When Strangers Come Knocking---Part 30

 

This is the FINAL installment of my series to be published the first Monday of each month.

There are members of false sects, like Jehovah's Witnesses, that come knocking door-to-door hoping to convert you. Instead of ignoring them, it is we who should try and convert them. In 1 Peter 3:16, our first Pope writes, "But in thy hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks thee to give the reason for the hope that thou hast. But do this with gentleness and respect,..." Before the Great Apostasy, the Church would send missionaries to the ends of the Earth to make as many converts as possible. 

Those in false religions don't always come (literally) knocking at your door. It may be a Hindu at work who wants you to try yoga. It could be a "Christian Scientist" who lives next door and invites you to come to their reading room. Each month, I will present a false sect. Unlike the Vatican II sect, I do not see them as a "means of salvation" or possessing "elements of truth" that lead to salvation. That is heresy. They lead to damnation, and the adherents of the various sects must be converted so they may be saved.

In each month's post, I will present one false sect and give an overview of: 

• The sect's history
• Their theology
• Tips on how to share the True Faith with them

Protestantism--Part II--Sole Fide

To My Readers: This is my final installment of the "When Strangers Come Knocking" (WSCK) series. Last month, I asked for your opinion on the series. I read each response carefully (including comments wherein I was asked not to publish it) and have decided to end WSCK after 30 installments. This post will give the Catholic response to the Protestant heresy on "justification by faith alone" or sole fide, thus completing a two part rebuttal.  Starting next month, I will have a new monthly series that will hopefully be helpful to you; an apologetics post that will defend the truth of the Catholic faith, and may include false sects which propagate false doctrine. This series will continue the admonition of 1 Peter 3:16, and also that of St. Jude 1:3, "Dearly beloved, taking all care to write unto you concerning your common salvation, I was under a necessity to write unto you: to beseech you to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints." [Emphasis mine]. The new series, like WSCK, will be published on the first Monday of each month, with the inaugural post on March 7, 2022. I couldn't think of a better date--the feast of one of the greatest theologians, philosophers, and defenders of the Church--St. Thomas Aquinas! The series will be entitled "Contending For The Faith." 

You may read the first installment on Protestantism here: 

introiboadaltaredei2.blogspot.com/2022/01/when-strangers-come-knocking-part-29.html

God bless you all, my dear readers.---Introibo 

The Meaning of Sola Fide

As one Protestant site puts it:

Sola fide points out that salvation is through faith, not works, as Ephesians 2:8-9 explains: "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast." The Protestant Reformer Martin Luther considered sola fide so important that he called it "The article with and by which the church (sic) stands."...

Sola fide is summarized well in Ephesians 2:8-9, but the concept is found throughout Scripture. For example, John 3:16 emphasizes faith in Jesus for eternal life: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." John 5:24 adds, "Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life." Jesus also taught that, "This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent" (John 6:29).

The early church affirmed this teaching by Jesus and noted that His teachings echoed the earlier words of the Old Testament prophets: "To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name" (Acts 10:43). Romans 1:17 quotes from Habakkuk 2:4 in the Old Testament and says, "For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, 'The righteous shall live by faith.'" What the Old Testament law lacked was filled by faith in Jesus Christ, "For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law" (Romans 3:28). Philippians 3:9 declares faith is what makes us righteous: "… not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith."

Those who reject sola fide or salvation by faith alone hold to a Gospel based on works that differs from the teachings found in Scripture. In Galatians 1:9, Paul condemned such thinking as a false gospel: "If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed." Sola fide is an essential teaching of Scripture that was recovered by the Protestant Reformers, and remains vital to the lives of Christians and the life of the church (sic) today. (See https://www.compellingtruth.org/sola-fide.html). 

This perverse heresy comes from the twisting of Biblical teaching, divorced from Sacred Tradition and based on private interpretation (sola scriptura). Sola fide arises as a result of three underlying heresies:

1. Original Sin did not merely wound human nature, but completely corrupted it. There is no division between mortal and venial sin, because everything humans do is mortally sinful and worthy of eternal damnation. Luther would speak of humans being "a mass of damnation."

