In this clip, Cy Kellett welcomes Karlo Broussard to discuss whether someone who has never heard the gospel can be saved. Karlo explains the necessity of Christianity and how grace can reach those outside the faith.
Transcript:
Caller: I am not Catholic because I am from another religion. I’m from a Muslim family, a Sunni family of course. Okay. And I have been studying Christianity for like years and I’ve been talking to like a lot of Christians on the Internet about the topic of the Christian faith. Okay, well we’re glad to have you here. So I have like a question. Can a person who never hears the gospel be saved? And if so, what makes Christianity necessary? I hope clarification.
Karlo Broussard: Yeah, two excellent questions, Mustafa. First of all, let me just comment on your voice. That is a very cool, slick voice you got going on. Now to your first question. Is it possible for such a person to be saved? The answer is yes to your second question. Why is Christianity necessary? Because there is no access to the Father without the Son of God made flesh, Jesus Christ. Now those are short answers. Let me do my best, Ustafa, to unpack it a little bit here. So we given the revelation of Jesus and who he is as the God man, assuming that is the case, and we have historical verification of that and reason to believe that he is who he says he is as the God man, he teaches us that no one has access to the Father. This is John chapter 14, verse 6. Except through him, like only he can allow somebody, give somebody the power to be able to enter into the perfect union of friendship with God, the Father himself, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Okay, now insofar as we say it’s possible for someone to be saved when they’ve never heard of Jesus, the question arises, well, why is that so? And how do we explain that? Well, here’s the answer, Ustafa, for somebody who’s. Let’s assume that the person who’s never heard of Jesus, that they’re not responsible for their lack of knowledge about what Jesus has taught and what he has revealed. And let’s further assume that this individual is seeking the truth honestly in the ways that he knows how and is actually living in accord with whatever truths he comes to know and doing his best to try and live in accord with the order of good that he comes to know inscribed within his human nature. We call that the natural moral law. If that individual has such a fundamental orientation towards truth and goodness and beauty and he’s not responsible for his lack of knowledge concerning Jesus, then he is disposed in a way to receive from Jesus the power that is needed for that individual to be quote unquote saved and enter into what we call heaven. Now notice in that articulation, Ustafa, that quote unquote non Christian at least visibly non Christian is not being saved by some other person or some other thing. Rather, that individual is being saved by Jesus, but being saved outside the visible community of Christianity precisely because that individual receives this power from Jesus. We call that grace which at least unites the individual to Jesus in a mystical, invisible way, such that his inner friendship with Christ with that grace that Jesus is going to give him, is that in virtue of which he can spend the rest of his existence with Jesus, the Father and the Holy Spirit in what we call heaven. So why is Christianity necessary? It is necessary because only through Jesus we have access to the Father, but that Jesus can give his grace of salvation to people who are not responsible for their lack of visible unity with the Christian community, who are not responsible for their lack of knowledge about Jesus and what he has come to teach us. So this is why we can affirm those two truths. Yes, Jesus is necessary to enter heaven. And at the same time, it is possible for someone who’s not a Christian to be saved or with those certain assumptions in place. Any thoughts and response, Gustava?
Caller: First of all, the answer to the question is very helpful. So it was an honor that I contacted this program and this is my first time contacting. And by the way, I’ve been trying for like a long time, but I’m very, very, very happy that I took the chance. And God willing, if I have more questions, I will participate with you the next episode. So thank you very much for the answer. Very beneficial and very helpful. Thank you.
Karlo Broussard: All right, you’re welco friend. Thank you for calling and trusting us. And so here’s something you might want to check out. So there’s this. I don’t know if you know what this is or not, but we have sort of a doctrinal manual book as Catholics called the Catechism of the Catholic Church. You can access it for free online. If you type in and search Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 848, you can. You can read paragraphs 8, 48 and following and the Catechism USTAFA gives a nice summary or a synopsis of everything that I just articulated for you here on the air and then goes a little bit further beyond what I shared with you. So I would recommend you read that part of the Catechism of the Catholic Church and then also visit our website@catholic.com and you can type in the search engine no Salvation outside the Church. And then you’re going to get a plethora of resources where you can further your research in video format, audio format and written format.
Cy: So thanks again, Mustafa. God bless you, my friend, and thank you. I hope we do get to speak with you again. Sorry you had difficulty getting through to us. Carlo is very popular. It’s hard to get on with Carlos here. But look at that.Two lines are open.