They believe they are some special group to be exulted above all others. They have an “us versus them” mentality focusing in an imaginative “enemy” and see themselves as persecuted by any who disagree with something they hold. This is often connected with prophecy and end time events.
“Can you find what Catholics teach in regards to salvation of those like me who implicitly reject her authority? I have shown you that those like me are condemned, 'attacked', called 'schismatic' or 'heretical' by your church. Yet you say your church is attacked. We have not even talked about the inquisition and the church leaders role in 'attacking' to the point of death those who reject her- I think the catechism is enough to show that the RCC does her share of attacking those Christians who are outside of her.
Again, please show me where I can follow Christ, while knowingly rejecting the RCC, and be saved.”
The above words came from a Protestant who had been reading a radical Traditionalist site on salvation. His belief that our Church teaches all non-Catholics are damned was a major stumbling block in our attempts to help him accept Catholics as saved, let alone talk to him about possibly joining. Yet our Church does state those outside her are in “imperfect, communion” with her, however if they spread disunity they place themselves at risk for judgment, and this is in keeping with Matt.7.1-2, (Cat.838). Also non-Christians maybe saved. For example, based on Romans 9.4-5 and 11.29), Jews are saved as “the gifts and the call of G-d are irrevocable”. Muslims, likewise because they believe in the one G-d and judgment have a faith that can save (Cat 841). She even recognizes that other faiths not mentioned above “search, among the shadows and images, for the G-d who is unknown yet” (Cat.824), yet how can this be supported in light of passages people like the poster we quoted above? The answer lies in Cat.847:
Cat. 847: This affirmation is not aimed at those, 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 G-d 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”
Obviously there are people “do not know Christ and His Church” for a number of reasons, yet some really never hear because they are stuck in cults. Others hear, but their ability to cognizes this has been hampered somehow, like the gentlemen whom we quoted earlier, who wouldn’t even try to understand until we could prove our Church wasn’t judging him. This isn’t the first time we have encountered this. In fact, once while Scripturally defending the Blessed Sacrament certain Catholics locked a Protestant man into a corner (not on purpose; it just happened) and his last response was pitiful: “does this mean I’m not saved?” Of course it doesn’t as the quotes from the Catechism above point out, but this is the risk when you have sound doctrines for the doctrines and the testimony speaks for itself, or rather it should. Still, we should take her example into our communities, for we are really no better than the next guy, even if we through His grace see something more deeply in one area or another. We still do not corner the market on grace.
One of the problems of the second part of this tactical search is that one day a real enemy will arise, Scriptural Babylon and that cult will persecute our Church and this assertion comes from prophecy and the end times. So are we “cultic” for believing this as a Church, Cat. 677? Back in the late thirties certain Jewish leaders cried out that the Jews had an enemy in the Nazi party and that enemy wanted to kill them. Yet on the night of Krastallnaught the remaining Jewish people finally heard those words and now knew these words came from above, only they heard too late to save themselves. Therefore, simply saying one has an enemy and believing in prophecy end times or otherwise is not enough to make a group a cult, however there are true risks and self ascribed risks, including their interpretations of prophecy. How can we know which “prophet” to listen to and which to hightail away from?
In Zech.13 we are told that there are no longer prophets and if anyone arises to claim they are prophet their mother and father are to “pierce” him through, which we take more spiritual than literal (Zech.2-3). The mother we see as our Church and the father as our Holy Father (or one he has given authority to). These will pierce through the lies of false prophets and so this mentions false prophets, but what of true “prophets”? Then the text turns to the “no-prophet” who brings forth truth, not by claim of a prophet or dressing himself as such, but is ashamed of the vision given due to great humility (as we suspect). This “no-prophet” is simple and saved from youth (this is how we read the Hebrew) and resembles the saints. So we Catholics are listen to the saints G-d gives us, which the Church determines are authoritative.
Thus all private vision must be tested by the Holy See and judged therein before the laity takes it authoritatively. Before this, all speaking or declarations should be humble like the “no-prophet” and let the truth of what they say draw their word upward to the Holy See. So the clue we believe in whether to listen to such things or not is to find if they have been judged by the Holy See, and if not are those claiming as such humble in their assertions and willing to be tested? These are things we hope and pray for in our own studies into prophecy; yet we also know it’s not easy for the laity to get the Holy See’s eye if what they are saying is not reactionary in nature, but then it’s also highly likely to be a problem.
