Expert: Sal - 9/6/2005

Question
Hi Sal,

I know that Fundamentalists claim that only Christians can go to heaven, but Catholics don't believe this.  I know that in the Old Testament we have evidence that Isaiah and Abraham were on the way to heaven because they appeared during the transfiguration (is this correct?) and they were Jews.  However, we could claim that they couldn't have been Christians because Christ had yet to arrive and bring us Christianity.  My question is this:  What evidence do we have that not only Christians but non-Christians as well can enter heaven?

Thank you,

Les

Answer
Dear Les:

The strongest evidence that non-Christians may be saved is that the fact that the One True Church unequivocally says this to be so. “Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ of his Church…those too may achieve eternal salvation” (Second Vatican Council [Lumen gentium, 16]; Catechism, 847).

It was not Isaiah & Abraham with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. It was Moses & Elijah (see Matthew 17:3).  

Some Bible passages that indicate that non-Christians may be saved are:
1.   “My command to you is: love your enemies, pray for your prosecutors. This will prove that you are sons of your heavenly Father” (Matthew 5:44-45). God's sons are those that put love above all else. This is not restricted to Christians.
2.   When Jesus was asked what was necessary for salvation he said, “'What is written in the Law? How do you read it?' He (the lawyer) replied, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.' Jesus said, ‘You have answered correctly. Do this and you shall live'” (Luke 10:25-28). Love of God is emphasized. Again, this is not exclusive to Christians.
3.   On another occasion when asked who could be saved, Jesus responded, “I solemnly assure you, there is no one who has left home or wife or brother, parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God who will not receive a plentiful return in this age and life everlasting in the age to come” (Luke 18:26-30). If anyone gives up the goods of this world for God, he will be saved.
4.   “Look! There is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). Jesus takes away all sin not just the sin of the Christian.
5.   “Some of the Pharisees around him picked this up, saying, ‘You are not calling us blind, are you?' To which Jesus replied, ‘If you were blind there would be no sin in that. ‘But we see', you say, and your sin remains” (John 9:40-41). Those who do not know the Gospel (the blind) are considered sinless.
6.   “When Gentiles who do not have the Law keep it by instinct, these men although without the Law serve as a Law for themselves. They show that the demands of the Law are written on their hearts” (Romans 2:14-15). Non-Christians who keep the moral law, which is written on the hearts of all men, will be saved.
7.   “This explains why we work and struggle as we do; our hopes are fixed on the living God who is the savior of all men, but especially of those who believe” (I Timothy 4:10). God saves both Christians and non-Christians.

I pray that this is helpful to you, Les.

God Be With You,
Sal