Long Journey to Rome (Former Southern Baptist Pastor Now a Traveling Crusader for Catholic Church)

Once a Southern Baptist pastor, Michael Cumbie converted to Catholicism in 2001 and has since been traveling far from his hometown near Pensacola, Florida, to preach his new faith to the nation. At Saint Therese Catholic Church in San Diego for a "renewal mission" this April, he spent three evenings speaking about his conversion, Catholic worship, and the Eucharist. About 200 hundred came to listen the last evening's talk. While he gathered his materials after his energetic presentation, I asked him some questions on the same topics.

Can you say something about the experience of the Holy Spirit in your life that put you on the path to Catholicism?

"Most Catholics and Protestants are familiar with the charismatic renewal, that came to all Christianity in the '70s. It was a big renewing of the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Holy Spirit, a little different from Pentecostalism, which started in the early 1900s. That movement of the Holy Spirit seemed to be of the less educated and maybe poorer people. Many folks would never have gone to one of those kinds of gatherings of people speaking in tongues and prophesying. But then in the '70s that experience of Pentecost which the Catholic Church celebrates every year, started to invade those mainline churches of educated people. Intellectual Christians started having the same experience that the Pentecostals did. I was swept up in that movement. But also, as a Southern Baptist, we did not believe in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, that they still operated today or were meant for today. But when I was in college I got around a group of young people that just had such a powerful presence of Christ in their lives. I'd never seen that. All Christians I knew up to that time were pretty much all the same -- I use the little analogy all the time, 'you don't know there are any hundred watt light bulbs if you're always around forty watt light bulbs.' So I got around all these hundred watt light bulbs and I noticed how much brighter their light was, if I can say it that way, and it just really drove me crazy. After about three months I said to these folks, 'You know, you guys have something I don't have. You're Christians, I'm a Christian, I believe that, but you've got some secret. I sense this powerful presence, and besides that you have such understanding of the Bible even though you've never been to Bible college,' and they said, 'Michael, it's the Holy Spirit'. Then they used the term 'baptism of the Holy Spirit' and I'd never heard of that, and to make a long story short we went through hours and hours of theological discussion. Because it was against my training and teaching as a Southern Baptist, they had a lot to overcome to try to convince me that this was a Biblical, Scriptural schism. But once they did, and I prayed and had the experience, it changed everything for me. The major thing it did, which began my conversion to Catholicism, was that it put a crack in my foundation that my denomination knew everything.

"Never at that point did I think about Catholicism, although the very first thing that happened to me that was unusual other than this gift of tongues, was that I drove past a Catholic Church and for the first time, I felt drawn to go in there and pray. Now I was raised so anti-Catholic -- we were told, don't you ever go inside a Catholic church. If you go into one, you can't get out. We laugh about it now, but we were deathly afraid of Catholicism. We thought it was from Satan and was deceiving millions of people, full of man-made rituals, because it was so different from our form of Christianity of preaching and singing and evangelizing. But I went into that Catholic Church, I spent four hours in that old, traditional, beautiful church. The pillars of marble, high altar rails, canvas paintings, stained glass windows -- it arrested me. I could not imagine what the people who went there did. I thought, with a building that looks like this, what do you do when you come here? I noticed the pulpit was not front-and-center like it always was at our churches where the emphasis is on hearing sermons and preaching. That experience marked me -- it did something to me that I've never gotten over. It began my conversion to the Catholic Church, because it caused such curiosity in me. I went home and I began to read, and every time we'd pass one of those churches, for the next ten years, I'd get my whole family out of the car and make them go inside and look at that church, and the kids loved it. They loved the holy water (they didn't know what it was for), and they loved the statues. I'd read them the little plaques beneath the saint statues which told the saint's story. I couldn't figure out at the time why God kept pulling me into those beautiful old churches to pray, when I was so anti-Catholic in my theology."

Would you say that exposure to the aesthetic appeal of traditional Catholic churches was your entry into sacramental theology?

