No Salvation Outside the Church

Catholic Answers ^ | 12/05 | Fr. Ray Ryland

[bdeaner]

Why does the Catholic Church teach that there is "no salvation outside the Church"? Doesn’t this contradict Scripture? God "desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim. 2:4). "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me" (John 14:6). Peter proclaimed to the Sanhedrin, "There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12).

Since God intends (plans, wills) that every human being should go to heaven, doesn’t the Church’s teaching greatly restrict the scope of God’s redemption? Does the Church mean—as Protestants and (I suspect) many Catholics believe—that only members of the Catholic Church can be saved?

That is what a priest in Boston, Fr. Leonard Feeney, S.J., began teaching in the 1940s. His bishop and the Vatican tried to convince him that his interpretation of the Church’s teaching was wrong. He so persisted in his error that he was finally excommunicated, but by God’s mercy, he was reconciled to the Church before he died in 1978.

In correcting Fr. Feeney in 1949, the Supreme Congregation of the Holy Office (now the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith) issued a document entitled Suprema Haec Sacra, which stated that "extra ecclesiam, nulla salus" (outside the Church, no salvation) is "an infallible statement." But, it added, "this dogma must be understood in that sense in which the Church itself understands it."

Note that word dogma. This teaching has been proclaimed by, among others, Pope Pelagius in 585, the Fourth Lateran Council in 1214, Pope Innocent III in 1214, Pope Boniface VIII in 1302, Pope Pius XII, Pope Paul VI, the Second Vatican Council, Pope John Paul II, and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Dominus Iesus.

Our point is this: When the Church infallibly teaches extra ecclesiam, nulla salus, it does not say that non-Catholics cannot be saved. In fact, it affirms the contrary. The purpose of the teaching is to tell us how Jesus Christ makes salvation available to all human beings.

Work Out Your Salvation

There are two distinct dimensions of Jesus Christ’s redemption. Objective redemption is what Jesus Christ has accomplished once for all in his life, death, resurrection, and ascension: the redemption of the whole universe. Yet the benefits of that redemption have to be applied unceasingly to Christ’s members throughout their lives. This is subjective redemption. If the benefits of Christ’s redemption are not applied to individuals, they have no share in his objective redemption. Redemption in an individual is an ongoing process. "Work out your own salvation in fear and trembling; for God is at work in you" (Phil. 2:12–13).

How does Jesus Christ work out his redemption in individuals? Through his mystical body. When I was a Protestant, I (like Protestants in general) believed that the phrase "mystical body of Christ" was essentially a metaphor. For Catholics, the phrase is literal truth.

Here’s why: To fulfill his Messianic mission, Jesus Christ took on a human body from his Mother. He lived a natural life in that body. He redeemed the world through that body and no other means. Since his Ascension and until the end of history, Jesus lives on earth in his supernatural body, the body of his members, his mystical body. Having used his physical body to redeem the world, Christ now uses his mystical body to dispense "the divine fruits of the Redemption" (Mystici Corporis 31).

The Church: His Body

What is this mystical body? The true Church of Jesus Christ, not some invisible reality composed of true believers, as the Reformers insisted. In the first public proclamation of the gospel by Peter at Pentecost, he did not invite his listeners to simply align themselves spiritually with other true believers. He summoned them into a society, the Church, which Christ had established. Only by answering that call could they be rescued from the "crooked generation" (Acts 2:40) to which they belonged and be saved.

Paul, at the time of his conversion, had never seen Jesus. Yet recall how Jesus identified himself with his Church when he spoke to Paul on the road to Damascus: "Why do you persecute me?" (Acts 9:4, emphasis added) and "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting" (Acts 9:5). Years later, writing to Timothy, Paul ruefully admitted that he had persecuted Jesus by persecuting his Church. He expressed gratitude for Christ appointing him an apostle, "though I formerly b.asphemed and persecuted and insulted him" (1 Tim. 1:13).

The Second Vatican Council says that the hierarchical structure of the Catholic Church and the mystical body of Christ "form one complex reality that comes together from a human and a divine element" (Lumen Gentium 8). The Church is "the fullness of him [Christ] who fills all in all" (Eph. 1:23). Now that Jesus has accomplished objective redemption, the "plan of mystery hidden for ages in God" is "that through the Church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places" (Eph. 3:9–10).

