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Senyorico
Guest
Please leave references if the Church has a say on this. Thank you!
Can a non-Catholic Christian enter heaven after death? Or will they be ending up at purgatory first?
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englands123
Guest
I have had many discussions on this matter.
Would the Lord turn away a person without Faith, even though they has shown much love to others ?
Jesus is very clear, he doesn’t turn anyone away.
They turn away them self as Judas did.
Would the Lord turn away a person without Faith, even though they has shown much love to others ?
Jesus is very clear, he doesn’t turn anyone away.
They turn away them self as Judas did.
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Diaconia
Guest
Of course.
God can save anyone He wants. Christian, Jew, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, or atheist.
Anyone in heaven is there only through the action of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ.
Purgatory is a feature for us, not a requirement for God; there’s no way of knowing whether others go through purgatory or not.
No one comes to the Father except through Me,
Deacon Christopher
God can save anyone He wants. Christian, Jew, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, or atheist.
Anyone in heaven is there only through the action of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ.
Purgatory is a feature for us, not a requirement for God; there’s no way of knowing whether others go through purgatory or not.
No one comes to the Father except through Me,
Deacon Christopher
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I don’t really have a Church source to quote, but your question made me think of St Charles Lwanga and his teenager companions in martyr, half of whom were Anglicans, killed for their faith in what Pope Francis called “the ecumenism of blood”.
They endured the same gruesome death, in order to give the same witness to Christ.
I would find it hard to believe they were not united in receiving the crown of glory as well.
They endured the same gruesome death, in order to give the same witness to Christ.
I would find it hard to believe they were not united in receiving the crown of glory as well.
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MagdalenaRita
Guest
All things are possible with God and God wants all people to be saved. The Church also tells us that those physically outside the Church can be saved. It doesn’t say will be saved but can.
The Catechism states (1031) that all who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven.
There are ways in the Church that God has provided for us to be purified here on Earth; the sacraments, especially the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, Baptism and the Sacrament of Penance, Communion with the Saints, trials we go through here on Earth, prayer, indulgences and acts of penance in reparation for our sins and martyrdom for Christ.
Again, I am not saying it isn’t possible, that is God’s decision but the Church does tell us that all who have not been purified here will be purified in purgatory but in purgatory we are assured of our salvation.
www.catholicculture.org
The Catechism states (1031) that all who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven.
There are ways in the Church that God has provided for us to be purified here on Earth; the sacraments, especially the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, Baptism and the Sacrament of Penance, Communion with the Saints, trials we go through here on Earth, prayer, indulgences and acts of penance in reparation for our sins and martyrdom for Christ.
Again, I am not saying it isn’t possible, that is God’s decision but the Church does tell us that all who have not been purified here will be purified in purgatory but in purgatory we are assured of our salvation.
Library : Purification Of The Soul Here Or Hereafter
Purification Of The Soul Here Or Hereafter A brief explanation of the effects of sin, the need for purgatory, and the use of everyday trials.
www.catholicculture.org
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Bon_Croix
Guest
The Pope is necessary for a Non Christian to get to Heaven. The Pope is necessary for a Christian to get to Heaven.
Do you know the old adage about St. Peter at the Pearly Gates? St. Peter was the first Pope.
Do you know the old adage about St. Peter at the Pearly Gates? St. Peter was the first Pope.
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midori
Guest
How do you get from Los Angeles to New York?
The easiest thing is to hop on a plane from LAX to JFK. Or something like that.
But is that the only way? No.
Yeah, you can get from Los Angeles to New York if you go through Panama, if you want. But it’s not the straightest, most direct route. And there’s a good chance of ending up lost. Or dead. Or distracted. “Oooo, are those the Andes Mountains?” or “Hey! It’s penguins!”
So we don’t recommend people plan a route through Central and South America if their intention is to get to New York.
By the same token, God is bigger than New York. And he’s more complicated than New York. And he’s not bound by our limitations; like the landowner, he can be generous with the rewards he gives, and like the man who locks his door at night, he’s not obliged to open his door. But regardless of what he chooses, we know his choice is right and just.
So although, as humans, we’re very limited, as Catholics, we at least know, “The best and easiest way to get to New York is via JFK” — or, “The best and easiest way to get to God is through a life of prayer, open-handed charity, love of God, love of neighbor, and the aid of the Sacraments to help bring God’s grace into our lives.”
But by the same token, we understand that if someone wants to take I-40, it will take them a bit longer… and if they’re walking it, it will be very rough on them… and perhaps some people want to go through Saskatchewan, and others want to go via Florida, and some others end up trying to get there via a cruise that departs from Colombia… well, yeah, those are all alternative ways, but they’re not the most sure and straightforward, and arrival isn’t always guaranteed.