"Well, yes, although it took fifteen years. What happened was, I went to a conference where a pastor stood up and said to us, 'The church in America is irrelevant.' (Now when he said 'church' he meant all the Protestants). He said, 'It's not having any impact on society'. I knew he was right, I knew something had been wrong for a long time. We preached our hearts out, but it wasn't changing the nation. It wasn't causing men who had no use for God to even consider God. So it really made me start to examine what we were preaching and what was our method of getting people converted -- was our method of salvation the right way? So this little preacher got up and said, 'The church is irrelevant,' and then said, 'we believe the cure for the ills of our society is for us evangelical Protestant pastors to return to ancient liturgy and sacramental theology.' I had no idea what he was talking about. I thought, 'We have to do what?'

"My friend next to me said, 'Oh, no, he's talking about C-C-C-Catholicism.' That pastor proceeded to spend the next hour and fifteen minutes telling us why he said what he said, and it so disturbed me, because I knew in my heart he was on to something true, but my head was giving me fits. It went against everything I believed. So we gave ourselves the next two years just to study and read the early Church fathers. We realized how much we had lost in the Reformation, and made a vow to try to take all our congregations and restore everything that was lost. No small task. We started to call ourselves 'ancient historical Christians', which of course is nothing other than Catholic. After trying many other alternatives (such as the Episcopal church) my wife Sherry and I decided to become Catholic. We needed a pope -- to be in line with Peter."

In a post-Vatican II climate, in which the word "renewal" can equate to a watering down of the faith, what does the word mean to you?

"Well, the first thing that comes to mind is, 'What needs to be renewed?' and 'Why does anybody need renewal?' When I was a Protestant we used the word 'revival'. We believed we needed reviving because we've gone cold and indifferent and spiritually dead, and at one time the faith was on fire and vibrant and alive. So that's what renewal and revival means to me. The Scriptures say, 'Can these dry bones live again,' and give examples of breathing on something that's become a dead formalistic mental exercise and is not alive spiritually anymore."

Do you think this kind of renewal is at the heart of what was called for by Vatican II?

"I think the Vatican Council was about this renewal. Of course I'm a new kid on the block, and have heard a lot of controversy about the second Vatican Council, and I've seen some great things that have come supposedly as a result of it, and some not so great things. But what I find out about those not so great things is that those were things that were never intended by the Council anyway. So a misapplication and a misinterpretation have happened. I will go on record saying I believe with all my heart that the Second Vatican Council is the voice of God to the Church. It is the magisterium. There's no arguing with that. How it's implemented though -- people get involved, men get involved.... Without being uncharitable, I can say some men with their own agendas came out of the council and tried to use the phrase, 'in the spirit of the second Vatican Council ... we have to change, etc, etc.... ' I think the Council was God's way of trying to bring renewal to the Church in the twenty-first century. I have to say, all the things I read about Catholicism -- the rubrics of the mass, the silence of the sacred space, the kneelers and the formality of dress -- it was all so refreshing to me. But when I actually saw the typical Catholic churches, it was very different. If I had walked into a modern, updated, liberal Catholic parish I would never have become Catholic. Because it's so much like the Protestant environment that I left. I was looking for structure, and respect for the sacred, and love for the holy, and we didn't have it. And many parishes, I'm afraid, have become just like that "in the spirit of Vatican II" of making the church a "gathering space" -- even though it is still sacred space we don't act like it is. So I think some things have been very detrimental to the faith and have even caused tens of thousands of Catholics to walk out and lose their faith. And again, that's not the Council's fault but just the statistics. Of the thirty-three percent of Catholics who still attend mass regularly, sixty-six percent no longer believe in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. This is the crisis in the church, not pedophilia. This loss of faith in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist -- that's the very doctrine that changed my whole life and caused my conversion, because all the Church's teachings flow from that doctrine."

Do you see the same need for a return to sacramental theology that you saw in the Protestant congregations?

"Absolutely. Dr. (Scott) Hahn says, 'We must evangelize the baptized first.' Evangelization has to start among our own people. And it's happening. There were about two hundred Protestant pastors that came into the Church the year I converted, and I heard two weeks ago that there are four hundred and seventy-nine Protestant pastors coming into the Church this year. So what's the Lord up to? He loves the Church. It's not going to die or fall apart. He promised that, but it may go through some real reviving and renewing and changing, and God is bringing hundreds of Protestant pastors, the leaders of Protestant Christianity, back home, to the roots of their own faith even as Christians. So it looks like the Holy Spirit is up to something."

