Ralph Martin Responds to Bishop Barron on the Salvation of Non-Christians

Hello brothers and sisters this is  Ralph Martin from Renewal Ministries   and a professor at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in  the Archdiocese of Detroit and I’d like to offer a   few comments today on a sermon that Bishop Robert  Barron recently gave on the possibility of people   being saved who weren't explicitly Christians  friends have been sending this to me and I   think also Father Mark Goring has just recently  commented on it in a really good way and I just   like to add a few reflections I do this with full  respect for Bishop Barron admiration for him as a   Bishop who's so dedicated to preaching the gospel  and engaging contemporary culture I offer this as   some thoughts to reflection as we as a Church  try to get clear on this really important area   to summarize um Bishop Barron's sermon which we'll  provide a link for at the bottom of this video   he talks about a text from Acts chapter 4 where  Saint Peter says there is no no salvation through   anyone else nor is there any other name under  heaven given to the human race by which we are   to be saved and very admirably he says you know  this is an uncomfortable text for many people in   our culture today and let's not kind of explain  it away let's kind of stick with it and let's   try to understand what it says and then he asked  a very sensible question does that mean unless   you explicitly know and follow Jesus you can't  be saved and he gives a very correct answer no   and then he kind of slightly changes the wording  that Saint Peter uses that he says the fullness   of salvation is offered in Jesus but people in  other religions and religious philosophies and   no religions can participate in the salvation  when they respond to the truth goodness and   beauty that they encounter in the systems  that they populate in their situations   but he also mentions how John Henry Cardinal  Newman who's been recently canonized as a Saint was a the hidden influence on Vatican  II talked about how our conscience is   the aboriginal Vicar of Christ in our  soul and when we follow our conscience   what our conscience tells us is right when we  follow what our conscience tells us is right   or wrong we are following the voice of Christ now  both Bishop Barron and myself are firm defenders   of Vatican II we think that the riches of Vatican  II have yet to be fully implemented or explored   and the various misinterpretations of Vatican  II appeals to its spirit apart from its letter   uh are are really inadequate and and off the point  in that this is a legitimate authentic Ecumenical   Council of the Church which has tremendously  fruitful truth there for us that has yet been   realized now Bishop Barron is also very clear by  saying I’m not saying all will be saved but that   people can be saved apart from explicit knowledge  of faith in Jesus Christ so and then he says that   in order to really see what the Catholic Church  teaches about this precisely take a look at   a text from the constitution on the Church  from Vatican II called Lumen Gentium: Light   of the Nations and particularly section 16. now  this text is a particular interest to me because   when I was getting drawn back into the  academic life and began teaching at Sacred   Heart Seminary little by little the Seminary  kept suggesting I get another advanced degree   and finally they asked would you be  willing to go to Rome and get a doctorate   and I said I’d be willing to do that if  I could work on a particular issue that   I think is very important for the Church today  and that's the issue of practical universalism   the way I would describe it was that many of our  fellow Catholics have drifted into a mentality   where this is how they look at the world today  broad and wide is the way that leads to heaven   and almost everybody's going that way narrow is  the door that leads to hell and hardly anybody's   going that way and of course hopefully most  of you know what's wrong with this picture   it's directly the opposite of what Jesus himself  says Matthew chapter 7 verses 13 and 14 Jesus says   broad and wide is the way that leads to  destruction and many are traveling that way   narrow is the door that leads to heaven difficult  to road and few there are who are finding it now   we know this isn't how God wants it to be we know  from first Thessalonians chapter 2 that God wills   the whole human race to be saved and come to  a knowledge of the truth we also know there   needs to be a response to the grace God gives to  people for their salvation the question now is   how does this happen or how can it happen  for people who haven't heard the gospel   and that's what Lumen Gentium 16 talks about  Father Goring in his uh goring Father Mark   Goring from the Companions of the Cross in  his response to Bishop Barron said he agrees   he agrees a 100% with 80% of what Bishop Barron  says that he basically did an excellent job of   representing and showing all the texts in many  of the texts of scripture that talk about the   absolute claims of Jesus to uniquely be the source  of salvation for the whole world so I think Father   Goring has done a good job on that I’d like to  devote the remaining part of this short talk and   