Sacraments & Salvation

[ReginaNightstalker]

Are the sacraments required for salvation? Like what if I can’t attend a good Catholic church because my parents are protestant? I don’t condemn any branch of the faith as long as Christ is the center.

 

[Mythicalbio]

God’s grace is required. Most people haven’t had the sacraments, and they were saved

 

[stpurl]

Um. . . Wait.

God’s grace yes. But ‘most people haven’t had the sacraments” may be true if one goes from the first humanity on the earth until today, but ‘they WERE saved’ is a huge leap. We have no idea how many people have been or will be saved, and IF they are, it will be ‘outside the norm’ because God has also permitted along with a baptism of water (the norm) both a baptism of blood and a baptism of desire. Those who are saved will have had one of the three at least.

With regard to the Eucharist, it again since the Death and Resurrection of Jesus is God’s ‘normative requirement’ for a Christian, was received of all Christians through 1500 years or so (Catholic and Orthodox), remains with those two from AD 1500 to the present, but has been tragically removed from many other non-Catholic Christians over those decades, as well of course as not being available for one reason or another to non-Christians. Again, God not holding us to the impossible, even though it would be easier for those people if they HAD the Eucharist, in so far as it is possible for these people to be in union with God, He may, utilizing the Baptism I spoke of earlier, save the nonChristian or Christian lacking the Real Presence, through perhaps recognition of a Spiritual Eucharist that they have given in their lives. Again, this is all outside of the ‘norm’, and it is all speculative in that it is a question of God MAYBE saving them, not that He “will’ save them.

 

[Mythicalbio]

I think that it was revealed in the Gospels and Magisterium that at least some humans are reprobated by God. Also because of how Gods efficacious graces work, I think I have good reason to believe the vast majority of humanity is saved. No one enters without a baptism, so desire and blood are the most common way. I think desire can be obtained by loving true goods, and blood by innocent innocent unmerited suffering (miscarriages, abortions, child killing). That way most are saved

 

[stpurl]

You’re not alone; quite a few people believe that many or all are saved. I won’t say that they couldn’t be (as I said, God does not hold us to the impossible), but I also believe it is quite possible that only a few are saved. I see my responsibility to try to be saved myself, to pray for and otherwise work for the salvation of everybody that I possibly can, and then to leave it up to God.

 

[Gorgias]

Are the sacraments required for salvation?

Well… John 6:53, no?

But, the Catholic Church teaches that there’s such a thing as “invincible ignorance”. In a nutshell, it means that there are conditions under which a person might not be held responsible for things which are beyond their control to have ever learned or believed.

So, “yes”, they are… unless you’re not responsible for not having Catholic faith.

I don’t condemn any branch of the faith as long as Christ is the center.

Who “condemns any branch[es] of the faith”? On the other hand, is it wrong to point out error and try to teach truth?

 

[Todd_Easton]

The ordinary necessity of sacrament of baptism, including exceptions, is talked about in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 1257-1261, including the following, emphasis mine:

1257 The Lord himself affirms that Baptism is necessary for salvation. [59] He also commands his disciples to proclaim the Gospel to all nations and to baptize them. [60] Baptism is necessary for salvation for those to whom the Gospel has been proclaimed and who have had the possibility of asking for this sacrament. [61] (source)

Footnotes:
59 Cf. ⇒ Jn 3:5.
60 Cf. ⇒ Mt 28:19-20; cf. Council of Trent (1547) DS 1618; LG 14; AG 5.
61 Cf. ⇒ Mk 16:16.

The ordinary necessity of the sacrament of baptism is also talked about in paragraphs 846-847

 

[Anesti33]

I don’t understand what you mean by “branches of the faith”. Catholicism does not have branches.

 

[Gorgias]

I don’t understand what you mean by “branches of the faith”.

In context, it appears she means ‘Protestant denominations’.

 

[OrbisNonSufficit]

I don’t condemn any branch of the faith as long as Christ is the center.

And wisely so! But in the end there are obviously some errors. Even Muslims put Christ in the center (humanity-wise), so would you accept Islam? Or Jehovah’s Witnesses who deny Trinity? Or Mormons who also deny Trinity? We shouldn’t condemn but we shouldn’t support those misconceptions.

We Christians put God in the center and Christ is God, but also Father is God, and Holy Spirit is God.