Faith alone

[Texan_in_DC]

In her eyes and in their eyes and once in my eyes, it was so ingrained in us with scripture alone, faith alone, and once saved always saved… all we saw and noticed and would recognize is that "catholics thought their good works would get them to heaven, we all failed to see the faith that each and every Catholic has.

All we conected and understood was this

Catholic = good works earns us salvation

Protestant = faith alone earns us salvation

now what a protestant does not understand that when we do good works that supports our faith.

 

[SemperJase]

“that was very good, but I interpret James as saying how you are suppose to practice your faith. It doesn’t talk to me about salvation.”

I remember back when I was very involved with my evangelical high school youth group, we were studying James in Sunday school. This last quote is pretty much how they explained it.
Now at the time I realized it was a logical contradiction. They were saying that James didn’t really meant what he said. Still, I was able to ignore that logical flaw (though I was never really comfortable with it) for the next 20 years.
When I was going to RCIA with my wife, I could no longer ignore the contradiction.