Today,
we are briefly addressing some more comments from the world of Catholic
apologist, John Martignoni. He was
recently writing to his Bible Christian
Society audience, and he said something very interesting. His comments can be found here:
In
his comments, Martignoni claims some unique insight concerning a passage in the
book of James:
My
brethren, if any one among you wanders from the truth and some one brings him
back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from the error of his way
will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins. (James
5:19-20)
And
then Martignoni writes immediately after this:
“Did
you catch that? Most people who read
this passage do not stop to think about what it is really saying. If you do something to bring a sinner back
from the error of his way, you will save YOUR soul from death and will cover a
multitude of YOUR sins. What an awesome
promise God has given us in Scripture!
Zeal for the souls of others will cover a multitude of our sins and save
our soul from death!” (Emphasis in original)
Martignoni
acts as though he has discovered some deep revelation that few have ever seen
before. But, at this point, we feel the
need to ask Martignoni some questions that he, himself, often asks those with
whom he debates. For example, we would
ask him: John, is your interpretation of
this passage of Scripture infallible? Is
the Holy Spirit guiding you when you interpret this? Or is this your own private
interpretation? Since you have already
admitted previously that you are not infallible, then the Holy Spirit might not
be guiding you, and you could be
wrong, couldn’t you? And lastly, is your
interpretation what the Catholic Church officially
teaches?
We’re
pretty sure that this passage has not been infallibly
defined by the Catholic Church, nor do we believe that Martignoni’s
interpretation is official Catholic
teaching. If anyone claims that it is,
then please show us where.
These questions from John are not actually a problem for Protestants at all, but
we wanted to turn the tables on John, since he very often asks these same
things of his opponents when they quote the Bible. But his own questions come back to haunt
him. Those same questions that he uses
in an attempt to frustrate or neutralize Protestants now have the same effect
on him. John seems to think that for any
interpretation to carry any weight, it must be infallible. But he cannot demonstrate that his
interpretation is infallible, so (according to his own logic) why should anyone
accept John’s interpretation?
We
think that John will have to admit that his interpretation of James
5:19-20 is indeed private interpretation,
and it is fallible. And further, it is not official Catholic doctrine. Although, we will give him credit for
admitting that he is not infallible.
As
to the actual meaning of the passage above, we’d have to say, sorry, John
Martignoni, your interpretation is NOT what the passage is actually saying. We believe that this passage is easy enough
to understand by itself. But we will try
to make it even easier. For the sake of
simplicity and to keep track of things, let’s apply names to both of the
characters in this scenario (James 5:19-20). Let’s call the one who wanders from the
truth, Bill. And we can call the one
sharing the gospel, Tom. Tom is the one
who rescues the sinner (Bill) from the error of his way.
Ok,
so one of these guys is saved and one is not.
We must understand that Tom is not saving his own soul, since he is already
saved - he is not the one who has lost his way.
Otherwise, he wouldn’t be sharing the gospel. If Tom is not saved, he would not be capable
of effectively bringing Bill back from the error of his way. It would be “the blind leading the blind” (Matthew
15:14; Luke 6:39). So, no… Tom
did not save his own soul by bringing
Bill back from error. “Winning” souls is
a job for those who are already “won
over.” So Bill is the one whose soul is
saved from death and whose multitude of sins are covered, because HE was the
one who strayed. Pretty straightforward.
Now,
of course, God wants Christians to win souls (Proverbs 11:30; Mark 16:15; Jude
23), but engaging in this activity does not save the one who does it. So, how does one enter into a right
relationship with God? Salvation does
not come by dipping a person in water, memorizing certain prayers or Scripture
verses, helping your neighbor, feeding the poor, clothing the naked, etc.,
etc. These are all good things for which
we can get Heavenly rewards, but they don’t accomplish justification /
salvation. It is only by the humble
acceptance of the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ that one is saved,
because the gospel is the power of God unto salvation (Romans 1:16). Justification / salvation is accomplished by
simply embracing the truth of the gospel message by surrendering your own life
to God and believing / trusting in the work that His Son accomplished on the
cross, and that alone. It is in realizing that you stand utterly lacking and spiritually bankrupt before a holy and perfect God. Then will God give you the desire and ability
to do true good works that He has planned for you to do.
So,
what about John Martignoni’s interpretation of James 5:19-20? Is this just another attempt to promote a
“works-based salvation”? We believe it
is.