Posted on 04/24/2015 6:56:10 AM PDT by Gamecock
Faith is not what some people think it is. Their human dream is a delusion. Because they observe that faith is not followed by good works or a better life, they fall into error, even though they speak and hear much about faith. “Faith is not enough,” they say, “You must do good works, you must be pious to be saved.” They think that, when you hear the gospel, you start working, creating by your own strength a thankful heart which says, “I believe.” That is what they think true faith is. But, because this is a human idea, a dream, the heart never learns anything from it, so it does nothing and reform doesn’t come from this ‘faith,’ either.
Instead, faith is God’s work in us, that changes us and gives new birth from God. (John 1:13). It kills the Old Adam and makes us completely different people. It changes our hearts, our spirits, our thoughts and all our powers. It brings the Holy Spirit with it. Yes, it is a living, creative, active and powerful thing, this faith. Faith cannot help doing good works constantly. It doesn’t stop to ask if good works ought to be done, but before anyone asks, it already has done them and continues to do them without ceasing. Anyone who does not do good works in this manner is an unbeliever. He stumbles around and looks for faith and good works, even though he does not know what faith or good works are. Yet he gossips and chatters about faith and good works with many words.
Faith is a living, bold trust in God’s grace, so certain of God’s favor that it would risk death a thousand times trusting in it. Such confidence and knowledge of God’s grace makes you happy, joyful and bold in your relationship to God and all creatures. The Holy Spirit makes this happen through faith. Because of it, you freely, willingly and joyfully do good to everyone, serve everyone, suffer all kinds of things, love and praise the God who has shown you such grace. Thus, it is just as impossible to separate faith and works as it is to separate heat and light from fire! Therefore, watch out for your own false ideas and guard against good-for-nothing gossips, who think they’re smart enough to define faith and works, but really are the greatest of fools. Ask God to work faith in you, or you will remain forever without faith, no matter what you wish, say or can do.
This excerpt is taken from An Introduction to St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans by Martin Luther.
It's the only way!
“What does the scripture say is the criteria by which we are judged at the final judgement?”
Well, I wouldn’t saw “we”, because the saints will already be resurrected and reigning with Christ when the final judgement happens. The ones who are judged in the final judgement are those who were not saved, that it why the resurrection that precedes that judgement is called the “resurrection of the wicked”. Those people will be judged on their works.
Here is what Paul said about Faith in Hebrews-
11 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. 2 This is what the ancients were commended for.
3 By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.
4 By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead.
5 By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: “He could not be found, because God had taken him away.”[a] For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. 6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
7 By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith.
8 By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. 9 By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. 11 And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she[b] considered him faithful who had made the promise. 12 And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.
13 All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. 14 People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. 15 If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
17 By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, 18 even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.”[c] 19 Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.
20 By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future.
21 By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph’s sons, and worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff.
22 By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions concerning the burial of his bones.
23 By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.
24 By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. 25 He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. 26 He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward. 27 By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible. 28 By faith he kept the Passover and the application of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel.
29 By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned.
30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the army had marched around them for seven days.
31 By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.[d]
32 And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets, 33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. 35 Women received back their dead, raised to life again. There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. 36 Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were put to death by stoning;[e] they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— 38 the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground.
39 These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, 40 since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.
I would suspect then, that anyone who thinks they can do enough good works, to work their way into Heaven, is going to be in a boatload of trouble.
I think Luther’s description is true of a newborn, joyful believer. However, institutional Christianity of all stripes has a way of beating that out of a person, so that bizarrely the world can seem less dangerous than the Church. The world isn’t constantly messing with your spirit, poking at it, questioning it, getting YOU to question it and stirring up doubt and confusion and ultimately threatening your salvation (so much for that “free gift”!).
It must be a trial we have to pass through, because God does not give up on us. He can lead us back to joy when we simply trust in Him and taste of His goodness in Christ Jesus.
Yep. I think that is why that event is also sometimes called the “resurrection of the damned”.
“All people are resurrected at different times depending on how they are judged. But how they are judged is the same.”
Those two sentences contradict each other, are you sure that is what you mean to say? If “how they are judged” is the same, and the time they are resurrected depends on “how they are judged”, then everyone would have to be resurrected at the same time, by that logic.
I think the key here is that there are two different purposes to the two resurrections, and therefore, two different purposes to the judgements that accompany them. The saved are not judged on their works in order to determine if they will be given eternal life or go on to damnation, because all who are part of the first resurrection are saved from damnation. The purpose that God judges them is simply to determine what rewards they will receive.
The wicked, on the other hand, will be judged on their works, prior to being thrown in the lake of fire. That’s not a sentence that the saved will face. You cannot apply the verse from Rev. 20 the way you seem to be trying, to apply it to both the saved and unsaved, because that section of Revelation is speaking only of the resurrection of the wicked, and we have already previously been told in Revelation of the fate of the saved, and that they will not be subject to that latter judgement. In fact, they will be sitting on thrones beside Christ during that judgement.
Martin Luther never even claimed the ability to interpret Scripture infallibly (no Protestant that I know does), which is why Catholics “listen to the church.”
“If he won’t listen to the church, treat him as a pagan or tax collector.” —Jesus
Oh the great man of faith, the Jew hater Luther.
Hans Hinkel, a Nazi who worked in Goebbels’ Reich Chamber
Through his acts and his spiritual attitude he began the fight which we still wage today; with Luther the revolution of German blood and feeling against alien elements of the Volk was begun.
-cited from Richard Steigmann-Gall’s The Holy Reich
Erich Koch, the Reich Commissioner for Ukraine and President of the East Prussian Protestant Church Synod wrote:
Only we can enter into Luther’s spirit.... Human cults do not set us free from all sin, but faith alone. With us the church shall become a serving member of the state.... There is a deep sense that our celebration is not attended by superficiality, but rather by thanks to a man who saved German cultural values.
-Konigsberg-Hartungsche Zeitung, 20 Nov. 1933, [cited from Richard Steigmann-Gall’s The Holy Reich]
Bernhard Rust served as Minister of Education in Nazi Germany. He wrote:
Since Martin Luther closed his eyes, no such son of our people has appeared again. It has been decided that we shall be the first to witness his reappearance.... I think the time is past when one may not say the names of Hitler and Luther in the same breath. They belong together; they are of the same old stamp [Schrot und Korn].
-Volkischer Beobachter, 25 Aug. 1933, [cited from Richard Steigmann-Gall’s The Holy Reich]
“If he won’t listen to the church, treat him as a pagan or tax collector.” —Jesus
Wrenching Scripture out of context is not safe for your soul. Suggest you read the entire passage instead of being so, shall we say, sloppy.
We can blame that on his Roman Catholic roots.
You didn’t say which Protestant I should go to for an infallible interpretation of Scripture.
IF you are a Christian, you can go to the Holy Spirit dwelling within your human spirit.
Oh my. That’s a stretch.
From the Vatican. Not some backwater priest.
“We can blame that on his Roman Catholic roots.”.
LOL.
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