>> With all due respect to you, and to Pope " Benny" (whom I admire), therein is the rub. Protestants (evangelical, fundamentalist "Bible-thumping" Protestants) preach salvation through grace alone, apart from works, by means of faith in the finished work of Christ on the cross. <<
Ah, but the question is: Faith in what? Faith in Jesus is one thing, but then who was Jesus? Some Protestant denominations have made Jesus into nothing more than a proto-Marxist hippy. Others preach a message of a hateful God. Still other congregations, I'm quite sure from having seen with my own eyes, have a wonderful love of Jesus and the Good News which is certainly a blessing. It's easy to say, "all you need is a faith in Jesus," but how many congregations are full of people who say, "I always THOUGHT I was a Christian, but then I had my born-again experience" or the like? On the other hand, the Catholic who obeys the church's teachings and fully participates in the sacraments (including thorough confession of all sins recognized as such by the Church) never has to wonder what the difference is between intellectual assent and spiritual faith, because with the grace of the sacraments, intellectual assent certainly leads to spiritual faith.
>> Now, I'll fully admit that I don't completely understand the significance or substance of the sacraments, but where they function as hoops to jump through as a "faith-plus" kind of proposition ("faith-plus-sacraments") as a means to salvation, that's probably the biggest dividing line between Protestants and Catholics. <<
The sacraments aren't in addition to faith, there the answer to the riddle, "If salvation is through faith, where can I go to get faith? And if I go there, isn't that a work?" The sacraments communicate God's grace to those whom God has seen fit to put the sacraments in the path of. The one who receives the sacraments benefits not through their own merit, but through the merit of the body of Christ which has preserved the sacraments to be offered. The will to seek out the sacraments is itself a grace conferred by God, and so even the reception of the sacraments is not a work, but a sign of grace.
>> I guess I'd have to say I'm Protestant primarily because I agree with Luther's expounding on the teachings of salvation through faith he discovered when he really got into the book of Romans (and Galatians, and Colossians). <<
Luther never could reconcile the book of James with the book of Romans, so he cast it out. Modern-day Lutherans (with some exceptions, such as the LCMS and LCWS) and the Roman Catholic Church have agreed on how to reconcile "Faith without works is dead," with "Faith alone": Works do not merit salvation at all, but are the sign that faith is properly fixed; if faith exists without sacraments, than that faith is misplaced or misconstrued. Our works do not merit our salvation, but if we are saved, we do have works.
>> I do not see the sacraments as imperative in the teachings of Christ, nor in the teachings of the apostles, hence, in the teaching of scripture. <<
Unless you eat of my body, and drink of my blood, you shall not have life within you.
This cup is the new testament in my blood: Do this in remembrance of me.
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.
Confess [your] faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us [our] sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.
If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham.
But shewed first unto them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judaea, and [then] to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance.
What [doth it] profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?... Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.
Oh please. It is far better to be asking Jesus to take away your sins then to be asking Mary to ask Jesus to take away your sins. According to what you wrote all one has to do is OBEY. If you don't OBEY then that's it.
Luther never could reconcile the book of James with the book of Romans, so he cast it out.
Last time I looked in my PROTESTANT Bible, the book of James was still there.
It is WELS, not LCWS, but that is inside baseball:) We didn't sign the JDF, because after the appendix it no longer meant much. What is interesting, is that after BXVI became pope, the LCMS opened up the talks again. When he was a Cardinal, he was very upset at the final wording of the JDF. While many Orthodox say he is a "Orthodox sounding" pope, many LCMS Lutherans say he sounds a lot like a Lutheran.
That was well said. God bless you.