Salvation Outside
the Church:
Definition of Terms:
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The Church Fathers regarded the Church as indispensable for salvation, perceiving it as the Body of Christ. Since faith in Jesus Christ, the Head of the Church, was the sole path to salvation, they considered baptism and active involvement in His Church, the Body of Christ, to be necessary and crucial for ‘remaining in Christ’ (John 15:4, Rom 11:22). They viewed the Church as a conduit for receiving sacraments, including the sacrament of the Eucharist (Holy Communion), which held profound importance as a means of receiving grace and participating in the life of Christ. Figures like Cyprian of Carthage and Augustine of Hippo likened the Church to Noah’s Ark, emphasizing that just as those outside the Ark perished in the flood, the Church Fathers believed that there was “no salvation outside the Church.”
The Church Fathers based this on Jesus’ teachings, who taught that the path to the Father is through Him; “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but by me” (John 14:6). Christ provides His Church and its sacraments as the ordinary means of grace for us to come to Christ. Jesus associated salvation with baptism, confession, and the Eucharist, stating that “he who believes and is baptized will be saved” (Mk 16:1), “unless you repent you will all likewise perish” (Lk 13:3), and “he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day” (Jn 6:54). Since the Catholic Church is the ordinary minister of those sacraments, it is appropriate to state that salvation comes through the Church. This is not unlike the covenant with Israel; before Christ fully revealed that he was the Messiah, Jesus taught that “salvation is from the Jews” (Jn 4:22), pointing the woman of Samaria to the Jews, through which salvation would be offered to all mankind.
The understanding of the Catholic Church’s necessity for salvation has been widely misconstrued in recent times, prompting a rearticulation of its teachings with a more nuanced approach. The Church acknowledges that God does not condemn those who are innocently unaware of the truth regarding salvation. Individuals who, through no fault of their own, are unfamiliar with the Gospel of Christ or His Church, yet sincerely seek God with a genuine heart and strive to follow His will as guided by their conscience, may still attain eternal salvation. This principle extends not only to Christians but also encompasses all people of goodwill in whom grace operates in mysterious ways. Considering that Christ died for all humanity, it is reasonable to believe that the Holy Spirit, in a manner known only to God, offers every individual the opportunity to be connected with this profound paschal mystery. Although the Ordinary means of grace is through the sacraments, this does not mean that God cannot extend grace to those He so chooses through extraordinary means, for God does not limit Himself. This teaching aligns with Jesus’ own words concerning those who innocently reject Him: “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin” (John 15:22).
However, once a person comes to know the truth, he must embrace it or he will be culpable of rejecting it. We see this in Jesus’ words to the Pharisees: “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains” (Jn 9:41). Paul taught likewise concerning the Gentiles: “When Gentiles who have not the law do by nature what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or perhaps excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus” (Rom 2:14-16).
The Church’s teaching can thus be summarized as such;
- No one who knowingly and deliberately rejects the truth of Christ and His Church will be saved.
- Religions that have the rejection of Christ and his Church as tenants of their respective faiths have no power to save anyone. Any truth found within these religions is only a reflection of the truth contained within the Catholic Church. “Whatever good or truth is found amongst [other world religions] is considered by the Church to be ‘a preparation for the Gospel and given by him who enlightens all men that they may at length have life’” (Lumen Gentium 16).
- It is possible for one to be “invincibly ignorant” of the truth of Christ and His Church. One may be ignorant of the truth through no fault of their own for various reasons, such as never hearing the Gospel or by being deceived through biased bigotry or misunderstandings about the faith. However, one does have a moral obligation to develop a well-informed conscience and to seek the truth. One cannot be “willfully ignorant” and expect salvation.
- If one who is ignorant of the truth of the Catholic Faith, “through no fault of their own,” but is given “the supernatural virtue of faith” and has perfect charity in his heart through some extraordinary means of grace, then it is possible for that one to be saved.
- Invincible ignorance is not a guarantee of salvation and, therefore, we must be careful to “evangelize all men” as God is the ultimate judge in these matters. Without the grace that comes from the sacraments, one is at a decided disadvantage to get to heaven. And if one has rejected the truth, then there is no way he can merit heaven apart from repentance and the acceptance of the truth.
- If anyone makes it to heaven apart from what the Church refers to as “the ordinary means of sanctification that comes through the sacraments,” they only do so through some revealed truth about the Church that the individual fails to recognize as being of the Church, that comes via extraordinary means of grace.