Do you think there's a need to be especially careful when you are trying to make Catholic truths digestible to the average layperson?

"Yes, you have to be very careful. Most of us -- we converted pastors -- are not theologians, we're not experts, we learned just enough about the Church to know it was the truth. And what most of us try to share are just the things we know that changed our lives. There are many topics I will not touch. I cannot teach on a particular doctrine if I'm not educated in it. The things that I know according to Scripture, and that we can prove historically about the Church being the Church that Jesus started, I have no problem preaching up a storm on those kinds of things. But every teacher, apologist, or catechist has to be very careful. You try to make the faith as understandable as you can while avoiding any danger of heresy."

Do you feel that your call is to evangelize to the baptized first by sharing your story?

"By sharing my story, yes, but more importantly through apologetics. Why do we believe what we believe? You must be able to give an answer to anyone that asks you. Saint Peter said, 'You must be able at all times to give a reason for the hope that lies in you.' So first the baptized must be taught their own faith, and then taught how to answer criticisms of that faith from non-Catholic Christians who are very misinformed about the faith just like I was. And a kind answer turns away wrath -- you've got to be filled with love and with charity, but you have to know the faith. When it comes to those who have no faith at all, you need to ask yourself, 'Do I know how to share the love of Christ with them? Can I convince them of their need for God and salvation?' Can you love them into the Kingdom? God does the converting, we don't convert anybody. Our job is to be the best Catholics we can be. My job is not to tell you what to believe but to explain the faith. Then you must decide what you believe."

>>Truly sad. Do you feel better about yourself, politicallyincarrect, that you can make such aside comments to another Christian but you can't back them up when discussing a theological topic with Catholics?? <<

Actually, I'm in distress as I discuss these issues... If it didn't make any difference what you believed... I could care less... The point is that you and others have been given the opportunity to see the fallacy of many of the RCC doctrines and practices and yet there seems to be the attitude that "this is what the RCC says, and I'm not going to budge"... Certainly, I can't read your minds, but I can read your posts...

>>If you have the gumption to continue our conversation without bailing out over false sensitivities (an ironic thing, given your screen name...), you know where to find me...<<

"Gumption"... "Bailing out"... "sensitivities"... "You know where to find me.." Are we "projecting" again? These are not the tactics of a Bible scholar... These are the tactics of a schoolyard bully... You won't mind if I tell you that I'm not the least bit impressed, will you?

>>As to ladyinred, it is a shame that you have to be cast into the middle of such polemics from a fellow Christian. God bless you and your search for the truth.<<

Once again arrogance, pride, and a condescending attitude is being demonstrated on your part... I'm sure that ladyinred is well able to sift through the rubble of what's being said and find the nuggets.... Without your "help"...

Dear Catholic Troll Trio:

Thank you for posting two pages of boilerplate from "Refuting Sola Fide 101". You could have saved a lot of JimRob's bandwidth by simply posting:

I have no rebuttal for your valid accusation that Campion's
"faith without works is dead faith with no power to save. I didn't make that up, it's a verbatim quote from the Epistle of James".
was a bald-faced lie -- and a damnable, self-serving distortion of Scripture.
So, go read http://www.catholicapologetics.org/ap020800.htm instead.

~~~~~~~

See how easy (and truthful) that was?

I came to this thread hoping for a few moments of fellowship with fellow Christians who also happened to be Catholic, and who had insight into the latest directions within Catholicsm. Instead, what I found was an ambush by trolls who are still tilting at windmills dated October 31, 1513...

I was appalled to learn that there are anti-Catholic threads on FR. Now, I will not be surprised should I encounter one.

I wasted far too much time, trying to be thoughtful, civil and open with you today; trust me: it will not happen again.

The way I understand those passages, "Works" or "Deeds" are the evidence of true, saving faith -- not an added requirement thereunto.

Thank you, TXnMA, for the ping and for your post to the truth. Jesus said, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments."

As John says, His commandments are not burdensome.

"Love one another."

This same commandment we had from the beginning (as John reiterates), which single commandment Jesus made very clear to all who are willing to receive the Truth:

Then one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, perceiving that He had answered them well, asked Him,
“Which is the first commandment of all?”
Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is:
‘Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one.
And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart,
with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’
This is the first commandment.
And the second, like it, is this:
‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
There is no other commandment greater than these.”
Mark 12:28-31

Ravi Zacharias said the other day (click here and go about 6:30 into the realplayer broadcast), that this "greatest command" is indeed One Command: 1a) and 1b)! (:

He added that what Jesus was in essence teaching was,
"If you know Me, and you love your neighbor, all the other 613 [Rabbinical Laws] emerge from those two [Commands of God]."

Again, quoting John, "How can a man say he loves God who is unseen,
if he loves not his brother whom he can see?"

The unseen love is first, and all love that is seen flows from this,
being the manifestation of the first, and its proof. Amen.

The entire law is summed up in a single command:
"Love your neighbor as yourself."
Galatians 5:14

In other words the "WORK" is this: LOVE.

We must learn to love as Jesus did,
and this we do by believing (loving) His Word and walking in (loving) His Spirit. Amen.

With all due respect... Your post makes a "ridiculous" argument against the fact that nowhere in Scripture are we ever told to "pray to the dead", or to "pray for the dead"... Scriptural prayer is TO God, and FOR and BY the living...

I challenge you to respond with Scriptural opposition to what I've just said... If you think that some exists...

You are making the false presumption that everything that Christians believed and did in the first century was recorded in the Bible. The Bible is a collection of letters to various communities, communities who had particular problems. The Bible is NOT a systematic catechism (chapter one, faith; chapter two, salvation; etc). There are a number of issues within the life of the Church that are either not mentioned or merely implied by Scriptures. Christian practice of the first century CLEARLY indicates a belief in the efficiency of prayers for the sake of dead people, a practice that goes back AT LEAST 150 years BEFORE Christ, as indicated in 2 Maccabees.

Christ established a Church for the purpose of preaching and teaching, the pillar and foundation of the truth. This same Church WROTE the NT Scriptures...Since it is guided by the Holy Spirit, what it teaches dogmatically is to be held as truly from God.

Regards

You don't have a clue how I've arrived at my "understanding of Scriptures"... So let me tell you... As I've said before... I have no axe to grind... I've looked at every view point, read numerous commentators, including RCC and compared them with Scripture... That is how I've come to my conclusions...

You are merely confirming what I already had assumed. Have you considered reading the writings of the first Christians? Those closest chronologically to Christ and the Apostles? Wouldn't you think they'd have gotten it right? Perhaps if you would read St. Ignatius of Antioch, St. Justin the Martyr, St. Irenaeus, the Didache, St. Clement of Rome, and so forth, writings of the first 200 years, I sincerely think you would have a better handle on what was meant by the teachings of the Apostles, rather than men from 1600 who had ulterior motives for inventing their own theological ideas so as to separate from the Catholic Church.

I challenge YOU to read these writings and see what THEY believed regarding faith/works and so forth. While not inerrant, taken as a whole, it is difficult to ignore their unity of thought on such issues.

I wrote: while mine is based on the Tradition passed down from 2000 years, <<

You replied: That is obvious... :-)

I will take that as a compliment. The Scripture clearly tells us that we are to hold onto the Traditions taught to us by the Apostles, not make up our own. In the later writings, such as Peter, John, Jude and the Pastorals, there is an overwhelming sense that the Apostles clearly wanted to ensure that this deposit of teachings given was to be passed on without change. Is Christianity a revealed religion, or a philosophy of the culture we live in at the time?

