Do the unbaptized go to Heaven?

The Gospels present to us various passages that, when looked at together, gives us a sense of whether or not Baptism is necessary for salvation. In one passage, Jesus says, “No one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and spirit” (Jn 3:5). A second passage is Jesus’ words of His Ascension: “The one who believes and is baptized will be saved; but the one who does not believe will be condemned.” (Mk 16:16). From the two passages we can see that salvation is the combination of baptism and believing. Those who learn of Christ’s gospel and purposely reject it are rejecting eternal life. . .

The First Letter of John 4:7 tells us that “everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.” Here the gift of salvation comes to us in loving. Also, in Matthew 25, we have the great scene of the Last Judgment, where people are saved because they ministered to Christ in the poor and the hungry, even though they might not even have been aware of Christ’s presence. Salvation here comes because of kind action. It seems then, that we can say that baptism combined with believing is certainly one of the means to salvation, but not the only means. In Gods goodness, there are other roads that can lead us into the kingdom. God’s mercy and goodness are not limited to the sacrament of baptism…….

Excerpted from Dear Padre, copyright (c) 2003 . Used with permission of Liguori Publications, Liguori, MO 63057 .
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