- Recognizing Christ and His Church as the means of salvation is, in and of itself, not a guarantee of that salvation. One must cooperate with the grace given through the sacraments and strive for a life holiness by allowing the grace received to work on one’s soul throughout one’s life. It is only in dying in the friendship of God that one enters eternal life.
Catechism of the Catholic Church
Paragraphs 846-48: “Outside the Church there is no Salvation.”
“How are we to understand this affirmation, often repeated by the Church Fathers? Re-formulated positively, it means that all salvation comes from Christ the Head through the Church which is his Body:
“Basing itself on Scripture and Tradition, the Council teaches that the Church, a pilgrim now on earth, is necessary for salvation: the one Christ is the mediator and the way of salvation; he is present to us in his body which is the Church. He himself explicitly asserted the necessity of faith and Baptism, and thereby affirmed at the same time the necessity of the Church which men enter through Baptism as through a door. Hence they could not be saved who, knowing that the Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God through Christ, would refuse either to enter it or to remain in it” (quoting “Lumen Gentium,” 14, from Vatican II).
This affirmation is not aimed at those who, through no fault of their own, do not know Christ and his Church: “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” (quoting, Lumen Gentium, 16).
“Although in ways known to himself God can lead those, who, through no fault of their own, are ignorant of the Gospel, to that faith without which it is impossible to please him, the Church still has the obligation and also the sacred right to evangelize all men” (quoting Ad Gentes, 7, from Vatican II).
Church Father Quotes:
Ignatius of Antioch
“Be not deceived, my brethren: If anyone follows a maker of schism [i.e., is a schismatic], he does not inherit the kingdom of God; if anyone walks in strange doctrine [i.e., is a heretic], he has no part in the passion [of Christ]. Take care, then, to use one Eucharist, so that whatever you do, you do according to God: For there is one flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ, and one cup in the union of his blood; one altar, as there is one bishop, with the presbytery and my fellow servants, the deacons” (Letter to the Philadelphians 3:3–4:1 [A.D. 110]).
Justin Martyr
“We have been taught that Christ is the first-begotten of God, and we have declared him to be the Logos of which all mankind partakes [John 1:9]. Those, therefore, who lived according to reason [Greek, logos] were really Christians, even though they were thought to be atheists, such as, among the Greeks, Socrates, Heraclitus, and others like them. . . . Those who lived before Christ but did not live according to reason [logos] were wicked men, and enemies of Christ, and murderers of those who did live according to reason [logos], whereas those who lived then or who live now according to reason [logos] are Christians. Such as these can be confident and unafraid” (First Apology 46 [A.D. 151]).
Irenaeus of Lyons
“In the Church God has placed apostles, prophets, teachers, and every other working of the Spirit, of whom none of those are sharers who do not conform to the Church, but who defraud themselves of life by an evil mind and even worse way of acting. Where the Church is, there is the Spirit of God; where the Spirit of God is, there is the Church and all grace” (Against Heresies 3:24:1 [A.D. 189]).
“[The spiritual man] shall also judge those who give rise to schisms, who are destitute of the love of God, and who look to their own special advantage rather than to the unity of the Church; and who for trifling reasons, or any kind of reason which occurs to them, cut in pieces and divide the great and glorious body of Christ, and so far as in them lies, destroy it—men who prate of peace while they give rise to war, and do in truth strain out a gnat, but swallow a camel. For they can bring about no ‘reformation’ of enough importance to compensate for the evil arising from their schism” (ibid., 4:33:7–8).
Clement of Alexandria
“Before the coming of the Lord, philosophy was necessary for justification to the Greeks; now it is useful for piety . . . for it brought the Greeks to Christ as the law did the Hebrews” (Miscellanies 1:5 [A.D. 208]).
Origen of Alexandria
“[T]here was never a time when God did not want men to be just; he was always concerned about that. Indeed, he always provided beings endowed with reason with occasions for practicing virtue and doing what is right. In every generation the wisdom of God descended into those souls which he found holy and made them to be prophets and friends of God” (Against Celsus 4:7 [A.D. 248]).
“If someone from this people wants to be saved, let him come into this house so that he may be able to attain his salvation. . . . Let no one, then, be persuaded otherwise, nor let anyone deceive himself: Outside of this house, that is, outside of the Church, no one is saved; for, if anyone should go out of it, he is guilty of his own death” (Homilies on Joshua 3:5 [A.D. 250]).
Cyprian of Carthage
“Whoever is separated from the Church and is joined to an adulteress [a schismatic church] is separated from the promises of the Church, nor will he that forsakes the Church of Christ attain to the rewards of Christ. . . . He cannot have God for his Father who has not the Church for his mother” (The Unity of the Catholic Church 6, 1st ed. [A.D. 251]).
