Many readers
will no doubt be familiar with the above title.
They might recognize it as the name of a song by singer/actress Tina
Turner. But this phrase is also the
title of Catholic apologist John Martignoni’s Newsletter #353. This newsletter is actually Part 2 of his theme,
“Problems with Protestantism,” and it can be found here:
In this
particular newsletter, John attempts to deal with the doctrine of Sola Fide (salvation
by “Faith Alone”). John’s whole theme in
this newsletter is the question of the role of love in salvation.
John says:
“In Protestant
theology, one of the two main dogmas is Sola Fide - salvation by faith ALONE!
That is the belief that all I have to do is believe that Jesus is God incarnate
and that He died on the Cross for my sins and - BOOM! -
I'm saved. I don't have to do any works. I don't have to be
baptized. I don't have to worry about sacraments or growing in holiness or
anything else. All I have to do...the only thing I have to do...the only
thing I can do that counts for anything...is to have faith. I am
saved by my faith, and by my faith alone, period!”
Ok, I must say that John Martignoni goes out of his way to
mischaracterize this doctrine, as
I’ve seen him do before. But the truth
is, he knows better! No doubt John has spoken to many Protestants
about this topic and he has heard many of the arguments for it. So this is not at all new to him. But let’s break his comments down a little.
Notice that
he says that a person who believes in Sola Fide does not have to do any works
or be baptized. He says that the person
doesn’t have to grow in holiness – only have faith.
Yes, getting saved/justified is the beginning of a person’s spiritual journey. But John makes it sound like this person can
choose to never, ever do works, get
baptized or grow in holiness! This is an
utter misrepresentation of Sola Fide and John Martignoni knows this.
Please hear
me on this: Sola Fide means that a person gets saved/justified by faith, through
God changing his heart. Salvation is caused by faith in the work of
Jesus Christ on the cross APART FROM THE MERIT OF OUR OWN WORK. Protestants don’t hate good works nor do they
try to avoid them. John knows well that
Protestants will, and gladly do, perform good works. But these works are done because we are ALREADY
saved/justified at this point, by God giving us a new heart. It is this faith, this trusting Him alone
that saves us, not works, sacraments, or rituals.
How Does Love Fit In?
Now, John is
basically asking, “But what about love?
Don’t we find love anywhere in this equation when a person gets saved?”
Again, Sola
Fide is about denying the merit of good works to cause salvation. It doesn’t say that you won’t afterward do
any works, or mandate that you can’t have any feelings of love, joy, peace,
thankfulness or desire to serve God.
This is John’s faulty definition, his misrepresentation of “Faith Alone”:
He’s trying to say that in Sola Fide, only faith can exist and absolutely
nothing else! But this is not Sola
Fide.
According to
his faulty reasoning, he states:
“If we
are saved by faith, and faith alone, then love has absolutely
nothing to do with our salvation.”
Not so, John. Every true Christian exhibits love. Love toward God and love toward his fellow
man. But according to Scripture, it is
his faith, his trust in God that saves him (Ephesians 2:8-10).
But You Gotta Have Love!
John Martignoni goes on, using
Scripture, to tell us the great importance
of love (as though we Protestants didn’t think it was important). He goes on a ridiculous rant to try to
convince people that we MUST love. Well,
of course we do, John! Nobody’s denying
that. But the Bible tells us very
clearly, over and over, that the medium that God continually used over the
centuries to cause salvation is faith
(Romans
4:1-3). Of course, we’ll exercise
love toward God and man. But John is
attempting to say that our love (i.e., through our actions/works) is necessary
to save us.
But no, it is through faith in GOD’S
love that saves us, not our own. We
cannot possibly love in the perfect way that God loves, since we are sinful
creatures who so often fall short in our walk with God. And that is exactly why NONE of our works can
save us. Sola Fide believers are not
against love or any other fruit of the Spirit.
Our good works are beautiful in the
eyes of God… UNLESS we are trying to use them to accomplish our salvation! Then, they are loathsome in His eyes (Isaiah
64:6; Romans 3:10) and they disqualify us from salvation (Romans
4:4-5). Sola Fide is an
acknowledgment that our puny works are insufficient
to save. Nothing we do can compare
with His work on the cross. That’s why God basically says, “Let this,
and this alone, save you. And quit
trying to add your tainted works to the equation” (Galatians 3:1-3). Catholics actually believe in faith plus works. But salvation/justification is either all
Jesus’ work, or it is not of Jesus at all.
Misrepresentation
John goes on to say:
"For God
so loved the world that He gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in
Him should not perish but have eternal life," (John 3:16).
Awesome! God loves me. He loves me so much that I don't have to do
a thing...not one thing...other than believe in Him...and I am saved. He
loves me, but I don't have to love Him, and I am still saved. I can sin
all I want, and as long as I have accepted Jesus into my heart as my personal
Lord and Savior, I'm saved. And who was it that said the road to
salvation is narrow and difficult? Silly rabbit...no it's not...it's
pretty easy actually.”
John continues to
mock this biblical doctrine and suggests that “I can sin all I want” and still
be saved. This is an utter perversion of
Sola Fide. No valid biblical argument is
saying that we can continually sin to our heart’s desire without repentance and
still be saved (Hebrews 10:26-29). The
person who is truly saved will not want
to sin, knowing that sin grieves our Lord.
Interestingly, John’s
description of the Sola Fide believer in his newsletter happens in the Catholic
Church, as well! For example, in the
confessional, many believe you can flippantly say three ‘Hail Marys’ and you
are absolved of all your sin. You might
object that any person who flippantly
says the prayers of the sacrament of penance is not a true Catholic. But that’s exactly my point! Likewise, no truly saved person will say that
he can purposely sin all he wants without repenting and still be saved. What John is talking about is a person who
has had a false conversion.
