Okay…you may have a point about protestants who lurk here. However, the term ‘invincible ignorance’ has to mean something, doesn’t it? There are plenty of well-intentioned protestants who believe they have the truth, but don’t. They have a genuine love for Christ, continue serving God to the best of their ability with love and faith in Christ, and if they are going to hell in spite of that then something is terribly wrong! I personally don’t hold the fact that they are not Catholic against them, and ultimately their fate is in God’s hands…not yours or mine!
I agree and many protestants use this as some sort of excuse for remaining protestant. After all, to make that leap from protestantism to Catholicism entails sacrifice and at times, very great sacrifice indeed. But somehow Jesus words in Matthew 7:21-25 always come to mind:
"21 "Not every one who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you evildoers.’ 24 “Every one then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house upon the rock; 25 and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.” Mt 7:21-25
Of course we know that Jesus established His Church on a Rock and that it will withstand the rain and the wind and the floods but Jesus’ words in that passage are very chilling and I can’t help but think of all the protestant pastors who tell people that all one need do is to confess Jesus with their mouth and believe in their heart that He is Lord and they will be saved. This is an aberration of Paul’s teaching in Romans 10:9:
“9 because, if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” [Ro 10:9]
Romans 10:9 was never intended to be the summation of Christian salvation. Paul’s writing was remedial. He had already preached orally and laid the ground work in every locality that he wrote to. His writings addressed specific problem areas that the Romans, Corinthians, Ephesians, etc. encountered. Yet protestant pastors, lacking an oral tradition, take Paul’s writing as the totality of the christian message.
I once asked a theologian about the church’s position on protestants going to heaven. In a nut shell the answer is that while the church holds out the possibility of heaven for protestants there are some hurdles along the way. The biggest one is, of course, sin and the expiation of it. Only a perfect act of contrition will remove mortal sin outside of the scarament of Reconciliation.
By the way, what I meant by “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” might be better paraphrased, “If I don’t KNOW it’s broke, I don’t KNOW to fix it!” (and I’m sure you know that I am only speaking metaphorically. I’m sure if we were standing before God none of us would be able to utter such nonsense).
But Is it a matter of black or white or are there shades of gray? Does something have to be totally broke before one knows something is wrong and needs fixing? Now I can understand the great difficulty that someone who has been spoon fed anti Catholic preaching all his life having great problems in realizing that the very thing he has been taught to hate by supposedly men of God, is the true church of God. But is it insurmountable? I don’t think so.
I was a protestant for more years than I’ve been Catholic. The majority of that time I never gave the Catholic Church a single glance. I was too busy trying to serve God in the capacity I was in. I have always loved the Lord with all my heart. In the early days if I had lurked in a group like this (I don’t know why I would have) I probably would have dismissed the Catholics in here as misguided and in ‘invincible ignorance’. However, in my later years when I finally got the Catholic virus the Holy Spirit was working on my heart to lead me home, and I guess that is my point. Until the Holy Spirit deems the right time for the individual, and until they respond, they will unlikely ever come into full communion. Particularly when there are Catholics who would rather ‘win the argument’ than to help bring souls home.
First of all let me say, Welcome home! I am a revert myself. As for the workings of the Spirit, I don’t think the Holy Spirit takes a coffee break or a day off with anyone. I believe He is constantly working on people’s hearts for He is after all the Spirit of Truth. So the problem is not that the Holy Spirit is not working on people. The problem is that people are not receptive to the Spirit’s workings. How many protestants come on this and other forums with the intention of trying to convert Catholics from the alleged “Whore of Babylon” only to run into a theological buzz saw? Hopefully. they leave here with a least something to think about. If so, what they do next is very crucial, I think, to their salvation.
, so to expect them to suddenly just accept it 
would be absurd, and to think that God would send them to hell because of the erroneous information they have received and base their entire faith on would seem to be inconsistent with His character. 
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