According to John Paul II, in order to properly understand the Church’s teaching about its role in Christ’s scheme of salvation, two truths must be held together: "the real possibility of salvation in Christ for all humanity" and "the necessity of the Church for salvation" (Redemptoris Missio 18). John Paul taught us that the Church is "the seed, sign, and instrument" of God’s kingdom and referred several times to Vatican II’s designation of the Catholic Church as the "universal sacrament of salvation":

"The Church is the sacrament of salvation for all humankind, and her activity is not limited only to those who accept her message" (RM 20).

"Christ won the Church for himself at the price of his own blood and made the Church his co-worker in the salvation of the world. . . . He carries out his mission through her" (RM 9).

In an address to the plenary assembly of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (January 28, 2000), John Paul stated, "The Lord Jesus . . . established his Church as a saving reality: as his body, through which he himself accomplishes salvation in history." He then quoted Vatican II’s teaching that the Church is necessary for salvation.

In 2000 the CDF issued Dominus Iesus, a response to widespread attempts to dilute the Church’s teaching about our Lord and about itself. The English subtitle is itself significant: "On the Unicity and Salvific Universality of Jesus Christ and the Church." It simply means that Jesus Christ and his Church are indivisible. He is universal Savior who always works through his Church:

The only Savior . . . constituted the Church as a salvific mystery: He himself is in the Church and the Church is in him. . . . Therefore, the fullness of Christ’s salvific mystery belongs also to the Church, inseparably united to her Lord (DI 18).

Indeed, Christ and the Church "constitute a single ‘whole Christ’" (DI 16). In Christ, God has made known his will that "the Church founded by him be the instrument for the salvation of all humanity" (DI 22). The Catholic Church, therefore, "has, in God’s plan, an indispensable relationship with the salvation of every human being" (DI 20).

The key elements of revelation that together undergird extra ecclesiam, nulla salus are these: (1) Jesus Christ is the universal Savior. (2) He has constituted his Church as his mystical body on earth through which he dispenses salvation to the world. (3) He always works through it—though in countless instances outside its visible boundaries. Recall John Paul’s words about the Church quoted above: "Her activity is not limited only to those who accept its message."

Not of this Fold

Extra ecclesiam, nulla salus does not mean that only faithful Roman Catholics can be saved. The Church has never taught that. So where does that leave non-Catholics and non-Christians?

Jesus told his followers, "I have other sheep, that are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will heed my voice. So there shall be one flock, one shepherd" (John 10:16). After his Resurrection, Jesus gave the threefold command to Peter: "Feed my lambs. . . . Tend my sheep. . . . Feed my sheep" (John 21:15–17). The word translated as "tend" (poimaine) means "to direct" or "to superintend"—in other words, "to govern." So although there are sheep that are not of Christ’s fold, it is through the Church that they are able to receive his salvation.

People who have never had an opportunity to hear of Christ and his Church—and those Christians whose minds have been closed to the truth of the Church by their conditioning—are not necessarily cut off from God’s mercy. Vatican II phrases the doctrine in these terms: 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 consciences—those too may achieve eternal salvation (LG 16).

Since Christ died for all, and since all men are in fact called to one and the same destiny, which is divine, we must hold that the Holy Spirit offers to all the possibility of being made partakers, in a way known to God, of the Paschal mystery (Gaudium et Spes 22).

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches:

Every man who is ignorant of the gospel of Christ and of his Church but seeks the truth and does the will of God in accordance with his understanding of it can be saved. It may be supposed that such persons would have desired baptism explicitly if they had known its necessity (CCC 1260).

Obviously, it is not their ignorance that enables them to be saved. Ignorance excuses only lack of knowledge. That which opens the salvation of Christ to them is their conscious effort, under grace, to serve God as well as they can on the basis of the best information they have about him.

The Church speaks of "implicit desire" or "longing" that can exist in the hearts of those who seek God but are ignorant of the means of his grace. If a person longs for salvation but does not know the divinely established means of salvation, he is said to have an implicit desire for membership in the Church. Non-Catholic Christians know Christ, but they do not know his Church. In their desire to serve him, they implicitly desire to be members of his Church. Non-Christians can be saved, said John Paul, if they seek God with "a sincere heart." In that seeking they are "related" to Christ and to his body the Church (address to the CDF).

On the other hand, the Church has long made it clear that if a person rejects the Church with full knowledge and consent, he puts his soul in danger:

They cannot be saved who, knowing that the Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God through Christ, would refuse either to enter it or remain in it (cf. LG 14).

The Catholic Church is "the single and exclusive channel by which the truth and grace of Christ enter our world of space and time" (Karl Adam, The Spirit of Catholicism, 179). Those who do not know the Church, even those who fight against it, can receive these gifts if they honestly seek God and his truth. But, Adam says, "though it be not the Catholic Church itself that hands them the bread of truth and grace, yet it is Catholic bread that they eat." And when they eat of it, "without knowing it or willing it" they are "incorporated in the supernatural substance of the Church."

