by Gene De Lalla

Created on: April 22, 2008

Do Catholics believe that other Christians can be saved? First, this question should be a statement: Catholics are supposed to believe that no one outside the Catholic Church can be saved, IF they die as non-Catholics.

At first, it would seem that one who holds to this DEFINED doctrine is being quite exclusionary, as well as "hateful" condemning to hell all those outside the Church that Christ founded upon the rock of St. Peter.

But lets turn this around. There is salvation within the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church is an exclusive organization that is open to all! This I realize is a contradictory statement, yet it is true. It is true not because I say it is true, but because Christ Himself has established it from the beginning, taught to the Apostles, and handed down from the Apostles to their successors.

Now wait a minute! But haven't I just condemned all those non-Catholics to hell if they don't become Catholics? The answer is, no.

People - unrepentant sinners, whether malicious or out of ignorance - condemn themselves, whether or not they be Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Muslims, etc. Even out of ignorance? Yes, because as in civil law, ignorance of the law is no excuse. How much more detrimental to the soul is ignorance of God's divine law? So, to use "ignorance" as a positive for salvation flies in the face of everything that has been revealed in the New Testament by our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Those who claim to read - and understand? - what the Bible teaches, can't possibly say that someone who is "ignorant" of God's law will be excused from perdition because of his ignorance. Rather, that "ignorance" might excuse one from the sin of infidelity, but not from other sins committed by that individual!

So what condemns these people? The refusal to accept all truth - if they knew it - as revealed in the Bible (I am referring here to the New Testament), whole and entire, and authenticated and codified by none other than the Catholic Church as well as those "ignorant" of the Gospel. I will prove this from the Bible later.

The very same Catholic Church is also the organization that through the incredible efforts of dedicated Catholic monks over the years tediously copied each of the extant manuscripts to preserve for all time, God's revelation, by His word, to mankind. Not until the Guttenberg's invention of the moveable-type printing press, were any Bibles, in book form, available to those who could read and afford such. Further, it should be noted

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