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drblank1
Guest
Faith THEN works.Faith plus works.
Faith THEN works.Faith plus works.
I think you are correct that we believe salvation comes at different points.Seems like we agree with the steps we just insert the salvation part at different points.
So if Joe Christian has no works, Joe Catholic would say he is not justified because he has no works and Joe Reformer would say he is not justified because he has no faith (because he has no works). That pretty much it?
Wait…what?Remember, this book was written to believers, not unbelievers
Yes, redemption is a one time deal. We agree there.I think you are correct that we believe salvation comes at different points.
Tell me if I am wrong but typical Catholic theology would say:
faith+worka+workb+…workn = salvation then more works?
We believe the Biblical position that:
faith = salvation then here come the good works. We would not call Joe a Christian.
I’ve said it before in this thread. Salvation is a singular event. One is saved or not saved. You are or are not adopted into God’s family. You are sealed with he Holy Spirit or you are not. You have eternal life or you do not. Do these promises apply to a Catholic? And if so, when? They apply to Protestants at the moment we come to authentic faith in Jesus Christ’s perfect sacrifice and resurrection. James is not saying that faith and works will save you. When you read the entire chapter, James is saying, you have been saved through faith, NOW GET TO WORK!!!
God bless
Galatians 5:6 English Standard Version
For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love
Faith AND works.Faith THEN works.
Yep. You’re wrong.I think you are correct that we believe salvation comes at different points.
Tell me if I am wrong but typical Catholic theology would say:
faith+worka+workb+…workn = salvation then more works?
And if you don’t perform these duties do you get fired or does someone tell you that you were never really hired in the first place?Easy, think of it this way: the book of James could be titled, “You’re hired! Now what?”
Some chapter titles could include:
- How do you interact with the Boss?
- Training guide and your path to promotion
- What is your role within the company?
- What are you duties?
- Respecting your team and customers
- Expectations and preforming at a high level
Ephesians 2 10 tell us we are created for good works that God prepared for us and that we should walk in them. But these works are not for wages.I think you are correct that we believe salvation comes at different points.
Tell me if I am wrong but typical Catholic theology would say:
faith+worka+workb+…workn = salvation then more works?
Yes that is a fallible biblical interpretation based on your reformed tradition.We believe the Biblical position that:
faith = salvation then here come the good works. We would not call Joe a Christian.
Salvation is a singular event only in that it occurs at the end of life. During our life salvation is a process. Major difference in our theologies. Paul and James point to two different times in Abraham’s life and say he was justified by those respective events. Not a one time event.I’ve said it before in this thread. Salvation is a singular event. One is saved or not saved. You are or are not adopted into God’s family. You are sealed with he Holy Spirit or you are not. You have eternal life or you do not. Do these promises apply to a Catholic? And if so, when? They apply to Protestants at the moment we come to authentic faith in Jesus Christ’s perfect sacrifice and resurrection.
If James can make a distinction between faith and works and describe a person who has faith but not works then this must be possible. You would say this person has no faith but that’s not what James is describing. Again, if the person does not get to work, is he still saved under your model? If no, then the difference is works.James is not saying that faith and works will save you. When you read the entire chapter, James is saying, you have been saved through faith, NOW GET TO WORK!!!Remember, this book was written to believers, not unbelievers.
God bless
Good insight here ajcstr.If James can make a distinction between faith and works and describe a person who has faith but not works then this must be possible.
God bless James and every readers of the CAF.God doesn’t predestine ANYONE to hell. To profess double predestination is heresy.
You could simply keep it simple:Continuation
**THE THEORY OF PREDESTINATION prævisa merita
THIS HEORY, CHAMPIONED BY all Thomists and a few Molinists (as Bellarmine, Francisco Suárez, Francis de Lugo):**
Asserts that God, by an absolute decree and without regard to any future supernatural merits, predestined from all eternity certain men to the glory of heaven, and then, in consequence of this decree, decided to give them all the graces necessary for its accomplishment. End quote.
All of the above excerpts taken from the Catholic Encyclopedia: Predestination.
THE FOLLOWING TEACHINGS CONFIRMS THE ABOVE THEORY OF PREDESTINATION
John 15:16; “You did not chose Me, but I chose you …”
2 Tim.1:9; “God who saved us and called us with holy calling, NOT ACCORDING TO OUR WORKS, but ACCORDING TO HIS OWN PURPOSE …”
Eph.1:11; “… being predestined ACCORDING TO THE PURPOSE of Him …”
John 6:44 … NO ONE can come to Me unless the Father DRAWS him.
In other words, when God commands, He capacitates the hearer to respond.
Yet the ability to respond is also His gift.
Aquinas said, “God changes the will without forcing it.
But he can change the will from the fact that He himself operates in the will as He does in nature,” De Veritatis 22:9.
Similarly, the Council of Orange says that “in every good work, we do not begin.” (#329.2)
ST. AUGUSTINE ON GRACE AND PREDESTINATION
De gratia Christi 25, 26:
“For not only has God given us our ability and helps it, but He even works [brings about] willing and acting in us; not that we do not will or that we do not act, but that without His help we neither will anything good nor do it.”
