Paul didn't believe in Salvation by faith alone.

[LatinCat]

I know that my Protestant brothers and sisters often hold fast to the idea of “Sola Fidae” or Salvation by “faith alone”. I often hear them saying that in order to enter into heaven, all one need do is “accept Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior”. When asked how one does this, they often reply, “just believe in Jesus” or something to that effect. When asked where they derive this belief from, they often point to the writtings of St. Paul. So, in response to this, I provide the following passage from the writtings of Saint Paul:
“For [God] will render to every man according to his works: to
those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor
and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are
facticious an do not obey the truth, but obey wickedness,
there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and
distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and
also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for every one
who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God
shows no partiality” (Romans 2:6-11).
Sounds to me like what we do does have an effect on our salvation. Like James says, “You see that a man is justified by
works and not by faith alone.” (James 2:24).

 

[tjmiller]

Right. :yup: Nowhere does the Bible teach salvation by faith alone. In fact, the only mention of “faith alone” is by St. James (2:17), who assures us that such faith is worthless: "…faith, by itself, is dead".

 

[JoeyWarren]

tjmiller:

Right. :yup: Nowhere does the Bible teach salvation by faith alone. In fact, the only mention of “faith alone” is by St. James (2:17), who assures us that such faith is worthless: "…faith, by itself, is dead".

I’ll second, third, forth, and infinity that!

 

[imroc]

Unless the protestant bible contains any books along the lines of something like “Epistle of Martin Luther”, faith alone is an absurdity. The very fact that Jesus went about performing so many works of mercy and passed it down to the apostles and disciples is a pretty good indicator of what is required. Not to mention the 2 commandments by Christ. Jesus didn’t just pop out onto earth, show his face and say, “You all must have faith!” No, he came down to earth, born of man and lived a full human life in order to show us “The Way.” Every step of His is a footprint for us to follow. From birth to the presentation that our Blessed Mother and St. Joseph performed in proxy (hmm…"…baptism now replaces circumcision."), to His baptism to His proclamation to His healing to His institution of the Eucharist during the Passover to His sacrafice to His resurrection to His ascention. Seems rather faithfilled and workly to me…

 

[Pax]

Here is something else you can throw their way.

Love and faith are necessary “works.”

The belief that we are saved by faith alone and that it is not necessary to love God in order to be saved is contrary to both scripture and common sense.

We are told in 1Cor 8:3 that “…anyone that loves God is known by him.” If you are not known by God then you are not saved[Matt 7:23]. This is given even greater emphasis in 1 Cor 16:22 where Paul tells us, “Let anyone be accursed who has no love for the Lord.” In James 1:12 we are told that “the crown of life is promised to those who love him[God].” This same statement is repeated in James 2:5.

And the apostle, John, defines for us what love of God is when he says in 1Jn 5:3 “For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments.” And Jesus, Himself, says in John 15:10 that “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.” Obviously, if we do not abide in God’s love we are not saved.

In John’s vision in the book of Revelation, Jesus warns members of the church at Ephesus that they might be destroyed if they do not repent and return to the love they once had. This is very clear in Rev 2:4-5 where Jesus says, “But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember then from what you have fallen, repent and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.” Then again just before addressing the transgressions of the church at Thyatira, Jesus says in Rev 2:19 that, "I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter **works ** exceed the first." These verses are significant in two ways. They show the necessity of love in the plan of salvation, and they show that both love and faith are referred to as works.

Paul teaches that faith and love are works in 1st Thessalonians 1:2-3 where he says, " We always give thanks to God for all of you and mention you in our prayers, constantly remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ."

This linkage is also made by Paul in Galatians 5:6 where we read, “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is of any avail, but faith working through love.” Likewise, Paul tells us the importance of love when he says, “So faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love”(1 Corinthians 13:13). Paul also says in Corinthians 13:1-13 that “IF I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing….Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends; as for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect; but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away. …So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

John 6:27-28

Do not work for the food that perishes, but [work] for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal." Then they said to him, “What must we do to perform the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the **work ** of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”