Can others find GOD in different religons?

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rmikulas

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Do you believe that going though other religons or a few religons, a person can still find their way towards GOD even if it is not the Catholic Religon?
 
Sorry, but none of your options fit the only answer that I can give. Other religions present God in an incomplete manner; one which clouds truth with error. The teaching of the Church, however is that all that is good and true in other religions comes to them from God and, ultimately, for the purpose of leading them to salvation. The problem is that salvation does not come through those religions because Jesus only established one Church through which we are saved.

Are all non-Catholics lost and damned to Hell no matter how good a person they are? Not according to the Church. If the reason they are not within the one and only Church of Christ is due to invincible ignorance, then this won’t be held against them and the Church entrusts them to God’s mercy and wills that they receive the graces available through her.

To cite one type of situation where this would apply, The Church was established around AD 30. Between then and the arrival of the first missionaries to the American continents, there were people living and dying on those continents. Now, let’s take a hypothecical person in that situation. He cannot be a member of the Church because he has never heard of Christ and yet, he has responded to the inner promptings of the Holy Spirit and followed the natural law that God has enscribed on the hearts of all men. If he had the teachings of Christ proclaimed and explained to him, he would have readily joined the Church but he never had that opportunity. He tries his best to ascertain the truth and to live according to what he has found. When he dies, would such a man go to hell simply because he never had the opportunity to be a Catholic?

There are other possible levels of invincible ignorance as well.
 
While the Catholic Church is the source of all grace and the normative means of man’s salvation, it is possible for those who are not Catholic to be saved.

Our redemption is from Jesus Christ and like St. Paul we work out our “salvation in fear and trembling.” It is through the sacraments of the Catholic Church by which we acheive holiness in our lives (cf. Mt 5:43, 1 Pt 1:16).

Everyone who is baptized in the name “of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit” (Mt 28:19) belongs to the Catholic Church by virtue of this baptism (cf Mk 16:16) which saves (1 Pt 3:21). The other Sacraments each confer grace to each in differing measure according to divine providence. First and most fully to the Immaculate Conception (Blessed Virgin Mary), then to the Church.

Those who through ignorance of the truth of the Catholic Church or prejudice against her, we entrust to the Divine Mercy praying ceaselessly “Jesus, I trust in you!”
 
You can find God but, barring a miracle, outside of Christianity, you cannot find Christ.

-C
 
Yes, they can. But for the fullness of faith Jesus gave us what we call the Catholic Church.
 
Rmikulas seems to be trying to find someone to tell him it is ok to be involved with Wicca. (NO it is not) Please see the other threads he has posted on/started. Just thought you all should be aware. 🙂
 
If someone knows that the Catholic Church was founded by Christ and that all of God’s children are meant to be members of Christ’s church, then they have no hope for salvation outside of the Church. If they do not know that, then it is a matter of if they act upon the grace God gives them.
 
I do not need anyone’s OK. I make my own choices based on my knowledge. I LOVE to hear peoples opinions about things. Religon is so exciting and facinating to me and happens to be a very controversial topic. Knowledge can’t harm someone in my opinion, only make them stronger. I am having a HUGE facination with religon at the moment. I am on a journey to find my faith as well as myself, but more so, to find out as much as I can about ALL religons. Is there any harm in that? I am a writer, and until a few months ago, I never really had a true PASSION to found out so much on just 1 topic. I’m not writing or doinga story about religon but want to further educate myself as much as possible and argue my opinions. If your opinion doesn’t agree with mine, please argue away. Any information I get only helps, not hurts.

So please don’t assume that I am looking for an OK. Everyone can say OK to whatever they want, but I make up my own mind. 😉
 
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rmikulas:
I do not need anyone’s OK. I make my own choices based on my knowledge. I LOVE to hear peoples opinions about things. Religon is so exciting and facinating to me and happens to be a very controversial topic. Knowledge can’t harm someone in my opinion, only make them stronger. I am having a HUGE facination with religon at the moment. I am on a journey to find my faith as well as myself, but more so, to find out as much as I can about ALL religons. Is there any harm in that? I am a writer, and until a few months ago, I never really had a true PASSION to found out so much on just 1 topic. I’m not writing or doinga story about religon but want to further educate myself as much as possible and argue my opinions. If your opinion doesn’t agree with mine, please argue away. Any information I get only helps, not hurts.

So please don’t assume that I am looking for an OK. Everyone can say OK to whatever they want, but I make up my own mind. 😉
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Unfortunately your poll is somewhat skewed in a certain direction. Having taken part in a previous discussion with you I noticed this right off the bat. I did not choose to respond to your poll because my answer is not there. This is also the reason I thought others should be aware of your other posts. It’s nice that you feel passion regarding religion…I just hope for your sake that in the end you come to realize the Catholic faith is the fullness of faith. 😉
 
Darcee: I apologize with that, you are correct.

