[quote:30y82o0n]Naturally, nothing will overcome the Church of Christ. Did Christ establish the Roman Catholic Church? Perhaps indirectly, I believe so. Who is the Church? Is it only those who belong to the outward institution of the Roman Catholic Church? Roman Catholics should stick to believing what is given to them by those they place their trust in. The Roman Catholic Church believes salvation is possible outside the Roman Catholic Church. The Roman Catholic Church became an external vehicle of an internal faith. The internal faith community of the Church had withstood persecution for a long time prior to the Roman Catholic Church. When the Church decided to become an external institution (churchstate) many good things resulted but many bad things as well. [/quote:30y82o0n]

[color=darkblue:30y82o0n]Me thinks you are seeing The Church of Christ as a sorta of subjective unidentified group of believers. The Catholic Church isn’t just a Church amongst many, but rather it is the Church of Christ. Perhaps the focus on the word [b:30y82o0n]Roman[/b:30y82o0n] is what throws people off. It is a rite and also a province on a larger scale. It is identifiable, tangible, subjective, objective, and spiritual all in One. But it is certainly [b:30y82o0n]not just[/b:30y82o0n] a collection of unidentified belivers that may or may not be like-minded.

And on another note the Catholic Church does not believe that there will be Non-Catholics in heaven. For everyone in heaven will be catholic. Thanks be to God. The confusion comes in on whether those in heaven were catholic while on earth. One thing is for sure, they had Grace in their soul at the time of death. Whether they called themselves catholic or were even part of the Catholic Church is uncertain. That is only something known to God himself. I usually explain it to my students by saying “they are catholic, they just don’t know they are”. There are some Protestants that have gotten to a point in their spiritual life that their theology is so catholic that they may not even be aware of it. What prohibits them from joining the Catholic Church is again something only known to God and I’m sure we all trust his wisdom in doing so.[/color:30y82o0n]