[ACAC]

Sorry, I did not mean you specifically. I was just wanted to post that. I am new here and did not know who to post that for, so I just picked that last person on the list.

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

No problem. It's a valid concern. As you have probably read, there is considerable theological debate even in the Catholic Church about the "who is saved" issue. I have never posted anything suggesting Protestants, Greek Orthodox, Jews, Buddhists, or any other denominational religions are outside of God's grace. The general idea has been that everyone is "saved" through Jesus Christ whether that is in a literal or mystical sense. In terms of the theological study of "the Church" as an institutional instrument and framework of the economy of God's grace, I'll have to look up a link you may find interesting. At any rate, you will find Catholics who understand "the baptism of desire" theory to apply beyond official, institutional Catholic church membership and also those who suggest that the salvation through Jesus Christ is not limited by the inter-denominational doctrinal differences. The difficulties usually arise with regard to whether people think that Christ "founded" a specific "church" based around specific theological doctrines or what Catholics understand as "articles of faith." To the extent that there is disagreement it usually has to do with what either denomination think the "articles of faith" are. Most Protestants and Catholics share a great deal actually in terms of core doctrines - monotheism, salvation through Christ, veneration of the Word of God, a spiritual drama of faith and grace, the struggle against sin, and some sort of traditional moral code. I'm definitely not an expert on this or on 16th-century dogmatic controversies, but I hope that helps.

God Bless.

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

Church article:link

If you scroll down to the part subtitled "Sacramental model" here this is a pretty good explanation of the Catholic idea of "the Church." It doesn't directly take up the Protestant-Catholic differences, but the spiritual explanation is pretty good. The larger issue is really how wide is the distribution of the spiritual and invisible nature of the Church as the Mystical Body of Christ. That's usually where the controversy comes in. The section on "The Political/Society Model" takes up some of this 16th-century stuff. At any rate, this introductory survey of the various theological models of the Church gives some idea of the diversity of thought on such matters even among just Catholic theologians.