How do we receive Salvation?

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Hello, so how do we enter Salvation? I practiced Protestant Christianity for 9 years. They believe through faith alone we receive salvation. What is the Catholic view on salvation? I’ve used the search engine, I looked at 3 threads, no explanation. How do we feel about Romans 10:9 “that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” A Catholic women recently told me that it’s through how we live our life, being nice to people, showing kindness, etc. what’s the point of confession and repentance if we receive salvation through being nice to people? I also went in to plan my confirmation today, I won’t even be able to receive confirmation through the closest parish to me until February of 2020. I believe the Gospel, I actually acknowledge and repent from my sins, I’ve gone to confession. What happens if I die tomorrow? Do I goto heaven, hell, or purgatory? I asked the Catholic women these same questions, she wasn’t able to answer them. I’m kind of frustrated, after 9 years of practicing Protestant Christianity I feel like it’s false, that’s why I wish to practice Catholicism, my frustration comes from not having any direct answers on Salvation, or the reasons for repenting. So what happens to everyone (primarily Protestant Christians) who just believes in Jesus but don’t repent? I feel like I’m practicing repentance for no reason, that’s where my frustration comes from. Please help me with my questions, thank you
 
CCC 169 Salvation comes from God alone; but because we receive the life of faith through the Church, she is our mother: “We believe the Church as the mother of our new birth, and not in the Church as if she were the author of our salvation.” Because she is our mother, she is also our teacher in the faith.

The normative means of Salvation is through the Sacraments of Holy Mother Church.
 
Mxer240 said:
So what happens to everyone (primarily Protestant Christians) who just believes in Jesus but don’t repent?
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St Peter said “repent and be baptized”.

Simple believe in Jesus is not enough for Salvation, as Scripture tells us “satan also believes and trembles”.

Does your parish offer a subscription to Formed.org? It would be worth getting a subscription if they do not, there are excellent studies there to begin to prepare you for the Sacraments.
 
‘You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.’ - James 2:24
Both faith and works are necessary for salvation.
 
It’s pretty simple. It begins with grace, through which we receive the gift of faith, which we can accept or not. Verbal confessions of faith are simply testimonies to this virtue. Anyway, as a result of this faith we’re baptized, an act of faith, itself, in response to Jesus’ command to do so, baptism being known as “the sacrament of faith”, in fact, and we enter the Kingdom; we enter communion with God, through this act. We’re forgiven, cleansed, made new creations. A state of righteousness is given us and from there nothing can impede our entrance into heaven unless we turn back away from God, refusing to abide in Him, generally indicated by persistence in serious or grave sin which opposes and destroys love in us. Anyway, we nurture this new relationship with the sacraments, the Eucharist, especially, being the means by which we regularly live out this vital partnership that involves the free partaking of our Lord.

We’ve been given a gift, of grace, of God’s life in us, and we’re expected to maintain and even increase that gift, that righteousness, “investing” what we’re given as per the Parable of the Talents. We don’t just talk the talk but must walk it; salvation is worked out with He who works in us. Phil 2. Works of goodness are part of the whole package:

"To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger." Rom 7. Also reference Matt 25:31-46
 
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Mxer240 said:
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Catechism
1427 Jesus calls to conversion. This call is an essential part of the proclamation of the kingdom: "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the gospel."16 In the Church’s preaching this call is addressed first to those who do not yet know Christ and his Gospel. Also, Baptism is the principal place for the first and fundamental conversion. It is by faith in the Gospel and by Baptism17 that one renounces evil and gains salvation, that is, the forgiveness of all sins and the gift of new life.

1446 Christ instituted the sacrament of Penance for all sinful members of his Church: above all for those who, since Baptism, have fallen into grave sin, and have thus lost their baptismal grace and wounded ecclesial communion. It is to them that the sacrament of Penance offers a new possibility to convert and to recover the grace of justification. The Fathers of the Church present this sacrament as "the second plank [of salvation] after the shipwreck which is the loss of grace."47

16 Mk 1:15.
17 Cf. Acts 2:38.
47 Tertullian, De Paenit. 4,2:PL 1,1343; cf. Council of Trent (1547): DS 1542.
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No. Repentance is simply turning away from sin. An act of the will.
 
The corporal works of mercy is as follows:
  • To feed the hungry
  • To give drink to the thirsty
  • To clothe the naked
  • To harbour the harbourless
  • To visit the sick
  • To ransom the captive
  • To bury the dead
The spiritual works of mercy are:
  • To instruct the ignorant
  • To counsel the doubtful
  • To admonish sinners
  • To bear wrongs patiently
  • To forgive offences willingly
  • To comfort the afflicted
  • To pray for the living and the dead
 
whatever the exact definition is may be a hard one but right now I need help. Been away from mass and living like a good Catholic fir ages and terrified about going back to mass this Sunday. I need Salvation!
 