short response to Bishop Barron's sermon to actual  a closer examination of Lumen Gentium section 16   because when I decided to go to Rome I decided  that that was the key text that I wanted to   study and I actually published a book based on  it after I got my doctorate it's called “Will   Many be Saved? What Vatican II Actually Teaches  and its Implications for the New Evangelization”   and there's a lot of a lot of good stuff in  this book for those who want to go into the   issue more it talks about development of doctrine  in the Catholic Church how the Church has come to   understand that outside the Church there's no  salvation it goes into some of the theological   theories that people like Karl Rahner and Hans Urs  von Balthasar have sort of submitted as a guidance   to this issue but uh the key of it is what in  fact does the Catholic Church teach today about it   and that is found in Lumen Gentium number 16.  For those who don't want quite as technical   uh approach to it as that book is I wrote  a more popular book called "The Urgency of   the New Evangelization" which also deals with  Lumen Gentium16 in a sort of summary way so   uh one of the things that led me to  make this response was not just people   kind of asking me to but also I read some of the  comments in the in the YouTube channel on chat box   where people responded to Bishop Barron's talk  and it did seem like whether it was fair or not   a number of the comments were drifting in  the direction of that false understanding of   it's easy to drift into the kingdom of God  and it's really hard to choose to go to hell   and and that's just not what either the  gospel says or the Church actually teaches so   uh I agree with Bishop Barron that Lumen  Gentium 16 is the key text but I really do   think that there's some things in that text that  Bishop Barron hasn't brought out adequately or   clearly enough that are absolutely essential for  understanding what the Church in fact teaches so   let's take a look at the text I’m going to take  the translation here from the documents of Vatican   II the general editor Austin Flannery is one of  the most popular and widely accepted translations   here's what it says, "Those who through  no fault of their own do not know the   gospel of Christ or his Church but who  nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart   and move by grace [excuse me] try in their  actions to do his will as they know it through   the dictates of their conscience these too may  achieve eternal salvation." Now this part of   the document and the preceding part is quoted  by almost everybody who talks about this issue   however very little attention is paid to what  actually the conditions are that need to be there   to make it possible for somebody to be saved without hearing the gospel and hardly anybody ever   I mean this literally that's quite shocking to me  some of the greatest theologians who write on this   issue completely ignore the last three sentences  and we'll get to that in a few minutes let's kind   of ask ourselves what are these conditions  that the Church is saying needs to be there   for the possibility of people being  saved who don't explicitly know Christ or   his gospel the first thing is in culpable  ignorance people who not because of their own   fault haven't heard the gospel now that implies  that it is possible to be culpably ignorant   of the gospel you know I I know some of us  have the common experience for example of   inviting a friend to hear a talk say Scott Hahn  comes to town or even Bishop Barron comes to town   and and we want a fallen away Catholic or lukewarm  Catholic to come and hear more about the beauties   of the faith and how great it is to be a Catholic  and uh they say no and it may not just be because   they're busy or whatever but sometimes people know  what they are going to hear and they don't want to   challenge their worldview they don't want to have  to kind of confront maybe sometimes even sin or   darkness or deception in their life so the first  condition is inculpable ignorance of the gospel   now one of the comments in response to Bishop  Barron's sermon was from somebody who's from an   academic environment and who's around people who  verbally express their hatred for Christianity she   talked about how Bishop Barron's sermon helped her  to uh not not be critical of these people and to   love them and that that's that's really important  that we need to love our enemies bless those who   persecute us we're never going to win anybody  to Christ if we don't really love them and have   a concern for their well-being we don't want to  kind of descend into ideological commitments or   the imperialism that that Bishop Barron warned  against however we should be very concerned   about people who say they hate Christianity now  maybe they're inculpably ignorant of Christianity   but maybe they're not maybe know exactly who  Christ is and exactly what he teaches and they   hate him and hate the Church now this is becoming  quite a common uh viewpoint in our culture   our culture is quickly becoming not just  post-Christian but anti-Christian and is   actually I think demonically inspired hatred  for Christ in his Church and so we can't presume   that people who say they hate Christianity  are