Taylor Marshall on Salvation for Jews and Muslims

Like the Bishop Athanasius Schneider, Taylor R. Marshall Ph.D. (philosophy) does not believe that Jews and Muslims can be saved unless they convert to Christianity. He does not see Islam as a religion which offers substantial truths and significant helps along the path of salvation, and he denies that Jews and Muslims worship God with supernatural love and supernatural faith, through the state of grace.

Muslims

In his book, Infiltration, Dr. Marshall rejects the teaching of Vatican II:

Infiltration: “Regarding Muslims, Nostra aetate reads: “The Church regards with esteem also the Moslems. They adore the one God, living and subsisting in Himself; merciful and all-powerful, the Creator of heaven and earth, who has spoken to men; they take pains to submit wholeheartedly to even His inscrutable decrees, just as Abraham, with whom the faith of Islam takes pleasure in linking itself, submitted to God.” Do Muslims adore the Trinity rightly, or do they merely aim their worship toward a philosophical God? Do they really “submit wholeheartedly to His inscrutable decrees”? Do they submit to the divine decree regarding baptism, monogamy, and Sunday obligation? These words are patently false or tremendously stretched.” [Marshall, Taylor. Infiltration: The Plot to Destroy the Church from Within . Sophia Institute Press. Kindle Edition.]

The book Infiltration contains many grave errors and is essentially a declaration of schism and multiple heresies, as well as an utter rejection of the Catholic Church as She presently exists in this world.

But on Islam, Marshall makes his position clear. He does not believe that Muslims adore God with supernatural love and supernatural faith. And he rejects the above quoted teaching of Vatican II (from Nostra Aetate), calling it patently false or tremendously stretched. (That’s a strange contradictory “or” statement, since something that is “patently” false, is clearly false and so there cannot be an “or”.)

On his blog, Marshall calls Islam “a heresy” and not a “world religion”: Is Islam a Heresy or World Religion? Legos and Muhammad. He also claims that Muhammed (peace be upon him) stole his teachings from Christian heresies and that he fell under the influence of the devil.

“If you haven’t listened to my free audio talk on “Is Muhammad Evil? (audio)” please take a listen. It will give you a short biography of Muhammad and show how he fell under demonic influence.

You will learn that the ancient Arabs were generally polytheistic pagans. They worshipped a variety of deities, as did the ancient Greeks and Romans. However, Muhammad belonged to a social circle that was composed heretical Christians as we will discuss below.”

I apologize to Muslims for the harshness and hatefulness of these quotes from Dr. Marshall, but please understanding that he himself is a heretic among Catholic Christians, who accuses his own Church of heresies and of having fallen under demonic influence. That is the conclusion of his evil book “Infiltration”, that the Catholic Church supposedly has been infiltrated by demonic influence. So it is bizarre that Marshall condemns all Muslims by the same accusation he uses against his own religion.

The above cited blog post by Taylor Marshall claims that Islam is actually “a Heresy Stealing from Christian Ideas” and that Muhammad was “modifying the Christian Heresy of Nestorianism”. That is not the position of the Catholic Church.

Now I’m not going to behave like Marshall and set myself above Islam to judge that Faith, nor will I put myself above Muhammad, as he does. God the Creator is judge over us all. But I will say something that is not a case of judging Muslims, but merely stating a readily-apparent truth. Many Muslims love God and neighbor; they devoutly worship God. In this way, they prove they have supernatural love and supernatural faith. They prove they are on the path to Heaven. Those Muslims who die persevering in supernatural love and supernatural faith will have eternal life in heaven with Allah.

By comparison, Taylor Marshall has proven by his accusations against the Catholic Christian Church (e.g. that She has been infiltrated by Satan) that he himself might lack supernatural faith. For he does not believe the teachings of the religion that he claims one must believe to have true faith. By his own teachings is he condemned. He himself believes that those who die without supernatural faith will go to Hell. He himself believes (and I disagree) that those who die rejecting the Christian Church will go to Hell. Yet he has publicly vehemently rejected his own Church by accusing many Popes and the Church Herself of falling under demonic influence. So I find it strange, hypocritical, and really quite crazy that his accusation against Muhammad is that he supposedly fell under demonic influence. Buy a mirror, Dr. Marshall. You are the one who accuses your own religion of being under demonic influence. For you have become one of the chief accusers of the Catholic Christian Faith, more so than anyone outside the Church.

Pope Francis has said that those who constantly criticize the Catholic church are “friends of the devil”. Speaking to pilgrims from southern Italy, the pontiff said that defects of the church needed to be denounced so they could be corrected, but that those who condemned “without love” were linked to the devil. “One cannot live a whole life accusing, accusing, accusing, the church,” he said. People who did, he said, were “the friends, cousins and relatives of the devil”. [theguardian]

Dr. Marshall has accused Pope Pius XII, Pope John XXII, Pope Saint Paul VI, Pope Saint John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI, and especially Pope Francis of grave errors against the Catholic Faith. He has accused Vatican II of being the work of freemasons and wolves in sheep’s clothing. And he has claimed that the devil has infiltrated the Catholic Church — of which he claims to be such an important member that he would have the role to judge Popes!!

