Also, Other Related Issues Such as the Thief on the Cross
Photo credit: Image by Kenny Burchard from his YouTube channel (Catholic Bible Highlights), where I am a partner, from the video, “BAPTISM NOW SAVES YOU – Fridays With Dave!!” (10-25-24).
Baptism is an outward display of excepting the ransom of Jesus. However, it’s the resurrection that gives you life.
It’s both. The cross saves us, and baptism is one of God’s sacramental means by which he does so, with us cooperating with His plan.
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It’s the efficacy of the blood which saves us. The blood is applied by faith. In His resurrection the Lord has formed a new creation and we enter it through the indwelling Holy Spirit. Baptism speaks of association with Christ in His death. Dead to sin and to the world. Read Colossians ch. 3 v 1-5.
Of course it does. No one disputes that. It’s only your unbiblical “either/or” false dichotomies that we oppose.
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***
J[oseph] Mengele [the notorious Nazi murderer] had a brag to the end of his rather long life: He had a one-way ticket to heaven. He was re-baptized in Spain during his journey out of Europe to Argentina. The evidence of this event alone has made me walk away.
Baptism saves and renders one free of sin at the moment it is given, but then we have to continue in the faith. It’s no automatic “ticket to heaven” that applies no matter how evil one might be. This is the same error as “faith alone” + “eternal security” whereby a person can never lose their salvation once attained, no matter what they do. It’s grossly unbiblical. If someone continues after baptism in serious, mortal sin (and I’m pretty sure Mengele did, and never repented), baptism no longer saves them. Paul and the author of Hebrews warned about this many times. I think an unrepentant Nazi murderer undeniably qualifies for such a falling away and likely damnation. God is not mocked. It would be similar to what St. Paul writes about receiving the Holy Eucharist in Holy Communion improperly:
1 Corinthians 11:27-20 (RSV) Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. [28] Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. [29] For any one who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself. [30] That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.
This situation also strikes me as somewhat similar to the sin of simony, described in the Book of Acts:
Acts 8:17-23 Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit. [18] Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money, [19] saying, “Give me also this power, that any one on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.” [20] But Peter said to him, “Your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! [21] You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. [22] Repent therefore of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you. [23] For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity.”
In other words, at issue is a corruption or cynical manipulation of a sacrament or other spiritual aspect for one’s own gain. If Mengele thought that baptism would save him apart from a profound repentance and change of life, he was sadly mistaken. Note that in Simon’s case, also, “Even Simon himself believed” and had been baptized (8:13). But Peter’s severe language expresses a distinct possibility that he could be damned if he didn’t repent of his post-baptismal sin. Fr. John A. Hardon, SJ, in his Modern Catholic Dictionary defines “apostasy” as “The total rejection by a baptized person of the Christian faith he once professed.” Thus, a person may reject even the extraordinary baptismal graces received at baptism (helpfully summed up by Fr. Hardon in the same work).
Jesus excoriated the Pharisees for this sort of thing, because they emphasized works at the expense of the more important ethical responsibilities:
Matthew 23:23-28 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faith; these you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. [24] You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel! [25] “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you cleanse the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of extortion and rapacity. [26] You blind Pharisee! first cleanse the inside of the cup and of the plate, that the outside also may be clean. [27] “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. [28] So you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but within you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
This goes back to an Old Testament theme of wholehearted, non-hypocritical worship and a righteous life:
Jeremiah 14:7, 10, 12 . . . our backslidings are many, we have sinned against thee. . . . [10] Thus says the LORD concerning this people: “They have loved to wander thus, they have not restrained their feet; therefore the LORD does not accept them, now he will remember their iniquity and punish their sins.” [11] The LORD said to me: “Do not pray for the welfare of this people. [12] Though they fast, I will not hear their cry, and though they offer burnt offering and cereal offering, I will not accept them; but I will consume them by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence.”
Amos 5:12, 14, 21-24 For I know how many are your transgressions, and how great are your sins — you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe, and turn aside the needy in the gate. . . . [14] Seek good, and not evil, that you may live; and so the LORD, the God of hosts, will be with you, as you have said . . . [21] I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. [22] Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and cereal offerings, I will not accept them, and the peace offerings of your fatted beasts I will not look upon. [23] Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen. [24] But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
Proverbs 15:8 The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD, but the prayer of the upright is his delight.
Proverbs 21:27 The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination; how much more when he brings it with evil intent.
If a man observes religious rites and rituals but doesn’t act in accordance with them, they in effect become worthless, as God Himself says:
Hosea 6:6 For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God, rather than burnt offerings.
Jesus reiterates this:
Matthew 7:18-21 A sound tree cannot bear evil fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. [19] Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. [20] Thus you will know them by their fruits. [21] Not every one who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. . . .
Am I to understand that you left Christianity — or specifically Catholic Christianity — because of this? If so, I respectfully submit that it’s not an adequate reason at all. You received some incorrect teaching.
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Baptism saves at the moment it is given. We then have to continue to be vigilant and endure till the end, because we can lose salvation, as the Bible also teaches many times. Baptism doesn’t guarantee salvation in that sense.
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Water saves?
According to the Bible, yes: as a sacrament (physical means to receive God’s grace), and if done with the right intent, with a trinitarian formula.
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Baptism is necessary unless one can’t possibly do it: thief on the cross.
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Is it possible that perhaps the thief was baptized three years earlier?
Yeah, it’s possible. But if so, it doesn’t change the principle of not being bound to a sacrament if one is unable to obtain it for whatever reason. God is a merciful God. He doesn’t let people go to hell for eternity for a thing like that. He knows their hearts.
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Matthew 27:41-44 So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, [42] “He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. [43] He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him; for he said, `I am the Son of God.'” [44] And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way.
This shows that he was still likely an unbeliever, since he was still mocking Christ while being crucified. He repented, however, before he died. Therefore, almost certainly he wasn’t baptized. But then someone noted that he could have been a baptized follower of Jesus who then fell away. Sure, that’s possible. We simply don’t know. But in any event, it doesn’t change the principle of a possible baptism of desire.
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I think you have to ask yourself a question. How were Old Testament Believers saved? How are New Testament Believers saved? Also does God the Father use the same way to Save Believers throughout the ages of both Testaments? That is a key to the entirety of the Bible as a whole! How was Abraham, Moses, Aaron, King Saul, King David, Noah saved or was there Salvation for them Under the Sacrificial System?
The OT saints were saved by faith (Hebrews 11) and by the works they did by God’s grace, just as we are today. And they were saved by Jesus’ death on the cross, applied backwards in time. They did rituals by which God blessed them, like circumcision and offering sacrifice at the Temple and observing the Jewish holidays. An exception doesn’t disprove the rule. That’s what the thief on the cross is. It doesn’t follow that no one should ever be baptized and regenerated in that way because it wasn’t possible for the thief on the cross to do so. God is bigger than the sacraments.
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Baptism does not mean can never turn away. Disciples walked away after the bread of life discourse. I walked away for over twenty years. God didn’t walk away.
I agree with you. I never said otherwise. I believed as an Arminian evangelical and now as a Catholic that one can fall away, and baptism is no prevention of that, if we develop the evil will to fall away and reject God. I was never a Calvinist. I almost believed in eternal security, but I always thought that it was possible to reject God (the unforgivable sin).
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The Bible teaches that we are saved by Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross on our behalf, entirely due to by God’s grace, accepted by means of our faith, which organically contains within itself good works, without which it is “dead.” These works include the willing reception of baptism and the Holy Eucharist: both of which the Bible states many times, play a role in saving us (along with a host of other good works). It’s not only baptism. But baptism does regenerate.
NOTE: some argue that Mengele legitimately repented near the end of his life and received baptism. Of course, such a thing is possible, if exceedingly unlikely. And in such cases, that would be true repentance, and the baptism could indeed save such a person rom hell. I was concentrating above on cases where there is no repentance and baptism is being manipulated and abused.