2. Faith is not a supernatural assent of the intellect to accept revealed truths because of the authority of God Who revealed it, but it is a trust in Christ as your Lord and Savior. 

3. Once you "accept Christ as your personal Lord and Savior" your sins are "covered up" (like snow covers dung) by grace, and you are "justified" and have a guarantee of going to Heaven. They teach justification is the same as salvation. Hence, Protestants will ask, "Are you saved?" 

What is written applies to almost all Protestants, and I cannot go into all nuances, such as Calvinism vs. Arminianism in a single post.

The Catholic Teaching on Justification

(I have compiled Church teaching from approved theologians, most notably theologian Pohle, Dogmatic Theology, Volume 7, [1917], and theologian Tanquerey, Manual of Dogmatic Theology, Volume 2, [1959]---Introibo). 

 Justification is the passing from the state of sin to that of justice. Salvation is when a soul dies in the state of justice (sanctifying grace) and obtains Heaven directly or indirectly (after a time in Purgatory to expiate any unforgiven venial sins and/or temporal punishments due to forgiven sins). When a soul is justified, two effects are produced: 

• sins are truly remitted and blotted out
• the soul is renewed interiorly and becomes a new creature in Christ so it becomes intrinsically pleasing to God.

Proof: The Council of Trent

If anyone saith that the grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ, conferred in baptism, does not remit the guilt of original sin, or affirm that whatever and properly belongs to the character of sin is not removed, but is only cancelled or not imputed: let him be anathema. (Council of Trent, Session 5, canon 5).

If anyone saith that men are justified merely by the imputation of the justice of Christ, or by the sole remission of sins, exclusive of the grace and charity that the Holy Ghost infuses in their hearts in a permanent way, or that the grace by which we are justified is a mere favor of God: let him be anathema. (Council of Trent, Session 6, canon 7).

Furthermore, Trent teaches there are six dispositions necessary for adults to receive justification:

1. Faith, which consists in believing and holding as true those things which God has revealed and promised; the two indispensable beliefs are (a) the existence of God and (b) eternal retribution for the wicked (eternal reward for the good implied therein); 
2. Fear of divine justice;
3. Hope that God will treat us mercifully through love for Jesus Christ;
4.  A beginning of the love of God, Whom we must love as the source of all justice;
5. Hatred and detestation for sin;
6. Penitence.

If anyone saith that faith alone justifies the sinner, meaning thereby that nothing else is required from him than to cooperate with the grace of justification, and that it is in no way necessary for him to prepare himself therefor or to make any act of the will: let him be anathema. (Session 6, canon 9).

The Four Attributes of Justification

A) No one, apart from a special revelation from God, can be certain, by certainty of faith, of his own justification. No one can know with a certainty of faith, which is an infallible certainty, whether he has obtained the grace of God. (Council of Trent, Session 6, chapter 11).

B) The interior sanctification of humans is capable of increase as the result of good works. Since good works are not equally practiced by all, there results an inequality of justification among men. If anyone saith that justice when received is not preserved and augmented before God by good works, but that good works are only fruits or signs of justice obtained: let him be anathema. (Council of Trent, Session 6, canon 24).

C) Justification may be lost, and is often lost, by mortal sin. If anyone saith that man once justified can no longer sin nor lose grace; and that, consequently, he who falls and sins has never been justified: let him be anathema. (Council of Trent, Session 6, canon 23). Protestants deny this and proclaim, "Once saved, always saved," because of their definition of faith. In reality, it is nothing more than a license to commit sin.  

D) Justification (with the sanctifying grace that necessarily accompanies it), once lost by sin, can be recovered. Those who by sin have lost the grace of justification, may become justified anew, if docile to God’s impulse, they strive to recover lost grace through the merits of Jesus Christ, by means of the Sacrament of Penance. (Council of Trent, Session 6, canon 14).