De gratia et libero arbitrio 16, 32:
“It is certain that we will when we will; but He brings it about that we will good. . . . It is certain that we act when we act, but He brings it about that we act, PROVIDING MOST EFFECTIVE POWERS TO THE WILL.”
Phil.2:13; “For it is God who works in you BOTH TO WILL and TO ACT for His good pleasure.”
CCC 2022; “The divine initiative in the work of grace PRECEDES,PREPARES, and ELICITS the free response of man. …”
The salvation of God’s children/elect always based on God’s initiative.
SUMMARY
**The Catholic position on predestination to hell: **
With Catholic terminology, decree the Divine reprobation, which means; negative predestination to hell.
Only those predestined to hell from all eternity who are rejecting God and His grace.
Positive predestination to hell is heresy.
According to positive predestination, God predestines people to hell unconditionally.
God bless James and every readers of the CAF.
LatinRight
God bless James and every readers of the CAF.You could simply keep it simple:
God desires all men to be saved and through the death of His Son has drawn all to Him. However, we can refuse to accept His gift of forgiveness. God knows who will accept Him and who will not.
I would change the second line to that justification is not accessed by works.Here is what I have gleamed from this thread as far as the protestant argument.
Works are not necessary for justification
Justification is by faith alone and per James it must be a saving faith vs a dead faith
Works are evidence of a saving faith
I will try to deal soon with your implication that the teachings about Abraham suggest justification by faith ALONE.
***For readers of this thread that want to know more on this Abraham/justification topic . . . . ***None of the teachings about Abraham say or teach justification by faith ALONE.
Let’s look at that because it is a partial truth.I would note that Abraham had been declared righteous, or justified, long before he was told to sacrifice Isaac.
(emphasis mine)I would note that Abraham had been declared righteous, or justified, long before he was told to sacrifice Isaac. . . . . It was done and recorded so that later generations could see proof of Abraham’s righteousness. That fits in with the view, that in James, Abraham’s justification before men was what was being dealt with.
Do you mean that Scripture itself SAYING this wasn’t enoughIt was done and recorded so that later generations could see proof of Abraham’s righteousness.
GENESIS 15:6 6 And he believed the LORD; and he reckoned it to him as righteousness.
Now SyCarl will have to try to tell you that we don’t know for sure if Abraham was a believer in Genesis 12.GENESIS 12:1-4 1 Now the LORD said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who curses you I will curse; and by you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves. " 4 So Abram went, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. . . .
Again, here above we see Hebrews talking about Abraham in the context of faith AND WORKS (“obedience”).HEBREWS 11:8-9 8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place which he was to receive as an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was to go. 9 By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise.
And St. Paul tells us the SAME thing in Romans 16 too.ROMANS 1:1, 5-6 1 Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God. . . . 5 **through whom we have received grace **and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, 6 including yourselves who are called to belong to Jesus Christ;
ROMANS 16:25-27 25 Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret for long ages 26 but is now disclosed and through the prophetic writings is made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith-- 27 to the only wise God be glory for evermore through Jesus Christ! Amen.
GENESIS 12:1-7 1 Now the LORD said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who curses you I will curse; and by you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves. " 4 So Abram went, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions which they had gathered, and the persons that they had gotten in Haran; and they set forth to go to the land of Canaan. When they had come to the land of Canaan, 6 Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7 Then the LORD appeared to Abram, and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him.
Abraham was justified in Genesis 15HEBREWS 11:8-10 8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place which he was to receive as an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was to go. 9 By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he looked forward to the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
GENESIS 15:3-7 3 And Abram said, “Behold, thou hast given me no offspring; and a slave born in my house will be my heir.” 4 And behold, the word of the LORD came to him, “This man shall not be your heir; your own son shall be your heir.” 5 And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” 6 And he believed the LORD; and he reckoned it to him as righteousness. 7 And he said to him, “I am the LORD who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess.”
Abraham was justified in Genesis 22ROMANS 4:1-5 1 What then shall we say about Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? 2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. 3 For what does the scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.” 4 Now to one who works, his wages are not reckoned as a gift but as his due. 5 And to one who does not work but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness.
GENESIS 22:1-2, 8-18 1 After these things God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here am I.” 2 He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering upon one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” . . . . 8 Abraham said, “God will provide himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together. 9 When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar, upon the wood. 10 Then Abraham put forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. 11 But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven, and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here am I.” 12 He said, “Do not lay your hand on the lad or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” 13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called the name of that place The LORD will provide; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the LORD it shall be provided.” 15 And the angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time from heaven, 16 and said, "By myself I have sworn, says the LORD, because you have done this, and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 I will indeed bless you, and I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore. And your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies, 18 and by your descendants shall all the nations of the earth bless themselves, because you have obeyed my voice."
JAMES 2:21-23 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he offered his son Isaac upon the altar? 22 You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by works, 23 and the scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness”; and he was called the friend of God.
Ok so works are necessary to have a saving faith and a saving faith is necessary for justification. My inner Spock is very confused.I would change the second line to that justification is not accessed by works.
And the last line : Works are necessary and are evidence of a saving faith