Are Non-Catholic Christians going to Hell?

Normally, being a Catholic is necessary for salvation. But if a non Catholic believes in Jesus and is sincerely sorry for their sins, they can be saved. The Second Vatican Council said so, I’ll have to look up the exact reference later. The priest at my local church also said so.

Searching_for_God said:

This question is open to anyone with an opinion on the matter.

I was just thinking today about how to broach the topic of being baptized with my grandparents when the time comes. They are Catholic and if I am to be baptized, I will not be Catholic as that is not what I feel that I am called to be. But then I had the thought: What if my grandparents think I'm going to Hell by not being saved in their way? So now I'm wondering, do Catholics think that Christians who aren't Catholic are going to Hell? Do you think that non-Catholic Christians are going to Hell? The answer to this won't really change my mind on what path that I want to take. I'm just curious about what everyone else is thinking. Thank you, in advance, for your answers.

-SFG

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SFG, I am not saying that non Catholic Christian are going to hell. However, not all who say Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only those who do the will of the Father.

SFG, What is the will of the Father? John 6: 40And this is the will of my Father that sent me: that every one who seeth the Son, and believeth in him, may have life everlasting, and I will raise him up in the last day. (Amen Amen Catholic Christians, and Christian who live today are not excluded from John 6:40 we too can see Jesus Christ today physically.)

SFG, so how can we do the Fathers Will and go to Seeth the Son, with our 20th century EYES TODAY, that we May have life everlasting...? The Answer is the Most Holy Eucharist, the Body and Blood of Christ, in the Catholic Church. Amen

John 6: 53Then Jesus said to them: Amen, amen I say unto you: Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you. 54He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath everlasting life: and I will raise him up in the last day. 55For my flesh is meat indeed: and my blood is drink indeed. 56He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, abideth in me, and I in him.

It is sad that many today who say Lord Lord will not enter the kingdom of God, because they have rejected John 6:40 and John 6:53

MoonlessNight said:

It's definitely Church teaching that living a virtuous life is not sufficient for obtaining salvation. If we were to say that virtuous atheists, virtuous pagan tribes in the Amazon, etc. we would be claiming that in contrast virtue is sufficient for salvation, and that would definitely be out of step with Church teaching.

Now, at the same time we can't say that it's definite that they are all damned. Only God knows that. But if we're just talking about the level of pure dogma, there isn't anything that says that it definitely isn't the case that they are damned. Just because something is contingently possible it doesn't mean that it actually happens.

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CATHOLIC TEACHING:
CCC 847:
Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience - those too may achieve eternal salvation.

Tallguy88 said:

Normally, being a Catholic is necessary for salvation. But if a non Catholic believes in Jesus and is sincerely sorry for their sins, they can be saved. The Second Vatican Council said so, I’ll have to look up the exact reference later. The priest at my local church also said so.

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Not just other Christians, but non-Christians as well.

CCC 847
Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience - those too may achieve eternal salvation.

Searching_for_God said:

This question is open to anyone with an opinion on the matter.

I was just thinking today about how to broach the topic of being baptized with my grandparents when the time comes. They are Catholic and if I am to be baptized, I will not be Catholic as that is not what I feel that I am called to be. But then I had the thought: What if my grandparents think I'm going to Hell by not being saved in their way? So now I'm wondering, do Catholics think that Christians who aren't Catholic are going to Hell? Do you think that non-Catholic Christians are going to Hell? The answer to this won't really change my mind on what path that I want to take. I'm just curious about what everyone else is thinking. Thank you, in advance, for your answers.

-SFG

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I won't go in to my reasons for saying this, as it's a bit of a long story, but I think non-Catholic Christians go to Purgatory, and anyone in Purgatory gets to heaven eventually.

I think a lot of Protestants are going to be unpleasantly surprised when they die, and find out that only the literally perfect are going to go straight into heaven. And there won't be too many Christians of any stripe who go straight to heaven. I think if we're honest, we'd admit we've got a flaw or three, yours truly included.

You asked for our opinion, and that's mine.

Someone's eternal salvation is up to God, and God alone.

Open Heart said:

CATHOLIC TEACHING:
CCC 847:
Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience - those too may achieve eternal salvation.

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Like I said, it's not impossible. But again that doesn't mean that it actually happens.

Look at it this way: every Catholic definitely "may" achieve eternal salvation, right? But that hardly means that there are no Catholics whatsoever who failed to achieve salvation. I'm with Dante on this one, I think it's pretty likely that there are Catholics in Hell. Therefore if we say that someone "may" achieve salvation it doesn't necessarily mean that they will.

As I said earlier in this thread, it does seem to be the position of the Church that those not in a visible union with the Church have the ability to be saved. But the Church is silent on the matter of who generally is saved. Thus you have different theologians expressing views as disparate as the claim that only a very small portion of faithful Catholics will be saved to the claim that everyone without any exception whatsoever will be saved. As far as I can see all of these claims can be made without violating Church dogma in an obvious way.