Bonica: I do have a “Fullness In Faith” when it comes to the Catholic Religon but I would feel cheated if I didn’t have the information I needed to justify that “Fullness In Faith”. I would feel cheated if I didn’t question my faith from time to time. It’s that questioning that always brings me back to believing.
 
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rmikulas:
Do you believe that going though other religons or a few religons, a person can still find their way towards GOD even if it is not the Catholic Religon?
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In my old faith tradtion, Catholics could not find God, of course neither could Lutherans, Pentecostals, all children, all people with developmental disabilities, all babies, and about 99.99% of the rest of the world. Not only could not find God but hated God and was God’s eternal enemy allowed to live long so that they could encurr more wrath from God. They were enemies of God from the foundation of the world, hated with an eternal hate on and on and on.
 
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rmikulas:
Knowledge can’t harm someone in my opinion, only make them stronger.
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I would disagree with this comment entirely. To seek out knowledge of God is different then seeking knowledge for your own personal profit. The Bible makes this clear from the very beginning, with Adam and Eve. What did they want to do? They wanted to be more like God, so for this they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. At that moment when selfishness entered into mans heart, the way it came was through seeking out knowledge for self empowerment. We should always be seeking Godly wisdom, never human knowledge. According to 1 Corinthians 1:20 it Paul writes, “Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this age? Has God not made foolish the wisdom of the world?” My question to you is this, are you seeking out ideas from other religious views to empower yourself or are you doing it to understand more about God?
 
A bit of both actually. I like to view other points on religon, but in seeking this knowledge it has and will bring me to understand more and more. I am a person with MANY MANY questions and am seeking those answers.
 
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rmikulas:
A bit of both actually. I like to view other points on religon, but in seeking this knowledge it has and will bring me to understand more and more. I am a person with MANY MANY questions and am seeking those answers.
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If your knowledge is limited, then your choices, likewise, are limited. You have probably heard of St. Augustine (350 - 430 AD) and his famous “Confessions.” I recommend you read it. St. Augustine is a father of the Church known for his skepticism turned to conviction.

Raised by a Catholic mother and pagan father, at an earily age he rejected the teaching of the Church particularly the Creation, Noah’s Flood, evil and culpability. He followed Astrology, Manichaeism, and later Platonic philosophy before finally converting to Christianity.

There is much grace being shared in love by those posting here. May God bless you and guide you.
 
By other religions do you mean non-Christian Religions who deny Christ? Then I would answer absolutely not. If you mean non-Catholic Christians then absolutely yes.

John 14:6

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Mel
 
I would say more like all non-catholic people instead of all religons. Are all people who do not follow the catholic way damned, so to speak? I believe thatthere is good in all “people” and that no matter what your religon, God loves you and will find you even after you’re gone.

I feel that lets say, people from another country (argentina for example), if they believe in something else does it make them less likely to get into heaven than me? I would gladly give up my ticket to heaven in order for an inocent child to go if they weren’t catholic. I think we are all equal when it come to God. He doesn’t love someone less just because the were raised different in another religon. In most cases a child sticks with what he or she was raised in. I have friendsin all kinds of religons and they do not think God would think any less of me nor do I think that towards them.

My view is that even if you don’t know it, god is with you always. No matter what your religon or even if you believe in him or not, he is always with you. I think that when you die, no matter what you believe, who will see Christ? Everyone, even if you don’t believe, you will see him. Doesn’t this give everyone a fair chance. Love one another doesn’t just mean everyone here on earth does it? Doesn’t this apply to Christ as well? So if he loves you too, wouldn’t you see him after your gone? Or more rather, him see you?
 
Of course they can find God. I know many people that aren’t catholic that have God in their lives … but…

But they don’t get the FULLNESS OF TRUTH that the church our Lord and Savior started over 2000 years ago.

Our church has been under the same management for over 2000!

Praise God!
 
There is difference… People can find God in other religions, but they accept God from which religion is a big factor.

If Catholic… then some of them will go to God.
If Christian… then some of them will go to God.
If any other religion who does not believe that Jesus is the son of God and they will not go to God.

I pray that people who earnestly search for something in their life, hope they will find God.
 
Everyone outside the Holy Catholic Church and its sacraments is on an indirect - and uncertain - path to God. Some might be saved, but not without a pit-stop in Purgatory for certain (and I sometimes think that all “saved” non-Catholics will remain in Purgatory until the second coming, since the Church doesn’t canonize non-Catholic Saints.)

Everyone outside the Holy Catholic Church due to their own fault cannot be saved unless they enter the Church.
 
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