“Saved Through Islam”: Michael Lofton Jumps the Shark

When Reason & Theology became Reason & Dhimmitude

"Jumping the shark" is an idiom that refers to a point where a creative work, especially a television show, has reached its peak and is starting to decline in quality or relevance. It's often used to describe a moment when a show introduces a ridiculous or unbelievable plot element in a desperate attempt to stay popular. The phrase originated from a 1977 episode of the TV show Happy Days where Fonzie water-skis over a shark.

It finally happened.

After years of circling the tank, Michael Lofton has officially jumped the shark. In his June 30, 2025 video titled “Does Catholicism Teach Muslims Can Be Saved?”, Lofton attempts to defend religious pluralism Vatican II–style, assuring viewers that Muslims can indeed be saved, not despite their religion, but in some mysterious sense, through it.

The skis left the water when Lofton claimed that non-Christians can be saved “through the goodness” found in their own religions. Not in spite of their errors. Not because God rescues them out of those religions. But by the Holy Spirit working through the goodness within those religions, as long as the person is sincere, of course.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is what happens when your ecclesiology is shaped by non-Magisterial subterfuge.

Let’s walk through the wreckage.

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From “No Salvation Outside the Church” to “Saved Through the Mosque”

Lofton opens by quoting Lumen Gentium 16, which states that “the plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator… among whom are the Muslims.” So far, standard Vatican II boilerplate.

But Lofton doesn’t stop there. He goes on to assert that the Holy Spirit can save people through their non-Christian religions; not like through the sacraments, he says, but still through the “goodness” found in those religions. Provided the individual is sincere, God can work with what they’ve got.

Lofton reinforces it with a direct quote, though unattributed, from the 1997 International Theological Commission document Christianity and the World Religions, which states:

“Given this explicit recognition of the presence of the spirit of Christ in the religions, one cannot exclude the possibility that they exercise as such a certain salvific function…”

That’s not just God saving in spite of error. That’s error being used as an instrument; sanctified by sincerity, elevated by ambiguity.

The historical Church taught that if a pagan were saved, it was by Christ alone, and in spite of the false religion: not through it. Lofton’s model flips that.

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II. Jesus Christ Superstar (Among Many)

Lofton does insist that salvation is still “through Christ.” But here's the twist: he says people can be mystically united to the Church without knowing Christ, without accepting the Trinity, and without ever formally converting.

They might not even know they’re Christian, he explains. but they’re being saved through the religion they already have, by the Holy Spirit working in the “goodness” present there.

That’s not speculation, according to Lofton. That’s “just the reality,” taught by “the papal magisterium and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.”

Cue a long line of confused catechumens and indifferent converts wondering why they’re bothering.

Because for centuries, the Church didn’t say that false religions had salvific function. She said they were obstacles. Pope Gregory XVI called the idea of salvation in any religion whatsoever “perverse.” Leo XIII said religious indifferentism was “the greatest of evils.” And the Council of Florence taught that even martyrdom couldn’t save someone who died outside the Church.

Lofton’s formulation doesn’t nuance that. It replaces it.

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Islam Is a False Religion, Not a Conduit

Let’s state the obvious. Islam denies:

• The Trinity

• The Incarnation

• The Crucifixion

• The Eucharist

• Baptism

• Apostolic Succession

• The Sonship of Christ

To call that a “religion of goodness” is to torch the Nicene Creed and roast marshmallows over the ashes.

Lofton doesn’t say Islam is true, of course. But by presenting it as a channel through which the Holy Spirit operates, he effectively rehabilitates it as a rough draft of Catholicism that works just fine if you’re nice enough.

No need to convert. Just lean into the sincerity.

But that is theological multiculturalism at its worst.

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But the Magisterium Says…

Lofton repeatedly says, “This is what the Magisterium teaches.” His evidence? A sentence from Lumen Gentium, an unnamed quote from the 1997 International Theological Commission document, and a line from the 2001 CDF Notification on Jacques Dupuis, attributed to John Paul II and Cardinal Ratzinger, stating that the Holy Spirit accomplishes salvation through the “elements of truth and goodness” found in other religions.

But none of the Magisterial documents Lofton uses even say what Lofton says they say. None of them declare that Islam, or any false religion, has “a salvific function.” That phrase comes from the ITC, which is not the Magisterium.

Lofton quotes a non-magisterial source to define magisterial doctrine, then presents it as dogmatic fact: the newest trick in the postconciliar apologist’s playbook.

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This Is What Happens When Theology Becomes PR

Michael Lofton’s entire project, like so many post-conciliar “explainer” channels, is to package contradiction as continuity. To take the clear teaching of Florence and the murky gestures of Vatican II, toss them in a blender, and pour out something smooth enough for a theology & lattes crowd.

But the Church doesn’t save by illusion. She saves by Truth.

And She’s not just one flavor in a divine buffet. She’s the Ark of Salvation, the only Ark. To suggest that other ships are seaworthy too, just differently shaped, is not a “development of doctrine,” but a contradiction.

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Conclusion

Islam does not save. The mosque does not sanctify. The Qur’an does not proclaim Christ.

The Catholic Church alone is the Mystical Body of Christ. If God saves someone outside Her visible bounds, it is despite their false religion, not through it.

Michael Lofton didn’t invent this theological inversion. But he sure makes it look respectable, and worse, inevitable.

And so we close with the splash heard round the internet:

Lofton, airborne, skis pointed skyward, sails over the shark.

And the shark says:

“Saved Through Islam.”