Can individual Roman Catholics be saved?
This text is from a transcript of a talk by David Gooding, entitled ‘Finding Truth in our Modern Age’.
Well, to answer that question, sir, I would want to ask one or two more. I'd want to know, first of all, what individual Catholics you are talking about. There are Catholics who have put their faith solely in Christ and his work and do not offer the Mass as a sacrifice to obtain forgiveness of sins. I think such people are certainly saved, and I've met many of them, in fact.
But if you ask me about the doctrines of the Catholic church as enunciated by the curia,1 I have to say in all honesty that they seem to me frequently to contradict holy Scripture straight out. Take the matter of offering a sacrifice to get forgiveness of sins, as is plain they do from the Missal,2 at least our Irish Missal; and from the fact that they offer the sacrifice of the Masses for the Dead, so that they might be released from purgatory.
The New Testament says that if you meet anybody who continues to offer a sacrifice in order to get forgiveness of sins, that person has not yet a conscience made perfect (see Hebrews 9:9). Meaning, if they were sure that their sins were gone and they had complete acceptance with God now and forever, they would cease to offer sacrifices (see Hebrews 10:2). So if I find a Roman Catholic who offers the sacrifice of the Mass—or any other sacrifice for that matter, to get forgiveness of sins, then I do believe what the Bible says: here is a person who does not yet have a conscience made perfect.
In Bible studies with Catholics in their homes I have done my best many times to gently point them to holy Scripture, and to the wonder of God's salvation. Because Christ's sacrifice is enough to cover all our sins, the Bible says there is 'no longer [the process of] any offering for sin' (Hebrews 10:18).
There are several other things I would want to test in the Catholic Missal alongside of Scripture, and particularly in the official doctrine set out by the magisterium.3
1 Roman Curia, Latin Curia Romana, the group of various Vatican bureaus that assist the pope in the day-to-day exercise of his primatial jurisdiction over the Roman Catholic church.
2 A liturgical book containing all instructions and texts necessary for the celebration of Mass throughout the year.
3 The Magisterium of the Catholic Church: Defined as ‘the Church’s divinely appointed authority to teach the truths of religion’. Catholicessentials.net