Author Topic: Faith in Christ Necessary for Salvation -- DOGMA (Read 8557 times)

Ladislaus · « **on:** February 05, 2015, 08:45:16 AM »

It was the UNANIMOUS TEACHING OF THE CHURCH FATHERS that faith in Jesus Christ is absolutely necessary for salvation. Consequently, this was clearly part of the Deposit of Revelation and a DOGMA. To say otherwise is HERESY. Anyone who says that Muslims, Jєωs, pagans, or any manner of infidel can be saved DENY CATHOLIC DOGMA. Tragically, most "Traditional Catholics" believe this today. While I do not accuse anyone of formal heresy, it's heresy nonetheless. THIS IS THE CORE HERESY OF VATICAN II, and it's also the core heresy held by most Traditional Catholics. I am dedicating this thread to citing Church Fathers who taught this. EVERY CATHOLIC needs to read this and then honestly try to answer the question of whether he holds the faith of the Fathers. I do not put this in the "Feeneyism" section because this has nothing to do with the question of Baptism of Desire; I am prescinding entirely from that discussion.

Ladislaus · « **Reply #1 on:** February 05, 2015, 08:46:44 AM »

Saint Ignatius of Antioch, a disciple of Saint Peter and Saint Paul (died A.D. 107): "Let no man deceive himself. Unless he believes that Christ Jesus has lived in the flesh, and shall confess His cross and passion, and the blood which He shed for the salvation of the world, he shall not attain eternal life, whether he be a king, or a priest, or a ruler, or a private person, a master or a servant, a man or a woman." (Epistle to the Smyrnaeans)

Ladislaus · « **Reply #2 on:** February 05, 2015, 08:48:37 AM »

Saint Justin Martyr (died A.D. 165): "But there is no other way than this, - to become acquainted with this Christ, to be washed in the fountain spoken of by Isaiah for the remission of sins, and for the rest to live sinless lives. [...] Further, I hold that those of the seed of Abraham who live according to the law, and do not believe in this Christ before death, shall not be saved." (Dialogue with Trypho the Jєω.)

Ladislaus · « **Reply #3 on:** February 05, 2015, 08:51:27 AM »

Saint Martial of Limoges (died A.D. 165): "All who do not confess Christ to be true God shall go into eternal fire."

Ladislaus · « **Reply #4 on:** February 05, 2015, 08:54:14 AM »

Saint Cyprian (died A.D. 258): "For whereas in the Gospels, and in the epistles of the Apostles, the name of Christ is alleged for the remission of sins; it is not in such a way as that the Son alone, without the Father, or against the Father, can be of advantage to anybody; but that it might be shown to the Jєωs, who boasted as to their having the Father, that the Father would profit them nothing, unless they believed on the Son whom He had sent. For they who know God the Father the Creator, ought also to know Christ the Son, lest they flatter and applaud themselves about the Father alone, without the acknowledgement of His Son, who also said, "No man cometh to the Father but by me." But He, the same, sets forth that it is the knowledge of the two that saves, when he says, "And this is life eternal, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent." Therefore, from the preaching and the testimony of Christ Himself, the Father who sent must be known first, then afterwards Christ, who was sent, and there cannot be a hope of salvation except by knowing the two together.[/b] [...]"

Ladislaus · « **Reply #5 on:** February 05, 2015, 09:02:03 AM »

Saint Augustine, Doctor, (died A.D. 430): "Before, however, all this had been accomplished, before the actual preaching of the gospel reaches the ends of all the earth - because there are some remote nations still (although it is said that they are very few) to whom the preached gospel has not found its way, - what must human nature do, or what has it done - for it has either not heard that all this was to take place, or has not yet learned that it was accomplished - but believe in God who made heaven and earth, by whom also it perceived by nature that it had been created, and lead a right life, and thus accomplish His will, uninstructed with any faith in the death and resurrection of Christ? Well, if this could have been done, or can still be done, then for my part I have to say what the apostle said in regard to the law: "Then Christ died in vain." For if he said this about the law, which only the nation of the Jєωs received, how much more justly may it be said of the law of nature, which the whole human race has received, "If righteousness come by nature, then Christ died in vain." If, however, Christ did not die in vain, then human nature cannot by any means be justified and redeemed from God's most righteous wrath - in a word, from punishment - except by faith and the sacrament of the blood of Christ." (On Nature and Grace)

