Can A Person Be A Catholic And Still Be Saved?

Hebrews 4:10-11, “For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.”

Can a person be a Roman Catholics and still be saved? Yes and no. A man recently wrote to me from South America and asked me if his elderly mother can still be saved. He wants to lead her to Christ before she dies, but she refuses to leave the Roman Catholic Church. He emailed me for me advice. He asked a very good question.

Yes, it is possible for a person to be saved and yet still be a member of a false religion, but only if they completely trust Jesus Christ and cease from trusting in the false Gospel of their false religion. In the case of Roman Catholics, they are taught from the cradle to the casket that to get to Heaven a person must keep the Seven Sacraments (baptism, confirmation, Eucharist, penance, anointing of the sick, marriage and holy orders). Catholics are falsely taught that salvation rests in the Catholic Church itself and that water baptism is the door into the Catholic Church. All Catholics trust in water baptism for Heaven. This is a counterfeit plan of salvation which cannot produce the new birth. Satan's greatest weapon is to con people into living the Christian life without ever being born again.

Catholics also are taught that to get to Heaven a person must be confirmed, partake of the holy eucharist, et cetera. So to get saved, a Catholic would need to renounce these things. That is, they would have to stop trusting (repent) of these "dead works" (Hebrews 6:1), by trusting only in Jesus Christ. You don't have to do anything to be saved except come as a sinner and rest wholly in Jesus' name, receiving His sacrifice on the cross as payment for your sins, believing that Christ is risen from the dead (1st Corinthians 15:1-4). A person CANNOT be saved while still holding onto trusting in water baptism, the priest, confirmation, and the confessional booth.

So if a man understands that he is a sinner in God's sight and places his childlike trust (reliance) in Jesus Christ alone, he will go to Heaven. Acts 16:30-31, "And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house." Salvation is very simple, free and easy. We simply need to rest wholly in the GOOD NEWS (Gospel) of Jesus Christ crucified, buried and risen. Your mother already believes those things, but she is also adding water baptism and the Seven Sacrament. To be saved she must trust Christ alone, and nothing else. Adding anything to Christ is no trust at all. Partial faith in Christ plus keeping the Seven Sacraments is a counterfeit gospel, which cannot produce the new birth.

I agree that a person who gets saved logically wouldn't want to remain in the Catholic religion. But some people don't know anything else because Catholicism has been their hope and home since childhood. So for the sake of family, tradition or fear, a person may not necessarily leave the Catholic church right away, but God WILL save them if they will simply cease from trusting in the Catholic religion and rest only in Christ's sacrifice on the cross as payment for their sins to be saved (Hebrews 4:10-11). The only thing from which a person needs to repent to be saved is from the only thing which prevents them from entering into Heaven, unbelief.

Here is a very helpful and wonderful free online book by Michael P. Bowen explaining the simplicity of the Gospel. The book is called: "I Never Knew You: The Coming Great White Throne Judgment And How You Can Avoid It!"...

http://www.jesus-is-savior.com/BTP/i_never_knew_you.pdf

And here is a very excellent sermon by Pastor Curtis Hutson called: "The One Thing That Determines Salvation"...

http://www.jesusisprecious.org/sermons/printed/curtis_hutson/determines_salvation.htm

We are saved by looking TO Jesus. This is how people were saved in the Old Testament too. Isaiah 45:22, "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else." I just prayed for your mother that God would help her to understand the Gospel and that she would believe it to be saved. So your mother doesn't have to leave the Catholic religion to be saved, she just needs to stop trusting in it to Get to Heaven, and trust only Jesus instead.

I hope that helps my friend. I share your heavy burden for your mother. She is blessed to have a son who is concerned about her eternal fate. Here is a wonderful video by Pastor Ralph Yankee Arnold that perhaps your mother would watch called: "The Clear Gospel In 4 Minutes"...

https://youtu.be/Wh1VU-_OF98

Getting saved is simple, free and easy. God will save anybody who wholly rests in Jesus' name. No sin or religion can prevent salvation if there is genuine faith in the Savior.