Advantage? I think not considering the real source of your "traditions"...

What is the source of my "traditions"? What "traditions" are you speaking of? Before I consider this another attack, I will await your response...

All truth is found in the Bible alone...

LOL! No, it's not. The Bible never mentions anything about the Mayan Indians. Does this mean that they didn't exist? In the exact same way, if the Church records at a later date that Mary is truly the Mother of God - rather than being explicitly in Scriptures, does this mean it is not so? Again, everything that Christians practiced or believed is not recorded in Scriptures. Scripture is only PART of the Word of God presented to mankind.

Any man made interpretations of what the Apostles believed and practiced is invalid if it is not backed up by Scripture...

I believe that a "tradition" cannot go AGAINST what is found in Scripture. Otherwise, it is not a valid tradition. Jesus did not condemn ALL traditions, only those that separated man from God. He also followed traditions.

I have problems with people who tell me that faith alone saves, when clearly, in James 2, it tells us EXPLICITLY that it does NOT save by itself. These same people then have the audacity to make accusations against the Church that WE don't follow Scriptures! Thus, you are making yourself to be a hypocrite, from my point of view. Being saved for heaven by Faith alone is NOT found in Scriptures, thus, you follow a man-made tradition. If you don't believe me, give me some examples of the Church following such beliefs the first 1500 years before Luther's invention...

Error is error no matter how many times it is believed, taught, or practiced...

Outside the pillar and foundation of the truth, I would agree with that.

Regards

Dear Catholic Troll Trio:

What on earth are you talking about? By defending the Catholic point of view, we are trolls? Oh brother...

I came to this thread hoping for a few moments of fellowship with fellow Christians who also happened to be Catholic, and who had insight into the latest directions within Catholicsm. Instead, what I found was an ambush by trolls who are still tilting at windmills dated October 31, 1513...

No you didn't. When? You posted ONE previous post on this thread, "correcting" mine and Campion's citations of Scriptures because you were "uncomfortable". When did you ask any of us about the "insight into the latest directions within Catholicism"? All you did was come here, try to give us your point of view on works and faith. That is what this forum is for. And now you come back with this "appalled" "ambushed" feeling??? Truthfully, why exactly did you post, then?

NYer was correct to post the Scriptures directly here. You probably wouldn't have gone to the link she posted. But the verses are now part of this thread and clearly, for all to see, they destroy the idea that one is saved by faith without works of love.

I wasted far too much time, trying to be thoughtful, civil and open with you today; trust me: it will not happen again.

This seems to be the direction Protestant apologists on this thread are taking lately. Trying to win the sympathy vote, I suppose. Make wild accusations that Catholics are "ambushing" posts and "tilting at windmills" and naturally, being "uncivil" and "unthoughtful". No one was uncivil to you and clearly, you didn't come here for open discussion, but to give us your OPINION that "faith alone is salvific". By defending what the Scriptures say, we are now trolls. Well, the Lord did say that we would be insulted and persecuted...

Regards

>>James 2 EXPLICITLY says we are not saved by faith alone.<<

What James says... Is that if our faith is genuine... It will produce good works. James 2:14, 19, 20. James was dispelling the notion that mere "profession" of faith saves.. "Even the demons believe that there is on God... Genuine faith is the "root" salvation, and good works are the "fruit" of salvation.

"For by grace are you saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the GIFT of God, NOT OF WORKS, lest any man should boast." Ephesians 2:8,9

"I do not frustrate the grace of God; for if righteousness comes by the law, then Christ is dead in vain." Galations 3:21

"Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law... for by the works of the law shall no man be justified." Galations 2:16

"Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith."

We are justified (declared righteous) by grace, through faith, on the merits of Christ's blood, and the proof is in His resurrection. The "evidence" that we've been saved and justified is the fruit that we produce, as James rightly points out...

Listen to what Christ said about "justification"...

Luke 18:9 "To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: 10 "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men--robbers, evildoers, adulterers--or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.' 13 "But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.' 14 "I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

It is a humbling thing to rest completely and only on Christ and His sin atoning sacrifice made at the place called Calvary. It is our fallen nature that causes us to resist salvation as a free gift... Our sinful nature rebels against grace.. We want to be like Cain and offer something from our own hands.. Even when God has clearly said.. "Our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.."