Extra ecclesiam, nulla salus.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR



Fr. Ray Ryland, a convert and former Episcopal priest, holds a Ph.D. in theology from Marquette University and is a contributing editor to This Rock. He writes from Steubenville, Ohio, where he lives with his wife, Ruth.

[Petronski]

You just don’t have that kind of power (to change what Christ has done).

[Quix]

Thanks.

Thankfully, I’ve met many RC’s who are reasonable, sane folks who by all evidence Love God above all else. I expect to see them in Heaven, too.

No was was Christ . . . so chronically fiercely hostile to the political, bureaucratic, haughty, self-righteous, pontifical, !!!!TRADITION!!!!-bound, authoritarian-to-the-max, . . . RELIGIONISTS of 2,000 years ago

remotely interested

in setting up another such organization/operation.

Sadly, it seems to be human nature in groups—and all the more so in RELIGIOUS groups of all stripes—particularly those the least bit authoritarian.

Have you read THE SHACK? or Wayne Jacobsen’s HE LOVES ME?

I think they make excellent points about relating to The God of The Bible.

I have a dear friend I helped lead into a fuller walk in Holy Spirit 30+ years ago . . . an engineer . . . he sent me emails about how THE SHACK is supposed to be full of demonic heresy. Turns out, he hasn’t read it! LOL. I told him last night that sometimes he’s far too prissy for his own good.

It is sooooo human and soooo easy to imagine that we CAN put GOD ALMIGHTY in some tidy little box. What arrogance.

Certainly He is within His Nature . . . and He is NOT nonsense. However, He’ll never fit within any human tidy little box regardless of how “Biblical” folks think it is.

Anyway—I was blessed by your reasonableness. Tends to be a rarity on these threads.

God’s best to you and yours.

[Quix]

Very well put.

I’ve come to be INCREASINGLY convinced with every such thread I read . . .

Whether Protty or RC,

folks who have suffered REACTIVE ATTACHMENT DISORDER

as I have . . .

seem to be AT GREATLY INCREASED RISK of

becoming INTENSELY addicted to a mind-set and construction on reality—particularly RELIGION-WISE—which is

—authoritarian

—narrow—hyper narrow in some respects—particularly in terms of IN-GROUP/OUT-GROUP dynamics, constructions on reality and sensibilities

—haughty
—self-righteous

—addicted to !!!!TRADITION!!!! as an added illusion of enhanced security

—increasingly fiercely bitter, resentful, hostile, wary, assaultive . . . toward those not in their little group—usually even toward others in the larger organization not members of their congregation or even of their little clique within their congregation . . .

—VERY given to notions and practices of “earning one’s salvation” . . .

—extremely elaborate, nuanced, prissy, exacting rituals, customs, habits, ‘in-things’ to be TRULY most TRULY “RIGHTEOUS” . . .

—ritualized, formula-ized prayers . . . transforming God into a vending machine for the truly truly truly in-group . . .

—that Christ’s Death and Resurrection was somehow insufficient without all the organizationally supported, sanctioned, herded hoopla . . .

. . .

[Quix]

INDEED.

[Quix]

As is true of all “Christian” and Christian groups . . .

The Vatican/RC edifice

is a mixture . . . too often a frightful mixture

of truth, hideous error, deadly !!!!TRADITION!!! etc. etc. etc.

Too often, that mixture is seductively deadly . . .

[Quix]

No one has the power to countermand Christ

nor to countermand Scripture

nor to make of a political, bureaucratic, pile of stinking human power mongering

anything the least bit pure . . . whether as the Vatican/RC edifice or any other.

[Petronski]

No one has the power to countermand Christ nor to countermand Scripture...

Yes. I just said that.

Christ founded the Catholic Church circa AD 33 and no one has the power to countermand that.

[onedoug]

Deuteronmy 4:19 & Malachi 1:11.

[driftdiver]

“Christ founded the Catholic Church circa AD 33 and no one has the power to countermand that. “

Oy Vey

Please show me where Jesus said “ I created the Catholic Church”, he did not. It is nothing but pride to assume so.

And it doesn’t matter because it saves not one soul to argue that. Jesus saves, anything that gets in the way should be removed.

[SeekAndFind]

Most Christians would agree with the above title. However, a lot of Christian will disagree on what constitutes “THE CHURCH”.

[Petronski]

Please show me where Jesus said "I created the Catholic Church."