Dr. Marshall’s teachings contain many heresies against the Catholic Faith, and he is a schismatic for rejecting the authority of Popes and a Council. Moreover, by claiming that the Church has been infiltrated at the highest levels by Satan, he becomes an apostate. For who would accept the faith taught by such a Church? What harsher condemnation can there be for a religion than to say that it is of the devil? And then he claims that Muslims do not go to Heaven, unless they convert to this same religion that he himself has condemned.

For myself, I am a believing and practicing Catholic, and I accept the authority and teaching of all the Popes and Councils. I do not put myself above other religions to judge them, nor above my own religion. I am a follower of Jesus.

Jews

Taylor Marshall’s position on Judaism is that Jews since the time of Christ cannot be saved unless they convert to Christianity. This implies, just as I explained in the article on Bishop Athanasius Schneider, that all non-Christians must convert to be saved. For the Jews follow a religion based on Divine Revelation, the religion which gave us Jesus, the Messiah. If Jews cannot be saved, unless they convert, and Muslims cannot be saved unless they convert — as Taylor Marshall claims — then other believers and non-believers are no better off.

In his deceitfully titled article How Do We Share Christ & the Catholic Faith with Jewish Friends & Neighbors?, Dr. Marshall claims that Jews cannot be saved without converting.

“We are wrong, even cruel, if we assume that our Jewish friends and neighbors can arrive at the beatific vision without Christ. Saint Peter, Saint John, Saint Paul, and others endured torture after having proclaimed these truths. This is not a popular teaching, but it is true.”

“The short of it is that Jews, like all human beings, can only be saved by calling on the name of Jesus.” [Taylor Marshall]

This claim contradicts the Teaching of the Catholic Church, which is that non-Christians, including Jews, Muslims, other believers and perhaps even atheists can be saved without converting:

Pope Saint John Paul II: “The universality of salvation means that it is granted not only to those who explicitly believe in Christ and have entered the Church. Since salvation is offered to all, it must be made concretely available to all.” [Redemptoris Missio 10]

As for persons who reject Christianity or even reject belief in God:

Pope Saint John Paul II: “It is a mysterious relationship. It is mysterious for those who receive the grace, because they do not know the Church and sometimes even outwardly reject her.” [All Salvation Through Christ]

In Infiltration, Dr. Marshall rejects the idea proposed by Rahner of an anonymous Christian, that is, of someone who outwardly rejects the Church or Christianity, but who is saved by implicit baptism of desire and the love of God and neighbor, or at least, in the case of atheists, by the love of neighbor. Yet this idea is taught by the Magisterium in the above quotes. Salvation is given “not only to those who explicitly believe in Christ” and not only to those who “have entered the Church” by formal baptism. Taylor Marshall rejects this teaching utterly. But that is not surprising, and he rejects very many things about Catholic Christianity. He has made himself judge over the entire Christian Faith, and has made vicious false accusations against Pope after Pope, Saint after Saint, teaching after teaching.

Dr. Marshall believes that the 1.9 billion Muslims and the millions of Jews in the world AND EVERYONE ELSE cannot be saved without converting to Christianity. He believes that they go to Hell when they die without converting. And he believes that their children, who die without Christian baptism, go to the “limbo of Hell” [Purgatory, Hell, Jews, and the Old Testament] where they will supposedly be happy, even though they are truly in a part of Hell, are separated from their family members in regular Hell or Heaven, and have no love, faith, and hope, and know that God exists but cannot truly see Him. Such ideas are incompatible with a correct understanding of Catholic Christian teaching.

But Marshall does not accept Catholic Christian teaching. He holds that the Popes since Pius XII have been infiltrated by demonic influence. He also holds that Muslims don’t go to Heaven because they follow a religion infiltrated by demonic influence.

In any case, this idea found on the Catholic far right, that only baptized Christians can be saved, is the condemned heresy of Feeneyism. The true teaching of the Church is that salvation is not restricted only to those who “explicitly believe in Christ and have entered the Church” by the Sacrament of Baptism. Non-Christians can be saved without converting. Even though who outwardly reject Christianity and Christ can be saved without converting. And this occurs by implicit baptism of desire and the love of neighbor.

Everyone who truly loves their neighbor, in full cooperation with grace, must be in the state of grace. And that is true even if the individual is an atheist, or a believer in almost any religion. Of course, anyone who truly worships evil, or who is entirely consumed in selfishness or hate cannot at the same time love God or neighbor with supernatural love. But such persons are often found among those who are Christian or Catholic, and not only among non-Christians.

by
Ronald L. Conte Jr.
Roman Catholic theologian and translator of the Catholic Public Domain Version of the Bible.

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