The Death of Christ: Not All Men Are Saved

Not All Are Saved

Christ suffered and died on the cross to redeem us. It's true that Christ redeemed all people, even atheists, heretics, schismatics, infidels, pagans, perfidious Jews, but that doesn't mean all atheists,  heretics, schismatics, infidels, pagans, perfidious Jews, have accepted this gift or will be saved.  To say that he redeemed the whole world is not to conclude that all will be saved. The Church, following the apostles, teaches that Christ died for all men without exception: There is not, never has been, and never will be a single human being for whom Christ did not suffer. However in Catholic thought, Christ's redemptive sacrifice on the Cross is not the same thing as salvation. Salvation is the result of accepting Christ's redemption and applying it to our lives. Catholics know that Christ died for our sins but that we must receive that free gift by trusting in him, accepting his proposal of love, and following him with our life. 

Suppose you killed your friend's husband causing ₱ 980,000 in damage. You're taken to court, and the judge sentences you to forty years in prison for the crime. But then I burst in and tell the judge, "My name is Anthony. I'm this man's friend and I want to pay his penalty. Whatever it costs to make things right, I'll pay it." The judge agrees. Now even though I offer to pay the charge and "redeem" you, you still have a choice. You can either accept my offer and become a free man or you can reject my offer and choose to go to jail. The choice, of course, would be yours. Christ's redemption of all mankind is analogous to me paying off your ₱980,000 charge (to "redeem" literally means "to buy back" or "to restore.") Catholics understand that Christ paid the debt for every person, but we still must choose whether to accept that act of redemption, it's not forced on you. You make your choice by whom you give ultimate allegiance: God or yourself, selfless love or self-imposed prison.  Redemption is a proposal we must accept and salvation is the result. To attain eternal salvation, one should completely accept Christ's Church, the Holy Roman Catholic Church.

St. Augustine, Doctor and Father of the Church:

"Not all, nor even a majority, are saved. . . They are indeed many, if regarded by themselves, but they are few in comparison with the far larger number of those who shall be punished with the devil." 

St. Matthew 7:21 

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven."

Pope Alexander VII, Sollicitudo omnium Eccl., December 8, 1661: 

“… Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of our human race…” 

Pope Paul III, Council of Trent, Sess. 6, Ch. 3, 1547, Ex Cathedra: 

"But though He died for all, yet not all receive the benefit of His death, but only those whom the merit of His passion is imparted."

It’s a dogma that Jesus Christ’s Redemption destroyed or atoned or satisfied or made up for man’s sins – the sins of every man of all time. 

Pope Eugene IV, Council of Florence, “Cantate Domino” 1441, ex cathedra: 

“The Holy Roman Church firmly believes, professes, and teaches that no one conceived of man and woman was ever freed of the domination of the Devil, except through the merit of the mediator between God and men, our Lord Jesus Christ; He who was conceived without sin, was born and died, THROUGH HIS DEATH ALONE LAID LOW THE ENEMY OF THE HUMAN RACE BY DESTROYING OUR SINS, and opened the entrance to the kingdom of heaven, which the first man by his own sin had lost with all succession…” 

Jesus destroyed every man’s sins in terms of a propitiation or atonement, so that every sin that would be forgiven was already forgiven by Jesus Christ and what He did on the Cross.

When a man believes, is baptized and justified, it’s the merit of Christ’s Passion that is imparted or applied to Him; for Christ made up for and destroyed the sins of every man on the Cross. 

St. Paul, 1 Timothy 2:6- 

“[Jesus Christ] Who gave himself a redemption for all, a testimony in due times.” 

St. John 1:29

“… Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who taketh away the sin of the world.” 

Christ takes away the sin of the world – the whole world. He freed mankind from sin, but not all receive the benefits of that Redemption. To put it another way, the fruits of the Redemption are not individually realized or actualized in all men. Only those who are incorporated into Christ receive the merits of the Passion.

Regional Council of Quiersy, 853, Chap. 4.

“Christ Jesus our Lord, as no man who is or has been or ever will be whose nature will not have been assumed in Him, so there is, has been, or will be no man, for whom He has not suffered- although not all will be saved by the mystery of His passion. But because all are not redeemed by the mystery of His passion, He does not regard the greatness and the fullness of the price, but He regards the part of the unfaithful ones and those not believing in faith those things which He has worked through love[ Gal. 5:6], because the drink of human safety, which has been prepared by our infirmity and by divine strength, has indeed in itself that it may be beneficial to all; but if it is not drunk, it does not heal. 

To them, the Redemption referred to the propitiation (the atonement or appeasement) that Christ made on the Cross for the sins of every man. As a result, they taught that all men were redeemed because all men’s sins were included in the atonement of the Cross. At the same time, they made it clear that not all receive the individual application of those merits which were won by Christ unless they cooperate with grace. 

Pope Eugene IV, Council of Florence, “Cantate Domino,” 1441, ex cathedra:
“The Holy Roman Church firmly believes, professes and preaches that all those who are outside the Catholic Church, not only pagans but also Jews or heretics and schismatics, cannot share in eternal life and will go into the everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels, unless they are joined to the Church before the end of their lives; that the unity of this ecclesiastical body is of such importance that only for those who abide in it do the Church’s sacraments contribute to salvation and do fasts, almsgiving and other works of piety and practices of the Christian militia produce eternal rewards; and that nobody can be saved, no matter how much he has given away in alms and even if he has shed blood in the name of Christ, unless he has persevered in the bosom and unity of the Catholic Church.”

