Few will make it to Heaven?

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  1. No, I do not believe that the Church has any definite teaching on the number/percentage of people saved.
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  2. Many of the saints may have believed few were saved, but few harped on about it and tried to convince people that most would be damned. Sometimes they did teach that few were saved from the pulpit, but that was almost certainly to motivate people to do better.
I think it would do more good to live with the view that people will suffer greatly in Purgatory if they don’t do better, but not that most of them are going to hell, since that is simply too discouraging. Since only the Holy Spirit and people themselves can change their minds and their lives, there is very little most of the rest of us can do to help others enough for them to make it to heaven if one abides by the “few will be saved” line of thought.
 
I have prayed much about this matter, since it has become a pernicious pastime here at CAF for people to indulge in anticipating the fewness of those who are saved. What I sensed from the Lord is the reason why it is so abhorrent to Him.

In 1 Chronicles, Chapter 21, we read:
  1. Satan rose up against Israel, and he incited David to take a census of Israel.
  2. Then David said to God, “I have sinned greatly in doing this thing. Take away your servant’s guilt, for I have acted very foolishly.”
  3. Therefore the LORD sent a plague upon Israel, and seventy thousand Israelites died.
God is not mocked and sees the heart and the hidden intention. When people strive to reduce the number of the saved by doing a census of all those who agree with them, so that they may be believed, we need to examine the motive. I get the direct sense that it is NOT being done to SAVE man, but to boast that there are so few who will obtain salvation … the devil’s workshop, to cause despair and fear.

Taking saints’ words out of context to the whole of their teaching is a favorite ploy similara to sola scriptura advocates. It is no different here with pulling saints’ words out of context to the fullness of their writings. While St. Thomas Aquinas did state that the saved are in the minority (no number given, and he never confined it to merely “a few.”) We find St. Thomas’ worthy statement that puts to rest the concept of delving into matters that are known to God alone … a matter of curious pride.
Concerning the number of all the predestined, some say that so many men will be saved as angels fell; some, so many as there were angels left; others, as many as the number of angels created by God. It is, however, better to say that, “to God alone is known the number for whom is reserved eternal happiness.(From the ‘secret’ prayer of the missal, ‘pro vivis et defunctis.’)”
May God show these persons the real and hidden motive that underlies their rigor in putting forth these destructive posts, by which they unwittingly convince themselves that they are doing God’s work in helping people walk the straight and narrow path.
 
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One reads “many are called, but few are chosen” (see Mt 22:14; Mk 12.13–17; Lk 20.20–26).
Does this imply most are damned? Did Augustine and Thomas Aquinas believe most Catholics end up in hell?
Those who were not baptised were considered, in most cases, in the past debarred from heaven ‘(extra ecclesiam nulla salus’).
Accepting the existence of hell/'evil how can God be considered good, if he is powerful or powerful if he is good?
 
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