[TomSmedley]

Well, I guess when you finally lose faith in the Church, there's always Jesus. :^D

ex-RC bump ...

Still, the original poster does have a valid point: if salvation is to be found outside of Jesus Christ, then why bother being Christian? Other faiths permit the potent narcotic of self-righteousness and autosoteriology. I'm reminded of Romans 10:1-3, where the apostle speaks of those who, eager to establish their own righteousness, denigrate the righteousness of God in/through/by Jesus.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

Yep, valid point.

[aruanan]

Still, the original poster does have a valid point: if salvation is to be found outside of Jesus Christ, then why bother being Christian?

Were they saying that salvation could be found outside Jesus Christ or that salvation wasn't restricted only to those inside the Catholic Church? I believe it was the latter. Obviously the sacrifice of Jesus was the basis for G-d's justifying Abraham (and many others in the pre-Messiah era) through his faith in spite of his never having heard of Jesus and before there was any kind of Christian church. After all, Gentile Christians are foreigners who, by their faith, are children of Abraham and grafted into Israel. Unless, of course, one just wants to cut out all the Pauline epistles from the New Testament.