Must I die in a state of grace to be saved?

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nightrider009

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What is the most traditional teaching of the Church? Can you provide a reference, especially one from the ancient church?

If I die, having not confessed all sins, am I necessarily condemned? Please, I really want to what the church’s strictest teaching says, not what you say.
 
Those who die with unrepentant (not necessarily unconfessed) mortal sin on their souls are damned. The oldest reference to this is Scripture, particularly the Gospels.
 
Part of the problem would appear to be what it means to be in the state of grace.

Sin, first of all, is a choice.

You choose something (an act, or a failure to act where you have a moral duty to do so) as opposed to choosing God. To choose God is to choose to do as He wishes us to (and that is largely but not absolutely defined by the Ten Commandments).

If you make a specific choice to violate one of the commandments, you are choosing self (your wants, desires, wishes, choices) over God.

Another way of saying it is that you reject God.

So if you die while being in a state of rejecting God, God will honor your choice. We talk about God condemning you but the reality of it is that you condemn yourself; you reject God.

To be in a state of grace is to be in relationship with God. To sin is to reject that relationship.

If you are still rejecting that relationship at the point of death, God so honors your person, your choice, your free will, that He accepts your choice and you continue on in the next life in a permanent state of rejecting God. That in its distilled essence is what Hell is about - the permanent separation from God.

That is a somewhat simplistic answer, but it cuts through all the chatter, the obfuscations we can come up with and puts it in as plain a language as I can.

We sometimes get caught up in a world where phrases and words get thrown around without any real understanding of the underlying meaning of them. Life is not a game; it is for real and for keeps. We can get ourselves caught up in pseudo sophisticated arguments, and forget what we are arguing about is reality, not some word game.

God doesn’t play “Gotcha!”. He gives us real choices, and we make real choices with real consequences - some good, and some horrible. Assuming one is of the age of reason, one is responsible for the choices one makes. One can say “I really didn’t meant it” - but guess what? God is not one’s mother or one’s father or whoever it is one says that to, and whom one can fairly consistently B.S. God sees our innermost being. We may lie to ourselves that “we didn’t really mean it” - but we made the choice.

If we honor our relationship with God; if we choose God’s will over our own will, God will honor that.

And just so, if we reject God and choose our own will, God will honor that.
 
Spooky7272 said:
Those who die with unrepentant (not necessarily unconfessed) mortal sin on their souls are damned. The oldest reference to this is Scripture, particularly the Gospels.
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I think this is the best expression of Church teaching. Certainly if one is sincerely repentant but unable to confess to a priest for some reason (for example one is in a remote location) one is saved without sacramental confession.

The question then is ‘what does it mean to be sincerely repentant’? The term the Church uses is perfect contrition. This refers to sorrow for sin that comes mainly from love of God rather than, for example, fear of Hell.

If one has perfect contrition (plus the intention to fo tk confession as soon as practicable if one survives) then one can be saved if one dies without confessing to a priest.
 
Basilios and deo grastis. I just want to confirm that you are saying it is never possible to be saved without have made a last confession. Is that correct?

It seems the majority of you feel that there is a possibility of salvation without last confession (assuming there is some obstacle to confession). This is what I was taught but I am wondering if this is really true. It would seem to imply that there could be salvation for non-christians.

Can anyone provide early church references for either position?
 
nightrider009 said:
Basilios and deo grastis. I just want to confirm that you are saying it is never possible to be saved without have made a last confession. Is that correct?

It seems the majority of you feel that there is a possibility of salvation without last confession (assuming there is some obstacle to confession). This is what I was taught but I am wondering if this is really true. It would seem to imply that there could be salvation for non-christians.

Can anyone provide early church references for either position?
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They did not say that. Only God knows the predisposition of a soul and his mercy is infinite. God as the only source of divine graces can act in extraordinary manner; however, Catholics should have confident hope of salvation through the ordinary conduits of graces that are the sacraments.
 
The Church teaches that we can hope for the salvation of unbaptized babies and suicide victims. So the answer to whether you must die in a state of grace to be saved is “yes, but.” That is, God has given us the means of saving grace through the sacraments but God is not bound by his sacraments so he can save whomever he wants.
 
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