And, when you do arrive, if you’re a bit dusty and travel-stained… yeah, you’re going to want to get cleaned up before you arrive in Heaven. And that’s what Purgatory is for-- it’s a process, because not only can nothing impure can enter heaven, but no one would dream of attempting otherwise.
The easiest thing is to hop on a plane from LAX to JFK. Or something like that.
But is that the only way? No.
Yeah, you can get from Los Angeles to New York if you go through Panama, if you want. But it’s not the straightest, most direct route. And there’s a good chance of ending up lost. Or dead. Or distracted. “Oooo, are those the Andes Mountains?” or “Hey! It’s penguins!”
So we don’t recommend people plan a route through Central and South America if their intention is to get to New York.
By the same token, God is bigger than New York. And he’s more complicated than New York. And he’s not bound by our limitations; like the landowner, he can be generous with the rewards he gives, and like the man who locks his door at night, he’s not obliged to open his door. But regardless of what he chooses, we know his choice is right and just.
So although, as humans, we’re very limited, as Catholics, we at least know, “The best and easiest way to get to New York is via JFK” — or, “The best and easiest way to get to God is through a life of prayer, open-handed charity, love of God, love of neighbor, and the aid of the Sacraments to help bring God’s grace into our lives.”
But by the same token, we understand that if someone wants to take I-40, it will take them a bit longer… and if they’re walking it, it will be very rough on them… and perhaps some people want to go through Saskatchewan, and others want to go via Florida, and some others end up trying to get there via a cruise that departs from Colombia… well, yeah, those are all alternative ways, but they’re not the most sure and straightforward, and arrival isn’t always guaranteed.
And, when you do arrive, if you’re a bit dusty and travel-stained… yeah, you’re going to want to get cleaned up before you arrive in Heaven. And that’s what Purgatory is for-- it’s a process, because not only can nothing impure can enter heaven, but no one would dream of attempting otherwise.
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MagdalenaRita
Guest
The article I linked has Bible verses, including 1 Corinthians 3, Catechism and saints.
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If a non-Catholic Christian (who has presumably been baptized validly) dies with no personal sin on their soul, sincerely believing that they have embraced the one true Church of Jesus Christ as they understand it, and is of the mindset that they would have become Catholic if they had known it is the one true Church, then we can piously believe that they would immediately enter heaven.
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tgGodsway
Guest
I agree with englands123. Jesus said who soever believes in him has eternal life. Jn6
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tgGodsway
Guest
If a non Catholic believer goes through the Door, who is Christ, he is promised eternal life. It is that simple.
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midori
Guest
Indeed. But at the same time, we have–
So we know that it is not merely something passive to be invoked, but it is something active to be participated in. And even with the activity of “prophesying in your name and driving out demons and performing miracles”, that’s still not necessarily enough. As Paul points out, you might be doing all those things, but if you do it without love, you’re just a noisy gong.
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Genesis315
Guest
A non-Christian cannot be saved unless he comes to faith in Christ before death.
Faith properly orders our relationship to God: "By faith, man completely submits his intellect and his will to God. (CCC 143).
Because of this, faith is absolutely, without exception, necessary for salvation:
CCC
Even if in good conscience, people in non-Christian religions cannot have faith–they simply do not believe what God has revealed. Their belief is merely “religious experience still in search of the absolute truth and still lacking assent to God who reveals himself” and therefore “the distinction between theological faith and belief in the other religions, must be firmly held.” (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Dominus Iesus 7).
Since they lack faith, persons who remain in such a situation until death could not be saved. However, we do acknowledge that, for those in good conscience seeking to follow the truth, “in ways known to himself God can lead those who, through no fault of their own, are ignorant of the Gospel, to that faith without which it is impossible to please him.” (CCC 848). This may even happen only at the “eleventh hour” (cf. Matt. 20:6).
But even if one has faith in Christ, deliberately denying any revealed truth (heresy) destroys faith altogether, since one is no longer assenting to God the revealer, but trusting one’s own judgment: “Since faith is one, it must be professed in all its purity and integrity.” (Pope Francis, Lumen Fidei 48). On the flip side, because faith is one, if one has faith in Christ–who is the fullness of revelation–faith is not destroyed by innocent ignorance about the various articles of faith: “there is no difference in the faith of ‘those able to discourse of it at length’ and ‘those who speak but little’, between the greater and the less: the first cannot increase the faith, nor the second diminish it.” (Lumen Fidei 47, quoting St. Irenaeus).
Faith properly orders our relationship to God: "By faith, man completely submits his intellect and his will to God. (CCC 143).
Because of this, faith is absolutely, without exception, necessary for salvation:
CCC
Faith is “a free assent to the whole truth that God has revealed.” (CCC 150). In particular, as the quoted paragraph above states, this means faith in Christ, since Christ “is the Father’s one, perfect and unsurpassable Word. In him he has said everything; there will be no other word than this one” (CCC 65); “what he spoke before to the prophets in parts, he has now spoken all at once by giving us the All Who is His Son” (CCC 65, quoting St. John of the Cross).
