Can protestants get into heaven?

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I was reading about how the church teaches no salvation outside the church. Does that mean that protestants denominations cannot enter heaven, even if they did not choose to be born protestant.
 
You should probably read more on this. Yes, Protestants, as well as others can go to Heaven.

Here’s a short clip to start. Catholic Answers
 
Well it is quite involved, Yes there is no salvation outside of the Church founded by Jesus Christ Himself. However that does not mean that GOD can work outside of the normal boundaries. And also it does not mean that if you never heard of Jesus or of the Church HE founded you are plum out of luck. There is LOTS of Theology written about this topic.
Also there is very important distinction between protestants that abandoned the Church in the 1600 which means they were Catholics to someone who is born in the protestant tradition. There is also a lot of Theology on this also.
Also to note that the Church teaches that if someone is Baptized with the proper matter and proper form even in a protestant tradition they are considered as validly Baptized by the Catholic Church, in other word the Catholic Church never “re-baptize” any one. They may use a “Conditional Baptism” formula if there are doubts on the way the original Baptism was performed. The news were reporting one such incident that happened in a Catholic church by a Deacon.
The main point is that GOD is not going to fault someone for something outside of their knowledge. But HE gives sufficient grace to every one to save that person that found him/herself outside the boundaries of the Church.

Peace!
 
Ult96 said:
I was reading about how the church teaches no salvation outside the church. Does that mean that protestants denominations cannot enter heaven
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No, it doesn’t. The statement isn’t “no salvation for anyone besides Catholics”, but that salvation – for anyone – comes through the Church.

It’s kinda like saying “no driver’s licenses outside of your state’s DMV”. That doesn’t mean that non-citizens cannot obtain a license from the DMV, though. It just means that it’s the state DMV who has the right and the authority to grant a driver’s license, and no one else in your state.
 
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I know I’m praying for the souls of my family, including the Baptist side.
 
One is united to the Church by baptism, faith, and charity. The kind of heresy that destroys faith (and therefore sets a baptized person apart from the Church in this context) has a component of culpability. As St. Augustine put it:

St. Augustine:
But though the doctrine which men hold be false and perverse, if they do not maintain it with passionate obstinacy, especially when they have not devised it by the rashness of their own presumption, but have accepted it from parents who had been misguided and had fallen into error, and if they are with anxiety seeking the truth, and are prepared to be set right when they have found it, such men are not to be counted heretics.
CHURCH FATHERS: Letter 43 (St. Augustine)
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In such a case, faith in Christ covers any innocent errors about particular articles of faith, since Christ Himself embodies all of revelation (He is the way, the truth, and the life). As the Catechism puts it, 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).

On the other hand, culpable heresy destroys all faith and excludes from salvation if persevered impenitently to the end for the following reasons:

Pope Leo XIII, Satis Cognitum 9:
But he who dissents even in one point from divinely revealed truth absolutely rejects all faith, since he thereby refuses to honour God as the supreme truth and the formal motive of faith. “In many things they are with me, in a few things not with me; but in those few things in which they are not with me the many things in which they are will not profit them” (S. Augustinus in Psal. liv., n. 19). And this indeed most deservedly; for they, who take from Christian doctrine what they please, lean on their own judgments, not on faith; and not “bringing into captivity every understanding unto the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor. x., 5), they more truly obey themselves than God. “You, who believe what you like, believe yourselves rather than the gospel” (S. Augustinus, lib. xvii., Contra Faustum Manichaeum, cap. 3).
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Obviously, in addition to faith, one must persevere in charity. A Protestant who perseveres to the end in mortal sin–that is, cut off from charity-- would be lost just like a Catholic who did.
 
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The short answer is “we have hope they can but we don’t know“. We have a record of thousands of people who made it into heaven. None have ever been revealed to be Protestant.

I would think it would be more difficult.

These “who can go to heaven” questions astound me.

Everyone should! That’s why we are commissioned to spread the Gospel and the Church!
 
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Short answer, “yes.” Long answer, only God gets to determine who will spend eternity with Him, but we can rest easy in our assurance of salvation, as Jesus Christ Himself said that He’ll never turn away anyone who turns to Him. Our Blessed Lord’s promises are sure and we ought to place our hope in Him.
 
Ult96 said:
I was reading about how the church teaches no salvation outside the church. Does that mean that protestants denominations cannot enter heaven, even if they did not choose to be born protestant.
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Those that die in a state of sanctifying grace attain salvation, so yes.
 
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