Posted on 09/03/2017 3:25:45 PM PDT by BlackFemaleArmyColonel
About half of Protestants in the U.S. now agree with the "historically Catholic belief" that both faith and good deeds are needed for salvation, rather than faith alone, a Pew Research Center survey shows.
White Evangelicals stood out as the strongest believers in faith alone, however.
Pew, which released the survey to mark the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, explored different questions, though one of the main focuses was on the requirements for salvation.
Fifty-two percent of U.S. Protestants said both good deeds and faith in God are needed to get into heaven; 46 percent said faith alone (sola fide) is needed. Among Catholics, 81 percent agreed that both good deeds and faith are necessary. Meanwhile, two-thirds of white evangelicals said they believe faith alone is needed for salvation.
(Catholics argue that "faith and works" is a misleading oversimplification of their beliefs.)
Protestants were similarly split on the Reformation principle of sola scriptura (which means that Scripture alone is authoritative for the faith and practice of the Christian), with 46 percent saying the Bible provides all the religious guidance Christians need and 52 percent saying Christians need guidance from church teachings and traditions in addition to the Bible. Among white evangelicals, nearly 60 percent agreed with the principle of sola sciptura.
(Excerpt) Read more at christianpost.com ...
And the relationship didn’t last. Go figure. Immaturity?
Don't assume that the expression "by faith alone" Luther meant that one has a get-out-of-jail free card so long as a person claims to be a believer/to have faith. What is meant is that while God's grace is freely given and cannot be earned, it is most certainly not cheap. It comes at the cost of discipleship.
What is discipleship? You will be given a cross of your own to bear and work to do in His time not yours; there's no need to go on a quest of your own to find "good works" to do to try to nudge God in your favor- Christ already paid your debts in full, after all- don't ever reject what He did for you.
You'll find that God doesn't need to be nudged and can't be nudged - He nudges you instead, as Abraham and Rahab submitted to the tasks thrown their way as only believers could. Abraham didn't get up one morning and decide on his own to sacrifice Isaac to prove anything to God. Rahab didn't plan on a life of helping spies to win brownie points and escape purgatory or hell through her efforts. They were genuinely faithful people - even though imperfect - who were simply humble and ready when called.
Take a look at the entire passage and not just a "soundbite"... to find out just what sort of "faith" is being discussed. The chapter's not talking about genuine faith - which if genuine propels people to action- it's talking about a man's empty claims, bragging about having faith. Just claiming to be a believer - as one does in Islam- does not make you a believer...it makes you an actor or liar.
If you start at James 2:14 you can clearly see that the discussion is about an empty claim, fake or superficial faith... and not an abiding faith:
Start at James 2:14 ... :
What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him?
To put it in modern terms:
"What good is it, my brothers, if a Facebooker claims online to have rescued puppies from the pound and found them homes, but in truth has never left the couch, not even to clean his own dog's bowl? Can such virtue signaling save him?"
When Luther refers to "faith alone" he refers to genuine faith that isn't merely empty bragging but an abiding faith which does enable one to do truly SELFLESS works, things done in spite of the cost, without hesitation, because the tasks need to be done, not because you want to escape purgatory, or to secure for one's self a place in heaven, or desire to elevate one's status on earth. ( In fact, the Bible's pretty specific about not letting people know your good works, and Jesus himself demonstrated this repeatedly by telling those he helped not to tell. They told anyway, but he was showing us by example how to do our work.)
You shouldn't expect your deeds to win brownie points with God when you're really just doing them to win the admiration of one's brethren, as people on Facebook do when they "virtue signal."
James 2:15+... Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food.
If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?
In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
Think of the reasons people virtue signal rather than take action. The main reason is they are either likely just barely getting by themselves or in bad cases, just think they are barely getting by. Either way it's a fear that God will not provide or restore what they lose if they spend their time and their last dollar on someone else. It's a doubt, lack of faith in God, that causes people to withhold their help, even though they think of themselves as believers.
Empty "faith" , like what is referred to in James 2:24, where James refers back to Genesis and the story of Abraham. Note that Abraham already was a man of faith.
Abraham wasn't just a talker or man of empty faith. The works he did he did because he was genuinely faithful, he truly believed in God, and this faith in God preceded his actions and enabled his deeds, not the other way around. To turn down the task he was given would have been an act of defiance, not an act of faith. If he'd turned away from God's command his faith would demonstrably be an "empty faith," a "dead faith." Rahab the prostitute similarly acted because she believed and was considered righteous - even though a sinner.