I would suggest reading the entire article in the Catechism, and reading the full documents noted in footnotes:

http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/p123a9p3.htm

836 "All men are called to this catholic unity of the People of God. . . . And to it, in different ways, belong or are ordered: the Catholic faithful, others who believe in Christ, and finally all mankind, called by God’s grace to salvation."320

837 "Fully incorporated into the society of the Church are those who, possessing the Spirit of Christ, accept all the means of salvation given to the Church together with her entire organization, and who - by the bonds constituted by the profession of faith, the sacraments, ecclesiastical government, and communion - are joined in the visible structure of the Church of Christ, who rules her through the Supreme Pontiff and the bishops. Even though incorporated into the Church, one who does not however persevere in charity is not saved. He remains indeed in the bosom of the Church, but ‘in body’ not ‘in heart.’"321

838 "The Church knows that she is joined in many ways to the baptized who are honored by the name of Christian, but do not profess the Catholic faith in its entirety or have not preserved unity or communion under the successor of Peter."322 Those "who believe in Christ and have been properly baptized are put in a certain, although imperfect, communion with the Catholic Church."323 With the Orthodox Churches, this communion is so profound "that it lacks little to attain the fullness that would permit a common celebration of the Lord’s Eucharist."324

"Outside the Church there is no salvation"

846 How are we to understand this affirmation, often repeated by the Church Fathers?335 Re-formulated positively, it means that all salvation comes from Christ the Head through the Church which is his Body:

Basing itself on Scripture and Tradition, the Council teaches that the Church, a pilgrim now on earth, is necessary for salvation: the one Christ is the mediator and the way of salvation; he is present to us in his body which is the Church. He himself explicitly asserted the necessity of faith and Baptism, and thereby affirmed at the same time the necessity of the Church which men enter through Baptism as through a door. Hence they could not be saved who, knowing that the Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God through Christ, would refuse either to enter it or to remain in it.336
847 This affirmation is not aimed at those who, through no fault of their own, do not know Christ and his Church:

Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience - those too may achieve eternal salvation.337
848 "Although in ways known to himself God can lead those who, through no fault of their own, are ignorant of the Gospel, to that faith without which it is impossible to please him, the Church still has the obligation and also the sacred right to evangelize all men."338
 
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Might I suggest reading the Book of James? There’s a reason Martin Luther removed the Book of James from the Protestant bible; because he know you’d find your answer there.
 
Mxer240 said:
Hello, so how do we enter Salvation? I practiced Protestant Christianity for 9 years. They believe through faith alone we receive salvation.
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by Faith alone, appears once in scripture. NOT is in front of it. HERE
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Mxer240:
What is the Catholic view on salvation? I’ve used the search engine, I looked at 3 threads, no explanation.
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From Vat II, (Lumen Gentium) summarizes the teaching from the beginning.

“Basing itself upon Sacred Scripture and Tradition, it teaches that the Church, now sojourning on earth as an exile, is necessary for salvation. Christ, present to us in His Body, which is the Church, is the one Mediator and the unique way of salvation. In explicit terms He Himself affirmed the necessity of faith and baptism(124) and thereby affirmed also the necessity of the Church, for through baptism as through a door men enter the Church. Whosoever, therefore, knowing that the Catholic Church was made necessary by Christ, would refuse to enter or to remain in it, could not be saved.”

So one could ask WHERE is THAT in scripture & Tradition

The Church Jesus established on Peter and those in complete union with Peter is the Catholic Church.
Acts 9:31 the church throughout all , universal ἐκκλησία καθ’ ὅλης τῆς
ἐκκλησία,= ekklésia = church ,
καθ’, = kata = according to ,
ὅλης, = holos = whole / all / universal ,
τῆς, = ho = the ,
= the Kataholos Church = the Catholic Church.

These following warnings from scripture, don’t go outta style for those who won’t come into the Catholic Church or remain in it.

The following words (division, dissension depending on one’s translation) in the following passages, (from Romans & Galatians) is the same Greek Word, διχοστασίαι from: the Greek study bible. Open the link to see the description
Romans 16:17-20 & Galatians 5:19-21 use that same Greek word διχοστασίαι And note the consequence for that sin of separation from the Church (Gal 5:21). Paul says “I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God”_. IOW they go to hell when they die

The only Church that is there from the beginning, that Jesus builds on Peter and those in union with him is The Catholic Church. Meaning scripture is making the point, all are to be in and remain in the Catholic Church if they want salvation.

Once someone is made aware of this truth and doesn’t enter it or remain in it, that’s where the consequence of “outside the Catholic Church there is no salvation” comes from in scripture

Tradition says the same from the beginning.

Due to space, here’s one example
Bp Ignatius of Antioch, direct disciple of John the apostle, writes http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0108.htm
 
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Salvation is through baptism in the Trinitarian formula and confession of the Lord Jesus Christ. Those are the basics.
 
Even protestants acknowledge that a wicked man who confesses Jesus with his lips isn’t “saved”, so it’s universally recognized that one’s conduct plays a role in where they will spend eternity. If they try to fulfill God’s will in their lives, they very clear desire to live with Him. If they live as wickedly someone like Adolf Hitler, or even feel lukewarm towards Him, then they seemingly don’t want to spend eternity with Him.
 
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