Click to expand...
Maybe these will help somewhat.
How Is A Catholic Saved?
Who REALLY Preaches “A Different Gospel”?
 
Protestants stopped preaching the gifts and fruits as works - towards our fellow believers - in my younger day (when Pat Robertson took over the world) and I don’t often hear them in Catholic churches either. The Church signed its own death warrant in 1980 when suppressing the four good chapters of Easter People.

The only crown you’ll get is the crown you help someone else get.

Those who asked the Church for faith and weren’t told, will not be dealt with as severely as those who knew, and didn’t give to their fellows.
 
slewi said:
Would you say that is it in a nutshell, that that is the most basic Catholic teaching on salvation?
Click to expand...
One word: RELATIONSHIP. Salvation is about being in relationship with the Trinity. Period.

As with all relationships, how you ACT affects the quality of that relationship. If you do good, you strengthen the relationship, if you do evil you weaken it.

Most Protestants don’t technically believe in being in relationship with God, because they hold that salvation cannot be lost precisely because our works don’t affect our standing before God. Well, this just means that our legal standing before God isn’t a relationship, and so salvation is about a legal status and not about communion.

If your Protestant friend can agree with you that Salvation is ultimately about RELATIONSHIP, then all the debate about Faith, Works, Sacraments, etc, will fall into place pretty easily. The Bible repeatedly speaks of salvation as an adoption as God’s Children and a “reconciliation” (restoring a broken relationship).
 
Catholic_Dude said:
One word: RELATIONSHIP. Salvation is about being in relationship with the Trinity. Period.

As with all relationships, how you ACT affects the quality of that relationship. If you do good, you strengthen the relationship, if you do evil you weaken it.

Most Protestants don’t technically believe in being in relationship with God, because they hold that salvation cannot be lost precisely because our works don’t affect our standing before God. Well, this just means that our legal standing before God isn’t a relationship, and so salvation is about a legal status and not about communion.

If your Protestant friend can agree with you that Salvation is ultimately about RELATIONSHIP, then all the debate about Faith, Works, Sacraments, etc, will fall into place pretty easily. The Bible repeatedly speaks of salvation as an adoption as God’s Children and a “reconciliation” (restoring a broken relationship).
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That makes two outstanding answers for this one! And an excellent one that shines a new light on my old Baptist way of thinking that I wrestle with at times - thanks for that one!
 
slewi said:
So I had a protestant friend ask me via instant message what the Roman Catholic Church teaches about salvation. I am trying to respond in the most basic terms. I was thinking about replying that salvation “is by baptismal regeneration and is maintained through the sacraments, unless a willful act of sin is committed which breaks the state of sanctifying grace.”

Would you say that is it in a nutshell, that that is the most basic Catholic teaching on salvation?
Click to expand...
Tell him/her it’s real simple

Become Catholic, be a good one, and remain so till the end.

Why else would Jesus say, “I will build My Church and not even ths gates of hell will pevail against it”.

Be in THAT Church and believe and do what it teaches… that’s it.
 
Per Fr. John Hardon, S.J.†
SALVATION. In biblical language the deliverance from straitened circumstances or oppression by some evil to a state of freedom and security. As sin is the greatest evil, salvation is mainly liberation from sin and its consequences. This can be deliverance by way of preservation, or by offering the means for being delivered, or by removing the oppressive evil or difficulty, or by rewarding the effort spent in co-operating with grace in order to be delivered. All four aspects of salvation are found in the Scriptures and are taught by the Church. (Etym. Latin salvare, to save.)
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In re-inventing the wheel, the 16th century -]rebels/-] disobedient seem only to have handed on fear, anxiety and loathing to their spiritual descendants. Obsession with justification and salvation seems to consume their consciousness. I thought it was a done deal… 🤷
 
The universality of salvation means that it is granted not only to those who explicitly believe in Christ and have entered the Church. Since salvation is offered to all, it must be made concretely available to all. But it is clear that today, as in the past, many people do not have an opportunity to come to know or accept the gospel revelation or to enter the Church. The social and cultural conditions in which they live do not permit this, and frequently they have been brought up in other religious traditions. For such people salvation in Christ is accessible by virtue of a grace which, while having a mysterious relationship to the Church, does not make them formally part of the Church but enlightens them in a way which is accommodated to their spiritual and material situation. This grace comes from Christ; it is the result of his Sacrifice and is communicated by the Holy Spirit. It enables each person to attain salvation through his or her free cooperation.
 
Non catholics are taught that having faith in Romans 10 8-9-10 enters you into covenant with Jesus. And the holy spirit

In contrast to fr john harden in the Marian cathatist.

1.believe in the real presence Eucharist
  1. Believe in the virgin Mary
  2. Believe everything the manustrate pope tells you.
  3. Real presence web site
The non Catholic religious system is easer to understand

And it allows the holy spirit to do the work
 
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