But both of these scenarios are unbiblical! The Catholic mindlessly repeating canned
prayers (Matthew 6:7-8) to get right with God is just as futile as the
Protestant mindlessly quoting some form of “sinner’s prayer,” but intending to
continue living in sin (1 Timothy 5:20; 1 John 3:6, 9).
John continues:
“Now, someone might
say, ‘John, you're being ridiculous. That's not what Sola Fide folks
believe.’ First point in response, it is actually what a number of them
believe.”
Maybe so, John, but
these are not mainstream. And even if
they were – even if most people believed it – that still wouldn’t make it
right. The “sin-as-much-as-you-want”
mentality is obviously wrong and unbiblical.
But the misuse or misunderstanding of Sola Fide by some people does not
negate its truth.
You may complain that
Protestants don’t have a “fixed” or “authoritative” definition of the term, and
then dismiss all Sola Fide arguments
based on the one you choose to attack.
But that’s dishonest. If you want
to tear down those non-mainstream arguments, then that’s fine, but don’t
pretend that you have disproved the doctrine when you do that.
John says that his
statements, his reasoning and examples of Sola Fide in this newsletter are the
logical consequence of the doctrine. No,
John, neither the Bible nor the doctrine of Sola Fide says that freely and
purposely continuing to sin has no impact on your salvation (Hebrews
3:12-13)! Again, you are
misrepresenting Sola Fide.
James Settles It
He goes on:
“One final matter:
Someone might say, "Well, if you don't love the Lord, or do the works of
the Lord, then that means you haven't really accepted Him into your heart as
your personal Lord and Savior." My response: Really?! Where
does the Bible tell me such a thing?”
Concerning us doing
the works of the Lord, yes, saved people certainly will. Of course, it is not in those exact words,
but James
2:18 expresses that same concept – a person’s salvation is shown/demonstrated
by his works:
But
someone may well say,
“You have faith and I have works; SHOW ME your faith without the works, and I
will SHOW YOU my faith by my works.” (Emphasis added)
See that, John? Your works demonstrate the reality of your
faith. That whole context in James
chapter 2 confirms this fact. So, your
argument is with James!
Now, James’ point was
not that works are absolute proof of
salvation (because even atheists can do “good” works), but rather his point is,
if you really are saved, you will have some good works to show for it.
John continues:
“Furthermore, how
many works do I have to do to ‘prove’ that I have truly accepted Jesus into my
heart as my personal Lord and Savior? 10? 20? 5 years worth?
10 years worth? How many works does it take to ‘prove’ that you're saved?”
Of course, there is
no precise number of works that will absolutely “prove” that one is actually
saved. And of course, there is no totally foolproof test, since only God
knows your neighbor’s heart perfectly.
But we can have a pretty good idea if he is saved or not, by his works, as James said above.
Furthermore, I could
turn the tables on John and ask him, “If good works contribute to one’s
salvation, as the Catholic Church’s teachings insist, how many good works must one
do to be saved? Exactly where is the
threshold?”
There really is no
answer to either of our questions, but my question here is based on a scriptural concept (that works cannot
save you). But John’s question is based
on an unbiblical concept (that works
don’t demonstrate you are saved). It is
indeed important to know if a person is saved, so if works don’t show that you are saved, then by what biblical measure
can you tell if someone is saved or not?
Actually, the
Catholic Church teaches that (without a revelation) a Catholic can never really know if he will be saved, because that would be the sin of
presumption (CCC #2092). So, according
to this, no matter how many good works are done, I guess that no Catholic can
assume that any other Catholic is saved, can he? You see, John, your question cuts both ways.
Conclusion
Ok, John
knows what Sola Fide is really all about, but he has resorted to nit-picking
the less-than-perfect NAME of the doctrine so that it will appear foolish. The term “Faith Alone” may not be precise, but
he knows what it really means.
So maybe the
term “Faith Alone” is not a perfect name, so what? Here is an excerpt from one of my previous
articles on Sola Fide:
“First off, we want to say that the
term ‘faith alone’ is not a perfectly accurate term, in the sense that faith is
not the only thing present at the moment of conversion. Along
with faith, there will certainly be joy, thankfulness, sorrow for one’s sins, a
love for God and a willingness to serve Him, etc. A similar (imperfect)
expression would be the Catechism of the Catholic Church saying
that ‘Christ alone’ teaches us (CCC #427),
yet the Catholic Church (as well as every other church) also has human
teachers. Another example is the phrase ‘salvation comes from God alone’ (CCC
#169), yet Catholics will argue that the Church certainly has a part in
it. Just as these Catholic phrases are not precise, so it is with the phrase ‘faith
alone.’ The focus of
the term “faith alone” is on the absence of WORK done in attempting to make
Heaven.”
See that article here:
https://answeringcatholicclaims.blogspot.com/2010/01/faith-alone-part-1.html
The word “alone” in “Faith Alone” is
simply meant to deny any saving merit of our works – it is not to suggest the absence of love or any of the
fruit of the Spirit. In other words,
man’s works are never a cause of salvation, but rather a sign that he has
already been saved.
It is important to
understand that good works don’t save you at ANY point of your spiritual
journey – beginning, middle or end (Galatians 3:1-3). But if you continue in faith till the end,
your works will bring you rewards in Heaven.
Faith is about salvation itself and works are about rewards.
Salvation – what does
love have to do with it? Love is a vital
ingredient in the life of the Christian.
It should be embraced and used throughout his spiritual journey. But the love and works that man expresses is not what saves us (Romans
4:4-5; Titus 3:5).
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