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* Practical Matters: I run the most comprehensive “one-stop” Catholic apologetics site: rated #1 for Christian sites by leading AI tool, ChatGPT — endorsed by popular Protestant blogger Adrian Warnock. Perhaps some of my 4,800+ free online articles or fifty-five books have helped you (by God’s grace) to decide to become Catholic or to return to the Church, or better understand some doctrines and why we believe them.
Or you may believe my work is worthy to support for the purpose of apologetics and evangelism in general. If so, please seriously consider a much-needed financial contribution. I’m always in need of more funds: especially monthly support. “The laborer is worthy of his wages” (1 Tim 5:18, NKJV). 1 December 2021 was my 20th anniversary as a full-time Catholic apologist, and February 2022 marked the 25th anniversary of my blog.
Summary: I tackle some questions concerning baptism: particularly whether it can be manipulated by evil men (like Mengele) to gain salvation, & the issue regarding the thief on the cross.
I shall now proceed to offer a critique of common Protestant attempts to ignore, explain away, rationalize, wish away, overpolemicize, minimize, de-emphasize, evade clear consequences of, or special plead with regard to “the Catholic Verses”: ninety-five biblical passages that provide the foundation for Catholicism’s most distinctive doctrines. . . .
I will assert – with all due respect and, I hope, with a minimum of “triumphalism” — the ultimate incoherence, inadequacy, inconsistency, or exegetical and theological implausibility of the Protestant interpretations, and will submit the Catholic views as exegetically and logically superior alternatives.
The dates of Calvin’s various Commentaries are as follows:
1540 Romans
1548 All the Epistles of Paul
1551 Hebrews, and the Epistles of Peter, John, Jude, and James
1551 Isaiah
1552 Acts of the Apostles
1554 Genesis
1557 Psalms
1557 Hosea
1559 Twelve Minor Prophets
1561 Daniel
1562 Joshua
1563 Harmony of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy
1563 Jeremiah
1563 Harmony of Three Gospels and Commentary on St John
I use RSV for biblical citations. Calvin’s words will be in blue.
A complete listing of this series will be on my web page, John Calvin: Catholic Appraisal, under the subtitle: “Bible vs. ‘Faith Alone’ vs. John Calvin”.
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Matthew 19:16-17, 20-21 And behold, one came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do, to have eternal life?” [17] And he said to him, “. . . If you would enter life, keep the commandments.” . . . [20] The young man said to him, “All these I have observed; what do I still lack?” [21] Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”
A blind confidence in his works hindered him from profiting under Christ, to whom, in other respects, he wished to be submissive. Thus, in our own day, we find some who are not ill-disposed, but who, under the influence of I know not what shadowy holiness, hardly relish the doctrine of the Gospel.
I see no “blind confidence in . . . works” in the passage. He asked sincerely how one achieved eternal life, assuming that a “good deed” would accomplish it. Jesus didn’t rebuke his confidence in the notion that a good man must do good works (since the Old Testament is chock-full of such injunctions); far from it, He reinforced his line of questioning and train of thought by asking whether he kept the commandments. That’s what Jesus thought was the “road” to salvation. He didn’t challenge him by asking, “why do you ask me about works? Don’t you know that they have nothing to do with salvation and are done only in gratefulness to God for a salvation already attained?” The text is massively contrary to Protestantism’s faith alone.
Asked by the man what he still lacked, Jesus said that it was the willingness to sell all that he owned (i.e., another work; not an exhortation to faith and assenting belief). Thus, the rich young ruler’s rejection of Jesus’ advice wasn’t based on “blind confidence” in his works, but rather, on the unwillingness to do one extraordinary work that Jesus said would save him. His fatal flaw was placing possessions above allegiance to God (a form of idolatry). Nothing here upholds faith alone at all. A theoretical Protestant who hypothetically was writing part of the Bible, could never have written the passage this way. Jesus twice emphasizes that works save a soul; never mentioning faith or belief in Himself (though those things are also true and necessary). The point is that Jesus highlighted that which Protestants falsely claim has nothing to do with salvation. How can this be? Well, we’ll see what else Calvin says about it.
But, in order to form a more correct judgment of the meaning of the answer, we must attend to the form of the question. He does not simply ask how and by what means he shall reach life, but what good thing he shall do, in order to obtain it. He therefore dreams of merits, on account of which he may receive eternal life as a reward due; and therefore Christ appropriately sends him to the keeping of the law, which unquestionably is the way of life, . . .
This is beyond silly, and is special pleading. If the man assumed some doctrine of meritorious works, Jesus certainly didn’t disabuse him of what Protestants think is a false notion by inquiring if he kept the commandments, did He? Again, He would have had to make the “elementary” point that works have nothing to do with salvation. But He didn’t, because it would be a falsehood. If Jesus sent him to the law, and the law had nothing to do with salvation, this would be unjust and wrong. He would be deceiving him. Yet Calvin, not grasping this point, dumbfoundedly thinks it is “appropriate” that Jesus directed Him there, and not to faith.
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***
Keep the commandments. This passage was erroneously interpreted by some of the ancients, whom the Papists have followed, as if Christ taught that, by keeping the law, we may merit eternal life.
That’s exactly what it teaches. Asked what achieves eternal life, Jesus replies with an inquiry as to whether he kept the commandments. It couldn’t be more clear than it is. Then when the man confirmed that he had done so, Jesus required another work (giving away all he had).
As we are all destitute of the glory of God, (Romans 3:23,) nothing but cursing will be found in the law; and nothing remains for us but to betake ourselves to the undeserved gift of righteousness.
Then why didn’t Jesus make precisely this same point, if it’s the bottom line? That’s the essence of discussion on this passage. Why in the world — presupposing faith alone soteriology for the sake of argument — didn’t Jesus do that? I have addressed Romans 3:23 elsewhere. Calvin thinks in this way, but Jesus expresses nothing whatever in this exchange that would suggest any agreement on His part.
And therefore Paul lays down a twofold righteousness, the righteousness of the law, (Romans 10:5,) and the righteousness of faith, (Romans 10:6.) He makes the first to consist in works, and the second, in the free grace of Christ.
And Calvin pits the two against each other, as if they are antithetical. Paul, on the other hand, doesn’t do that. He expressly connected works to salvation twice in the same epistle, and in three others:
Romans 2:6-7, 10, 13 For he 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; . . . [10] but glory and honor and peace for every one who does good, . . . [13] For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.
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Romans 8:17 . . . heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
Philippians 2:12-13 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; [13] for God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
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Colossians 3:23-24 Whatever your task, work heartily, as serving the Lord and not men, [24] knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward;
1 Timothy 4:13-16 Till I come, attend to the public reading of scripture, to preaching, to teaching. [14] Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophetic utterance when the council of elders laid their hands upon you. [15] Practice these duties, devote yourself to them, so that all may see your progress. [16] Take heed to yourself and to your teaching; hold to that, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.
Hence we infer, that this reply of Christ is legal, because it was proper that the young man who inquired about the righteousness of works should first be taught that no man is accounted righteous before God unless he has fulfilled the law, (which is impossible,) that, convinced of his weakness, he might betake himself to the assistance of faith.
Giving away all that he owned implicitly would require faith, for sure, but it was also a meritorious work, since Jesus said that doing it would bring him eternal life. So Jesus taught that works can save, then He taught that an extraordinary work that would require a lot of faith would ultimately save, in the case of this man (it’s nowhere taught that it’s required of every man). He never gets to a faith alone explanation of salvation, and remember, the question was about how one gains eternal life.
Neither scenario is true, according to Protestants, who deny that works have anything directly to do with salvation. So why does Jesus assert twice that they do? He is teaching false doctrine: so consistent Protestants must say. Since that is clearly impossible, we must throw out faith alone rather than reject our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as a false teacher and false prophet. This is perhaps the clearest rejection of faith alone in the New Testament. It’s unanswerable, and a fatal blow to the false doctrine in and of itself.
When Paul says, that the doers of the law are justified, (Romans 2:13,) he excludes all from the righteousness of the law.
Huh? How is it that Calvin can turn upside down a clear saying of Paul, and not feel in the least conflicted about it? This is one utterly confused man. Jesus said basically the same thing as Paul:
Matthew 7:21 Not every one who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. . . .
