Do Non-Catholics go to Heaven?

  • Thread starter Thread starter followingtheway
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
One priest I respect put it this way:
Heaven includes one free Church membership. 😃
 
Yes. Non-Catholics go to Heaven. I can’t recall the exact Catholic teaching on the matter, but the Catholic Church DOES NOT teach that only Catholics can experience the beatific vision (Heaven). However, if a Muslim, Buddhist, Mormon, Pentecostal, Baptist, etc. gets to Heaven, it is through Jesus and only through Jesus. This seems impossible, but it is true and accurate. God’s mercy is limitless, unending, and down right difficult to grasp. Thank God!

Peace of Christ,
Roman63
 
Roman63 said:
Yes. Non-Catholics go to Heaven. I can’t recall the exact Catholic teaching on the matter, but the Catholic Church DOES NOT teach that only Catholics can experience the beatific vision (Heaven). However, if a Muslim, Buddhist, Mormon, Pentecostal, Baptist, etc. gets to Heaven, it is through Jesus and only through Jesus. This seems impossible, but it is true and accurate. God’s mercy is limitless, unending, and down right difficult to grasp. Thank God!

Peace of Christ,
Roman63
Click to expand...
The only thing that I would add to this is by saying that the way people of other faiths can be saved and go to Heaven, is through the action and prayers of the Catholic Church, thus the teaching (and confusion) that there is ‘no salvation outside the Catholic Church’. At least, that’s the way I understand it.
 
Matthew 25:31 till the end of chapter 25 seems to spell out Jesus’ plan for who will make it to heaven and who won’t. Clearly the only Way to heaven is through Jesus, but He seems to be pretty clear that that has nothing to do with praising Him or faith in Him, but rather in feeding Him, giving Him drink and visiting Him in the hospital or prison.

Of course, being human I could have this all wrong. We’ll find out by and by.

God bless
 
I would say yes. It is only my opinion, but I feel that followers of other pieces of chrisitanity are innocent in not knowing the heresies and such of their churches. I’m not so sure the fate of those who actually founded these churches and led people astray. As we say, only God knows a person’s true heart.
 
Non-Catholics are still seeking the truth, even though it might not be the complete truth. God would not condemn an earnest seeker right? “Knock and the door will be open to you, seek and you will find” no one can be saved without Christ and His infinite mercy. No one is saved outside the Church either, baptism is necessary. But the Church teaches that God grants special baptisms to those who didn’t know that importance of baptism but would have desired to be baptized if they were granted this knowledge.
 
I answered ‘only God knows’ but I feel the answer is somewhere between that and ‘yes’. Generally I believe that the Catholic Church has the salvation earned for us by Christ. But that is not to say there are those outside the Church who find Christ but through no fault of their own cannot join the Church/do not know of the Church. I feel it is entirely possible that there are some in Heaven who were not necessarily Catholic in life but in the end God is the judge and I trust that He is fair and merciful.
 
I have read several books written by/ describing experiences of people that experienced Heaven and /or had a personal encounter with Jesus. None of them were Catholic.

There are currently multiple reports of Jesus appearing to people in strict Muslim countries where Christianity is forbidden. None of those people mention anything about Catholicism.

I know a 14 yr old boy who’s best friend (again, not Catholic) recently died. He is being raised by single Christian mom, not Catholic. The boy told his mom that he had wondered and worried about his friend that he missed so much… he said that he saw Jesus and his friend and that his friend talked to him and told him not to worry or be concerned … he said he was in heaven and described a wonderful place and he talked about the amazing love he experienced from everyone there…
 
Just out of curiosity, why do you put up polls with no room for the proper nuance required? All men have the possibility of salvation as long as they do not deny God’s grace. The Sacraments make it much, much easier to accept that grace. I don’t know where this answer fits into your poll
 
The Catholic Church is only 2000 years old but Gods spiritual rhelm is millions or rather billions of years old and the universe is rather large. Jesus and Christ are names that were not even used 2000 years ago.His name was pronounced differently back in the time of His life. Man has been on earth 10s of thousands of years, some of the beliefs in judaism only started 2 or 3000 years ago and any spiritual realm that exists now existed 10000 years ago. The Church did not invent or find anything that was not there a million years ago and our salvation does not hinge on the last 1600 or 2000 years of history, Man has been worshipping God and thinking about the thereafter for at least 10,000 years. No political entity, king or group of Priests control God or where people go after they die. Jesus or rather Yeshua or the Son of God was an Essene, obviously He was not a pharacee or Saducee and many of the early Christians were Essenes. The Essenes do not and never did believe the way Catholics do, in fact there is an apparent discrepency between what ‘Christ’ seemed to practice and what Catholics promote or allowed. Essenes ruines have no meat in the dumps and teachings or writings seem to indicate vegetarianism( I think this was found in ruins rather recently)-- there is evidence Christ was an avid vegetarian yet for His feast days we all eat his beloved friends the lamb plus other animals and we eat as much as we can-- the church even allows meat on fast days. There is real evidence the Son of God was against meat eating. Some of the non Catholic people may be following the Lord better than the Catholics are!! I grew up a Catholic who ate meat 3 times a day living off of the misery of other creatures when other food was available. I have given up meat but we better forget aboth saving others, I think we in the Christian world are way off track- we better hope the Savior is merciful because we may be the biggest sinners of all. The’ second coming’ is coming- not to convert the Moslems or the Hindus but to re-teach the Son of God’s ways to Christianity which has fallen away from God!Forget about who is saved or not and save your own soul sister and brother! See my blog at papalmass.blogspot.com I have a comparison of the old and new mass there but it could be that if we go to any Mass every day but not live as the Savior did we have a slim chance for any good afterlife.
 