The Word of Consecration 

In The Traditional Latin Mass

The traditional form of consecration, as declared by the Catholic Church, is as follows: 

Pope Eugene IV, Council of Florence, Cantate Domino, 1441: 

“…the holy Roman Church, relying on the teaching and authority of the apostles Peter and Paul… uses this form of words in the consecration of the Lord’s Body: FOR THIS IS MY BODY. And of His blood: FOR THIS IS THE CHALICE OF MY BLOOD, OF THE NEW AND ETERNAL TESTAMENT: THE MYSTERY OF FAITH, WHICH SHALL BE SHED FOR YOU AND FOR MANY UNTO THE REMISSION OF SINS.“

First, the word "many" was used by Jesus Christ to institute the sacrament of the Holy Mass on Holy Thursday.

St. Matthew 26:28: 

“For this is my blood of the new testament, which shall be shed for many unto remission of sins.”

The words used by Our Lord, “for many unto remission of sins,” represent the efficacy of the blood that Jesus shed. Jesus’s blood is effective for the salvation of many, not all men. In the process of explaining this, The Catechism of the Council of Trent specifically states that Our Lord did not mean “all” and therefore didn’t say it!

The Catechism of the Council of Trent, On the Form of the Eucharist, p. 227: 

“The additional words for you and for many, are taken, some from Matthew, some from Luke, but were joined together by the Catholic Church under the guidance of the Spirit of God. They serve to declare the fruit and advantage of His Passion. For if we look to its value, we must confess that the Redeemer shed His Blood for the salvation of all; but if we look to the fruit which mankind has received from it, we shall easily find that it pertains not unto all, but to many of the human race. When therefore (our Lord) said: For you, He meant either those who were present, or those chosen from among the Jewish people, such as were, with the exception of Judas, the disciples with whom He was speaking. When He added, And for many, He wished to be understood to mean the remainder of the elect from among the Jews and Gentiles. WITH REASON, THEREFORE, WERE THE WORDS FOR ALL NOT USED, as in this place the fruits of the Passion are alone spoken of, and to the elect only did His Passion bring the fruit of salvation.”

As we can see, according to The Catechism of the Council of Trent the words “for all” were specifically not used by Our Lord because they would give a false meaning. 

St. Alphonsus De Liguori, Treatise on the Holy Eucharist: 

“The words for you and for many are used to distinguish the virtue of the Blood of Christ from its fruits: for the Blood of Our Savior is of sufficient value to save all men but its fruits are applied only to a certain number and not to all, and this is their own fault…”

After Vatican II, in the New Mass, the words “for you and for many unto the remission of sins” have been changed to "for you and for all so that sins may be forgiven." The word “many” has been removed and replaced with the word “all.” The Novus Ordo Church changed it because they erroneously teach that all mean are saved.

Novus Ordo Missal:

“For this is my body. For this is the chalice of my blood, of the new and eternal testament. It shall be shed for you and FOR ALL SO THAT SINS MAY BE FORGIVEN.”

The use of “all” changes the meaning of the form of consecration. No one, not even a pope, can change the words that Jesus Christ specifically instituted for a sacrament of the Church. 

Pope Pius XII, Sacramentum Ordinis (# 1), Nov. 30, 1947: 

“…the Church has no power over the ‘substance of the sacraments,’ that is, over those things which, with the sources of divine revelation as witnesses, Christ the Lord Himself decreed to be preserved in a sacramental sign…”

Since “all” doesn’t mean the same thing as “many,” the sacrament is not confected in the New Mass. A sacrament is said to be valid if it takes place. The Mass is valid if the bread and wine become the actual Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ.  In order for any sacrament to be valid, matter, form, minister and intention must be present. 

Pope Eugene IV, Council of Florence, 1439: 

“All these sacraments are made up of three elements: namely, things as the matter, words as the form, and the person of the minister who confers the sacrament with the intention of doing what the Church does. If any of these is lacking, the sacrament is not effected.”

We cannot deny the fact that the New Mass of Vatican II is not a Catholic Mass because it is invalid. The Novus Ordo Church changed the form of the consecration, those words necessary to confect the Sacrament of the Eucharist. In the New Mass the form or the words of consecration have been drastically changed, and the meaning has been altered. The teaching of the Catholic Church states that if the words of consecration are changed so that the meaning is altered, the priest does not confect the Sacrament. 

Pope St. Pius V, De Defectibus, chapter 5, Part 1:

“The words of Consecration, which are the FORM of this Sacrament, are these: FOR THIS IS MY BODY. And: FOR THIS IS THE CHALICE OF MY BLOOD, OF THE NEW AND ETERNAL TESTAMENT: THE MYSTERY OF FAITH, WHICH SHALL BE SHED FOR YOU AND FOR MANY UNTO THE REMISSION OF SINS. Now if one were to remove, or change anything in the FORM of the consecration of the Body and Blood, and in that very change of words the [new] wording would fail to mean the same thing, he would not consecrate the sacrament.”

Therefore, a Catholic cannot attend the New “Mass” under pain of mortal sin. Those who persist in doing so are committing idolatry (worshipping a piece of bread). Jesus Christ is not present there. The host is merely a piece of bread, not Our Lord’s Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. The New Mass is not merely doubtful, it is invalid, since it does not signify the grace it is supposed to effect. It is an abomination, which falsifies the words of Jesus Christ and the Catholic Faith. And most of the Novus Ordo “priests” celebrating the New "Mass" are invalid anyway.

 St. Luke 13:23-24  

"Lord, are they few that are saved? But he said to them: Strive to enter by the narrow gate; for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able."