St. John concurs:
Revelation 20:12-13 . . . And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, by what they had done. [13] . . . and all were judged by what they had done.
Many Protestants want to flip this around, too, and fundamentally change its meaning, and teach that one can simply say “Lord, Lord” in the sinner’s prayer or suchlike, get justified for all time in one second as a result (which justification Calvinists assert can never be lost: which most Protestants do not believe), and deny any necessity for good works in connection with ultimate salvation, which contradicts at least a hundred Bible passages.
This passage sets aside all the inventions which the Papists have contrived in order to obtain salvation.
I don’t see how. I think it sets aside all the inventions that Protestants have contrived with regard to a vastly unbiblical “workless” salvation.
For not only are they mistaken in wishing to lay God under obligation to them by their good works, to bestow salvation as a debt
God is never under any obligation or “debt” to us, strictly speaking. But He chooses to mercifully grant merit to us as a reward insofar as we follow His will, by His grace and power. His works become our own:
1 Corinthians 15:10, 58 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God which is with me. . . . [58] . . . be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
Philippians 2:13 . . . God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
It’s like a parent teaching a small child to read. The child then learns and reads something, and is rewarded by the parent. Was that the parent’s work or the child’s? Of course it is both. It’s a false dichotomy to deny that. The child didn’t generate the ability to read by himself or herself. Rather, it was a joint effort: ultimately brought about and caused by the parent, but the child also worked and was rewarded for the work that was only made possible in the first place by the parent. That’s God and us, and it’s why we can obtain merit for our good works and reward for same: up to and including salvation itself: so the Bible repeatedly teaches.
let every man who endeavors to regulate his life by obedience to Christ direct his whole attention to keep the commandments of the law.
Yes, let them do so. And let them understand that this is tied to salvation in the Bible. Calvin denies it, but he can’t overcome or overthrow all of the abundant biblical data.
The law must have been dead to him, when he vainly imagined that he was so righteous; for if he had not flattered himself through hypocrisy, it was an excellent advice to him to learn humility, to contemplate his spots and blemishes in the mirror of the law. But, intoxicated with foolish confidence, he fearlessly boasts that he has discharged his duty properly from his childhood.
Again, there is no textual evidence in the passage suggesting all of this, which is Calvin’s imagining and superimposition only. If he was in fact a rank hypocrite, Jesus (knowing all things, including this man’s thoughts and life) would have surely pointed it out to him, and rebuked it, just as He often did with the Pharisees. Instead, he accepts his word that he had observed the commandments from his youth (implying that he indeed had done so), and then strongly implied that his remaining sin, keeping him from salvation, was pride of possessions, or the idolatry of placing them above a full heartfelt obedience to God.
That’s a serious sin, too, without question, but it’s a different one from what Calvin dreams up, with no textual support; hence only a statement of his prior presupposition and therefore, eisegesis (i.e., improperly reading into a biblical text what isn’t there). Calvin believes that no one can ever possibly adequately observe the Mosaic Law. Jesus seems to think that this man did. Giving away all we have is not part of the Mosaic Law, as far as I know.
Calvin agrees in this section, writing, “I confess that we are nowhere commanded in the law to sell all.” So that was a separate issue, distinct from questions of Law-observance. The man asked Jesus what it was that he still lacked. If it were imperfect observance of the law, Jesus would have told him so, because that, too, would have been a thing that he lacked or fell short in fulfilling. But He didn’t. He moved onto a non-law consideration. Therefore, it logically follows that the man had indeed kept the law, as far as that goes: the very thing that Calvin vehemently denies (“if he had known himself thoroughly, as soon as he heard the mention of the law, he would have acknowledged that he was liable to the judgment of God”).
But if we are not prepared to endure poverty, it is manifest that covetousness reigns in us.
If it is expressly Gods will for us, yes. But it’s clearly not His will for most people. The Bible is not against rich men per se. Abraham and Joseph of Arimathea were rich men, without the slightest hint of condemnation in the Bible about their state. Calvin is too sweeping and legalistic. Anyone caring for a family has to be above the poverty level. That’s why, in the Catholic Church, when one wants to heroically renounce possessions and self-will, they are usually urged to be celibate, because such deprivations are much easier to undergo without a family to provide for. Jesus refers to His disciples leaving families, even wives, to follow Him. And in so doing, He said that they would receive eternal life as the reward.
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* Practical Matters: I run the most comprehensive “one-stop” Catholic apologetics site: rated #1 for Christian sites by leading AI tool, ChatGPT — endorsed by popular Protestant blogger Adrian Warnock. Perhaps some of my 4,800+ free online articles or fifty-five books have helped you (by God’s grace) to decide to become Catholic or to return to the Church, or better understand some doctrines and why we believe them.
Or you may believe my work is worthy to support for the purpose of apologetics and evangelism in general. If so, please seriously consider a much-needed financial contribution. I’m always in need of more funds: especially monthly support. “The laborer is worthy of his wages” (1 Tim 5:18, NKJV). 1 December 2021 was my 20th anniversary as a full-time Catholic apologist, and February 2022 marked the 25th anniversary of my blog.
Photo credit: Anonymous Dutch portrait of John Calvin, c. 1550 [public domain / Wikimedia Commons]
Summary: One of a series examining how John Calvin (1509-1564) exegeted biblical passages in his Commentaries that (in my opinion) refute the novel Protestant doctrine of “faith alone”.
I shall now proceed to offer a critique of common Protestant attempts to ignore, explain away, rationalize, wish away, overpolemicize, minimize, de-emphasize, evade clear consequences of, or special plead with regard to “the Catholic Verses”: ninety-five biblical passages that provide the foundation for Catholicism’s most distinctive doctrines. . . .
I will assert – with all due respect and, I hope, with a minimum of “triumphalism” — the ultimate incoherence, inadequacy, inconsistency, or exegetical and theological implausibility of the Protestant interpretations, and will submit the Catholic views as exegetically and logically superior alternatives.
The dates of Calvin’s various Commentaries are as follows:
1540 Romans
1548 All the Epistles of Paul
1551 Hebrews, and the Epistles of Peter, John, Jude, and James
1551 Isaiah
1552 Acts of the Apostles
1554 Genesis
1557 Psalms
1557 Hosea
1559 Twelve Minor Prophets
1561 Daniel
1562 Joshua
1563 Harmony of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy
1563 Jeremiah
1563 Harmony of Three Gospels and Commentary on St John
I use RSV for biblical citations. Calvin’s words will be in blue.
A complete listing of this series will be on my web page, John Calvin: Catholic Appraisal, under the subtitle: “Bible vs. ‘Faith Alone’ vs. John Calvin”.
*****
Psalm 7:10 My shield is with God, who saves the upright in heart.
He declares, that as God saves the upright in heart, he is perfectly safe under his protection. Whence it follows, that he had the testimony of an approving conscience. And, as he does not simply say the righteous, but the upright in heart, he appears to have an eye to that inward searching of the heart and reins mentioned in the preceding verse.
Accordingly, I cite his comment on Ps 7:9 also:
Accordingly there follows immediately after the corresponding prayer Direct thou the righteous, or establish him; for it is of little importance which of these two readings we adopt. The meaning is, that God would re-establish and uphold the righteous, who are wrongfully oppressed, and thus make it evident that they are continued in their estate by the power of God, notwithstanding the persecution to which they are subjected.—For God searcheth the hearts. The Hebrew copulative is here very properly translated by the causal particle for, since David, without doubt, adds this clause as an argument to enforce his prayer. He now declares, for the third time, that, trusting to the testimony of a good conscience, he comes before God with confidence; but here he expresses something more than he had done before, namely, that he not only showed his innocence, by his external conduct, but had also cultivated purity in the secret affection of his heart.
None of this proves faith alone, or refutes the Catholic view of infused justification. Calvin simply notes that “they are continued in their estate by the power of God.” Of course we fully agree. That doesn’t preclude our necessary cooperation with God. But the point is that we must be righteous to be saved. Calvin hasn’t shown that it’s merely imputed righteousness and not an actual holiness of behavior. He provides nothing that Protestants need in order to determine that this verse supports rather than disproves the notion of faith alone.
