Posted on 06/08/2018 8:54:57 AM PDT by Salvation
The Bible says so — find it.
I quote the author and post this in the same spirit.
** I am aware that there are non-Catholic readers of this blog, so please understand that my objections are made with respect.**
Did you read the complete article?
Did you read the entire essay today and watch the entire video? With an open mind, of course.
Matt 24:12 And because of the increase of lawlessness, the love of many will grow cold. 13 But the one who endures to the end will be saved.
John 3:5 Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. In His parting words to his disciples He said,
Mark 16:16 The one who believes and is baptized will be saved; but the one who does not believe will be condemned.
Matt 5:17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. 18 For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. 19 Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
Matt 16:27 “For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done.
Matt 19:16 Then someone came to him and said, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” 17 And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.”
Matt 22:37 He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the greatest and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” Matt 24:12 And because of the increase of lawlessness, the love of many will grow cold. 13 But the one who endures to the end will be saved.
Matt 25:21 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’
Fwiw, Phin is Jewish.
My last post ended up towards the wrong person; pardon my error.
You seem unfamiliar with the meaning “contradiction”.
The very fact that ‘Scripture was defined and compiled via tradition.’ illustrates the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
Then I take it that you, as well as all Protestant ministers, will refrain from interpreting Scripture for others and leave Catholics to interpret it for themselves in accord with what the Church has always taught. The truth is that Protestants are just as bound to their own traditions of interpretation as any Catholic.
Okay, first, as I’m sure many people are aware, there aren’t tens of thousands of Protestant denominations. This article from the National Catholic Register confirms as such. The source for that claim is faulty, also listing hundreds of Catholic denominations:
Second, this Catholic priest misstates what Protestants understand and believe about faith.
We hold to works, everything God directs Christians to do in His Word, but in the end, those works are just forms of faith.
God’s Word says whatever is not of faith is sin.
“And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” Romans 14:23
God’s Word also contrasts faith with pride (which makes perfect sense given what we know of Satan and human sinfulness):
“Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.” Habakkuk 2:4
So, works done within faith are simply faith, while works done outside of faith are of the flesh, of the world, and not of God.
And then another way to put it is this, faith and belief are often used virtually interchangeably in the Bible. And what do we contrast belief with? Unbelief! So are works done in unbelief pleasing to God?
Consider these verses, too, from Titus 3:
“4 But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, 5 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; 6 Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; 7 That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. 8 This is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable unto men.”
Then also these verses from Romans 10:
“8 But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; 9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
Faith and belief (or unbelief) are in people’s hearts, and when a person does have faith in and believe in the Lord, that will lead to acting righteously.
We should also consider, too, that James seemed to be writing on faith and works correctivley, to chastise Christians whose hearts weren’t right with God because the faith they professed didn’t show in their lives.
Overall, the question is, when Catholics say, “faith plus works,” are they saying works done OUTSIDE of faith?
Christians certainly acknowledge that the Pharisees wore these items. We believe that Jesus was absolutely honest, and that the New (and Old) Testaments are inerrant, inspired Scripture. Jesus would not have worn such accoutrements bc He was not a Pharisee.
And what’s your point?
I believe all of those; I also believe Romans 3, Ephesians 2, Romans 11, John 3, 1 John 1 and 2...
Do you believe the entirety of Scripture or just the bits that support what you want to believe?
Your religion teaches that a priest commands Jesus to come to the Catholic altar and continue to be sacrificed. That is paganism writ large in Catholicism, and you would see that clearly if you were familiar with Jesus and what He spoke during His ministry, including to John on Patmos.
Your ignorance makes you easy prey for the nicolaiten way.
This statement stands in direct contradiction to Scripture itself:
2 Timothy 3:16
All Scripture is inspired by God [literally: God-breathed] and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;
I don't think those two sentences are contradictory in any way.
As you rightly point out, God "inspired" (ie breathed) the scriptures, which somehow got written down and compiled, with false scriptures being rejected. The original commenter believes that tradition was the mechanism for this process. You may think that there was some other process that did not involve tradition but that would not mean that the two sentences are contradictory, but just that you think the original commenter interprets it incorrectly.
Incidentally, I'm curious as to what you believe the process by which Christian scripture was reduced to writing and compiled was.
Also by the way, I think it's unfortunate that English uses the German-root verb "breathe" instead of the Latin root "respire" (whereas we use respiration for the noun form), because in ordinary speech we lose the beauty of the connection between inspiration and breath that you point out in your comment.
My “point” is that those verses cite the clear necessity of faith AND works, not faith alone.
They are the words of both Paul and Christ which contradict your assertion.
You are the one cherry picking to make your point while ignore all of the scripture to the contrary.
Excellent!!
Really? Did Jesus tell His Apostles to wait upon the Spirit Who would show them all things to write?
Disagree with you there. I believe that the Holy Spirit actively inspired AND preserved Scripture every step of the way. Otherwise God’s promises contained within Scripture are lies, and as Paul, speaking in the Spirit, said:
May it never be! Rather, let God be found true, though every man be found a liar, as it is written, “That You may be justified in Your words, And prevail when You are judged.”
Romans 3:4
If I remember correctly, Rome teaches that after baptism, works earn extra grace.
This is the exact opposite of the definition of grace as seen in Romans 11.
In Scripture (Ephesians 2, among others) we are judged by our works, but our works are proof of faith and grace. In the same way that we know that water is boiling because the molecules are excited from heat, so are good works done by believers because they have God’s grace through faith.
It would have been pointless for the Holy Spirit to inspire Scripture and then retreat to a passive, detached position to allow an errant and faulty process to take over. Either the Holy Spirit inspired AND preserved Scripture, or we can never be sure if what is in the Bible is the Word of God or the product of fallen man’s tradition.
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