When James says "You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone [the mere admission of belief] he is referring to two examples of people who were already genuinely faithful before carrying out the acts he cites. They were compelled by their genuine faith to act, not by the mere intellectual admission of religious truths, and not by an islamiclike recital of the Shahada , that which makes a muslim a believer or follower of Allah in the eyes of muslims. Reciting Christian confessions isn't belief, it's a work. Only God knows how genuine is the heart.
I was quoting Cyclops, so let him know.
Usually I hear “Paradise”, but macht nichts. The gist of it is right.
Yet the passage in James begins with, "But someone will say, "You have faith, and I have works." Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works."
And Romans 4 speaks of Abraham being justified, "but not before God."
James’ opening comments are by way of illustration. He is pointing out that it is possible to show one’s faith by works, but impossible to show it without works.
Iow, a faith with no visible manifestation is not faith. It is a passive mental assent. Otoh, true faith will manifest itself. If true faith sees a brother cold and hungry, it will provide warm clothes and food. Faith without works will say, ‘Go in peace; be warmed and filled.’
Occasionally we come upon Biblical passages that appear to show a contradiction. For example, there are times when Jesus teaches that the Father is greater than He, and other times when He teaches that they are equal.
When we come upon such passages our job is not to pick the version we prefer and toss the other one out. We must harmonize them, because both are true.
In the case of Jesus, in His Incarnate form His *role* was subordinate to God the Father. Yet in *identity*, as the Second Person of the Godhead, He was equal.
Likewise with faith and works. Paul tells us we are justified by faith, as was Abraham. But this is what James says:
21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar?
22 You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected;
23 and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,” and he was called the friend of God.
24 You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.
Our job is not to pick the version we prefer and toss out the other; our job is to harmonize what Paul taught with what James taught.
It’s not as hard as it might seem. Paul is right. It was faith that justified Abraham. He believed that even if he ran his dagger into Isaac’s heart, God would restore Isaac and give him back to Abraham alive. Now that is faith!
James is right too. If all Abraham had done was *think* about sacrificing Isaac, his faith would have been useless. It was his willingness to act on his faith that made it true faith. His justification was still by faith, but he demonstrated that his faith was more than passive mental assent by acting on it. His actions (also referred to in Scripture as ‘works’) perfected his faith.
You really ought to be preaching that in a mirror. A better frame of your own faults here I couldn’t find!
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>> “Salvation happens the moment we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.” <<
Where did Yeshua tell us that?
He didn’t. That idea is nowhere to be found in scripture.
Yeshua and his apostles tell us that we must endure to the end to be saved on that day on which all of Yeshua’s bride will be saved.
Being raised up in an immortal body on that day is salvation. Enduring to our end in faithful obedience is the only thing that can assure our salvation.
The Mikvah doesn’t save us; it gets Torah written on our hearts, which makes salvation much more likely, but some do turn away. Paul and Peter assured us of that (Hebrews 6,10; 2Pet 3)
>> “We are already saved when we return with Christ at the end of the Tribulation” <<
When we return after the wedding feast, actually, but it is the gathering of the bride after the tribulation that brings our salvation. That is when we are changed from mortal to immortal, which is precisely what salvation is. That is what Yeshua told Nicodemus. We must be born again as individual specially created immortal sons of Yehova.
Following your false sound bite doctrines of men is definitely not smart; it is a guaranteed recipe for failure.
What cult teaches that? SDA? Oneidans?
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I “preach” it to you because it is you that deeply need to hear it.
The word is not to be tampered with without inviting the curse that Moses and John revealed to us.
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No cult, the Word of Yehova tells us that.
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Paul used the word ‘alone’(alone and only are from the same Greek word) more than any other New Testament writer. NOWHERE in Scripture does the doctrine that we are saved by faith alone ever appear. Just the opposite - 'not by faith alone' is the only place in Scripture where these two words appear.
The Holy Spirit prohibited Paul from using the words saved by faith alone. That same Holy Spirit guided James to pen the words ‘not by faith alone’ – an unambiguous negation at the precise point where James questions whether faith, by itself, is sufficient for justification.
Paul’s understanding of faith and salvation prevented him from using the words ‘faith alone’ together.
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