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Isaiah 1:27Zion shall be redeemed by justice, and those in her who repent, by righteousness.
Because the restoration of the Church was hard to be believed, he shows that it does not depend on the will of men, but is founded on the justice and judgment of God; as if he had said, that God will by no means permit his Church to be altogether destroyed, because he is righteous. The design of the Prophet, therefore, is to withdraw the minds of the godly from earthly thoughts, that in looking for the safety of the Church they may depend entirely on God, . . . though men yield no assistance, the justice of God is fully sufficient for redeeming his Church. And, indeed, so long as we look at ourselves, what hope are we entitled to cherish? How many things, on the contrary, immediately present themselves that are fitted to weaken our faith! It is only in the justice of God that we shall find solid and lasting ground of confidence.
Calvin commits the same mistake that he did regarding the previous verse: he refers solely to God’s primary and ultimate causational role in salvation, while ignoring man’s part in the transaction. Since he denies man’s free will, this makes consistent sense within his own paradigm, but it’s unbiblical. God saves the righteous. We must cooperate with God’s grace and become more righteous, as opposed to merely being declared righteous when we really aren’t. The entire context of the chapter makes that abundantly clear:
Isaiah 1:16-21 Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil, [17] learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; defend the fatherless, plead for the widow. [18] “Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. [19] If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; [20] But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.” [21] How the faithful city has become a harlot, she that was full of justice! Righteousness lodged in her, but now murderers.
It’s interesting how many of these themes appear in the NT in conjunction with salvation:
“He saved us, . . . by the washing of regeneration” (baptism: Titus 3:5); “. . . our bodies washed with pure water” (Heb 10:22).
“Cleanse out the old leaven” (1 Cor 5:7); “let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, and make holiness perfect” (2 Cor 7:1); “our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience” (Heb 10:22).
“A sound tree cannot bear evil fruit” (Mt 7:18); “those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment” (Jn 5:29); “There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil” (Rom 2:9).
“do good . . . and you will be sons of the Most High” (Lk 6:35); “those who have done good, to the resurrection of life” (Jn 5:29); “glory and honor and peace for every one who does good” (Rom 2:10); “They are to do good, to be rich in good deeds, . . . so that they may take hold of the life which is life indeed” (1 Tim 6:18-19).
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you . . . have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faith; these you ought to have done, . . .” (Mt 23:23).
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed” (Lk 4:18).
“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world” (Jas 1:27).
Isaiah26:2 Open the gates, that the righteous nation which keeps faith may enter in.
When the Prophet calls the nation “righteous and truthful,” he not only, as I mentioned a little before, describes the persons to whom this promise relates, but shews the fruit of the chastisement; for when its pollution shall have been washed away, the holiness and righteousness of the Church shall shine more brightly. . . .
Now, as the Prophet foretells the grace of God, so he also exhorts the redeemed people to maintain uprightness of life. In short, he threatens that these promises will be of no avail to hypocrites, and that the gates of the city will not be opened for them, but only for the righteous and holy. It is certain that the Church was always like a barn, (Matthew 3:12) in which the chaff is mingled with the wheat, or rather, the wheat is overpowered by the chaff; but when the Jews had been brought back into their country, the Church was unquestionably purer than before. . . . though the Church even at that time was stained by many imperfections, still this description was comparatively true; for a large portion of the filth had been swept away, and those who remained had profited in some degree under God’s chastisements.
There is not much to disagree with here –at least, prima facie; it reads very “Catholic”; even including themes not unlike the purifying processes of purgatory. But, as in the previous passages, Calvin basically is highlighting what God did, and ignoring the role of human beings cooperating with the God’s saving and enabling grace, per his theological system, which is insufficiently biblical.
Ten verses later (26:12), we see a synergistic, “both/and” passage (“thou hast wrought for us all our works”) that exhibits the notion of our works — truly ours! — being at the same time, God’s, much like 1 Corinthians 15:10: “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God which is with me.” Other translations help to elaborate upon this passage’s meaning:
NIV . . . all that we have accomplished you have done for us.
KJV . . . thou also hast wrought all our works in us.
NKJV . . . You have also done all our works in us.
Amplified . . . You have also performed for us all that we have done.
CEV . . . everything we have done was by your power.
GNB . . . everything that we achieve is the result of what you do.
We still do something. And because we cooperate and do what God makes possible, by His grace (as with all good works), we achieve merit in doing them; as St. Augustine famously wrote, “Merit is God crowning His own gifts.”
Isaiah 32:17 And the effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust for ever.
He now promises a different kind of repose, which will be a striking proof of the love of God, who has received them into favor, and will faithfully guard them. . . . that different kind of repose, on the other hand, which the children of God obtain by a religious and holy life, and which Isaiah exhorts us to desire, shewing that we ought fearlessly to believe that a blessed and joyful peace awaits us when we have been reconciled to God.
In this way he recommends to them to follow uprightness, that they may obtain assured peace; for, as Peter declares, there is no better way of procuring favor, that no man may do us injury, than to abstain from all evil-doing. (1 Peter 3:13.) But the Prophet leads them higher, to aim at a religious and holy life by the grace of God; . . .
Part of this “procuring favor” and that which we “obtain by a religious and holy life” is doing the good works which the Bible teaches are crucial to salvation itself. But Calvin carefully avoids any such implication. I submit that my hundred passages cannot all be dismissed simply by ignoring the author’s intent when it contradicts Calvinism. He almost “backs into” Catholic soteriology, but in the final analysis skirts around it.
Isaiah 33:15-16 He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly, who despises the gain of oppressions, who shakes his hands, lest they hold a bribe, who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed and shuts his eyes from looking upon evil, [16] he will dwell on the heights; his place of defense will be the fortresses of rocks; his bread will be given him, his water will be sure.
No man, indeed, can be so holy or upright as to be capable of enduring the eye of God; for “if the Lord mark our iniquities,” as David says, “who shall endure?” (Psalms 130:3.) We therefore need a mediator, through whose intercession our sins may be forgiven; and the Prophet did not intend to set aside the ordinary doctrine of Scripture on this subject, but to strike with terror wicked men, who are continually stung and pursued by an evil conscience, This ought to be carefully observed in opposition to the Popish doctors, by whom passages of this kind, which recommend works, are abused in order to destroy the righteousness of faith; as if the atonement for our sins, which we obtain through the sacrifice of Christ, ought to be set aside.
Ah! Now we see the incipient anti-Catholicism that never lurks very far beneath the surface of Calvin’s commentary. Note how he creates a false dichotomy (a common feature of his theology and methods of argumentation). As soon as dreaded “works” are brought into play at all, they must be denigrated, as if the Bible doesn’t teach that they play a real role in salvation (always alongside grace and faith, which are antecedent to them). My hundred Bible passages are designed to cut through this falsehood and to relentlessly refute it from the Bible. Works are not in opposition to “the sacrifice of Christ”; rather, they naturally flow from it. They are how we show or prove that we are in Christ: as Jesus Himself taught:
John 15:2, 4-6, 8 Every branch of mine that bears no fruit, he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. . . . [4] Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. [5] I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. [6] If a man does not abide in me, he is cast forth as a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned. . . . [8] By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples.
So why does Calvin pit our good works against the sacrifice of Christ on our behalf, as if the two things are intrinsically antithetical? Who knows? But we know that this emphasis — whether Calvin was aware of it or not — is a result of placing man’s false, nonbiblical traditions above the Word of God in Holy Scripture. The irony, of course, is that this is what Calvin always accuses Catholics of doing.
Isaiah 48:18-19 O that you had hearkened to my commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea; [19] your offspring would have been like the sand, and your descendants like its grains; their name would never be cut off or destroyed from before me.”
Yet it would be foolish to attempt to penetrate into his secret counsel, and to inquire why he did not add the efficacy of the Spirit to the external word; for nothing is said here about his power, but there is only a reproof of the hard-heartedness of men, that they may be rendered inexcusable.
