oh, and while we're speaking about requirements for a state of salvation.. I'm curious which of these you do
not subscribe to?
• An individual must believe that the popes are infallible when teaching
ex cathedra.
Wrong. The Church speaking in an ecumenical council is the final authority.
• One must believe that the Bishops of Rome have been given authority by Christ to rule the Church universal.
Wrong. We Orthodox will challenge you to find this idea in existence in the Early Fathers.
• One must be submitted to the Bishop of Rome in all areas of faith, morals, discipline and government of the Church.
Wrong. The office of the papacy was never seen as a dictatorship, which is what the above statement implies. For the first 1,000 years, the papacy exercised its authority as the "first among equals."
• The Roman Catholic Church alone has the right to interpret Scripture and its interpretations are infallible.
Wrong. And quite humorous when you consider that they mistranslated the Greek in their Douay-Rheims translation of the Scriptures.
• One must accept the Apocrypha as Scripture and as part of the Canon.
Wrong. Not a salvation issue.
• There is no salvation outside of the Roman Catholic Church.
Then I guess that all the other Catholics and all the Orthodox who ever live are screwed, eh? Wrong!!!
• One must believe that the Roman Catholic sacraments are necessary for salvation and that there specific number is seven.
The Catholic Church, that is, the united Church of East and West, has determined that there are Seven Sacraments. The Church has spoken on this issue, and Jesus said that if a man not hear the Church, let him be as a pagan and unbeliever.
As for the necessity of the Sacraments for salvation, let us let the words of Christ Himself suffice for us:
Jhn 6:53 Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you,
Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. 54 Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. 5
5 For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.
56 He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. 5
7 As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.
58 This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever.
No Eucharist, no age-long life. Jesus was very clear about this. Why don't you believe Him? The first Christians did, and they did for 1500 years until Protestant heretics came along, thinking that they were smarter and more brilliant that 1500 years of saints and holy men.
• An individual must repudiate the teaching that the imputed righteousness of Christ is the basis for justification.
Of course, because it is a false doctrine which was never found in Christianity until Luther and Calvin cooked it up from mistranslating the Greek. Even the online Protestant dictionaries admit this.
• One must embrace the teaching that justification is not by faith alone but by human works cooperating with grace and by participation in the sacraments.
Did you ever hear of the Epistle of James? "Faith without works is DEAD!!" Not only that, but I challenge you to read the following passages of the Scriptures and see upon what issue Christ gives eternal life: Romans 2:5-10, Matthew 25:33-46, John 5:28-29, Revelation 20: 12-13. Every single passage there says that eternal life is a reward of the works we have done.
• One must believe that human works cooperating with grace merit eternal life.
Same as above.
• One must accept the teaching that water baptism is necessary for salvation as it is the instrumental means of regeneration even for infants.
Again, this was taught from the very beginning by the Apostles and the Early Fathers. The idea of "believer's baptism" was novel teaching that cropped up with Roger Williams and the heretical Anabaptists. More than that, it is the ritual of covenant entrance which took place of the old covenant making ritual of circumcision. (Col. 2: 11-13)
• One must believe that the Mass is a propitiatory sacrifice for sin.
Ehhhhhhhhhhh......sort of. The Orthodox view is a bit more nuanced than that. We tend to view the Eucharist as a participation in the life of Christ through the outpouring of His divine energies in the Eucharist and our partaking of those energies when He enters us. The Roman view of many things is very much wrapped up in a more juridical and punitive view of God and man. We see the Eucharist as medicine which heals our souls, not a a payment for sins.
• One must believe that in the eucharist the bread and wine is transformed into the literal body and blood of Christ at the words of consecration (Transubstantiation).
Jesus said so, the Church taught it for 1500 years, the real question is who are you going to believe, the Apostles and those they discipled, the Early Fathers, from the very first century, or some Johnny-Come-Lately bunch of heretics who denied 1500 years of Christian teaching and faith. Don't you think that you put yourself in a dangerous place to not believe what the Apostles, who were taught by Jesus, taught as truth?
• It is necessary to believe that confession of sins to a Roman Catholic priest and receiving his absolution and performing acts of penance is the only way to receive forgiveness of sins after baptism.
John 20:23. Jesus gave to men the authority to pronounce His pardon for their sins.
• One must embrace the teachings of the immaculate conception and Assumption of Mary.
We Orthodox do not. The IC creates massive anthropological problems, and comes from Augustine's warped view of mankind and the effects of sin upon man.
• One must accept the Roman Catholic teaching on Purgatory.
No such place -- HOWEVER -- there is something quite similar in Orthodox soteriology. Romans 5: 18 states that God has, through the obedience of Christ unto death, brought salvation to all mankind. There is no going anywhere else other than into the very presence of God when you die. God wins, death loses. That's Scripture.
But there are three kinds of people who will enter into His presence.
1. The saints. They will find the fire of God's love to be immediate joy. The saints are few in number, marked by their lives of ascetic struggle, fasting, prayer, and eschewing the world. St. Padre Pio would be one of them.
2. Ordinary believers. We die with sins on our souls. As such, we need to be changed ontologically into our teleological end, which is to be like Christ and share in the divine nature. Therefore, when we come into the presence of Christ, all that is not like Him will be burned away by the fire of His passionate, divine love for us. And it will hurt. This is a state similar to the Roman idea of Purgatory.
3. The wicked. Do I have to tell you what the fire of God's love is like to them? To be in God's presence is hell for them. They neither want it nor can respond to it because they are creatures who are in love with the sin and who hate God with all their being. All pretense of goodness is stripped away and they are revealed for what they are.