Posted on 09/02/2017 7:03:37 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
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.
Overall, only 30 percent of Protestants, 7 percent of Catholics and 44 percent of white evangelicals believe in both sola fide and sola scriptura.
The data for the poll was collected between May 30 and August 9, sampling 5,198 respondents, with the questions split in two forms. Pew noted that the margin of sampling error for both halves of respondents was plus or minus 2.9 percentage points.
Some respondents were asked to answer the question of what is needed to get into heaven in their own words. Common responses to this open-ended question included belief in Jesus and being born again (32 percent); being a good person, moral values and doing good works (19 percent of all Christians); repentance and asking forgiveness for sins (12 percent); and belief in God (11 percent).
In other findings, Christians were largely split on the topic of purgatory, which some believe to be a place where souls go to be cleansed of their sins before they can enter Heaven.
Overall, 54 percent of U.S. Christians rejected the existence of such a place, while 33 percent said that they believed in it. White evangelicals were most likely to say it is a false belief, with 72 percent rejecting it. Catholics found themselves at the opposite end of the scale, with 70 percent stating that purgatory is a real place. While a majority (65 percent) of Protestants overall said purgatory does not exist, black Protestants were split on the belief, with 47 percent saying it exists and 48 percent saying it doesn't.
Notably, a majority of U.S. adults were familiar with the Reformation as the time Protestants broke away from the Catholic Church and correctly named Martin Luther as the person who inspired it.
Protestants this year are commemorating the 500th anniversary of the Reformation when Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of All Saints Church in Wittenberg, Germany on Oct. 31, 1517.
According to Ligonier Ministries, while the Reformation is largely described as a movement that revolved around sola fide and sola scriptura, "the 'protest' of Protestantism went far beyond the issue of justification by faith alone, challenging many dogmas that emerged in Rome, especially during the Middle Ages."
Pew noted, "[T]he issues at the heart of the Reformation were not merely doctrinal. Disputes also arose over religious practices, ecclesiastical structures, the sale of indulgences, the expensive construction of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, and more. Political and other factors also played an important role."
The Reformation swept through Germany in the 16th century, spread throughout Europe and then to the new world.
One gets the impression that a lot of people don’t really understand the religion they profess. Fwiw, I expect that’s been the default for the entire history of humanity.
“But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”
Titus 3:4-7
RE: One gets the impression that a lot of people don’t really understand the religion they profess.
We better hope most Muslims don’t understand clearly what Islam and the Koran really teaches...
Often they don’t, and they don’t like it when they learn it. There was a case in Australia where Christians from Pakistan were convicted of “religious vilification” simply for reading from the Koran words that local Moslems didn’t like.
“We have all become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.”
Isaiah 64:6
“O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?”
Galatians 3:1-3
Surveys are usually kind of ham-handed and don’t allow for any kind of subtlety. If the choices offered don’t fit your belief, you pick the one closest or you give up and don’t answer. I hate surveys, especially if they are written by people who don’t get the subject they are studying.
As for “works”, its really not that complicated. If you are walking with God, if the Spirit is resident in your life, there will be evidence of it in your character and in that piece of the world that surrounds you. Over time, as you walk it out, you and the space surrounding you will be different because God is alive in you.
You also have people who strongly believe in Modalism, dispensations in terms of the nature of God and other heresies but that is mainly due to Televangelists and prosperity teachers.
Uhm.....nope.
See one of the 3 great parables in Mathew 13 “Pearl of Great Price”
Correct, however the issues Paul took with it in his letters dealt with people who did works in vain. They did them to try and earn favor with God or erase a bad deed. It was not out of joy and love for God. The way I always put it is the man who committed adultery. Can buying his wife a new car and taking her on a 10 day cruise erase the bad deed and make her forgive him? However the man who surprises his wife with gifts out of love and joy for her can surely make his marriage stronger.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
Galatians 2:8,9
but one must SHOW their own love of God....by doing good, refraining from sin...
I know so many so called "Christians" who's only objective is to get the name of "Jesus" in their prayers as often as they can...
otherwise, they cheat the govt and others and lie all the time....
the more they proclaim how great a Christian they are, the more I distrust them...the more they say they are "saved" the more suspect they are...
Thanks for posting this verse - Paul absolutely nails it in Galatians.
Well...
“For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and WILL THEN REPAY EVERY MAN ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS.” (Matthew 16:27)
Now, to be completely clear: People are ONLY saved by grace, but they receive that grace through faith and God’s works begun within them.
but one must SHOW their own love of God....by doing good, refraining from sin... (Every one of us continues to sin but "yes" we should "refrain" or repent from sin. Christians are not under the "dominion" of sin. God always provided the way out. The choice is ours.)
I know so many so called "Christians" who's only objective is to get the name of "Jesus" in their prayers as often as they can...
otherwise, they cheat the govt and others and lie all the time....
the more they proclaim how great a Christian they are, the more I distrust them...the more they say they are "saved" the more suspect they are...
**Titus 3:4-7 ....but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,....**
Written by Paul to Titus, a convert of his, that was bishop of the church in Crete.
Paul tells about his own conversion, to king Agrippa (in Acts 22:16); where Damascus disciple Ananias said to an obviously repentant Paul:
“And now why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord”.
What's the difference between the two?
...a figure, not literal.
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