incompletely ignorant we can't presume   that they are either only God knows somebody's  culpability but we should be very concerned for   everybody's salvation and not presume that  everything's okay the second condition is   nevertheless people who are inculpably ignorance  of the gospel are seeking God with a sincere heart now one of the things that Jesus  said that when he returns again   and he talks about this in Matthew 24 he says  people are going to be buying and selling eating   and drinking marrying and giving in marriage right  up into the day just like it was a Noah’s day just   right up into the day when people entered the  ark and the flood came and destroyed them all   so Jesus in this text isn't saying that because  evil was so great you know the flood came and   destroyed them all that's the case but  he talked about the condition of people   and their indifference they're going on with  business as usual concerned only with the things   of this world yet the Lord expects people to  want to know who he is and to sincerely seek him   what's the basis for this the basis of one  of the basics for this is Romans chapter 1   where scripture says God has revealed  himself to everybody on the face of the earth   and that everybody by looking at the creation can  deduce that there's a creator and needs to have   a desire to know what the will of the creator is  what the purpose is for creating us and what human   life is all about we need to be sincerely seeking  God wanting to know who he is now obviously that   isn't always fulfilled there's a lot of people who  aren't sincerely seeking God who are indifferent   just like Jesus talks about in Matthew 24. the  third condition is move by grace try in their   actions to do his will as they know it through the  dictates of their conscience those two may achieve   eternal salvation so just like Bishop Barron says  this isn't a guarantee of salvation this says it's   a possibility the possibility to rest on these  conditions being fulfilled in culpable ignorance   of the gospel sincerely seeking God and acting  on the light that God is giving to our conscience   now I need to say something here about  conscience Bishop Barron pointed out that uh   he quoted Cardinal Newman that our conscience  is the aboriginal vicar of Christ and when we   respond to what our conscience is telling us is  right or wrong we're responding to Christ himself   now I think we need to add some things there  conscience can often be corrupted we can have   bad consciences and what our conscience is telling  us isn't the voice of Christ uh we can rationalize   our behavior we can uh we can be brainwashed we  know we can uh in so many ways our conscience   may not be what we call our conscience can't be  a reliable guide to the truth we need to really   kind of recover our true conscience one of the  things that the Catechism the Catholic Church says   and I have the text right here this is another  book it's called “A Church in Crisis” and it   talks about the confusion of the Church right now  and how to get our heads clear but in chapter six   it's called "Is Anyone Responsible?" and uh this  is the question about culpability we're living in   a culture where more and more nobody's responsible  everybody's sincerely doing what they think is   right which isn't the case at all and one of the  things that the catechism says in section 1860   no one is deemed to be ignorant of the  principles of the moral law which are   written in the conscience of every man you know  everybody knows that in some way before maybe   their conscience has been deformed that uh it's  wrong to kill people that it's uh wrong to steal   it's wrong to commit adultery uh the scripture  here is telling us that the Church is telling us   in Lumen Gentium 16 it's wrong not to be seeking  God so these are pretty stiff requirements   uh and and they're not to be presumed  that everybody who doesn't know Christ is   cooperating with the mysterious grace he gives  uh to be known even when his name is not known   and what Bishop Barron says it's absolutely true  that through through our experience of love or   truth or beauty we can be receiving grace from  Christ and if we yield to that grace we can have   salvation affected in our life you know as Bishop  as Father Mark Goring pointed out there isn't like   a middle stage of participating in salvation  we're either saved or not saved and so these   rays of light these aspects of truth that we find  in uh religious philosophies or other religions   can be a doorway for us to receive grace and light  that God is giving us but there's an important   footnote in Lumen Gentium 16 to and it refers to  the letter of the Holy Office to the father to the   Archbishop of Boston concerning the Father Feeney  case and what that basically says is not just any   kind of metaphysical faith "oh yeah I believe in  God that saves us" it's not just any kind of good   will and and you know principles of morality that  saves us but what saves us is a response to grace   there needs to be supernatural faith faith that's  born in us by saying yes to a light that God's   giving us which implies in it a surrender to  the one who's enlighten us so surrender to God   which births supernatural faith in our soul  we also need to have supernatural charity   without supernatural faith or supernatural  charity we can't be saved so it isn't just   "oh yeah I believe in God" but it's a response a  personal response to a light that we're receiving   we may not know where it's coming from we may not  know the name of Jesus but we're saying yes to   something deep in our soul that God is giving us  that does does take away original sin, or it can.   