Salvation by works alone?

[thenobes]

I have to comment on this one point. Otherwise I think we are more in agreement than disagreement.

Joy not in my part (pride)but in how amazing His ways are. His ways are higher than my own. I become amazed that He had a wonderful plan in my obedience. Is this what you term merit? Perhaps, but my issue is with this idea that humans can accumulate merit points ***that can save you ***and that if you have accumulated more points than necessarry then it goes into “treasury of Merit” that only the Catholic Church clergy can dispense. Seems all so political to me and above all I don’t see this idea in scripture. Bottom line is that anyone who has been given the gift of the Holy Spirit is a child of God and as a child we are brothers and sisters in the Church of Christ.

Agapedoulos,

I enjoy conversing with you, but I’d like to clear up a confusion about indulgences and merit. The merit transferred in indulgences is only to those already persevering in salvation, that is, that have an active faith. It does not bring to salvation those who are not. In a way, indulgences are a sharing by the saints in the sufferings you would undergo to cleanse your soul of attachments to temporal goods. But you have to be saved to be allowed to undergo cleansing at all.

I believe that it is the Catholic Church that dispenses it, but it so happens that the hierarchy are the ones to officially establish dispensations of merit.

However, even if they are the only ones allowed to dipense, and I’m not 100% sure of that, they have set many ways to receive indulgences, for instance, one for reading the Bible for 15 min.

-From Wikipedia (because I’m too lazy to go to NewAdvent )

In Catholic theology, an indulgence is the full or partial remission of temporal punishment[1] due for sins which have already been forgiven. The indulgence is granted by the Catholic Church after the sinner has confessed and received absolution.[2] An indulgence is thus not forgiveness of sin nor release from the eternal punishment associated with hell in Christian beliefs.[3]

[1] Temporal Punishment = Cleansing of attachments to sin.
[2] Code of Canon Law, (Cann. 992–997) Indulgences; Enchiridion Indulgentiarum, 4th ed., 1999.
[3] “Myths about Indulgences”. Catholic Answers.

peace
steve