Here Calvin appears to wonder “aloud” why God isn’t a good Protestant in what he conveyed to the Jews, and why He doesn’t mention grace and/or the Holy Spirit every time He referred to commandments and works. When Calvin is stumped for ideas, he usually waxes eloquent and sophistical, as in this instance. He can be as clever as he is wrong.
Isaiah 56:1Thus says the LORD: “Keep justice, and do righteousness, for soon my salvation will come, and my deliverance be revealed.
He . . . points out the source and the cause why it is the duty of all to devote themselves to newness of life. It is because “the righteousness of the Lord approaches to us,” that we, on our part, ought to draw near to him. The Lord calls himself “righteous,” and declares that this is “his righteousness,” not because he keeps it shut up in himself, but because he pours it out on men. In like manner he calls it “his salvation,” by which he delivers men from destruction.
Again, Calvin superimposes the late Protestant doctrine of imputed, external, justification, by only stressing that God’s righteousness is in play, and not also our righteousness, from Him, which is related to salvation. The good works that regenerated, initially justified believers do are simultaneously God’s own. Therefore, He gets ultimate credit for them, while at the same time they are truly our own, too. That’s the biblical, Hebraic “both/and” outlook on life and theology. Many Bible passages teach this:
Mark 16:20 And they went forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them . . .
Romans 15:17-19 In Christ Jesus, then, I have reason to be proud of my work for God. [18] For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has wrought through me to win obedience from the Gentiles, by word and deed, [19] by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Holy Spirit, . . .
1 Corinthians 3:9 For we are God’s fellow workers . . .
1 Corinthians 15:10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God which is with me.
1 Corinthians 15:58 . . . be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
2 Corinthians 6:1 Working together with him, . . .
Philippians 2:12-13 . . . work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; [13] for God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
Five of the next six verses in the chapter highlight good works as the path to the salvation alluded to in verse 1:
56:2 “Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who holds it fast, who keeps the sabbath, not profaning it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil.”
56:4-5 For thus says the LORD: “To the eunuchs who keep my sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant, [5] I will give in my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name which shall not be cut off.
56:6-7 “And the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD, and to be his servants, every one who keeps the sabbath, and does not profane it, and holds fast my covenant — [7] these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; . . .
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Summary: One of a series examining how John Calvin (1509-1564) exegeted biblical passages in his Commentaries that (in my opinion) refute the novel Protestant doctrine of “faith alone”.
Photo credit: Historical mixed media figure of John Calvin produced by artist/historian George S. Stuart and photographed by Peter d’Aprix: from the George S. Stuart Gallery of Historical Figures archive [Wikimedia Commons / Creative CommonsAttribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license]
This is a reply to John Calvin’s Acts of the Council of Trent with the Antidote (Nov. 1547), specifically his comments on the Sixth Session of the Council of Trent (Jan. 1547), regarding justification. The online treatise is taken from Selected Works of John Calvin: Tracts and Letters, Vol. 3: Tracts, Part 3; edited and translated by Henry Beveridge (Edinburgh: Calvin Translation Society, 1851). I have a hardcover copy of this volume in my own library: a reprint from Baker Book House (Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1983).
John Calvin’s words will be in blue; citations from Trent in green. I use RSV for biblical citations.
It was indeed an absurd dream, but they are still more grossly absurd when they give it as their opinion, that none of all the things which precede Justification, whether faith or works, merit it. What works antecedent to Justification are they here imagining? What kind of order is this in which the fruit is antecedent in time to the root? In one word, that pious readers may understand how great progress has been made in securing purity of doctrine, the monks dunned into the ears of the reverend Fathers, whose part was to nod assent, this old song, that good works which precede justification are not meritorious of eternal salvation, but preparatory only. If any works precede faith, they should also be taken into account. But there is no merit, because there are no works; for if men inquire into their works, they will find only evil works.
Posterity will scarcely believe that the Papacy had fallen into such a stupor as to imagine the possibility of any work antecedent to justification, even though they denied it to be meritorious of so great a blessing! For what can come from man until he is born again by the Spirit of God?
Such works as repentance, any good thing that they do, by prevenient grace, the sort of general theistic belief that Paul refers to in Romans 1:20: “Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made.” Or, “the law written upon their hearts”:
Romans 2:13-16 For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. [14] When Gentiles who have not the law do by nature what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. [15] They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or perhaps excuse them [16] on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.
Or the virtuous pagan beliefs that Paul built upon in Athens, to preach the gospel:
Acts 17:22-23, 27-28 . . . “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. [23] For as I passed along, and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. . . . [27] . . . he is not far from each one of us, [28] for `In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your poets have said, `For we are indeed his offspring.’
Or the faith of the Roman centurion who came to Jesus, at whom Jesus “marveled” and said, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith” (Lk 7:9). Calvin believes in total depravity; i.e., that human beings can do no good whatsoever before they are regenerated, and that even ostensibly good actions are inevitably tainted by evil in some fashion. But the anonymous psalmist in 112:5-6 refers to the “righteous” (Heb. tob), as does the book of Proverbs repeatedly: using the words “righteous” or “good” (11:23; 12:2; 13:22; 14:14, 19), using the same word, tob, which appears in Psalm 14:2-3. References to righteous men are innumerable (e.g., Job 17:9; 22:19; Ps 5:12; 32:11; 34:15; 37:16, 32; Mt 9:13; 13:17; 25:37, 46; Rom 5:19; Heb 11:4; Jas 5:16; 1 Pet 3:12; 4:18, etc.). See my articles:
Very different is the reasoning of Paul. He exhorts the Ephesians to remember (Ephesians 2) that they were saved by grace, not by themselves nor by their own works.
We don’t deny that, so it’s a moot point or a non sequitur.
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Scripture, . . . opposes faith to works . . .
Really?:
Matthew 7:21 Not every one who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. . . .
Matthew 19:16-17, 20-21 And behold, one came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do, to have eternal life?” [17] And he said to him, “. . . If you would enter life, keep the commandments.” . . . [20] The young man said to him, “All these I have observed; what do I still lack?” [21] Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”
Matthew 19:29 And every one who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life. (cf. Mk 10:29-30)
Luke 3:9 (+ Mt 3:10; 7:19) . . . every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
John 5:28-29 . . . all who are in the tombs will hear his voice [29] and come forth, those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment.
Romans 1:5, 17 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, . . . [17] For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, “He who through faith is righteous shall live.” (cf. Acts 6:7)
Romans 2:13 For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.
Romans 16:26 . . . the obedience of faith
Galatians 5:6 . . . faith working through love.
1 Thessalonians 1:3 . . . your work of faith . . .
2 Thessalonians 1:11 . . . work of faith by his power,
Hebrews 11:8 By faith Abraham obeyed . . .
James 2:14, 17, 20-22, 24, 26 What does it profit, my brethren, if a man says he has faith but has not works? Can his faith save him? . . . [17] So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. . . . [20] . . . faith apart from works is barren . . . [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, . . . [24] You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. . . . [26] . . . faith apart from works is dead.
In the tenth chapter, they inveigh against what they call The Vain Confidence of Heretics. This consists, according to their definition, in our holding it as certain that our sins are forgiven, and resting in this certainty. But if such certainty makes heretics, where will be the happiness which David extols? (Psalm 32) Nay, where will be the peace of which Paul discourses in the fifth chapter to the Romans, if we rest in anything but the good-will of God?
Where, then, is that boldness of which Paul elsewhere speaks, (Ephesians 3:12,) that access with confidence to the Father through faith in Christ? . . . Nay, they overthrow all true prayer to God, when they keep pious minds suspended by fear which alone shuts the door of access against us. “He who doubts,” says James, (James 1:6) “is like a wave of the sea driven by the wind.” Let not such think that they shall obtain anything of the Lord. “Let him who would pray effectually not doubt.” Attend to the antithesis between faith and doubt, plainly intimating that faith is destroyed as soon as certainty is taken away.
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We do have that access, but it’s not the same as absolute assurance of eschatological salvation. St. Paul also warned:
1 Corinthians 9:27 I pommel my body and subdue it, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.
1 Corinthians 10:12 Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.
Galatians 5:1 For freedom Christ has set us free; stand fast, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
Galatians 5:4 You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.