Merit

Good works, done in the state of sanctifying grace, are meritorious. They truly obtain for us an increase in sanctifying grace as well as eternal glory and an increase in glory. If any one saith, that the good works of one that is justified are in such manner the gifts of God, as that they are not also the good merits of him that is justified; or, that the said justified, by the good works which he performs through the grace of God and the merit of Jesus Christ, whose living member he is, does not truly merit increase of grace, eternal life, and the attainment of that eternal life,-if so be, however, that he depart in grace,-and also an increase of glory; let him be anathema.  (Council of Trent, Session 6, canon 32).

Refuting Sole Fide

The best way to dismantle the "article by and with" Protestantism stands, is to show their very proof to be wrong. I'll refer back to the Protestant site from which I gave the definition of sole fide. Below are the passages of the Bible they cite, and the explanation as to why they are wrong in their interpretation.

Ephesians 2:8-9: For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Correct Catholic Interpretation: Salvation is undoubtedly a gift from God, which we cannot earn. Yet we have to accept or reject that gift. St. Paul is speaking here of initial justification and reminding everyone that we cannot earn salvation in the strict sense, yet we still have to accept that gift by our free-will choices and persevere in possessing it, i.e., abiding in sanctifying grace and performing good works. I AM the true vine; and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me, that beareth not fruit, he will take away: and every one that beareth fruit, he will purge it, that it may bring forth more fruit. 

(St. John 15:1-2)

St. John 3:16: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Correct Catholic Interpretation: This passage does speak of the saving power of faith, but in no sense does it diminish the role of obedience to the Commandments and performing good works in the process of getting to Heaven. In St. John 3:36 we are told, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains upon him.” (Emphasis mine).

St. John 5:24: Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

Correct Catholic Interpretation: Continue reading verses 28-29, "Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come forth, those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment"(Emphasis mine). Christ explicitly says here that we will be judge based on whether we have done good or evil not merely ask, "Did you believe?" 

St. John 6:29: Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him Whom He has sent.”

Correct Catholic Interpretation: The Church does not deny the necessity of Faith, but of "faith alone." The Bible nowhere uses the expressions “justification by faith alone” or “salvation by faith alone.” The first was directly the invention of Luther; the second his by implication. Luther inserted “alone” into the German translation of Romans 3:28 to give credence to his new doctrine.

Acts 10:43: To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His Name.

Correct Catholic Interpretation: The Church forgives sin through the Name of Christ; He Who instituted the Sacrament of Penance. Another instance of cherry-picking quotes. St. Matthew 7:21, "Not every one that saith to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven: but he that doth the will of my Father who is in heaven, he shall enter into the kingdom of heaven."

Romans 1:17: For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

Correct Catholic Interpretation: The justice of God refers not to God's attribute of being Justice itself, but sanctifying grace. By faith to faith, it is meant by faith and an increase of faith we advance in virtue, including works of charity.

Romans 3:28: For we hold that one is justified by faith [alone] apart from works of the law.

Correct Catholic Interpretation: Arch-heretic Martin Luther admitted in writing that he added the word "alone" in the German text of the Bible. He said, "I know very well that in Romans 3 the word solum is not in the Greek or Latin text — the papists did not have to teach me that. It is fact that the letters s-o-l-a are not there. And these blockheads stare at them like cows at a new gate, while at the same time they do not recognize that it conveys the sense of the text -- if the translation is to be clear and vigorous" (See bible-researcher.com/luther01.html). Nevertheless, St. James 2:24 says, "Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only."

Luther called the Epistle of St. James an "epistle of straw" and wanted it removed from the Canon of Scripture. He admittedly adds a word to Scripture which isn't there, and thus violates the rule often quoted by Protestants:

Apocalypse  22:18: For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book...

Now, although Luther justifies his action by claiming that this is the gist of St. Paul's meaning, he must be wrong, for St. Paul said previously, Romans 2:13,  "For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified." Therefore St. Paul says that unless one works and keeps the Law, one will not be justified by God.

