Belief alone?

[FrancisBenedict]

Jn:3:15-17
That whosoever believeth in him may not perish, but may have life everlasting. For God so loved the world, as to give his only begotten Son: that whosoever believeth in him may not perish, but may have life everlasting. For God sent not his Son into the world, to judge the world: but that the world may be saved by him.

I think for salvation we need belief (faith), good works & Grace of God.

These words seem to imply belief alone, and the versus around them don’t seem to contradict it, although others maybe do.

 

[Prayer_Warrior]

That is just one passage in the whole bible! We need to interpret that verse in light of all other verses and in light of the teaching authority of the Church. For example, when talking about faith you can’t forget that faith without works is dead (Jas 2:17). You can’t forget by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God(Eph 2:8). Also, baptism now saves you according to 1 Pet 3:21. Then there is “Repent and be baptized,* every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the holy Spirit.” (Acts 2:38) And Jesus said “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.” He later said “I am the Way, and the Truth and the Life” (This is about the Eucharist, of course). All of these passages tell us about key elements of our salvation and none of them contradict the verse you cited. None of them contradict Catholic teaching. However, some of them DO contradict the notion that one is saved by faith alone.

Hope this helps!

 

[R_C]

These words seem to imply belief alone

These words may. But Scripture and Tradition don’t

An example?

Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?

Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

What does the Lord ask for? To do. An action.

Belief as in a fiduciary faith is useless without works.

True faith, true belief, is one that will lead us and exhort us to do works. It will give us hope. It will fill us with love.

And remember that “now there remain faith, hope, and charity, these three: but the greatest of these is charity”.

 

[fred_conty]

Jn:3:15-17
That whosoever believeth in him may not perish, but may have life everlasting. For God so loved the world, as to give his only begotten Son: that whosoever believeth in him may not perish, but may have life everlasting. For God sent not his Son into the world, to judge the world: but that the world may be saved by him.

I think for salvation we need belief (faith), good works & Grace of God.

These words seem to imply belief alone, and the versus around them don’t seem to contradict it, although others maybe do.

There are about a dozen places in the bible that say “unless to do this” about different spiritual ideas. Someone did enumerate them on CAF once but I don’t remember them all. So I will just give a few examples which is sufficient.

Your yourself mentioned faith. Another one is the Eucharist, for Jesus said unless you eat and drink of me you will not enter the kingdom. And another one is St. Paul in one of his letters enumerates sins that will exclude one from the kingdom. And then there is baptism as necessary for the kingdom.

We cannot just pick one or the other, or some and not all. They are all important and lean on one another so to speak. It is like telling our child that he must eat his food if he is to grow big and strong. Or that he needs to get outside and play ball with the other kids if he is to be strong and healthy. Or he shouldn’t choke himself because fresh air is good for him. I could go on with this but the point is made, namely, even tho we say that spinage must be eaten to grow strong, that dosen’t mean it is the only thing that will make him strong or that is necessary. The child needs all of the above. One is not exclusive of the others.

When it comes to spiritual things, we must do some, and not neglect the others. Not that one or the other is all that is necessary, because they all are necessary.

This is where “faith alone” and all the other “alones” allude that the other saving ideas to entering the kingdom aren’t necessary.

Just a thought.​

“See ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness…”. (hymn)

 

[JesuisSean]

Jn:3:15-17
That whosoever believeth in him may not perish, but may have life everlasting. For God so loved the world, as to give his only begotten Son: that whosoever believeth in him may not perish, but may have life everlasting. For God sent not his Son into the world, to judge the world: but that the world may be saved by him.

I think for salvation we need belief (faith), good works & Grace of God.

These words seem to imply belief alone, and the versus around them don’t seem to contradict it, although others maybe do.

Belief is just the start.

If I believe that if I continue to breath I therefore will not pass out, I will not die, it would be pretty stupid of me to accept just the belief.

However, it would not be stupid to move away from the belief, and do so by moving on over to the truth of which the belief speaks of, and thus in turn truly breath rather than just believe in breathing.

However, many people of this day, in the world of religion, stick to their religious beliefs and thus in turn will never reach the truth itself. What a bummer. On top of that, since the believer is still located at a distance from the truth, and thus at this distance is dependent upon beliefs and disbeliefs in the first place, he or she can be deceived. Thus he or she may see the Anti-Christ as being the true Christ, and vise versa.

Between all of the beliefs that are currently practiced on this world and the actual truth, there sits a gap. This gap provides room far satan and his followers to deceive the whole world. Thus even if you “SEE” Christ, it does not mean that the he who you see is Christ at all, for seeing is “BELIEVING”.

 

[Bookcat]

Pope Benedict XVI

(Earlier audience)
vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2006/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20061108_en.html

(Two audiences from the Year of St. Paul–Faith and Works)

vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2008/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20081119_en.html

vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2008/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20081126_en.html (begins a bit down)

 

[cap76]

James 2.18, “someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.”

 

[Fidelis]

6 For [God] will render to every man according to his works: 7 to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; 8 but for those who are factious and do not obey the truth, but obey wickedness, there will be wrath and fury. 9 There will be tribulation and distress for every human being* who does evil**, the Jew first and also the Greek, 10 but glory and honor and peace for every one who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. 11 For God shows no partiality.* (Romans 2:6-11)

Get out your Bible and go to the link below for all the scriptural evidence you could ask for showing we are not saved by “Faith Alone”. Don’t fall into the trap of being led to base your theology on one cherry-picked verse. We have to take ALL of Scripture, in context and as a whole, to get the whole picture of revelation:

Scripture Catholic - JUSTIFICATION

 

[Aloysium]

Jn:3:15-17
That whosoever believeth in him may not perish, but may have life everlasting. For God so loved the world, as to give his only begotten Son: that whosoever believeth in him may not perish, but may have life everlasting. For God sent not his Son into the world, to judge the world: but that the world may be saved by him.

I think for salvation we need belief (faith), good works & Grace of God.

These words seem to imply belief alone, and the versus around them don’t seem to contradict it, although others maybe do.

Through God’s grace one believes; believing, one does God’s will.

 

[fhansen]

Jn:3:15-17
That whosoever believeth in him may not perish, but may have life everlasting. For God so loved the world, as to give his only begotten Son: that whosoever believeth in him may not perish, but may have life everlasting. For God sent not his Son into the world, to judge the world: but that the world may be saved by him.

I think for salvation we need belief (faith), good works & Grace of God.

These words seem to imply belief alone, and the versus around them don’t seem to contradict it, although others maybe do.

We are saved by faith- via faith, but not faith alone. Faith is the doorway, the first step back to restored relationship between God and man, so that we become malleable clay in the hands of the Potter, salvation being a work of His. Jesus came to, among other things, restore trust, to effect this faith in us. This is how the a council of Trent put it:

“And whereas the Apostle saith, that man is justified by faith and freely, those words are to be understood in that sense which the perpetual consent of the Catholic Church hath held and expressed; to wit, that we are therefore said to be justified by faith, because faith is the beginning of human salvation, the foundation, and the root of all Justification; without which it is impossible to please God, and to come unto the fellowship of His sons: but we are therefore said to be justified freely, because that none of those things which precede justification-whether faith or works-merit the grace itself of justification. For, if it be a grace, it is not now by works, otherwise, as the same Apostle says, grace is no more grace.”