Even if in good conscience, people in non-Christian religions cannot have faith–they simply do not believe what God has revealed. Their belief is merely “religious experience still in search of the absolute truth and still lacking assent to God who reveals himself” and therefore “the distinction between theological faith and belief in the other religions, must be firmly held.” (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Dominus Iesus 7).
Since they lack faith, persons who remain in such a situation until death could not be saved. However, we do acknowledge that, for those in good conscience seeking to follow the truth, “in ways known to himself God can lead those who, through no fault of their own, are ignorant of the Gospel, to that faith without which it is impossible to please him.” (CCC 848). This may even happen only at the “eleventh hour” (cf. Matt. 20:6).
But even if one has faith in Christ, deliberately denying any revealed truth (heresy) destroys faith altogether, since one is no longer assenting to God the revealer, but trusting one’s own judgment: “Since faith is one, it must be professed in all its purity and integrity.” (Pope Francis, Lumen Fidei 48). On the flip side, because faith is one, if one has faith in Christ–who is the fullness of revelation–faith is not destroyed by innocent ignorance about the various articles of faith: “there is no difference in the faith of ‘those able to discourse of it at length’ and ‘those who speak but little’, between the greater and the less: the first cannot increase the faith, nor the second diminish it.” (Lumen Fidei 47, quoting St. Irenaeus).
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tgGodsway
Guest
I’m not sure Paul’s words fit this context. But you make a great point. Not everyone who displays good works, such as prophesying or casting out demons, belong to Christ. Actually Christ says, I never knew them. Those who “believe He is the Christ” belong to Him. He knows them. 1st. John 4:1,2; 2nd. Tim. 2:19 “The Lord knows those who are His…”
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mdgspencer
Guest
The Church declares that non-Catholics and non-Christians of any sort can enter heaven. According to the “Catechism of the Catholic Church”:
Section 1260: "Since Christ died for all, and since all men are in fact called to one and the same destiny, which is divine, we must hold that the Holy Spirit offers to all the possibility of being made partakers, in a way known to God, of the Paschal mystery."63 Every man who is ignorant of the Gospel of Christ and of his Church, but seeks the truth and does the will of God in accordance with his understanding of it, can be saved. It may be supposed that such persons would have desired Baptism explicitly if they had known its necessity.
Moreover, anyone entering heaven would have be purified of their sins first in purgatory in order to enter heaven, just like Catholics. I also could imagine that even some non-Christians enter heaven without going through purgatory for heroic virtues, just like Catholics, though this is just speculation on my part.
Section 1260: "Since Christ died for all, and since all men are in fact called to one and the same destiny, which is divine, we must hold that the Holy Spirit offers to all the possibility of being made partakers, in a way known to God, of the Paschal mystery."63 Every man who is ignorant of the Gospel of Christ and of his Church, but seeks the truth and does the will of God in accordance with his understanding of it, can be saved. It may be supposed that such persons would have desired Baptism explicitly if they had known its necessity.
Moreover, anyone entering heaven would have be purified of their sins first in purgatory in order to enter heaven, just like Catholics. I also could imagine that even some non-Christians enter heaven without going through purgatory for heroic virtues, just like Catholics, though this is just speculation on my part.
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Tis_Bearself
Patron
The official teaching of the Church is that
- non-Catholic Christians have a possibility of salvation;
- we have no idea if a specific person will go to heaven or is in heaven, as it’s up to God;
- we have no idea if a specific person will go to Purgatory or straight to heaven, as it’s up to God.
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Latin
Guest
And the individual person and the situation DEPENDING ON GOD.
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For Augustine says (De Civ. Dei v, 1) that the "Divine will or power is called fate.
But the Divine will or power is not in creatures, but in God. Therefore fate is not in creatures but in God.
The Divine will is cause of all things that happen, as Augustine says (De Trin. iii, 1 seqq.). Therefore all things are subject to fate.
The same is true for events in our lives. Relative to us they often appear to be by chance.
But relative to God, who directs everything according to his divine plan, nothing occurs by chance.
Hence if this divine influence stopped, every operation would stop.
Every operation, therefore, of anything is traced back to Him as its cause. (Summa Contra Gentiles, Book III.)
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CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA Divine Providence explains.
“His wisdom He so orders all events within the universe that the end for which it was created may be realized.
He directs all, even evil and sin itself, to the final end for which the universe was created.
God preserves the universe in being; He acts in and with every creature in each and all its activities.”
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St. Thomas (C. G., II, xxviii) if God’s purpose were made dependent on the foreseen free act of any creature, God would thereby sacrifice His own freedom, and would submit Himself to His creatures, thus abdicating His essential supremacy–a thing which is, of course, utterly inconceivable.
