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Is the Catholic Church a CULT?

<div>Would God for some reason rescind a person's salvation? </div><div><p>To be clear, if someone falls out of grace and ultimately goes to hell, it’s the person’s fault, not God’s. God will judge us accordingly for such unrepentant mortal sin, but we will have refused God’s gift of salvation:</p>
<blockquote><p>We cannot be united with God unless we freely choose to love him. But we cannot love God if we sin gravely against him, against our neighbor or against ourselves: &#8220;He who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.&#8221;<sup>612</sup> Our Lord warns us that we shall be separated from him if we fail to meet the serious needs of the poor and the little ones who are his brethren.<sup>613</sup></p>
<blockquote><p><em>To die in mortal sin without repenting and accepting God&#8217;s merciful love means remaining separated from him for ever by our own free choice</em>. This state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed is called &#8220;hell&#8221; (<a href="http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p123a12.htm">CCC 1033</a>, emphasis added).</p></blockquote>
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<p>For more on this subject, <a href="https://www.catholic.com/search?q=salvation">please see our various online resources</a>.</p>
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Losing My Religion (and Salvation)

<div>How did the polar bears and penguins reach Noah’s ark?</div><div><p>That’s a good question. The answer depends on what actually happened in history.</p>
<p>The Catholic Church does not prohibit interpretations of Genesis 6-8 that include a worldwide flood, but neither does the Church require there to be a worldwide flood in all interpretations of these passages. Instead, according to Pope Pius XII, “in simple and metaphorical language adapted to the mentality of a people but little cultured,” the first eleven chapters of Genesis “both state the principal truths which are fundamental for our salvation, and also give a popular description of the origin of the human race and the chosen people” (<em>Humani Generis</em> 38).</p>
<p>Consequently, the flood could be understood as impacting the entire world, or possibly a large region of the world. If it did impact the entire world, animals in distant regions would likely have been miraculously transported to the ark.</p>
<p>On the other hand, if the flood was more regional, a view which has gained increasing traction in recent centuries because of scientific findings, then all the animals of the world would not have been destroyed, and thus polar bears and penguins would not have been affected.</p>
<p>For more on this topic, please see this <a href="https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/a-catholic-perspective-on-a-new-attraction">article</a> in <em>Catholic Answer Magazine Online</em>.</p>
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Two Views of the Flood

<div>What is the Church’s teaching on atonement?</div><div><p>The eminent theologian Ludwig Ott defines atonement in the following way:</p>
<blockquote><p>By atonement in general is understood the satisfaction of a demand. In the narrower sense it is taken to mean the reparation of an insult. This occurs through a voluntary performance which outweighs the injustice done (<em>Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma</em>, 186-187).</p></blockquote>
<p>Ott distinguishes between full value atonement and incomplete value. If the reparative act completely counterbalances the grievousness of the guilt, then the act is adequate and complete (full value). If the act is not commensurate with the grievousness of the offense but is graciously accepted as sufficient, then the act is inadequate and not of complete value. Finally, if the act of atonement is not performed by the offender, but by another in his stead, then the act is one of vicarious atonement.</p>
<p>The Church teaches that Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross is one of vicarious atonement that is complete with full value for the redemption of the human race. Concerning the vicarious nature of Christ’s sacrifice, the <em>Catechism of the Catholic Church</em> states:</p>
<blockquote><p>By his obedience unto death, Jesus accomplished the substitution of the suffering Servant, who “makes himself an <em>offering for sin</em>,” when “he bore the sin of many,” and who “shall make many to be accounted righteous,” for “he shall bear their iniquities.” Jesus atoned for our faults and made satisfaction for our sins to the Father (615, emphasis original).</p></blockquote>
<p>The <em>Catechism </em>articulates the full and complete value of Christ’s atoning sacrifice in this way:</p>
<blockquote><p>Christ’s death is both the <em>Paschal sacrifice </em>that accomplishes the definitive redemption of men . . . and the <em>sacrifice of the New Covenant</em>, which restores man to communion with God by reconciling him to God through the &#8220;blood of the covenant” (613, emphasis original).</p></blockquote>
<p>The Church’s teaching on atonement is consistent with what Jesus himself taught: “The Son of Man is come . . . to give his life as a redemption for many” (Matt. 20:28).</p>
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