Can an atheist make a "death bed conversion" just to play it safe, and still be saved?

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RosslynV

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The scenario: an atheist is about to pass from this Earth. On his death bed, he asks for a catholic priest. He gets baptized, receives the Eucharist. However, this atheist doesn’t truly believe in God and His Church. He is merely going through the motions to play the odds, thinking to himself, “I’m going through the baptism, etc, just in case there is a God.”

Granted, this is probably an unlikely scenario. I believe that one cannot fake out God in this respect. God would know if the conversion is genuine. However, since Baptism does in fact wipe away all sin, the fact that an atheist subjected himself to the Sacrament, even without true conversion, would his sins have been forgiven anyway, and would he then attain eternal life?

thanks in advance.
 
No. No more than a Christian who shipwrecks his faith, despite having gone through all the motions for the rest of his or her earlier life.

God looks at the heart. And He is never, ever deceived.
 
RosslynV said:
Can an atheist make a “death bed conversion” just to play it safe, and still be saved?
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My answer to the question, as stated in the thread title, would be “No.” A death-bed conversion made on the basis of, “Hey, I just realized I’ve been completely WRONG all my life – God, please forgive me” would probably get him welcomed with open arms, but a conversion made just to play it safe it not a true conversion; it is play-acting.
 
In the scenario described, there is no “death bed conversion” - - So the question is moot…

No conversion - no faith - no belief - no salvation.

Peace
James
 
RosslynV said:
The scenario: an atheist is about to pass from this Earth. On his death bed, he asks for a catholic priest. He gets baptized, receives the Eucharist. However, this atheist doesn’t truly believe in God and His Church. He is merely going through the motions to play the odds, thinking to himself, “I’m going through the baptism, etc, just in case there is a God.”

Granted, this is probably an unlikely scenario. I believe that one cannot fake out God in this respect. God would know if the conversion is genuine. However, since Baptism does in fact wipe away all sin, the fact that an atheist subjected himself to the Sacrament, even without true conversion, would his sins have been forgiven anyway, and would he then attain eternal life?
thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
One could say that, at the very moment of washing away his previous sin, as a baptized Catholic, he would be immediately guilty of apostasy.

On the other hand, you may have a situation where the atheist person in question lived a good life, yearned and strove for justice and rightness, etc etc, but was an atheist because of a reliance on proof or a lack of decent evangelism or catechesis – or even bad evangelism and catechesis*. In other words, he may be like the second son in the parable of the two sons, who told his father he would not go work in the fields and went and did it anyway, because it was the right thing to do. And he may have a real terror of Hell, even if it’s “just in case”: fear of damnation is considered “sufficient” if imperfect reason for penitence.

Two things to remember here:
  1. We cannot say anyone is not saved. The Church says that of no person, that they are in Hell.
  2. With God, all things are possible.
*Jesus did have some choice things to say about those who caused “these little ones” to stumble.
 
John_Lazarus said:
One could say that, at the very moment of washing away his previous sin, as a baptized Catholic, he would be immediately guilty of apostasy.

On the other hand, you may have a situation where the atheist person in question lived a good life, yearned and strove for justice and rightness, etc etc, but was an atheist because of a reliance on proof or a lack of decent evangelism or catechesis – or even bad evangelism and catechesis*. In other words, he may be like the second son in the parable of the two sons, who told his father he would not go work in the fields and went and did it anyway, because it was the right thing to do. And he may have a real terror of Hell, even if it’s “just in case”: fear of damnation is considered “sufficient” if imperfect reason for penitence.

Two things to remember here:
  1. We cannot say anyone is not saved. The Church says that of no person, that they are in Hell.
  2. With God, all things are possible.
*Jesus did have some choice things to say about those who caused “these little ones” to stumble.
Click to expand...
“just to play it safe” lacks sincerity and God would not be deceived by that. I would say such a person would not be saved.
 
John_Lazarus said:
One could say that, at the very moment of washing away his previous sin, as a baptized Catholic, he would be immediately guilty of apostasy.

On the other hand, you may have a situation where the atheist person in question lived a good life, yearned and strove for justice and rightness, etc etc, but was an atheist because of a reliance on proof or a lack of decent evangelism or catechesis – or even bad evangelism and catechesis*. In other words, he may be like the second son in the parable of the two sons, who told his father he would not go work in the fields and went and did it anyway, because it was the right thing to do. And he may have a real terror of Hell, even if it’s “just in case”: fear of damnation is considered “sufficient” if imperfect reason for penitence.

Two things to remember here:
  1. We cannot say anyone is not saved. The Church says that of no person, that they are in Hell.
  2. With God, all things are possible.
*Jesus did have some choice things to say about those who caused “these little ones” to stumble.
Click to expand...
John - you make some good points here.

To the OP - and everyone else…it is important that we recognize that that answers given here are very narrowly focused on the very narrowly asked question.
As always there can be many “yea but what if…” - follow ups that will begin to complicate matters.

Peace
James
 
RosslynV said:
The scenario: an atheist is about to pass from this Earth. On his death bed, he asks for a catholic priest. He gets baptized, receives the Eucharist. However, this atheist doesn’t truly believe in God and His Church. He is merely going through the motions to play the odds, thinking to himself, “I’m going through the baptism, etc, just in case there is a God.”

Granted, this is probably an unlikely scenario. I believe that one cannot fake out God in this respect. God would know if the conversion is genuine. However, since Baptism does in fact wipe away all sin, the fact that an atheist subjected himself to the Sacrament, even without true conversion, would his sins have been forgiven anyway, and would he then attain eternal life?

thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
No, that would be hypocrisy. The atheist’s soul would be much “safer” if he were simply to die as an atheist in good conscience, faithful to the truth as he sees it.

However, I think we can argue over what “belief” involves. I believe that one can be genuinely uncertain and choose to believe as a kind of “gamble,” if one is motivated by genuine love for God and hope that God is real. That would be my own situation.

Edwin
 
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