=LtTony;5644290]That kind of scenario was about the LAST thing on my mind, LOL.
Clarification… “anyone” = a believer in christ. I won’t quibble over catholic vs other denominations. Let’s just leave that out. I just want to know if the OP is what christ taught.
The Defined Doctrine of the RCC on Salvation
***The basic Catholic teaching is that there is no salvation outside the Church. The Church here being the one that Christ Himself founded and which over the centuries has come to be identified as the “Catholic” Church. ***
***What is contingent for salvation then is initiation into the Catholic Church. This is properly done through the sacrament of baptism. Baptism places a permanent character on the soul, forever identifying it as Christian. Baptism also effaces the mark of Original Sin on the soul and all actual sins the person many have committed as well as all the temporal punishment due for them. If a person would die after being baptized, they would go straight to heaven. ***
***Once baptized a person must continue to grow and deepen their Faith in order to arrive at death in a good disposition. Christ, therefore, gave His Church other sacraments, teachings and powers in order that its members could be strengthened in the Christian life and live lives pleasing to God. At death, a soul must be in the state of grace, that is, have no major unconfessed sin upon the soul and thus be in peace and union with God. To be sure to die in such a good way, daily perseverance in Christian virtue and living is deemed necessary. This is the function of the Church in the life of a Catholic, for It provides the means and encouragement by which to correctly stay the course. ***
Catholic Catechism 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
CCC 780 The Church in this world is the sacrament of salvation, the sign and the instrument of the communion of God and men.
CCC 846 How are we to understand this affirmation, often repeated by the Church Fathers? 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.
Perhaps this becomes more understandable in the light and wisdom of
Matthew 7: 13 "Enter by the narrow gate; [See Eph. 4: 4-8 One Church, One Faith and Mt. 16:15-19] for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.
[Now IN EXCESS of 30,000 Protestant secs, each with separate beliefs and practices] For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few. "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.[clearly the road to hell is paved with good intentions] You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles? So, every sound tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears evil fruit. A sound tree cannot bear evil fruit
[the CC has been serving Christ for 2,000 consecutive years, and its still ONE CHURC!], nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.Thus you will know them by their fruits.”
Love and prayers,
Pat