I’m sorry, Another Andrew, but I really don’t think that today’s philosophers can even come close to the wisdom and knowledge of the Saints. We’ll just have to disagree on this point, okay? Have a good night. God bless you!
Good morning, Another Andrew! Don’t you see that today’s philosophers are Modernists? I’d never trust a contemporary philosopher when philosophy since the Age of the Enlightenment is so modernistic. Dietrich von Hildebrand is the only good philosopher I’ve ever heard of who has lived in our more recent times (I believe he died in 1977); and he was a defender of Catholic teaching. I can always trust the Saints, Another Andrew, whose wisdom comes from God above and not from men or the earth. God bless you.
Ready, I’m catching up on some of the posting on this thread. A silent observer I have been. I too, do not see anything “rash” about the view that many will not be saved, both in light of both scripture and “tradition”, lower t. This is balanced by an all-loving God who desires all to be saved.
Yes, and I believe that many desire to be saved. What concerns me most is this question: Many people desire to be saved, but how many desire to be saved badly enough? When we consider how few people truly renounce self, the world and its vanities, allurements, etc. we can only imagine the effects. No, I can not judge a person’s soul, but I can judge people’s public actions: and anyone with reason and common sense can discern that people left and right are disregarding God’s laws, just as though we were living in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah or in the Great Deluge. Thank you for your post, Porknpie! God bless you!
I’m going to repeat myself.
I don’t necessarily think that “few will be saved,” is quite as binding and specific as you are indicating. I would agree that it’s a very good warning for us, who often should put more effort into doing God’s will than we actually do, but I don’t agree with the idea that “few” as meaning a small part of humanity will be saved. It’s certainly possible, but as another poster brought up earlier, as God’s will is for all of humanity to be reunited with Him, even one person in Hell is too many, and all but one person in Heaven is too few. If few are saved, it is because there are few who ask for God’s forgiveness. Rejecting God’s mercy is how one’s soul is in Hell. God offers us mercy, but so many do not accept because they do not know that they can.
I don’t think it’s that they don’t desire to be saved enough. It’s that they just don’t ask God for forgiveness. In rejecting His mercy, they reject their own salvation. Their problem is rejection of God through rejection of the belief that His mercy is sufficient to cleanse them of their sins.
No we wouldn’t, and as Catholics we don’t. God’s mercy is infinite. The only way we can not receive it is if we don’t ask for it at all. We should never give in to the idea that we are beyond saving.
It is true that we only enter Heaven through Grace. But someone who wants to love God and wants the grace to be with Him for eternity and asks that of Him will not be denied.
It’s not that mortal sin breaks God’s grace. Mortal sin is a conscious choice to oppose God, just as doing a good deed is a conscious choice to act in accordance with His will. The reason mortal sin causes one’s soul to be in Hell is because to commit mortal sin requires actively and consciously setting oneself in opposition to God. It’s not where we die in a state of mortal sin and then God throws us in Hell, it’s more accurately where if we die in a state of mortal sin, we have died consciously and willingly telling God that we do not want Him, and as a result, we will not ask forgiveness or enter Heaven. Hell is a state we place ourselves in moreso than a place we get sent for being bad. It’s more similar to running away from home than it is being stuck in the corner or grounded.
One “makes it” to Heaven by asking for and accepting God’s mercy. The reason the Saints are in Heaven isn’t because they were somehow perfect, but because they trusted in God and His love and mercy with their entire soul. And through their love and trust in God, they allowed God to transform their lives and impact others. They were not in fact perfect, but were made holy by Him because they completely placed their trust in God. And that is extremely hard for many of us to do, myself included. Humans like to think of ourselves as self-sufficient, but we need to strive to take care of ourselves without thinking that we can do it without God.
I don’t think you understood what I was trying to say here. I wasn’t saying that you can’t love God without Him, so if you don’t feel like you do, He isn’t helping you.
I don’t think we have to necessarily ask God for forgiveness unless God gives us a moment of clarity before we die that can allow us to make a clear decision. A lot of non-believers have good reasons for not believing, and no God who loved them unconditionally and made them for the express purpose of them being with him in heaven would allow them to go to hell just because they didn’t follow him during their lives. It is inconceivable that an infinitely merciful God would allow someone he loved more than it is possible for a human to love to die without being given a chance to see that he is real and ready to welcome them into paradise if they do not reject him.
I meant that mostly from a understanding of a Catholic perspective, that according to revealed truths of the Church, in order for absolution to be assured, we need to participate in the sacrament of confession, or if that is somehow impossible, make a sincere Act of Contrition with the intention of confessing as soon as possible.
Seems to me that from what I have heard and read, that God has also willed it for “everyone to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth”.
Thank you for the blessing, I sure need all of the blessings that I can get, I have a question to propose to you and to everyone else: Is it about “safety” or is it about the SALVATION OF ALL, WHICH WOULD INCLUDE ALL OF OUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS?
“With man it is impossible, with God ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE”.
Great post:thumbsup:
Remember, it takes TWO to be saved, God AND self. With God all things are possible, but how many men are truly turned towards God and not towards themselves and the world? How many are working hard for the salvation of their souls and are cooperating with God’s work? How many people presume that they will be saved when they are walking under Satan’s banner? The Blessed Virgin Mary in The City of God by Ven. Mary of Agreda says that most men walk under Satan’s banner–hardly comforting news. This book has the approbation of Popes and Bishops and was required reading for priests, before V2. I’ll prudently heed our Lady’s words and will keep my eyes and heart fixed on Jesus, knowing that I am in the minority, given our Lady’s sobering words and the sobering words of many Saints who have taught the fewness of the saved. They know more than we what is true–they are Saints. God bless you.