So the big problem though in in I think how  Lumen Gentium 16 was used in this sermon   is that it doesn't talk about the last  three sentences which are so important and   unless you talk about the last three sentences  you're distorting what the Church is teaching   here's the last three sentences "But  very often, deceived by the evil one,   human beings have become foolish in their thinking  and have exchanged the truth of God for a lie and   worshipped the creature rather than the creator  there's an exact reference to Romans chapter one   right there in the text of Vatican II or else  living and dying in this world without God they're   exposed to ultimate despair therefore to procure  the glory of God and the salvation of all these."   So whose salvation is the Church concerned about  here? People who haven't heard the gospel but   maybe are not inculpably ignorant maybe they're  not sincerely seeking God maybe they're not really   living according to the light of their conscience  but they're living according to the brainwashing   of the culture or the rationalizations of  their own disordered desires from original sin   so these people the Church is concerned about  their salvation "Therefore to procure the   glory of God and the salvation of all these  the Church mindful of the Lord's command to   preach the gospel to every creature takes zealous  care to carry out its mission of evangelization."   Now what's being said here is that we're  not living in a neutral environment   that all of us have been deeply impacted  by original sin believers and unbelievers   Buddhists Hindus Muslims Christians atheists we've  all been deeply impacted by original sin and have   disordered desires and a tendency  to do things that aren't right   and and a weakened will and we're all  susceptible to the deceived deceits of   the devil and and we know that the devil is  like a roaring lion seeking whom he to devour   all day long he's firing fiery darts into the  soul of every person on the face of the earth   and if we don't have the help the explicit help  of Christ and the Church the explicit help of   knowing exactly what God's will is what we must  do to be saved that we find in sacred scripture   the tradition of the Church and the magisterium  if we don't have that it's so easy to be deceived   it's so easy to give in to disorder desires  it's so easy to believe the lies of the devil so   I checked out the original Latin where it says  yes very often very often people are deceived   by the evil one and in to disordered desires and  so it's really urgent that we preach the gospel   you know sometimes people say wouldn't people  be better off if they don't hear the gospel   then they won't be culpable for the response  they make or the lack of response they make   no not at all people who haven't heard the gospel  are in tremendous danger it's like the Church   says here "Very often they become deceived by the  evil one and exchange the truth of God for a lie   become foolish in their thinking" and that is sure  true of the environment that we're living in today   so we should take every opportunity through  prayer through fasting through personal witness   through invitations through sharing books uh  inviting people to watch YouTube videos uh  to to invite them to faith because they're in  tremendous danger so even though it's possible  for people to be saved without hearing the  gospel it's very difficult it's very difficult   and people are far better off to explicitly come  to faith in Jesus Christ and life in the Church   so uh with with all due respect I hope this  contributes to the conversation about what   the Church teaches about this area what the truth  is in this area and I hope as a as a body uh we   can overcome some of the divisions and and pray  for a Church that's more at peace and more one   not a fake peace not a fake unity but one based  on the full counsel of God everything that Jesus   revealed to us and everything that the Church  teaches so God bless you all if you'd like more   resources to explore what we've been talking  about here today uh every week Peter Herbeck my   colleague and myself post a new video we talk  about a lot of these issues all the time so   just go to the subscribe button and click on  subscribe and click on the bell next to it and   we'll let you know about our new weekly  videos or you can go to renewalministries.net   and sign up for a free monthly newsletter or order  any of the books I mentioned here or anything else   that you might find of use or help so God bless  you, God bless Bishop Barron, God bless us all

Channel: Renewal Ministries

Views: 153,111

Keywords: Christianity, Jesus, Christ, Evangelism, Mission, Spirituality, Evangelization, Religion, Catholic, Church, God, Trinity

Id: pHNfybpGrxc

Length: 22min 44sec (1364 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 26 2021