“Let them not think that the way of life or salvation exists for them, if they have refused to obey the bishops and priests, since the Lord says in the book of Deuteronomy: ‘And any man who has the insolence to refuse to listen to the priest or judge, whoever he may be in those days, that man shall die’ [Deut. 17:12]. And then, indeed, they were killed with the sword . . . but now the proud and insolent are killed with the sword of the Spirit, when they are cast out from the Church. For they cannot live outside, since there is only one house of God, and there can be no salvation for anyone except in the Church” (Letters 61[4]:4 [A.D. 253]).
“When we say, ‘Do you believe in eternal life and the remission of sins through the holy Church?’ we mean that remission of sins is not granted except in the Church” (ibid., 69[70]:2 [A.D. 253]).
“Peter himself, showing and vindicating the unity, has commanded and warned us that we cannot be saved except by the one only baptism of the one Church. He says, ‘In the ark of Noah a few, that is, eight souls, were saved by water. Similarly, baptism will in like manner save you” [1 Peter 3:20-21]. In how short and spiritual a summary has he set forth the sacrament of unity! In that baptism of the world in which its ancient wickedness was washed away, he who was not in the ark of Noah could not be saved by water. Likewise, neither can he be saved by baptism who has not been baptized in the Church” (ibid., 73[71]:11).
“[O]utside the Church there is no Holy Spirit, sound faith moreover cannot exist, not alone among heretics, but even among those who are established in schism” (Treatise on Rebaptism 10 [A.D. 256]).
Lactantius
“It is, therefore, the Catholic Church alone which retains true worship. . . . Whoever does not enter there or whoever does not go out from there, he is a stranger to the hope of life and salvation. . . . Because, however, all the various groups of heretics are confident that they are the Christians and think that theirs is the Catholic Church, let it be known that this is the true Church, in which there is confession and penance and which takes a health-promoting care of the sins and wounds to which the weak flesh is subject” (Divine Institutes 4:30:11–13 [A.D. 307]).
Jerome of Stridon
“Heretics bring sentence upon themselves since they by their own choice withdraw from the Church, a withdrawal which, since they are aware of it, constitutes damnation. Between heresy and schism there is this difference: that heresy involves perverse doctrine, while schism separates one from the Church on account of disagreement with the bishop. Nevertheless, there is no schism which does not trump up a heresy to justify its departure from the Church” (Commentary on Titus 3:10–11 [A.D. 386]).
Augustine of Hippo
“We believe also in the holy Church, that is, the Catholic Church. For heretics violate the faith itself by a false opinion about God; schismatics, however, withdraw from fraternal love by hostile separations, although they believe the same things we do. Consequently, neither heretics nor schismatics belong to the Catholic Church; not heretics, because the Church loves God; and not schismatics, because the Church loves neighbor” (Faith and the Creed 10:21 [A.D. 393]).
“I do not hesitate to put the Catholic catechumen, burning with divine love, before a baptized heretic. Even within the Catholic Church herself we put the good catechumen ahead of the wicked baptized person . . . For Cornelius, even before his baptism, was filled up with the Holy Spirit [Acts 10:44–48], while Simon [Magus], even after his baptism, was puffed up with an unclean spirit [Acts 8:13–19]” (On Baptism, Against the Donatists 4:21[28]).
“The apostle Paul said, ‘As for a man that is a heretic, after admonishing him once or twice, have nothing more to do with him’ [Titus 3:10]. But those who maintain their own opinion, however false and perverted, without obstinate ill will, especially those who have not originated the error of bold presumption, but have received it from parents who had been led astray and had lapsed . . . those who seek the truth with careful industry and are ready to be corrected when they have found it, are not to be rated among heretics” (Letters 43:1 [A.D. 412]).
“Whoever is separated from this Catholic Church, by this single sin of being separated from the unity of Christ, no matter how estimable a life he may imagine he is living, shall not have life, but the wrath of God rests upon him” (ibid., 141:5).
Fulgentius of Ruspe
“Anyone who receives the sacrament of baptism, whether in the Catholic Church or in a heretical or schismatic one, receives the whole sacrament; but salvation, which is the strength of the sacrament, he will not have, if he has had the sacrament outside the Catholic Church [and remains in deliberate schism]. He must therefore return to the Church, not so that he might receive again the sacrament of baptism, which no one dare repeat in any baptized person, but so that he may receive eternal life in Catholic society, for the obtaining of which no one is suited who, even with the sacrament of baptism, remains estranged from the Catholic Church” (The Rule of Faith 43 [A.D. 524]).