Fran if someone comes to the person who believes that they must confess to a priest to be forgiven that sin and they are told that No if you believe Jesus and trust in the Atonement of the LORD Jesus Christ and aknowledge your sin to God then you shall be saved... Then from that moment on they have been told the truth and if they continue to go to a priest to confess their sins and thus make a public show of support for a false relgion then they have rejected the Word of God that was clearly given to them and they shall not have eternal life with God...
One cannot plead ignorance if one has been told the truth...
Hi Adstar,
I understand your point.
Here's the problem. I know both Catholic and Protestant doctrine.
Did you know that Catholics are told exactly what you're saying above? Here it is:
exposed to ultimate despair.[SUP]333[/SUP]845 To reunite all his children, scattered and led astray by sin, the Father willed to call the whole of humanity together into his Son's Church. The Church is the place where humanity must rediscover its unity and salvation. The Church is "the world reconciled." She is that bark which "in the full sail of the Lord's cross, by the breath of the Holy Spirit, navigates safely in this world." According to another image dear to the Church Fathers, she is prefigured by Noah's ark, which alone saves from the flood.[SUP]334[/SUP]
"Outside the Church there is no salvation"
846 How are we to understand this affirmation, often repeated by the Church Fathers?[SUP]335[/SUP] 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.[SUP]336[/SUP]847 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.[SUP]337[/SUP]848 "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."[SUP]338
(Catechism of the Catholic Church)
Then there's vincible and invincible ignorance. If you're interested check out CCC paragraph nos. 1735, 1746, 1793 and 1859.
You see, it's very complicated.
So in the end analysis, I like to depend on God's mercy, grace, and understanding.
What is in our HEART, is what we will be judged on.
YOU think you have the truth. The guy that goes to confession things HE has the truth. If each of you believe in your heart that you're doing the right thing, THIS is what you will be held accountable for.
(not to mention John 20:23!)
So better not to complicate things too much... What say you?
Fran[/SUP]