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But if only the Catholic Church has the complete plan of salvation, how would it be possible for a non-Catholic to get to heaven? Vatican Council II addressed this point in its "Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (Lumen Gentium)," "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" (no. 16). In short, those who are truly unaware of what God requires of them are not held responsible; rather they are judged by what they did with the truth they had.

Ironically, many Bible Christians have their own version of "No Salvation outside the Church". They believe that unless a person accepts Christ as personal Lord and Savior he or she is headed for hell. No allowances are made for people who don't know any better. The Catholic Church rightly portrays God as both just and merciful – as opposed to legalistic.

I did read it all the way through. No matter how this is spun, the magesterium of the Roman Catholic Church HAS admitted error. Not only on this all important issue but in others as well. It was NOT merely a "misunderstanding" that caused people to insist that salvation can only come through membership in the Roman Catholic Church and obedience to her - it was held for centuries and so-called "heretics" were murdered by the condemnation that they led people away from the Catholic Church and had "stolen their souls".

Not only this, but the current explanation for the state of souls who "through no fault of their own" do not know about THE Church are given a pass by God if they were "good". How far from Scriptural truth can presumed knowledgeable theologians get??? Scripture clearly states that Jesus is THE way, THE truth and THE life and NO ONE comes to the Father but through Him. Now, are these experts in Christianity calling Jesus a liar? And how about the TRUTH that we are NOT saved by our righteousness but by the righteousness of Christ? Sure, babies, children unable to grasp the truth yet, the mentally disabled and others incapable of understanding the Gospel ARE covered by the grace of God and will not be sent to Hell - something BTW that the Catholic Church only recently recanted regarding the unborn aborted or babies who die before baptism. God is merciful, not willing that ANY should perish but that ALL should come to repentance. NO ONE is saved because they are "good" because there are NONE that are good - ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and the wages of sin is death, but the GIFT of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

No matter how it boils down, the Catholic Church is AGAIN trying to sell the idea that IT is the only way to salvation and/or that those who are good enough, try their "best", will be saved by God's grace. Sorry, there is way too much Scripture to counter that false doctrine. It starts with the truth that the "church" is the body of believers in Christ, ergo, all those who come to saving faith in Christ ARE part of the body, the church. It is not being baptized in it first and obedience to all its rules before that happens.

I'm not sure what authority this author has to be making such statements about the RCC, but he has shown himself wrong a number of times in this series you have been posting. Do you stand by what he claims as well? Or is this just one man's opinion and it can be pondered but not assumed to be factual?