Philippians 3:8-14 Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, based on law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith; that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that if possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brethren, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
1 Timothy 4:1 Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by giving heed to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons.
But that the whole of their theology may be more manifest to my readers, let them weigh the words which follow under the same head. It ought not to be asserted, they say, that those who have been truly justified ought to entertain an unhesitating doubt that they are justified.
That’s not our teaching, which is thoroughly based on Paul’s. We simply deny absolute certainty of the future, including that of our attainment of heaven. This doesn’t equate to constant, anxious doubt, which is merely Calvin’s “either/or” self-delusion. It’s simply the acknowledgment of the obvious reality that we don’t know the future, and that we can possibly fall away from faith. Calvin, of course, denies that it’s possible to fall away, which is equally unbiblical, per the above articles. So each unbiblical error of his is compounded upon others, leading him further and further away from the Bible itself: all the while making the same accusation towards us, of the very thing he is doing..
I am ashamed to debate the matter, as if it were doubtful, with men who call themselves Christians. The doctrine of Scripture is clear. “We know,” says John, (1 John 4:6,) “that we are the children of God.”
Indeed, but how does John say that we know this?:
1 John 2:3-5 And by this we may be sure that we know him, if we keep his commandments. [4] He who says “I know him” but disobeys his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him; [5] but whoever keeps his word, in him truly love for God is perfected. By this we may be sure that we are in him:
1 John 3:24 All who keep his commandments abide in him, and he in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit which he has given us.
He doesn’t teach, “we’re absolutely sure because we have faith!” He wasn’t a Calvinist and would have — along with Paul and James and Peter — flunked out of their seminaries. Rather, good works and obeying commandments are how we know, and “knowing” doesn’t mean that it is for all time, into eternity. We can know in the present, because we’re in the present and there is no required speculation about what is to come. That’s Paul’s and John’s teaching. That’s why Paul refers to “lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified” (1 Cor 9:27) and “let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Cor 10:12) and “if possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect; but I press on to make it my own. Brethren, I do not consider that I have made it my own . . . ” (Phil 3:11-13).
And, indeed, they are ignorant of the whole nature of faith who mingle doubt with it.
Again; it’s not doubt per se; rather, it’s a common sense acknowledgment that we don’t know the future. Jesus said, “he who endures to the end will be saved” (Mt 10:22). We don’t know that we’ll do that. But we have a strong faith that God’s enabling power will give us the strength and perseverance to do that, provided we are willing the whole way and don’t “fall away” (Gal 5:4; cf. Mt 13:6-7: parable of the sower). Paul condemns doubt (Rom 14:23), but he still warns about a possible falling away, if one isn’t vigilant and doesn’t “press on” like he does, or as James describes: “he who . . . perseveres, being no hearer that forgets but a doer that acts, he shall be blessed in his doing” (Jas 1:25).
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Summary: Part II of my critical examination of John Calvin’s 1547 treatise, “Acts of the Council of Trent with the Antidote”: regarding the issue of justification by faith, and salvation.
Fifty Bible Passages Stress Faith or Belief, Regarding the Question of Salvation, Compared to a Hundred that Emphasize or Highlight Works (Flowing from God’s Grace Through Our Faith). Who Woulda Thunk it?!
Photo credit: book cover from the Amazon page of the volume, Grace Faith Works: Finding the Biblical Balance (Woodsong: 2nd ed., April 15, 2016), by Larry Monroe Arrowood.
Recently, I compiled 100 Bible passages proving that works had a direct or causal relationship to salvation (always alongside and brought about by grace and faith). As far as I am concerned, that utterly annihilates any semblance of a “faith alone” Protestant soteriology. Catholics are not Pelagians (the old heresy of works-salvation). That view held that human beings could save themselves without the necessary causation of God’s grace. We believe salvation derives initially from His grace, leading to faith, which in turn organically includes good works within itself (since “faith without works is dead”: James 2). The sacraments are also intimately involved in the process, especially baptism, which regenerates.
In light of this project, I became curious about how many passages could be found that mentioned faith or belief in Jesus or hope or trust in God, as the sole means of salvation and/or justification, without also mentioning good works or actions on our part, in the verse or in the surrounding context. In other words, these would be the passages that Protestants would or could point to as evidence of “faith alone.”
Of course they don’t constitute such evidence, because Protestants — if biblically consistent — must also incorporate passages like the hundred I collected, into their overall view. But let’s just assume for the sake of argument that those hundred passages aren’t in the Bible. Are there more about [supposed] “faith alone” for justification and salvation than there are passages about the role of works? Let’s see! I use RSV for biblical citations.
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Note: the Old Testament has the phrase “Believe[d] in the LORD” many times (similar passages abound in the NT as well), but technically, that could simply be taken as belief that He [God or God the Son Jesus in particular] exists and ought to be followed, even as God and/or the Messiah. It doesn’t say that such belief is the sole determinant of salvation. James 2:19: “You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe — and shudder.” Analogously, if I were to collect every passage that commanded or exhorted people to do good works, but didn’t mention salvation, I would have a list of 200.
I did proximity searches of “believe” + “save” / “believe” + “salvation” / “believe” + “heaven” in the Protestant Old Testament and received zero hits; likewise, with “faith” and the other three terms. I did find four instances where “trust” and “save[d]” were together: Ps 22:5; 44:6; 86:2; Is 30:15; two with “trust” and “salvation”: Ps 13:5; Is 12:2, and three with “hope” and “Salvation”: Ps 65:5; 119:81, 166. These nine can be added to the list below. By contrast, in my paper with 100 proofs, I found 22 passage in the OT connecting works and salvation.
Luke 8:12 The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, that they may not believe and be saved.
John 1:12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God;
John 3:15-18 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” [16] For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. [17] For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. [18] He who believes in him is not condemned; he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
John 3:36 He who believes in the Son has eternal life; he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God rests upon him. (“obey” implies works and actions as well, showing that in the Hebrew mind, belief and obedient action to God’s commands were inseparable, but I’ll include this anyway, with an “asterisk”: as it were)
John 4:42 They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of your words that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.
John 5:24 Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me, has eternal life; he does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
John 6:35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst.
John 6:44, 47 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. . . . [47] Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life.
John 7:38-39 He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, `Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.'” [39] Now this he said about the Spirit, which those who believed in him were to receive; for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
John 8:24 I told you that you would die in your sins, for you will die in your sins unless you believe that I am he.”
John 11:25-26 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, [26] and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. . . .
John 12:36 While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light. . . .
John 12:46 I have come as light into the world, that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.
John 20:31 but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.
Acts 10:43 To him all the prophets bear witness that every one who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.
Acts 13:48 And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of God; and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.
Romans 3:21-26, 28, 30 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, [22] the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction; [23] since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, [24] they are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, [25] whom God put forward as an expiation by his blood, to be received by faith. [26] it was to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous and that he justifies him who has faith in Jesus. . . . [28] For we hold that a man is justified by faith . . . [30] since God is one; and he will justify the circumcised on the ground of their faith and the uncircumcised through their faith.
Romans 4:5 And to one who does not work but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness.
Romans 5:1-2 Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. [2] Through him we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in our hope of sharing the glory of God.
Romans 8:22-25, 28-30 We know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now; [23] and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. [24] For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? [25] But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. . . . [28] We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose. [29] For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the first-born among many brethren. [30] And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified.
Romans 10:4, 9-11 For Christ is the end of the law, that every one who has faith may be justified. . . . [9] because, if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. [10] For man believes with his heart and so is justified, and he confesses with his lips and so is saved. [11] The scripture says, “No one who believes in him will be put to shame.”
1 Corinthians 1:21 . . . it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.
Galatians 2:16, 20 . . . a man is . . . justified . . . through faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ, . . . [20] I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Galatians 3:8, 14 And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, . . . [14] that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
Galatians 3:24, 26 So that the law was our custodian until Christ came, that we might be justified by faith. . . . [26] for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.
