Few Are Saved

Most Adults Will Not Be Saved

This is not a topic to dismiss likely. We are all sinners. We are considering a topic where the stakes are high. In fact, could not be higher - our eternal future.

a. What Scripture says

Let’s look at what Our Lord said and what might the consensus of saints and theologians over 2000.

Luke 13:23-24
”And some one said to him, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” And he said to them, [24] “Strive to enter by the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.”  

Matthew 7:13-14
”Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. [14] For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”

Matthew 7:21
”Not everyone who says to me ’“‘Lord, Lord’”’, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only one who does the will of My father in heaven.”

b. The saints and doctors of the Church that accept few are saved

Below is a list of the fathers of the Church, saints and/or theologians for whom we have writings supporting the case that the only a minority of mankind will be saved.

Father, saint or theologian	Date of Death	Doctor of the Church
St Irenaeus	202	Yes
Tertullian	245
Origen	253
Lactantius	325
Eusebius of Caesarea	340
Philo of Carpasia	350 approx
Pseudo Basil	350 approx
St Hilary	368	Yes
St Ephraim	373	Yes
St Basil the Great	379	Yes
St Gregory Nazianzen	390	Yes
St Ambrose	397	Yes
St John Chrysostom	407	Yes
St Jerome	420	Yes
St Augustine of Hippo	430	Yes
Pseudo-Jerome (St Paulinus?)	431
St John Cassian	435
St Isidore of Pelusium	436
St Cyril of Alexandria	444	Yes
St Peter Chrysologus	450	Yes
St Nilius the Abbot	450
Pseudo-Athanasius	450
St Leo the Great	461	Yes
Salvian	464
Ruricius of LImoges	510
Pope St Hormisdas	523
St Cesarius of Arles	543
St Gregory the Great	604	Yes
St Isidore of Seville	636	Yes
Antiochus of Palestine	650
St Bede the Venerable	745	Yes
Theophylacias	752
Ambrose Autpert	778
Jonas of Orleans	843
Bishop Haymo of Halberstadt	853
Christian of Stavelot	864
St Paschasius Radbertus	865
Remigius of Auxerre	908
Ratherious	975
Theophylact of Achrida	1070
Othlo of Ratisbon	1072
St Peter Damian	1072	Yes
St Anselm of Canterbury	1109	Yes
Euthymius Zigabenus	1122
St Bruno of Segni	1123
Abbot Werner of Saint Blaise	1126
Rupert of Deutz	1129
Cardinal Geoffrey of Vendome	1132
Ven Hildebert Of Lavardin	1134
Ralph of Flaix	1150
St Bernard of Clairvaux	1153	Yes
Honorius of Autun	1154
Pseudo-Anselm (?Honorius of Autun)	1156
Pope Innocent III	1216
St Anthony of Padua	1231	Yes
Pseudo-Aquinas (Thomas Anglus?)	1250
St Thomas Aquinas	1274	Yes
St Bonaventure	1274	Yes
St Albert The Great	1280	Yes
St Vincent Ferrer	1419
St Bernadino Of Siena	1444
St Lawrence Justinian	1456
St Antoninus	1459
Ven Denys The Carthusian	1471
St Thomas of Villanova	1555
St Peter Canisius SJ	1597	Yes
St Robert Bellarmine SJ	1621	Yes
Ven Louis De Ponte SJ	1624
St Vincent De Paul	1660
St Claude De La Colombiere SJ	1682
Ven Januarius Sarnelli CSSR	1744
St Leonard of Port Maurice	1751
St Alphonsus Liguori	1787	Yes

So amongst this list of 73 writers, we have 25 fathers of the Church explicitly confirming the view that the majority of mankind will NOT be saved.

As the above list also shows, this has been the mind of the Church from the earliest times. For excerpts from these authors, go to “On the Fewness of the Saved” by Francis-Xavier Godts CSSR.

We have NO instances where a saint or father of the Church was of the opinion the majority WILL be saved.

c. Examples of when much is lost for small errors

Don’t think some of those foibles are serious? Everyone does them? God would not damn me for one mistake.

Example 1. A driver is on a country road. The iphone rings and he looks to answer it. It should be hands-free but he hasn’t got around to arranging it. As he is distracted grabbing the phone, a cow walks in front of the car. There is a last minute swerve as the driver becomes aware of the peripheral movement. Smash! Into a tree… A paraplegic for life.

Example 2. A worker is using a power grinder to cut a piece of metal he has under foot. It is only a small cut so he doesn’t use his safety glasses. The metal moves under foot and the grinding wheel grabs. In the chaos that follows, the workman looses an eye.

Example 3. The family goes to a friend’s place for a barbecue. It’s a hot day. The young teenager sees the pool, strips off and takes a running dive. But it is the shallow end of the pool. Permanent head injury is the result.

What is the point of these examples?

Already in this life we have examples of how our future can change drastically with a seemingly small voluntary decision.

It is almost as though God is showing us, by the way the physical world works, that our destiny depends on our own decisions and some of these decisions can have huge consequences, way beyond what we thought about at the time.

In the spiritual sphere, God has warned us. We know that God is almighty, we are his creature, He deserves our respect.

We know we should not sin.

So if we deliberately disobey His specific commands, we can’t really complain we had no idea our sin could have dire consequences.

Not only has He told us how to behave, but He gave us the Church to continue to guide us.

d. If God is merciful, how can the majority of mankind be lost?

Because at some point, they sinned seriously and never repented.

By not repenting, the sinner is in a permanent state of turning their back on God. When the choice came to love God or self, the sinner chose self by choosing sin.

At death, the sinner is left with his choice - turned away from God. But now life is over, the time for change has passed. The sinner is in that state forever.

e. Looking around at society today, how do the majority live?

Against the ten commandments and the precepts of the Church, can we not recognize in the list below some common failings of Catholics in our world today:

• missing Mass on Sunday – deliberately

• not having the children baptised

• giving scandal to the children by ignoring our religion

• not going to Confession or Communion once a year

• sacrilegious Confession e.g. no firm purpose of amendment

• sacrilegious Communion e.g. while not in the state of grace

• sex before marriage

• serious abuse of alcohol or drugs

• getting married outside the Church

• pornography

• artificial contraception

• abortion

• cheating or ignoring parents in need

• homosexuality

• divorce

Any in this list, if grave matter, full knowledge and full consent are present, constitute serious sin and the loss of sanctifying grace. In other words, if one died unrepentant in that state, it would be damnation forever. It’s that simple.

Reflecting on what we see and hear every day amongst acquaintances and in the world at large, we see sin has hold. But that is not actually the main problem.

An even bigger problem is NO GENUINE REPENTANCE?

And that is why few will be saved.