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Paladinan,

Thank you for your thoughtful replies.

On this forum I once had a militant Catholic explain to me that Catholics are not Christians (and I snarkily agreed with him!) but he made the case that the Catholic Church, the sacraments of the church, and the guidance of the pope are required for salvation.

I defer to Billy Graham who once said that if you were to find yourself on a desert island and then accept Jesus as your savior then you’d be saved. He also went on to say that if someone believes that a person who is on a desert island and who comes to Jesus will then be condemned to Hell because she didn’t perform some ritual or go to a particular church...well, then that person is worshipping the wrong god!

“The vilest offender who truly believes that moment from Jesus a pardon receives!”

That wonderful line refers to the man on the cross next to Jesus whom Jesus personally redeemed. That man never went to a Catholic Church and he never needed to.

His salvation was literally by faith alone.

Thank you for your thoughtful replies.

:) I'm very glad they came acorss that way! (Some of the conversations I've had on this forum quickly wheeled into acrimony, for reasons about which I can only guess.)

On this forum I once had a militant Catholic explain to me that Catholics are not Christians

Oh, for the love of all that's holy...! I hope you can believe that the fellow was misguided, to say the least!

but he made the case that the Catholic Church, the sacraments of the church, and the guidance of the pope are required for salvation.

As for those three things:

In the Apostolic dispensation (if I could call it that), the Church *is* necessary for salvation... though, in cases where someone isn't aware (either through lack of exposure, or lack of authentic and convincing presentation) of that fact, they may still be saved. The only thing is that their salvation would be due to the Catholic Church, whether they were aware of it or not.

The Sacraments of the Church *are* ordinarily the means by which God dispenses His sanctifying Grace... though, again, it's possible in "emergency situations" for that grace to be given to those who do not have access to them.

I defer to Billy Graham who once said that if you were to find yourself on a desert island and then accept Jesus as your savior then you’d be saved.

Rev. Graham is a fine and admirable man of God, and I think very highly of him; and he's somewhat right: but the word "saved" is a bit loaded. The best way to describe the state of a Christian is that he/she *has* been saved (cf. Ephesians 4:2-8, etc.), AND that he/she *is being* saved (cf. 2 Corinthians 2:15, 1 Peter 3:21, etc.), AND that he/she *hopes ultimately to be saved* (cf. Matthew 10:22, Matthew 24:13, 1 Corinthians 3:12-15, etc.) It's not a "one-time" event; it extends through our entire lives (whether that life extends for 30 more years, or 30 more seconds).

He also went on to say that if someone believes that a person who is on a desert island and who comes to Jesus will then be condemned to Hell because she didn’t perform some ritual or go to a particular church...well, then that person is worshipping the wrong god!

That was covered above, in a sense; the "rituals" themselves are important, but NOT for their own sake. Take Baptism, for example: some people might see it as a "mere ritual" which (though they might not find it bad) is unnecessary... but we believe it's important for the key reason that Jesus, Himself, INSTITUTED it (John 3:5 and 3:22 and 4:1, etc.), and He also COMMANDED us to baptize (Matthew 28:19), and it was made clear that salvation was TIED to it (cf. Mark 16:16, 1 Peter 3:21, Acts 2:38-41 and 8:36-38, etc.). The same is true of all the other Sacraments... and the "rituals" surrounding them are not meaningless. (A study of the OT, and how it illuminates the NT, shows this at almost every turn; e.g. the prohibition against the Passover lamb's bones being broken prefigured Christ's death on the cross without having His legs broken; when the Israelites grumbled against God and Moses a second time about water, and Moses struck the rock to get water after God had explicitly commanded him to SPEAK to the rock [and not hit it, since he'd done so once before], this defigured the prefigurement of Christ (the Rock, from whose side flowed blood and water), who was killed ONCE, not twice... and that disfigurement was so important that Moses was forbidden to enter the promised land. The examples are all over the place!)

“The vilest offender who truly believes that moment from Jesus a pardon receives!”

Yes (though "believe" is a "pregnant" word). And if that person only has a few moments to live, God will supply what's lacking (as in the case of St. Dismas, the "good thief"). But if that person has an extended life ahead of him, then that "belief" must take flesh (just as Jesus "took flesh") and be put into obedience (cf. Luke 6:46, John 3:36, etc.) and into good works (cf. 1 Corinthians 13, James 2, Matthew 25, etc.).

That wonderful line refers to the man on the cross next to Jesus whom Jesus personally redeemed. That man never went to a Catholic Church and he never needed to.

Well... he went to the HEAD of the Church, so I think that qualifies! :)

His salvation was literally by faith alone.

Not exactly. He didn't have a long life (or freedom) in which to be faithful, obedient, etc., so his is a special case (as would be the case of an infant who dies... the Church supplies the needed faith, even though the child has no capacity to choose faith, as yet).