catholicsphere

The other day, this thought occurred to me: If all that is necessary for one to be saved is to “believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ”, then, despite all the postulations and speculations of Protestants, Catholics must be saved, right?

Right.

It doesn’t matter if they believe in infant baptism or the Real Presence in the Eucharist or call priests “father” or any other doctrine, so long as they call Jesus Christ Savior.

Catholics are required to believe it. Any who don’t are not Catholic (not by private judgment, but by the whole history of the Catholic Church, from the time of Jesus and the Apostles right up to the present day.)

Oh, but you add works! one might object.

So what? The requirement is that we believe in Christ Jesus as Savior — and we do. It’s required, or one isn’t Catholic. And, so we are “saved” according to this Protestant notion.

Yes, the Catholic Church teaches, and has taught, many things which Protestants and anti-Catholics disavow — but, by their own criteria, they cannot claim that Catholics are not saved, and/or are not Christian.

Unless, of course, they wish to say that there is something more than faith required to be saved — at which point they better check themselves too.

So, which is it?

[tags]faith, catholic, protestant, christian, salvation, saved, religion, belief, jesus, savior, catholicsphere[/tags]