Ephesians 1:13 In him you also, who have heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and have believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,
Ephesians 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God —
Colossians 1:23, 27 provided that you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which has been preached to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister. . . . [27] . . . this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
1 Timothy 1:1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope,
1 Timothy 1:16 . . . those who were to believe in him for eternal life.
1 Timothy 4:10 . . . we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe.
1 Timothy 6:12 Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
2 Timothy 3:15 and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
Titus 1:2 in hope of eternal life which God, who never lies, promised ages ago
Titus 3:7 so that we might be justified by his grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life.
Hebrews 6:1 Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,
Hebrews 6:11-12 And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness in realizing the full assurance of hope until the end, [12]. . . imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
Hebrews 10:23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful;
1 Peter 1:3, 5, 9 . . . By his great mercy we have been born anew to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, . . . [5] who by God’s power are guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. [9] As the outcome of your faith you obtain the salvation of your souls.
1 John 5:1, 4-5 Every one who believes that Jesus is the Christ is a child of God . . . [4] For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith. [5] Who is it that overcomes the world but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
1 John 5:11-13 And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. [12] He who has the Son has life; he who has not the Son of God has not life.[13] I write this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.
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The total number of scriptural passages, then, indicating the notion of faith / belief for salvation, including the nine Old Testament passages mentioned, is fifty: or half of the 100 passages I found connecting good works and salvation. Now, let me make clear that I am not contending that works are thereby shown as more important than, or twice as important as faith and trust in God in the Bible. No! But what I would vigorously claim, and what Protestants must grapple with (since they believe in inspired, inerrant revelation), is the undeniable fact that the Bible emphasizes or mentions works with regard to salvation more so than faith and belief, etc., by a 2-to-1 margin (at least by my own best reckoning, searching the relevant terms).
This being the case — and I have now documented it — I submit that it’s impossible to maintain that the Bible teaches a “faith alone” position with regard to the way of salvation. Nor does it teach a works-salvation or works alone, Pelagian view. What it teaches is the Catholic view of salvation by grace alone, through a faith that intrinsically includes within itself works (including the sacraments): without which it is dead.
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Photo credit: book cover fromthe Amazon pageof the volume, Grace Faith Works: Finding the Biblical Balance (Woodsong: 2nd ed., April 15, 2016), byLarry Monroe Arrowood.I’m not endorsing the book. I don’t know anything about it. I just liked the title, which fit the theme of this article.
Summary: Having compiled 100 Bible passages indicating that works play an important role in salvation, I decided to see how many taught (supposedly) “faith alone”. I found fifty.
Photo credit: self-designed cover of my 2010 book, Biblical Catholic Salvation: “Faith Working Through Love” .
This is my reply to a lengthy comment by “ThornyCrown” underneath the video by my friend, Kenny Burchard, “Why ‘Sola Fidei’ is 100% unbiblical!! [30+ Verses to Highlight!!]” (10-6-24; utilizing my biblical research). His words — and I cite all of them — will be in blue. I use RSV for biblical citations.
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As a die-hard Protestant who left the Roman church 35 years ago,
I’m a die-hard Catholic, who left Protestantism 34 years ago. But I continue to have great respect for evangelical Protestantism and am ecumenical. I simply have some honest disagreements with my esteemed brothers and sisters in Christ, with whom I continue to have a great deal in common. And I’m sure Kenny feels the same way.
I find GREAT fault with this video by what Mr. B does NOT say.
That’s fine; it can be discussed (and I will be doing that), but it would be nice — and I think more sensible — if you responded to what he actually argued. To not do so is, bottom line, simply the old tired tactic of topic-switching and evading the responsibility of interaction with an opposing argument. If the Bible passages we produce (most from myself) are inadequate in your opinion, then by all means, show us (and everyone reading) how and why they are. If you have the superior biblical case, that should be a piece of cake for you; easy as pie (to use two culinary analogies). We’ll have that dialogue with you, but it takes two to dialogue.
It’s quite easy to lecture without the opposing view there to object,
Exactly my point! Since you yourself say you are responding to what Kenny didn’t say, rather than to what he did contend for, you are guilty of the very same thing you now condemn. There is not yet an opposing view because you set off into completely new territory. But I am now replying to you, providing the opposing view to your current off-topic argument, and giving you the courtesy of direct interaction. I respectfully ask that you extend to us the same courtesy.
so kindly allow these next two comboxes to be my objection.
You’re free to talk, as long as you remain civil. But in the future, again, we ask that you please stay on-topic. Otherwise, your comment veers too close to trolling.
First, I have before me a list of 30 people from antiquity who used the phrase “faith alone” or its derivative.
That’s clearly off-topic, since the video is about 30+ Bible passages, not the Church fathers. Secondly, did you do that research yourself or did you simply copy it from someone else? Thirdly, context is all-important in such discussions, so you need to provide documentation as much as possible: preferably to online sources, so context can be examined. Fourth, I did do my own research, in many posts on the same topic, in addition to my three books of patristic citations:
I won’t list them all, but suffice to say, they would obviously disagree with you.
Maybe in some very few cases; someone who simply got it wrong. I suspect, however, that in almost all cases, they do not, when their overall thought is considered. Again, I can prove that because I have done the work. I have time to do such work, as a full-time Catholic apologist, these past 23 years. Here’s what I have collected along these lines:
Marius Victorinus: For faith itself alone gives justification and sanctification (“Ipsa enim fides sola iustificationem dat-et sanctificationem” ).
You provide no documentation. I will do so. This quotation is from his Commentary on Galatians, which can be accessed online (with a little work!). It was published by Oxford University Press in 2005, translated with notes by Stephen Andrew Cooper. Here is the citation in context:
We, says Paul, we have believed in Christ, and we do believe in order that we might be justified based on faith, not works of the Law, seeing that no flesh—that is, the human being who is in flesh—is justified based on works of the Law. So knowing this, if we have believed that justification comes about through faith, we are surely going astray if we now return to Judaism, from which we passed over to be justified based not on works but faith, and faith in Christ. For faith itself alone grants justification and sanctification. Thus any flesh whatsoever—Jews or those from the Gentiles—is justified on the basis of faith, not works or observance of the Jewish Law. (Cooper, 152-153; italics not included, because I doubt that they were in the original)
Catholics agree that initially we are justified by faith alone (and of course, grace alone), contra Pelagianism. We have no beef with that at all. It’s “monergistic” at first. What we are saying is that after initial justification, we are then required to cooperate with God and do good works, if we are to be saved in the end, because “faith without works is dead.” Now, it may be that Marius Victorinus was simply wrong and held to a proto-Protestant view of justification, unlike virtually all other Church fathers (according to the Protestant scholars McGrath and Geisler). Translator Cooper notes that “it is perhaps the earliest Latin formulation of Paul’s theology in those terms [i.e., “faith alone”]” (p. 153).
Isn’t that interesting? Marius Victorinus lived from 290 to 364, so this means — if Cooper is correct — that no Latin Church father used the term “faith alone” for at least 260 years after the death of Christ. The fact that Protestants can find one man is no proof that the Church fathers en masse or as a consensus believed in “faith alone.” One can always find one or a few Church fathers who simply got things wrong. They’re not infallible, in Catholic teaching. But they usually agreed overwhelmingly on orthodox Catholic doctrine. This issue is no exception, as even my own articles alone prove.
St. Paul — over against Marius Victorinus — teaches over and over that good works play a crucial and necessary role in the attainment of salvation (i.e., in anyone who lives after they have been regenerated at baptism):
“As it is written, ‘He who through faith is righteous shall live.’” (Romans 1:17); “To those who by patience in well-doing seek for … immortality, he will give eternal life … glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good” (Romans 2:7, 10); “the doers of the law … will be justified” (Romans 2:13). The “end” of “sanctification” is “eternal life” (Romans 6:22), and indeed we are “saved, through sanctification” (2 Thessalonians 2:13); we’re “fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him” (Romans 8:17; cf. 1 Peter 4:13). He taught that we must do many good things and be fruitful in order to be saved:
Galatians 5:14, 19, 21-23. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” … Now the works of the flesh are plain … those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law.
