2) Sola Fide (“faith alone”): We are saved through faith alone in Jesus Christ.
3) Sola Gratia (“grace alone”): We are saved by the grace of God alone.
4) Solus Christus (“Christ alone”): Jesus Christ alone is our Lord, Savior, and King.
5) Soli Deo Gloria (“to the glory of God alone”): We live for the glory of God alone.
As to the rest he presents no real argument.
#2) Where does he believe our good works of faith generate from exactly? Who exactly is responsible for our good works?
#3) Grace-The author states that "By its very nature grace changes us. Again, show me grace apart from works. Grace without works is an abstraction." He clearly confuses grace and faith. Grace is given to us by God. It isn't anything we WORK for.
5) Soli Deo Gloria (“to the glory of God alone”): We live for the glory of God alone.
********************************
When Rome allows the worship of Mary, the approval of scapular, medals, the myriad writings extolling the virtues of Mary and her "abilities", calling her co-redemptrix, etc....then one can understand why the msgr didn't address these.
Of course they do because they deny that faith by itself is not enough to save.
Anything you add to the finished work of Christ on the cross is what you are depending on for your salvation. Otherwise, you would acknowledge that the finished work of Christ on the cross was enough.
So if you say *faith plus works, you're trusting the works cause faith isn't enough on its own.
If you say *faith plus baptism*, then it's the baptism you are trusting.
If you say *faith plus anything* then it's the anything else that you are trusting because in any case the faith alone isn't enough even in light of what Jesus says here.
John 3:3-8 Jesus answered him,“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
John 3:14-18 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
John 5:24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
John 6:40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
John 11:25-26 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
Interesting. Regarding the faith vs works confusion, I didn’t read that part the same way you did.
What I read instead is that one’s faith is revealed, not by their words, but by their actions, their works.
I think this is the reason Jesus tests us or perhaps why He lets Satan have his way with us from time to time.
It’s to see if we’ve learned His lessons, to see if we mean what we say or if we’re just being hypocrites and con artists with Him and with ourselves.
With faith, words and works, I figure it’s like what Alfred Adler said:
“Trust only movement.Whatever we might say, our truth is generally what we do. People say lots of things, but we do what we believe.
Life happens at the level of events, not of words.
Trust movement.”
Our works reveals the truth about our beliefs and our faith much more clearly than anything we say.
No judgments. We are all works in progress, each of us on the Potter’s wheel.
We are each right about a lot of things, but each of us is wrong about something, if not many things, too.
Honestly, where’s the pride in that?
The only way we’ll ever be 100% correct is to come together and combine what we know in the spirit of unity.
But, that’s not the spirit that possess us, especially not in conversations like these. Nope, It’s the “we’re right/they’re wrong” spirit having sport with us, instead.
We all can see that the House Jesus built and paid for with His Blood is a house divided.
But what we don’t see is that we, ourselves, are the ones who are doing the dividing, in spite of all we know, or because of what we think we know.
I suspect He’ll be along soon to correct us.