theyuha said:
The Catholic Church is only 2000 years old but Gods spiritual rhelm is millions or rather billions of years old and the universe is rather large. Jesus and Christ are names that were not even used 2000 years ago.His name was pronounced differently back in the time of His life. Man has been on earth 10s of thousands of years, some of the beliefs in judaism only started 2 or 3000 years ago and any spiritual realm that exists now existed 10000 years ago. The Church did not invent or find anything that was not there a million years ago and our salvation does not hinge on the last 1600 or 2000 years of history, Man has been worshipping God and thinking about the thereafter for at least 10,000 years. No political entity, king or group of Priests control God or where people go after they die. Jesus or rather Yeshua or the Son of God was an Essene, obviously He was not a pharacee or Saducee and many of the early Christians were Essenes. The Essenes do not and never did believe the way Catholics do, in fact there is an apparent discrepency between what ‘Christ’ seemed to practice and what Catholics promote or allowed. Essenes ruines have no meat in the dumps and teachings or writings seem to indicate vegetarianism( I think this was found in ruins rather recently)-- there is evidence Christ was an avid vegetarian yet for His feast days we all eat his beloved friends the lamb plus other animals and we eat as much as we can-- the church even allows meat on fast days. There is real evidence the Son of God was against meat eating. Some of the non Catholic people may be following the Lord better than the Catholics are!! I grew up a Catholic who ate meat 3 times a day living off of the misery of other creatures when other food was available. I have given up meat but we better forget aboth saving others, I think we in the Christian world are way off track- we better hope the Savior is merciful because we may be the biggest sinners of all. The’ second coming’ is coming- not to convert the Moslems or the Hindus but to re-teach the Son of God’s ways to Christianity which has fallen away from God!Forget about who is saved or not and save your own soul sister and brother! See my blog at papalmass.blogspot.com I have a comparison of the old and new mass there but it could be that if we go to any Mass every day but not live as the Savior did we have a slim chance for any good afterlife.
Click to expand...
Wait so are the Essenes right because you claim they practiced what Christ practiced? Or are they wrong because man has been seeking God for tens of thousands of years in different ways than they did?
 
followingtheway said:
What are your thought?
Click to expand...
I get the impression that since Vatican II I am not automatically damned in the eyes of your church. However, having come across various Protestant fundamentalists, they tell me that I am because I haven’t been “born again”.

An interesting context is provided by the creed of St Athanasius (“Quicunque Vult”), which is included in the (Anglican) Book of Commun Prayer:

“Whosover will be saved: before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholick Faith…And the Catholick Faith is this: That we worship one God in Trinity andTrinity in Unity”.

By that yardstick most of us here are saved.
 
I don’t think so. Because to be Catholic is really to be Christian and to believe in God and trust him.

To be non-catholic would be non-Christian and that would mean you reject Christ and if you reject him on judgement day, I would say NO. You ain’t getten in. 🤷
 
Cheshangle said:
I get the impression that since Vatican II I am not automatically damned in the eyes of your church. However, having come across various Protestant fundamentalists, they tell me that I am because I haven’t been “born again”.

An interesting context is provided by the creed of St Athanasius (“Quicunque Vult”), which is included in the (Anglican) Book of Commun Prayer:

“Whosover will be saved: before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholick Faith…And the Catholick Faith is this: That we worship one God in Trinity andTrinity in Unity”.

By that yardstick most of us here are saved.
Click to expand...
Are you Baptised? If you are you are BORN AGAIN in Christ by the living water.
 
There’s a ton if information I’m postitive could be re-searched through the search-engine on this.

Scripture is clear on the reality that Christ has flock. And in this context of scripture Christ is speaking with the Apostles, so he wouldn’t have been talking strictly about the CC. In fact he “is” talking about others known or unknown to us. In otherwords God is everywhere and everything is Gods. We live by the moment by His will. The stance the CC takes is “We know where the church is, we do not know where it is not”.

When you look at the theory in this aspect than it is evident there are far to many complications for anyone to specifically state “who” can be saved? Matter of fact that is folly. Even to revert to V-II and then define it to one’s “own” understanding, may well be lacking in charity.

The Catholic Church states’s its Church is found on Apostolic Succession, and is the FIRST Biblical path in the NT left behind by Christ intentionally, as we seen in Matthew and the Divine Intervention with Peter and the Apostles. Thus we know the CC is Biblically and Historically a Divine path to Christ and His Kingdom. What is ouside of this cannot be accurately defined. Educated guess and working theory exists, and there is also the Saints and Catholic Mystics should one seek their understanding to clarify your own? Yet the foundation of History/Christianity/Scripture is what is most defiantly leaned upon.

Gary
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top