Protestant in Mortal Sin?

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BrettK

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I don’t really know how to phrase this perfectly, so I will try my best. Basically, let’s say a Protestant is thinking of a conversion to Catholicism for whatever reason that may be, and in turn they begin learning about venial sin and mortal sin and what that encompasses. Taking an example of a mortal sin such as Porn and Masturbation, we know that to commit a mortal sin you require the following;
  • Its subject matter must be grave.
  • It must be committed with full knowledge (and awareness) of the sinful action and the gravity of the offense.
  • It must be committed with deliberate and complete consent.
If the protestant knows that (due to study of the Catechism of the Catholic Church) masturbation is a grave matter, commits it with full knowledge and awareness of the sin, and gives complete consent at the time they have by definition committed a mortal sin. But here is my question that I’m a bit iffy on. Say the protestant wishes to repent of this sin, how exactly do they go about it since they can’t receive the sacraments of the Catholic Church as they are not catholic, nor have access to confession for forgiveness from the priest? Sure they may be working on like an RCIA for the church, but if they are in a State of Mortal Sin and plan on confessing it to the priest if it’s something they struggle with but aren’t able to receive those reassurances then what exactly are they to do in the mean time if they are in such a state?
 
If the Protestant sincerely wishes to repent then he should make an act of perfect contrition to God.

An act of perfect contrition would be to tell God he is sorry for the sin and repents, but this has to come from love for God and sadness for having offended God, not out of wishing to avoid Hell or any other motive.

If he later becomes Catholic he should confess the sin as part of his first confession, and get absolution. Unless somehow the Protestant hasn’t received a proper Trinitarian baptism and needs to get re-baptized as part of his conversion, in which case I think the baptism removes all the sins that occurred prior to being baptized.
 
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Their only recourse is to be perfectly contrite for their sins, and of course, God judges them, as he does all of us, according to our level of invincibility of conscience.

Unfortunately, until the Church has jurisdiction over him, he cannot be validly absolved.
 
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Why would protestants want to receive a Catholic church sacrament?
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In this context, some Protestants worry a lot about going to Hell and are so anxious to have a “get out of Hell free” card guarantee that they would even receive a Catholic sacrament if they could, in order to get that extra assurance.

I was a bit confused about this myself when I met a Protestant years ago who thought Catholics were so lucky to have confession, although said Protestant wasn’t rushing to convert.

My feeling is that if a Protestant is going to feel this way, he should just become Catholic. With all that entails.
 
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BrettK said:
If the protestant knows that (due to study of the Catechism of the Catholic Church) masturbation is a grave matter, commits it with full knowledge and awareness of the sin, and gives complete consent at the time they have by definition committed a mortal sin.
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There may be some factors related to the third element of what constitutes a mortal sin, namely, the deliberate and complete consent of the will, that you have not considered, factors that might lessen the person’s culpability, perhaps making it a venial sin instead of mortal sin, such as force of habit, especially if the sin became a habit before the person believed it was a serious sin. The following, from the Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 2352, on masturbation, might apply:
To form an equitable judgment about the subjects’ moral responsibility and to guide pastoral action, one must take into account the affective immaturity, force of acquired habit, conditions of anxiety, or other psychological or social factors that lessen or even extenuate moral culpability. (source)
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There was a story I heard that happened during World War II. It was before a battle and the priest came out and asked all of the Catholics tokneel while he gave them general absolution. One man who was Jewish also knelt. When asked about it later on he said, "I too am sorry for my sins. Do you think that God would refuse to pardon him when he was sorry for his sins?
 
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Every denomination has Scripture based sacraments.
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Just a heads-up so that you are prepared. 🙂

The Evangelical Protestant denominations generally don’t have “sacraments” and question and often deny the efficacy of “sacramental” Christianity.

Evangelical Protestants have two “ordinances”–Baptism and Communion. Both of these actions have no power in and of themselves, but are a “picture” or “symbol” of the grace that Jesus has already bestowed upon those who trust Him as their personal Lord and Savior.
 
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If I were going into battle I’d be taking every spiritual aid that related to God or Christ that was being provided and I’m pretty sure God would be fine with that.
Besides, the Jewish man participating in that is being “in communion with the Catholic Church” by so doing and thus increasing his chances of salvation.
 
I included a point of if they are going through an RCIA process, but wish to have the assurance of forgiveness that they get after it’s all over, before. Becoming a Catholic takes months or longer depending on the situation, and you never know what can happen in those months before you get access to said confession. So before that happens, how can they be assured that they are in a state of grace with God if they are worried about it before such a time can come?
 
I addressed this in the second post above. Make an act of perfect contrition to God.

This is the exact same advice we would give a Catholic who was worried about the state of his soul but could not confess for some period of time, for example if there was no priest available because he was in a remote location, the government had outlawed the Church so priests had to be smuggled in from underground, etc.

Once you’ve made the act of perfect contrition then you simply need to trust in God about the state of your soul until you’re able to receive real absolution.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
Once you’ve made the act of perfect contrition then you simply need to trust in God about the state of your soul until you’re able to receive real absolution.
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Exactly. The CCC says that while God has provided us sacraments, He, Himself is not bound to them.

Trust God and repent. And go where he leads you.
 
God wants everybody to be saved, so we can logically deduce that every soul is given the unmerited prompting and the grace to make an act of perfection contrition before their private judgment.

Notwithstanding, a person should never abuse this knowledge to put-off making a good Confession, and it would not be in keeping with love to do this. If a protestant is waiting to be received into the Church they can use that time for prayer and growing in trust.
 
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Tis_Bearself said:
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JonNC:
I think God Himself is bound by the promises attached to the sacraments.
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God isn’t “bound” by anything.
He chooses to keep his promises because he’s a good Father.
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If He didn’t keep His promises, He couldn’t be trusted. That binds Him, not in a legal sense, but in a sense of His grace.
 
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