Yes, it is possible - after all, who knows the mind of God outside of what He has already revealed? But we know God wants all men to be saved so there is nothing to stop God from providing a valid sacrament to the person you speak of before he dies - were such a person to exist.


 

If there is nothing to prevent God from providing a valid sacrament for this person, then why do you say it is possible then? It seems to me that if the criteria I have given, if God wants the salvation of all men, it would be absurd for this man not to be saved. What more could he have done to prove to God his sincere will?

If there is nothing to prevent God from providing a valid sacrament for this person, then why do you say it is possible then? It seems to me that if the criteria I have given, if God wants the salvation of all men, it would be absurd for this man not to be saved. What more could he have done to prove to God his sincere will?

I was answering it was possible to: Is it possible that God will still refuse him salvation? Will this person learn by surprise at death that he was not baptized and then, too bad for you?

We do not know what God knows, perhaps God saw through his outward sincerity as being false. Who knows? Because God made the sacrament a requirement, it is ultimately up to God to provide it - same as He provides it for everyone who has ever been and ever will be baptized. 

But you are talking a hypothetical situation....someone not baptized who does not fall into mortal sin is imo, impossible. 
 

I was answering it was possible to: Is it possible that God will still refuse him salvation? Will this person learn by surprise at death that he was not baptized and then, too bad for you?

We do not know what God knows, perhaps God saw through his outward sincerity as being false. Who knows? Because God made the sacrament a requirement, it is ultimately up to God to provide it - same as He provides it for everyone who has ever been and ever will be baptized. 

But you are talking a hypothetical situation....someone not baptized who does not fall into mortal sin is imo, impossible. 
 

I have mentioned before in a previous thread, in the life of St. Martin of Tours, some girl died unbaptized.  The monks knew that she was not baptized.  They kept her body in the monastery for six months and prayed to St. Martin.  St. Martin showed up at the monastery, raised the girl to life, baptized her, and she died. 

Where was the girl's soul during these six months?  If she had baptism of desire, then why water baptism?  

Lazarus is an interesting case because he presumably died under the Old Law when Our Lord raised him to life; Lazarus then, if I recall, was baptized, became a bishop in France (first bishop of Marseilles), and then died years later under the New Law.  Feast day, Dec. 17.

I think it's disputed whether the Lazarus in Our Lord's parable is the same one as was raised later.

I have mentioned before in a previous thread, in the life of St. Martin of Tours, some girl died unbaptized.  The monks knew that she was not baptized.  They kept her body in the monastery for six months and prayed to St. Martin.  St. Martin showed up at the monastery, raised the girl to life, baptized her, and she died.

Where was the girl's soul during these six months?  If she had baptism of desire, then why water baptism? 

Yeah, good question.  Was she in a holding place like Limbo?  Or was here soul still somehow attached to her body, where she was in a state like that of coma?

If I recall from the St. Peter Claver story, the woman who had been raised said that she was in some beautiful place, filled with light, but then was told she couldn't go any further.

There are probably many different areas and regions in the after-life or after-world, but God simply did not reveal all the details.  He didn't even reveal Limbo of Infants, as that was the result of theological speculation.  God probably very deliberately emphasized the extreme tortures of the deepest Hell vs. the ineffable bliss of Heaven as the two poles, since a gray area would hardly incentivize most people from committing sin and doing evil, and only the fear of the extreme sufferings of Hell would have that effect.

While these need to be taken with a huge grain of salt, many people in these NDEs report being in places of great natural happiness, peace, and love ... but obviously they would not have entered the Heaven of the Beatific vision.  Some stopped at these gates, beyond which presumably was Heaven proper and the Beatific Vision.  St. Paul went to the Third Heaven ... but it didn't appear as though he experienced the Beatific Vision, since I don't believe you "come back" from that, and he would have tried to relate that in his Epistle.  SO there are more things in Heaven than are dreamt of in our philosophy.

This story seems to prove that this girl was in a true good will and God did not permit for her to be damned. I guess that's what should happen to every person of good will?

Again, you need to snap out of deciding what "should happen to every person [you decide might be] of good will".  We know that God is perfeclty Just and perfectly Merciful, and no one will be dealt with "unfairly".  If our perception is that something might SEEM unfair to us, we reject that thinking, and we most certinly don't draw theological conclusions from our emotional reaction to things.  That's not theology.  Theology starts with revealed truth, and then we apply reason to those truths and draw out greater detail from them logically.

We know that God is Love and that He is all Just and all Merciful.  We know what He has revealed, that there's a Heaven and there's a Hell and there's a Purgatory.  We know that He taught that the Sacrament of Baptism is necessary to enter into the Kingdom of God, "water and the Holy Spirit".  I'm sure there's a ton of detail that He did not reveal, such as Limbo of the Infants, and we can try to speculate.  But we can never start second-guessing specific scenarios and decide it would be "unfair", and therefore we're going to make it so that Baptism isn't necessary like He said.

Again, you need to snap out of deciding what "should happen to every person [you decide might be] of good will".  We know that God is perfeclty Just and perfectly Merciful, and no one will be dealt with "unfairly".  If our perception is that something might SEEM unfair to us, we reject that thinking, and we most certinly don't draw theological conclusions from our emotional reaction to things.  That's not theology.  Theology starts with revealed truth, and then we apply reason to those truths and draw out greater detail from them logically.

We know that God is Love and that He is all Just and all Merciful.  We know what He has revealed, that there's a Heaven and there's a Hell and there's a Purgatory.  We know that He taught that the Sacrament of Baptism is necessary to enter into the Kingdom of God, "water and the Holy Spirit".  I'm sure there's a ton of detail that He did not reveal, such as Limbo of the Infants, and we can try to speculate.  But we can never start second-guessing specific scenarios and decide it would be "unfair", and therefore we're going to make it so that Baptism isn't necessary like He said.

What you say is true and I do not say the opposite. When I speak of people of good will, I speak of those who are ontologically of good will, not according to my perception, but according to the Truth. And the question is whether people of ontological good will are necessarily saved or not. I have simply tried to give an example but God alone knows who is truly of good will. 

I didn't see this question answered the way I would answer it, so let me explain how I came to understand BOD: I sat outside of a busy restaurant the day I realized there is no salvation outside the Church.  All those people coming and going and it seemed by the way they dressed, or went about, were largely unconcerned about their eternal souls. The knot in my gut grew and excluding all judgement, it came to me that hoping for BOD was the perfect way to relieve me of doing everything I could for them, i.e. really praying for them to get Baptism, or working with some of them to get Baptism (a much more intense love of neighbor and duty than just hoping they squeezed through with BOD). I knew accepting EENS at face value and outright rejecting BOD demanded more serious prayer, or following more closely the days of fast and abstinence, doing corporal works of mercy etc.  Because BOD is uncertain at best (no outward sign), or non-existent at worst, hoping in BOD is evil because such a "hope" doesn't help souls, rather, it insidiously placates the conscience and often undermines zeal for love of neighbor.     

You are 100% right.