Please show me "sola Scriptura" in Scripture.

Please show me where Jesus referred to "the Trinity."

[driftdiver]

So you are denying Jesus is the son of God?

[Iscool]

Where do you think the Bible came from? You think it dropped from the sky? No, it was canonized by the Church.

Yes it did...It dropped right out of heaven...The fact that your religion edited it and created it's own version of the scriptures means absolutely nothing...

[Petronski]

No, quite the opposite. The failure of Christ to use the words you demand or I demand does not make a thing false.

[Petronski]

Yes it did...It dropped right out of heaven...

Serious errors result when the God-given gifts of logic and reason--discernment--are rebuked and abandoned.

[Iscool]

This issue is of particular importance, as the first several decades of the Church's existence were tumultuous. Persecutions had already begun, believers were being martyred, the new Faith was struggling to grow, and some false teachings had already appeared

And that is the Catholic religion...Out of Rome...The persecutions were done by Romans...And it's conglomeration of pagan and quasi-religous zealots who worshipped the queen of heaven which is still being worshipped today...Your religion is not the religion of the Apostles...

(cf. Galatians 1:6-9). If the Bible were the Christian's only rule of faith, and since the Bible was not fully wirtten--much less settled in terms of its canon--until 65 years after Christ's Ascension, how did the early Chruch possibly deal with doctrinal questions without an authority on how to proceed?

So you claim that God was with his church always but yet He let them wander in the wilderness for 400 years til He summoned your Roman religion to come up with doctrine???

400 years of dying, ignorant Christians who had no doctrine...No Holy Spirit to lead...No scripture to rely on...

I can't imagine how intelligent people can fall for a fairy tale like that...

[Dr. Eckleburg]

You should hold your apologies. This latest gambit from Rome is simply to quell what looks to be any "exclusiveness" within its ranks when, in truth, that is exactly what it is.

Rome teaches that if a man doesn't accept the Roman Catholic church before his death, he will afterward. They are adept at double-speak.

Read POST #9...

"The Catholic Church is "the single and exclusive channel by which the truth and grace of Christ enter our world of space and time" (Karl Adam, The Spirit of Catholicism, 179). Those who do not know the Church, even those who fight against it, can receive these gifts if they honestly seek God and his truth. But, Adam says, "though it be not the Catholic Church itself that hands them the bread of truth and grace, yet it is Catholic bread that they eat." And when they eat of it, "without knowing it or willing it" they are "incorporated in the supernatural substance of the Church."

This sinister and destructive error presumes Christ's church is seated in Rome . As the Westminster Confession of Faith reminds us (with Scriptural proofs at the site), this is not how it works...

I. The catholic or universal Church, which is invisible, consists of the whole number of the elect, that have been, are, or shall be gathered into one, under Christ the Head thereof; and is the spouse, the body, the fulness of Him that fills all in all.[1]

II. The visible Church, which is also catholic or universal under the Gospel (not confined to one nation, as before under the law), consists of all those throughout the world that profess the true religion;[2] and of their children:[3] and is the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ,[4] the house and family of God,[5] out of which there is no ordinary possibility of salvation.[6]

III. Unto this catholic visible Church Christ has given the ministry, oracles, and ordinances of God, for the gathering and perfecting of the saints, in this life, to the end of the world: and does, by His own presence and Spirit, according to His promise, make them effectual thereunto.[7]

IV. This catholic Church has been sometimes more, sometimes less visible.[8] And particular Churches, which are members thereof, are more or less pure, according as the doctrine of the Gospel is taught and embraced, ordinances administered, and public worship performed more or less purely in them.[9]

V. The purest Churches under heaven are subject both to mixture and error;[10] and some have so degenerated, as to become no Churches of Christ, but synagogues of Satan.[11] Nevertheless, there shall be always a Church on earth to worship God according to His will.[12]

VI. There is no other head of the Church but the Lord Jesus Christ.[13] Nor can the Pope of Rome, in any sense, be head thereof; but is that Antichrist, that man of sin, and son of perdition, that exalts himself, in the Church, against Christ and all that is called God.[14]

Number VI. has been removed in later versions of this 1646 version. Time will tell how prudent that move was.

[Dr. Eckleburg]

You got it right the first time, Mel. Ping to post 97...

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/2281019/posts?page=97#97

[Quix]

Confabulating facts into a mangled mess

is not overly admirable . . . whether done by a RAD Vatican/RC rep or a Protty.

[Quix]

INDEED.

Don’t you just love the deep groove around this mountain!

LOL.

/S