Outside The Church There Is No Salvation

Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus. "Outside the Church there is no salvation."

Who wrote this? Pope Benedict? Hardly. While long thought to be a Catholic doctrine due to its repetition throught out the ages by 4th Latern Council, the Papal Bull Unum Sanctum and most recently by Pope Benedict XVI, the origins of this doctrine are much, much earlier and are surprisingly Christian.

Scripturally, this ancient Christian doctrine is based on John 15 and the metaphor of the vine and the branches. Recall that from the earliest days the Church was beset with imitators trying to cash in on the Christian movement in an attempt to make a fast shekel. The first centuries of the Church would see the introduction of dozens of attractive heresies which lured many Christians far from the faith of the Apostles. The early Church wrote often on the unity of the Church and the need to remain in the one true Church handed on from the Apostles.

Today, few Christians outside the ancient Churches have bothered to read the early Church fathers. For if they had, they would have found among them these doctrinal statements:

"Be not deceived, my brethren: If anyone follows a maker of schism [i.e., is a schismatic], he does not inherit the kingdom of God; if anyone walks in strange doctrine [i.e., is a heretic], he has no part in the passion [of Christ]. Take care, then, to use one Eucharist, so that whatever you do, you do according to God: For there is one flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ, and one cup in the union of his blood; one altar, as there is one bishop, with the presbytery and my fellow servants, the deacons"

Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Philadelphians [A.D. 110]

"In the Church God has placed apostles, prophets, teachers, and every other working of the Spirit, of whom none of those are sharers who do not conform to the Church, but who defraud themselves of life by an evil mind and even worse way of acting. Where the Church is, there is the Spirit of God; where the Spirit of God is, there is the Church and all grace".

Irenaeus, Against Heresies [A.D. 189]

"If someone from this people wants to be saved, let him come into this house so that he may be able to attain his salvation. . . . Let no one, then, be persuaded otherwise, nor let anyone deceive himself: Outside of this house, that is, outside of the Church, no one is saved"; for, if anyone should go out of it, he is guilty of his own death".

Origen, Homilies on Joshua 3:5 [A.D. 250]

"Let them not think that the way of life or salvation exists for them, if they have refused to obey the bishops and priests, since the Lord says in the book of Deuteronomy: ‘And any man who has the insolence to refuse to listen to the priest or judge, whoever he may be in those days, that man shall die’ [Deut. 17:12]. And then, indeed, they were killed with the sword . . . but now the proud and insolent are killed with the sword of the Spirit, when they are cast out from the Church. For they cannot live outside, since there is only one house of God, and there can be no salvation for anyone except in the Church"

Cyprian of Carthage, Letters 61 [A.D. 253]

"When we say, ‘Do you believe in eternal life and the remission of sins through the holy Church?’ we mean that remission of sins is not granted except in the Church"

Cyprian of Carthage, Letters 61 [A.D. 253]

"[O]utside the Church there is no Holy Spirit, sound faith moreover cannot exist, not alone among heretics, but even among those who are established in schism".

Cyprian of Carthage, Treatise on Rebaptism [A.D. 256]

So, if your church does not hold and teach this ancient Christian doctrine, why not?


Source: Salvation Outside the Church