Philippians 3:9:...and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—"

Correct Catholic Interpretation: The pertinent part of this text appealed to by Protestants is where Paul says he does not rely on his own righteousness, but rather the righteousness of God. It is beyond question that "the law" that Paul had in mind was the Mosaic Law, not some law in general or good works in general, as Protestants insist it must mean.

Galatians 1:9: As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be damned.

Correct Catholic Interpretation: It should hopefully be obvious that the "contrary gospel" comes from those who made up the heresies of sola scriptura and sola fide. 

Was Sola Fide "Recovered" By Luther?

We are finally treated to this gem from the Protestant website: "Sola fide is an essential teaching of Scripture that was recovered by the Protestant Reformers, and remains vital to the lives of Christians and the life of the church today." 

Clearly, this implies that since sole fide was "recovered," an essential teaching of Christianity was "lost," and that the Church defected. There were no real Christians for centuries after Christ, until a mentally and morally disturbed priest "recovered" the lost doctrine in the 16th century.  If sola fide was "recovered," then justification by faith alone must have been taught at the inception of Christianity by the Church Fathers. Did they teach sola fide?

Here's what they wrote:

St. Clement of Rome: “Let us therefore join with those to whom grace is given by God. Let us clothe ourselves in concord, being humble and self- controlled, keeping ourselves far from all backbiting and slander, being justified by works and not by words….Why was our Father Abraham blessed? Was it not because of his deeds of justice and truth, wrought in faith?…So we, having been called through his will in Christ Jesus, were not justified through ourselves or through our own wisdom or understanding or piety or works which we wrought in holiness of heart, but through faith, whereby the almighty God justified all men.” (Letter to the Corinthians 30:3, 31:2, 32:3-4).

St. Clement of Alexandria: “When we hear, ‘Your faith has saved you,’ we do not understand the Lord to say simply that they will be saved who have believed in whatever manner, even if works have not followed. To begin with, it was to the Jews alone that he spoke this phrase, who had lived in accord with the law and blamelessly and who had lacked only faith in the Lord” (Stromateis or Miscellanies 6:14:108:4 [post A.D. 202]).

St. John Chrysostom: ” ‘He that believes in the Son has everlasting life.’ ‘Is it enough, then, to believe in the Son,’ someone will say, ‘in order to have everlasting life?’ By no means! Listen to Christ declare this himself when he says, ‘Not everyone who says to me, “Lord! Lord!” shall enter into the kingdom of heaven’; and the blasphemy against the Spirit is alone sufficient to cast him into hell. But why should I speak of a part of our teaching? For if a man believe rightly in the Father and in the Son and in the Holy Spirit, but does not live rightly, his faith will avail him nothing toward salvation” (Homilies on the Gospel of John 31:1 [circa A.D. 391]).

Are we to believe these men got it wrong, and taught heresy as far back as the third century? Sole fide was "lost" back then until Luther "recovered" it over fourteen hundred (1400) years later? 

Conclusion

Justification is the beginning of our struggle to achieve salvation. It is not a "one-time deal" whereby we are promised Heaven. "Be a sinner and sin boldly, but believe more boldly," Luther said. He even went so far as to say, "Those pious souls who do good to gain the Kingdom of Heaven, not only will never succeed, but they must even be reckoned among the impious; and it is more important to guard them against good works than against sin." (Wittenberg Ed., Vol. VI. p. 160.)

Protestantism is the beginning of the decline of humanity from Catholicism to Modernism to atheism. Their teachings are destructive of the entire moral order, and hence productive of the most baneful consequences to both society and salvation. In the end, it is the unconverted Protestants who will hear Our Lord say, Not every one that saith to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven: but he that doth the will of my Father who is in heaven, he shall enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Many will say to me in that day: Lord, Lord, have not we prophesied in thy name, and cast out devils in thy name, and done many miracles in thy name?

And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, you that work iniquity. (St. Matthew 7:21-23).