"The wages of sin is death, but the FREE GIFT of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ the Lord." Romans 6:23

Now, go do the right thing, friend.

What James says... Is that if our faith is genuine... It will produce good works. James 2:14, 19, 20. James was dispelling the notion that mere "profession" of faith saves.. "Even the demons believe that there is on God... Genuine faith is the "root" salvation, and good works are the "fruit" of salvation.

Again and again, you are incorrect. Saying it over and over will not MAKE it correct! Both James AND Paul AND Peter AND John AND Jesus say that love towards God and our neighbor MUST be added to our faith to enter heaven. I have given a number of verses that you have so far ignored. There are numerous verses that discuss this FACT of the Christian life. One must have faith AND works of love. Let’s re-visit James 2 for a moment…

James is giving real, pastoral application of the Christian life. A choice that even WE must face. He presents a hypothetical situation in James 2:1-5 of a rich man and a poor man entering into their assembly. He asks “What would you do if..?” to challenge the Christians. “Do I discriminate based on the wealth of another Christian?” “Shall I help this poor man without proper clothing or food?” Remember, later, James tells us that to NOT do something we know we should do is SINFUL… These questions confront the Christian who CLAIMS to have faith. James asks:

What shall it profit, my brethren, if a man say he hath faith, but hath not works? Shall faith be able to save him? And if a brother or sister be naked, and want daily food: And one of you say to them: Go in peace, be ye warmed and filled; yet give them not those things that are necessary for the body, what shall it profit? So faith also, if it have not works, is dead in itself” James 2: 14-17

In the rhetorical question above, James asks “shall faith be able to save him?” the answer is “NO”. This is not an abstract question, brother. James is asking uncomfortable questions to us. We can’t just sit back on our laurels, saying we love God, while refusing to help men in need. Having faith does not mean one will answer “yes” to the needs of a fellow brother in need. James is crystal-clear about this ultimatum by saying “CAN FAITH SAVE HIM?” Obviously, this tells the reader that something MORE is needed to be saved.

Now, let’s look at your verses…

"For by grace are you saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the GIFT of God, NOT OF WORKS, lest any man should boast." Ephesians 2:8,9

No doubt, MY WORK ALONE is worthless. But in Christ, I am raised to a supernatural level, as I am part of Christ. When He abides in me, it is US who does the good work. This is verified by the following verse:

“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus in good works, which God hath prepared that we should walk in them.” Eph 2:10

"I do not frustrate the grace of God; for if righteousness comes by the law, then Christ is dead in vain." Galations 3:21

Again, no doubt. If I think I can earn my salvation, or if I am a Jew who thinks that external works and national relations to Abraham guarantees me salvation, that God OWES me, than I am wrong.

"Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law... for by the works of the law shall no man be justified." Galations 2:16

See above. No one is justified by trying to earn salvation. Those in Christ are working in love. The inner motivation is different.

We are justified (declared righteous) by grace, through faith, on the merits of Christ's blood, and the proof is in His resurrection. The "evidence" that we've been saved and justified is the fruit that we produce, as James rightly points out...

And without this, our faith is dead. Thus, love must be added to faith… You have yet to say anything that proves your point.

Listen to what Christ said about "justification"...

Luke 18:9 "To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: …

Look at verse 9, brother… TO THOSE CONFIDENT IN THEIR OWN RIGHTEOUSNESS. Jesus makes the distinction between one who believes they are justified by does not love, looking down at others arrogantly – and those who are humble at heart, knowing that God does not owe them anything. Just as Paul says, Jesus teaches that life by a written code only breeds pride and arrogance as displayed by the Pharisees. God is pleased with one who loves from his heart, by the Spirit of God – seeking divine praise, not the praise of man.

It is a humbling thing to rest completely and only on Christ and His sin atoning sacrifice made at the place called Calvary. It is our fallen nature that causes us to resist salvation as a free gift... Our sinful nature rebels against grace.. We want to be like Cain and offer something from our own hands.. Even when God has clearly said.. "Our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.." You want to know what Jesus said about justification and righteousness? Look at Matthew 5-7. You’ll find your answer there. For example:

For I tell you, that unless your justice abound more than that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Mat 5:20

Not every one that saith to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven: but he that doth the will of my Father who is in heaven, he shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. Mat 7:21

Now, go do the right thing, friend.

Thanks for your advice. I will continue trying to correct your errors and show others that Sola Fide is not a biblical theology...

Regards

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.