Will Protestants be saved

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semper_catholicus said:
Only God knows at this time.
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Yes, and God has given us his revelation about the doctrine of justification. “If you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. For the scripture says, ‘Whoever believes in him will not be disappointed.’”
 
We shouldn’t use the word “will” because it suggests all, definitely will or will not be saved.

Some may be saved, just as some Buddhists, some Muslims, and some atheists may be saved.
 
“I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me.”

I’m just spit-balling here, but pursuant to our Lord’s words above, I would hope that we could agree that Protestants who confess and love Jesus Christ as Lord have a bit of a head start on some of the other folks in your list, no?

And while we’re at it - I can think of a bunch of folks you left off your list, starting with the entire Alabama football team 😉
 
Hodos said:
Some may be saved, just as some Buddhists, some Muslims, and some atheists may be saved.
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We can’t assume those few Buddhists, Muslims, and Atheists heard of Christ, which is why he said that. They can’t be condemned for failing to live according to the Gospel when they’ve never heard of it for no fault of their own.
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Given that my father was a Lutheran, and my maternal grandmother was a Baptist, I hope so. Most of my worry about people’s salvation, has to do with “former” Catholics. That being said, they being Protestant, doesn’t necessarily mean they will be saved, a lot of it depends on what they know, and how they acted in accord with it.
 
That’s not a strange statement at all, read the catechism. Saying that all will be definitively saved, that would be a strange statement from a Christian.
 
In this day and age, virtually everyone on the planet has at least _heard_of Jesus, isolated tribes in the Andaman Islands aside. The question is whether they’ve heard enough about Jesus that they become culpable for persisting in unbelief.
 
adamhovey1988 said:
That’s not a strange statement at all, read the catechism. Saying that all will be definitively saved, that would be a strange statement from a Christian.
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I did not say that all will be saved. I said that all who confess Christ as Lord and believe he died for their sins will be. That’s not a strange statement from a Christian, it is the apostolic Christian doctrine. If the catechism says otherwise, then that would be a departure from the deposit of faith and should raise serious questions about the orthodoxy of the catechism.
 
Fauken said:
We can’t assume those few Buddhists, Muslims, and Atheists heard of Christ, which is why he said that. They can’t be condemned for failing to live according to the Gospel when they’ve never heard of it for no fault of their own.
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They certainly can and will. If you read through Romans 1-3, you will see that both the Gentiles who were ignorant of the law, and the Jews who had the law were both alike condemned under the law (see Romans 2:12 - but read the line of logic leading up to there to get the reference in context). Then proceed to Romans 3:21-28 where we are justified through faith in Christ.

The idea that those who have not heard the gospel are not responsible for their sin is no where in the Bible. In fact, Romans 10, the same place that provides the means by which we are saved that I mentioned above, also urges believers to be about the business of proclaiming the gospel for just that concern, that those who don’t hear the gospel cannot believe and cannot be saved. Again, this is basic Christian doctrine.
 
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I agree with this! Scripture doesn’t say that belonging to a particular denomination or switching between them will lead to doom. Jesus is our hope and salvation.

Sometimes, I feel that we’re all so caught up in belonging to the most correct form of Christianity, as an institution, that we forget that the bible easily lays out the plan of salvation.
 
Will protestants be saved? God offers the means of salvation to all, so it is possible for anyone to be saved. One must, with God’s grace, persevere to the end in faith and charity. But if they are responsible for being a protestant, and persevere to the end in this guilt, they cannot be saved. Heresy is incompatible with faith and one adhering to it condemns themselves (cf. Titus 3:11).
 
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Here’s what the Bible lays out–it lays out that it matters:

We must be baptized (John 3:3) into the one Body in the one Spirit (1 Cor. 12:13), partake of the one bread as one Body (1 Cor. 10:17), and profess the One Lord, one faith, one Baptism (Eph 4:4-5). Like Noah’s ark, you have to be on board to be saved–like Noah’s ark in the flood, outside of which none were saved, Baptism now saves (1 Peter 3:20-21), and since we are baptized into the one Body it has the same significance as the ark.

In addition, to have fellowship or communion with Christ in His Body, you must have fellowship with those who have fellowship with Him (1 John 1:3). We are forbidden, therefore, from schisms and dissensions and must be united in belief (1 Cor. 1:10). Heresy and schism, therefore, also exclude from salvation (Gal 5:20-21; Titus 3:10-11).

Furthermore, while Christ is the head of the Church, He has also willed that the Church be led by men (Acts 20:28). He put St. Peter in charge of His one and only flock (John 21:15-17)–therefore, to be a member of Christ’s flock is to be a member of the flock tended by those who continue to exercise Peter’s ministry.

Our sins are to be forgiven through the ministry of the Church (John 20:21-22) and the faith is to be taught by those with succession from the Apostles–those who have been sent (Rom 10:15). Going out without being sent, on the other hand, is harmful to souls (Acts 15:24).

So to sum up, we should not be members of those communities that went out without being sent from the Church Christ founded, do not have their sins forgiven through the Apostolic ministers, do not partake of the one Bread, are not of one belief with the Church they left, do not acknowledge their authorized shepherds, etc., etc…
 
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None of us know who will be saved. But can we as Catholics at least agree that the surest way to be saved is through the sacraments of the one holy and apostolic Catholic Church? If we do not believe this what Is the point of evangelizing.
 
Genesis315 said:
Like Noah’s ark, you have to be on board to be saved–like Noah’s ark in the flood, outside of which none were saved, Baptism now saves (1 Peter 3:20-21), and since we are baptized into the one Body it has the same significance as the ark.
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I really like this analogy you brought to bear. Here is the issue. Christ is the door by which we enter the ark. Your interpretation of Catholic theology however is attempting to chisel a new doorway that isn’t in the architectural plans.
 
To the contrary, the scriptures explicitly condemn other sects claiming the Christian faith. The Gnostics especially come to mind. We are commanded to watch our lives and our doctrine closely. This is not a secondary matter, it is essential. Ther founders of protestantism were heretics and these groups teach heresy. If we do not correct error in love and work towards returning all the separated brethren to communion with Rome, we sin in our hearts and deny the gospel.
 
Hodos said:
I really like this analogy you brought to bear. Here is the issue. Christ is the door by which we enter the ark. Your interpretation of Catholic theology however is attempting to chisel a new doorway that isn’t in the architectural plans.
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I’m not sure I follow–are you saying baptism is a different door than Christ? It’s the same door. Faith and baptism is how we enter through Christ. (see e.g. Rom. 3:26-27; Rom. 6:3-4; etc.).
 
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