Now it may be your opinion that non-Catholics are definitely saved. And this is not an opinion which is by any means an obscure or rare one among theologians and the like, so it's more than your personal opinion. But at the same time it isn't definitive dogma. It's possible to square the idea that non-Catholics are definitively saved with Church dogma, but at the same time it's possible to square the idea that in practice no one outside the Church is saved with Church dogma.

Open Heart said:

CCC 847:
Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience - those too may achieve eternal salvation.

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The key word there is "may." Not "will." In the end the decision is God's alone, and like the saying goes, "we know where the Church is, not where it isn't."

Fenwick said:

The key word there is "may." Not "will." In the end the decision is God's alone, and like the saying goes, "we know where the Church is, not where it isn't."

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But you admit it is possible that someone not be a Christian, not believe in Christ, and still be saved?

MoonlessNight said:

Like I said, it's not impossible. But again that doesn't mean that it actually happens.

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Oh my goodness! You can't say both things -- they are opposing ideas!

Open Heart said:

Oh my goodness! You can't say both things -- they are opposing ideas!

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What I mean by "you can say both things" is that neither is contrary to the dogma of the Church. That is, any individual person could say one or could say the other without running afoul of established Church teaching. Beyond that, we don't have any way of knowing which view is true for certain, so you wouldn't be lying if you chose to say either thing.

In the same way "you could either say" that there are ten planets in the solar system or that there are not without running into any problems with the Church and without lying.

Open Heart said:

But you admit it is possible that someone not be a Christian, not believe in Christ, and still be saved?

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Will you admit that it is possible that Adolf Hitler was saved?

Open Heart said:

But you admit it is possible that someone not be a Christian, not believe in Christ, and still be saved?

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I don't admit to such one way or another. I believe God wishes that all will be saved, but that doesn't automatically mean he's going to adjust the bar on a case-by-case basis either. He made it pretty clear in scripture and tradition how we can find salvation; St. Matthew's gospel says the gospel will be preached to all nations (Matthew 24:14). I don't know what God's plan is for the individuals who passed before they had an opportunity to hear it.

Fenwick said:

I don't admit to such one way or another. I believe God wishes that all will be saved, but that doesn't automatically mean he's going to adjust the bar on a case-by-case basis either. He made it pretty clear in scripture and tradition how we can find salvation; St. Matthew's gospel says the gospel will be preached to all nations (Matthew 24:14). I don't know what God's plan is for the individuals who passed before they had an opportunity to hear it.

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So you just want to skirt the question and not answer, and pretend like that's sufficient? Suit yourself.

MoonlessNight said:

Will you admit that it is possible that Adolf Hitler was saved?

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We can't say for sure that Hitler is in hell. We cannot see his heart. For all we know, he had some sort of brain damage or mental disorder that interfered with his judgment. Or perhaps his drug abuse made it impossible for him to think clearly. As far as society is concerned and our justice system, we have to hold him responsible. But that doesn't mean that God doesn't consider these things mitigating factors, for mortal sins have to be completely willful to.

What does Trent have to say about the question? (He asked rhetorically...)

Open Heart said:

So you just want to skirt the question and not answer, and pretend like that's sufficient? Suit yourself.

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I answered your question, I did not skirt it. If that answer isn't satisfactory to you that's your problem, not mine.

Open Heart said:

But you admit it is possible that someone not be a Christian, not believe in Christ, and still be saved?

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no
I do not admit this
I think that this is a speculation that has been taken far to extremes

Open Heart said:

We can't say for sure that Hitler is in hell. We cannot see his heart. For all we know, he had some sort of brain damage or mental disorder that interfered with his judgment. Or perhaps his drug abuse made it impossible for him to think clearly. As far as society is concerned and our justice system, we have to hold him responsible. But that doesn't mean that God doesn't consider these things mitigating factors, for mortal sins have to be completely willful to.

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I think you understand the point of the question. It's possible that Adolf Hilter was saved. Is it likely? Well, we can't know much of anything about who really is saved and who isn't, but at least as a gut reading of the scenario I would suppose that most of us would say that no, it isn't likely.

Thus we've demonstrated that something may be possible while not actually being true, even in the realm of questions of salvation.

But if we accept that, there's absolutely nothing contrary to Church teaching that while it may be possible in principle for non-Catholics to be saved, that in actuality they never are saved. We of course can't be sure about this, just as we can't be sure of any position relating to salvation, but this position is consistent with Church teaching.

However some people certainly seem to be pressing others to accept that God could save non-Catholics, and then using that acceptance as a wedge to get them to say that non-Catholics are commonly saved. I'm not going to name names here, anyone can read through the thread and see who has been doing this.

Rhamiel said:

no
I do not admit this
I think that this is a speculation that has been taken far to extremes

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Then you obviously reject parts of the catechism.