Kepha, yes or no will suffice.
A yes or no will not suffice. It's a complicated topic that actually requires a little reading, that you obviously cannot or will not do. I've spoon fed you the answers, it's just not the answers you expected. This is from post # 609 that gives the reformulation of
Extra ecclesiam nulla salus that you have decided to re-define it to force fit into your agenda.. Once again:
817 In fact, "in this one and only Church of God from its very beginnings there arose certain rifts, which the Apostle strongly censures as damnable. But in subsequent centuries much more serious dissensions appeared and large communities became separated from full communion with the Catholic Church - for which, often enough, men of both sides were to blame."269
The ruptures that wound the unity of Christ's Body - here we must distinguish heresy, apostasy, and schism270
- do not occur without human sin:
Where there are sins, there are also divisions, schisms, heresies, and disputes. Where there is virtue, however, there also are harmony and unity, from which arise the one heart and one soul of all believers.271
818 "However, one cannot charge with the sin of the separation those who at present are born into these communities [that resulted from such separation] and in them are brought up in the faith of Christ, and the Catholic Church accepts them with respect and affection as brothers . . . . All who have been justified by faith in Baptism are incorporated into Christ; they therefore have a right to be called Christians, and with good reason are accepted as brothers in the Lord by the children of the Catholic Church."272
819 "Furthermore, many elements of sanctification and of truth"273 are found outside the visible confines of the Catholic Church: "the written Word of God; the life of grace; faith, hope, and charity, with the other interior gifts of the Holy Spirit, as well as visible elements."274
Christ's Spirit uses these Churches and ecclesial communities as means of salvation, whose power derives from the fullness of grace and truth that Christ has entrusted to the Catholic Church. All these blessings come from Christ and lead to him,275
and are in themselves calls to "Catholic unity."276
CCC
Post #618 that you also ignored or can't comprehend:
Those trying to grasp the meaning of this teaching often struggle with its formulations by various Church Fathers and Church Councils down through history. Of course, to understand an isolated formulation of any Church teaching,
one must study the historical context within which it was written:
why it was written,
what was going on in the Church at the time,
who the intended audience was, and so on. (anti-Catholics can only quote out of these contexts)
One must discover how the magisterium (teaching office) of the Church understands its own teaching. If someone fails to do this and chooses, rather, to simply treat a particular formulation as a stand-alone teaching, he runs the risk of seriously misunderstanding it. (what phoneman does)
In recent times, the Church has recognized that its teaching about the necessity of the Catholic Church for salvation has been widely misunderstood, so it has "re-formulated" this teaching in a positive way. Here is how the
Catechism of the Catholic Church begins to address this topic:
"How are we to understand this affirmation, often repeated by the Church Fathers? Reformulated positively, it means that all salvation comes from Christ the Head through the Church which is his Body" (CCC 846).
TW, it is utterly impossible that MY Bible is based on YOUR church, for YOUR church would never have written a book which exposes the Papacy as the Antichrist, which is the case with MY Bible.
