A Question About the Heresy of “Salvation in a Moment”
We received the following question:
What is your opinion of a statement we read in one of the pamphlets, in which its author says:
“Considering salvation in a moment is a heresy if it is intended to abolish
the sacraments of the Church, especially the Sacrament of Baptism”?
Answer:
It is impossible to reconcile the sacraments of the Church with the expression “salvation in a moment.”
For it is not possible for one of the sacraments of the Church to be completed in a moment.
If the one seeking salvation is an unbeliever, he needs the Sacrament of Baptism, the Sacrament of Chrismation,
the Sacrament of Confession, and the Sacrament of the Eucharist. Can all these sacraments be completed in a moment?
Therefore, the expression “salvation in a moment” actually means abolishing all these sacraments.
If the author of the pamphlet speaks about the importance of the sacraments, and especially the importance of Baptism,
and then calls for salvation in a moment, there is a contradiction in his words, because combining the two is impossible.
If the one seeking salvation is a believer, he needs the Sacraments of Repentance and Communion, not just once,
but many times, and this is something that cannot possibly be accomplished in a moment. Nor is it possible to dispense with them.
For a person continually sins, and the wages of sin is death. To be saved from this death,
he needs the Sacrament of Repentance and needs Communion. Calling for salvation in a moment means abolishing these two sacraments.
An article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III, published in El-Keraza Magazine, Year Ten, Issue Eight, February 23, 1979.
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