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GOD CAUSES THE HUMAN RACE TO COMPLETE THE CREATION.
308 The truth that God is at work in all the actions of his creatures is inseparable from faith in God the Creator.
God is the first cause who operates in and through secondary causes:
For God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
Far from diminishing the creature’s dignity, this truth enhances it.
307 God thus enables men to be intelligent and free causes in order to complete the work of creation, … Though often unconscious collaborators with God’s will, … “God’s fellow workers” and co-workers for his kingdom.
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AT THE END UNIMAGINABLE EVERLASTING HAPPINESS IN HEAVEN FOR THE ENTIRE HUMAN RACE.
CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA Divine Providence explains.
This, the beneficent purpose of an all-seeing Providence, is wholly gratuitous, entirely unmerited (Romans 3:24; 9:11-2).
It extends to all men (Romans 2:10; 1 Timothy 2:4), even to the reprobate Jews (Romans 11:26 sq.); and by it all God’s dealings with man are regulated (Ephesians 1:11).
It extends to every individual, adapting itself to the needs of each (St. John Chrysostom, “Hom. xxviii in Matt.”, n. 3 in “P.G.”, LVII, 354).
That end is that all creatures should manifest the glory of God, and in particular that man should glorify Him, recognizing in nature the work of His hand, serving Him in obedience and love, and thereby attaining to the full development of his nature and to eternal happiness in God.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12510a.htm
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God bless
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For Augustine says (De Civ. Dei v, 1) that the "Divine will or power is called fate.
But the Divine will or power is not in creatures, but in God. Therefore fate is not in creatures but in God.
The Divine will is cause of all things that happen, as Augustine says (De Trin. iii, 1 seqq.). Therefore all things are subject to fate.
The same is true for events in our lives. Relative to us they often appear to be by chance.
But relative to God, who directs everything according to his divine plan, nothing occurs by chance.
Hence if this divine influence stopped, every operation would stop.
Every operation, therefore, of anything is traced back to Him as its cause. (Summa Contra Gentiles, Book III.)
.
CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA Divine Providence explains.
“His wisdom He so orders all events within the universe that the end for which it was created may be realized.
He directs all, even evil and sin itself, to the final end for which the universe was created.
God preserves the universe in being; He acts in and with every creature in each and all its activities.”
.
St. Thomas (C. G., II, xxviii) if God’s purpose were made dependent on the foreseen free act of any creature, God would thereby sacrifice His own freedom, and would submit Himself to His creatures, thus abdicating His essential supremacy–a thing which is, of course, utterly inconceivable.
.
GOD CAUSES THE HUMAN RACE TO COMPLETE THE CREATION.
308 The truth that God is at work in all the actions of his creatures is inseparable from faith in God the Creator.
God is the first cause who operates in and through secondary causes:
For God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
Far from diminishing the creature’s dignity, this truth enhances it.
307 God thus enables men to be intelligent and free causes in order to complete the work of creation, … Though often unconscious collaborators with God’s will, … “God’s fellow workers” and co-workers for his kingdom.
.
AT THE END UNIMAGINABLE EVERLASTING HAPPINESS IN HEAVEN FOR THE ENTIRE HUMAN RACE.
CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA Divine Providence explains.
This, the beneficent purpose of an all-seeing Providence, is wholly gratuitous, entirely unmerited (Romans 3:24; 9:11-2).
It extends to all men (Romans 2:10; 1 Timothy 2:4), even to the reprobate Jews (Romans 11:26 sq.); and by it all God’s dealings with man are regulated (Ephesians 1:11).
It extends to every individual, adapting itself to the needs of each (St. John Chrysostom, “Hom. xxviii in Matt.”, n. 3 in “P.G.”, LVII, 354).
That end is that all creatures should manifest the glory of God, and in particular that man should glorify Him, recognizing in nature the work of His hand, serving Him in obedience and love, and thereby attaining to the full development of his nature and to eternal happiness in God.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12510a.htm
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God bless
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DIERM
Guest
Except the faith and hope of the Catholic Church is not founded on “old adages”, but rather on the mercy of God.
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tgGodsway
Guest
This is a concept found nowhere in the teachings of the apostolic church, but only to the contrary. Paul said to be absent of the body is to be present with the Lord. If there was a change in doctrine, it should have come from the apostolic circle. People like Paul, or Peter, or John, or James etc. This New Testament revelation is a finished work as they understood it to be. You cannot have add-ons or contradictions, or amendments to be imposed centuries later by people far removed from the apostolic circle.
Lastly, the idea that sins are purified, again, is a concept found nowhere in the New Testament outside of the cross of Christ alone who died for all of sin’s penalty.
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tgGodsway
Guest
These ideas are found nowhere in the Apostolic circle, but to the contrary.
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