[EXPLICITLY REJECTS the teaching that belief in God and accomplishing His will uninstructed with faith in Christ can be salvific, the so-called 17th century Rewarder God heresy. Also explicitly rejects Suprema Haec]

Ladislaus · « **Reply #6 on:** February 05, 2015, 09:04:36 AM »

Saint Augustine, Doctor, (died A.D. 430): "For if, according to the word of truth, no one is delivered from the condemnation which was incurred through Adam except through faith in Jesus Christ, and yet from this condemnation they shall not deliver themselves who shall be able to say that they have not heard the gospel of Christ, on the ground that "faith cometh by hearing," how much less shall they deliver themselves who shall say, "We have not received perseverance!" [...] thou mightest persevere if thou wouldest. And, consequently, both those who have not heard the gospel, and those who, having heard it and been changed by it for the better, have not received perseverance, [...] are not made to differ from that mass which it is plain is condemned, as all go from one into condemnation." (On Rebuke and Grace)

[EXPLICITLY REJECTS "salvation by invincible ignorance"]

Ladislaus · « **Reply #7 on:** February 05, 2015, 09:06:31 AM »

Saint Augustine, Doctor, (died A.D. 430): "They who are not liberated through grace, either because they are not yet able to hear, or because they are unwilling to obey; or again because they did not receive, at the time when they are unable on account of youth to hear, that bath of regeneration, which they might have received and through which they might have been saved, are indeed justly condemned; because they are not without sin, either that which they have derived from their birth, or that which they have added from their own misconduct. "For all have sinned" - whether in Adam or in themselves - "and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23.)"" (On Nature and Grace)

[EXPLICITLY REJECTS "salvation by invincible ignorance"]

Ladislaus · « **Reply #8 on:** February 05, 2015, 09:09:01 AM »

Saint Prosper of Aquitaine, A.D. 463: “...none of the infidels is counted among the elect....” (The Call of All Nations)

Ladislaus · « **Reply #9 on:** February 05, 2015, 09:10:33 AM »

Saint Fulgentius (died A.D. 533): "Most firmly hold and never doubt that not only all pagans, but also all Jєωs, all heretics, and all schismatics who finish this life outside of the Catholic Church, will go into the eternal fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels."

Ladislaus · « **Reply #10 on:** February 05, 2015, 09:14:22 AM »

Saint Fulgentius (died A.D. 533): "But the Blessed Apostle says: "How then are they to call upon Him in whom they have not believed? or how shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard? but how are they to hear, without preaching?" Grace, then, is not given to all; for certainly they cannot be participants in that grace, who are not believers; nor can they believe if it is found that the preaching of the faith has never come to them at all."

[EXPLICITLY REJECTS "salvation by invincible ignorance"]

Ladislaus · « **Reply #11 on:** February 05, 2015, 09:15:40 AM »

Pope Pelagius II, A.D. 578-590: "We can no more pray for a deceased infidel than we can for the devil, since they are condemned to the same eternal and irrevocable damnation." (Dialogues, IV)

Ladislaus · « **Reply #12 on:** February 05, 2015, 09:19:40 AM »

Alcuin of York (died A.D. 780): "He then gives the reason why he who believes not is condemned, viz. because he believeth not on the name of the only begotten Son of God. For in this name alone is there salvation."

Ladislaus · « **Reply #13 on:** February 05, 2015, 09:23:08 AM »

Pope Innocent III, A.D. 1198-1216: ""One indeed is the universal Church of the faithful, outside which no one at all is saved." (IV Lateran Council, A.D. 1215)

Ladislaus · « **Reply #14 on:** February 05, 2015, 09:26:38 AM »

Saint Thomas Aquinas O.P., Doctor, (died A.D. 1274): "If, however, unbelief be taken just negatively, as in those who have heard nothing about the faith, it bears the character, not of fault, but of penalty, because their ignorance of divine things is the result of the sin of our first parents. Those who are unbelievers in this sense are condemned on account of other sins, which cannot be forgiven without faith; they are not condemned for the sin of unbelief." (Summa Theologica II, II, 10, 1.)

[EXPLICITLY REJECTS "salvation by invincible ignorance"]