you have become the prosecutor condemning me on basis of your own assumptions
Making the claim of faith alone is an admission of ignorance of the relevance of the Scripture I cited.
and
John 22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
So now it turns on the word "relevance"? The argument being one of interpretation and application? If so, in regard to the latter, you are still operating on strength of your own assumptions of just how the writer JD Hall would himself understand and apply those passages.
When faith is of the kind that is mere mental assent, mere agreement in principle, yet not of the type of faith (and depth of that) that informs one's own worldview to extents that it be part of each decision, and become basis for action (perhaps even sole basis for some actions), then yes.
On the other hand, if this "faith" not be of the superficial and shallow kind, but be after the mold of Abraham (whom as Paul wrote, was justified by faith) then where does that leave the assumptions you are obviously enough making regarding not only this one writer (JD Hall, whom I assume is Baptist) but generally most all Protestants? Have you become the prosecutor, and one operating on a set of assumptions about others that may not properly at all apply in any number of cases?
Why do you assume the worst when it comes to this writer we've been discussing? I asked you what was the basis for that, and now you have supplied it.
You have assumed that he had exhibited an alleged "ignorance of the relevance" of a portion of Scripture you chose to bring into discussion. You have no genuine evidence for that, and so have been operating on your own flawed assumptions regarding how some portions of Scripture can only be understood, and applied.
But thank you for revealing what you really think about not only JD Hall, but 'Protestants' more widely. In instance of some of them, at the least -- you could not be more wrong (yet still are condemning them on basis of your own assumptions).
John 22 ...
The Lord has breathed His Spirit upon myself, and I have had it confirmed to me that He has done so for many other, 'other than Roman Catholic' Christians. Would you like to give confession so that you may be forgiven?
Meanwhile, regardless of the writer JD Hall's own views (or anyone's views for that matter) towards what most properly makes one be Christian, my own faith is that regardless if the Coptics whom were slaughtered by Mohammedans were indeed imperfect (in being Christians -- even to being "not" Christians just as the first Christians precisely were) they most certainly were identified as being Christians when they were being killed, and so had died for the Lord's very own name's sake. That is something I do have faith the Lord not take lightly.