The following "Question" was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, and "Answered" by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed from the tape, GC 1300, titled "Bible Questions and Answers."  A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or by dialing toll free 1-800-55-GRACE.

Question

Will people who accept Christ but remain Catholic be saved?

Answer

Well, I’ll answer it this way: it does not say in the Bible that if a man is not a Catholic, he shall be saved. You could be an anything, religiously, and be saved!

And I would take opportunity just to make a statement in this area. Frequently, as I teach I’ll mention, like I mentioned somebody tonight or I’ll mention the group of people like the Mormons or 7th Day Adventists or Jehovah’s Witnesses or Roman Catholics and so forth, and when I do that, I am not intending to slight the individual people. I am not trying to be unkind and unloving and indifferent and rude and crude and judgmental on the individual people; I merely take the opportunity to illustrate to you points of truth and error because I feel that’s my responsibility as a teacher of the Scripture, before the Lord.

From time to time, it is necessary in our instruction to bring out certain areas of error in Roman Catholic theology. We have said in the past from time to time that a person could not really be a true, historic Catholic (in the full sense of the word) and also be a Christian because truly being a Roman Catholic, their whole area of theology is not compatible with salvation by pure and simple act of grace on the part of God. But, you could be a Christian and a poor Catholic, frankly. And there are some wonderful Christian people who remain in a Catholic framework. That is not an issue of salvation. I think, eventually, that can become a problem if you don’t get the feeding of the Word of God; it can retard your growth.

But, yes. The question is answered simply, yes, a person could remain a Catholic and still be saved. You could remain in anything, but the chances are if you really get plugged into what Christ is doing and you really see the Word of God as it ought to be, you’re going to gravitate to somewhere where you’re going to hear what you ought to hear.

I’m thankful to God for what’s going on, in some sense, in Catholic circles where the new liberty that the Catholics are enjoying, as things have been breaking down since Pope John kind of eased up everything, is creating more of a personal interest on the part of priests and nuns as well as people, to search the scriptures and see the truth. I’m thankful to God for that.

Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "MacArthur’s Questions and Answers" by:

Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
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