2 Thessalonians 1:8, 11. … inflicting vengeance … upon those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. … To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his call, and may fulfill every good resolve and work of faith by his power …
1 Timothy 4:12, 15-16. … set the believers an example in speech and conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. … Practice these duties, … Take heed to yourself and to your teaching; hold to that, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.
Paul frequently makes many similar points in his letters: “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:12-13); “work heartily, … knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward” (Colossians 3:23-24); “woman will be saved through bearing children, if she continues in faith and love and holiness” (1 Timothy 2:15); “aim at righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called” (1 Timothy 6:11-12); “keep the commandment … do good … be rich in good deeds … so that they may take hold of the life which is life indeed” (1 Timothy 6:14, 18-19).
Chrysostom… For he makes a wide distinction between commandments and ordinances. He either then means faith, calling that an ordinance, (for by faith alone he saved us) or he means precept, such as… (NPNF1: Vol. XIII, Homilies on Ephesians, Homily 5, Ephesians 2:11-12).
St. John Chrysostom’s overall thought needs to be taken into account. He did not believe in Protestant “faith alone” soteriology. For he also wrote:
Ver. 7. “To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life.” Here also he awakens those who had drawn back during the trials, and shows that it is not right to trust in faith only. For it is deeds also into which that tribunal will enquire. (Homily V on Romans 1:28: v. 2:7; NPNF1-11)
For “each of us shall give account of himself to God.” In order therefore that we may render up this account with a good defence, let us well order our own lives and stretch out a liberal hand to the needy, knowing that this only is our defence, the showing ourselves to have rightly done the things commanded; there is no other whatever. And if we be able to produce this, we shall escape those intolerable pains of hell, and obtain the good things to come; . . . (Homily XXI on 1 Corinthians 9:1, 11, v. 9:12; NPNF1-12)
As often as you enter in to pray, first deposit your alms, and then send up your prayer; . . . since not even the Gospel hanging by our bed is more important than that alms should be laid up for you; for if you hang up the Gospel and do nothing, it will do you no such great good. (Homily XLIII on 1 Corinthians 16:1, 7, v. 16:9; NPNF1-12)
For to believe is not all that is required, but also to abide in love. (Commentary on Galatians, v. 5:6; NPNF1-13)
“It is the gift,” said he, “of God,” it is “not of works.” Was faith then, you will say, enough to save us? No; but God, saith he, hath required this, lest He should save us, barren and without work at all. His expression is, that faith saveth, but it is because God so willeth, that faith saveth. Since, how, tell me, doth faith save, without works? This itself is the gift of God. . . . He did not reject us as having works, but as abandoned of works He hath saved us by grace; so that no man henceforth may have whereof to boast. And then, lest when thou hearest that the whole work is accomplished not of works but by faith, thou shouldest become idle, observe how he continues, Ver. 10. “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God afore prepared that we should walk in them.” (Homily IV on Ephesians, v. 2:8-10; NPNF1-13)
If faith without a good life is unavailing, much more is the converse true. (Homily V on 1 Timothy, v. 1:20; NPNF1-13)
Let not us either expect that faith is sufficient to us for salvation; for if we do not show forth a pure life, but come clothed with garments unworthy of this blessed calling, nothing hinders us from suffering the same as that wretched one. (Homily X on John, v. 1:13; NPNF1-14)
“Is it then enough,” saith one, “to believe on the Son, that one may have eternal life?” By no means. And hear Christ Himself declaring this, and saying, “Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven” ( Matt. vii. 21 ); and the blasphemy against the Spirit is enough of itself to cast a man into hell. But why speak I of a portion of doctrine? Though a man believe rightly on the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, yet if he lead not a right life, his faith will avail nothing towards his salvation. Therefore when He saith, “This is life eternal, that they may know Thee the only true God” ( c. xvii. 3 ), let us not suppose that the (knowledge) spoken of is sufficient for our salvation; we need besides this a most exact life and conversation. (Homily XXXI on John, v. 3:35-36; NPNF1-14)
. . . because He had said above, “He that heareth My words and believeth on Him that sent Me,” “is not judged,” lest any one should imagine that this alone is sufficient for salvation, He addeth also the result of man’s life, declaring that “they which have done good shall come forth unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of judgment.” (Homily XXXIX on John, v. 5:28-29; NPNF1-14)
How long shall we neglect our own salvation? Let us bear in mind of what things Christ has deemed us worthy, let us give thanks, let us glorify Him, not by our faith alone, but also by our very works, that we may obtain the good things that are to come . . . (Homily XLVI on John, v. 6:52; NPNF1-14)
. . . a right faith availeth nothing if the life be corrupt, both Christ and Paul declare . . . (Homily LXIII on John, v. 11:40; NPNF1-14)
Faith is indeed great and bringeth salvation, and without it, it is not possible ever to be saved. It suffices not however of itself to accomplish this, . . . on this account Paul also exhorts those who had already been counted worthy of the mysteries; saying, “Let us labor to enter into that rest.” “Let us labor” (he says), Faith not sufficing, the life also ought to be added thereto, and our earnestness to be great; for truly there is need of much earnestness too, in order to go up into Heaven. (Homily VII on Hebrews, v. 4:11-13; NPNF1-14)
See much more along these lines in my article about St. John Chrysostom, linked above.
Basil of Caesarea:… Let him who boasts boast in the Lord, that Christ has been made by God for us righteousness, wisdom, justification, redemption. This is perfect and pure boasting in God… justified solely by faith in Christ (Chemnitz, Examination of the Council of Trent, Part 1, p. 505)
Again, we are given no primary documentation. But I know that St. Basil rejected faith alone, based on research that I did way back in 2007:
Mere renouncement of sin is not sufficient for the salvation of penitents, but fruits worthy of penance are also required of them. (The Morals, 1, 3)
He who would obey the gospel must first be purged of all defilement of the flesh and the spirit that so he may be acceptable to God in the good works of holiness. (The Morals, 2, 1).
“Turn to your rest; for the Lord has been kind to you.” Eternal rest awaits those who have struggled through the present life observant of the laws, not as payment owed for their works, but bestowed as a gift of the munificent God on those who have hoped in him. (On Psalm 114, no. 5)
They, then, that were sealed by the Spirit unto the day of redemption, and preserve pure and undiminished the first fruits which they received of the Spirit, are they that shall hear the words “well done thou good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things.” In like manner they which have grieved the Holy Spirit by the wickedness of their ways, or have not wrought for Him that gave to them, shall be deprived of what they have received, their grace being transferred to others; or, according to one of the evangelists, they shall even be wholly cut asunder, —the cutting asunder meaning complete separation from the Spirit. (De Spiritu Sancto, chapter 15; NPNF 2, Vol. VIII)
Truly blessed is the soul, which by night and by day has no other anxiety than how, when the great day comes wherein all creation shall stand before the Judge and shall give an account for its deeds, she too may be able easily to get quit of the reckoning of life. For he who keeps that day and that hour ever before him, and is ever meditating upon the defence to be made before the tribunal where no excuses will avail, will sin not at all, or not seriously, for we begin to sin when there is a lack of the fear of God in us. When men have a clear apprehension of what is threatened them, the awe inherent in them will never allow them to fall into inconsiderate action or thought. (Letter 174: To a Widow; NPNF 2, Vol. VIII)
Ignatius of Antioch… His cross, and his death, and his resurrection, and the faith which is through him, are my unpolluted muniments [legal titles] and in these, through your prayers, I am willing to be justified (Epistle to Philadelphians)
But to me Jesus Christ is in the place of all that is ancient: His cross, and death, and resurrection, and the faith which is by Him, are undefiled monuments of antiquity; by which I desire, through your prayers, to be justified.
We are indeed justified by faith, but not by faith alone. St. Ignatius proves that he rejects the latter false doctrine in other statements:
None of these things is hid from you, if you perfectly possess that faith and love towards Christ Jesus [1 Timothy 1:14] which are the beginning and the end of life. For the beginning is faith, and the end is love. [1 Timothy 1:5] Now these two, being inseparably connected together, are of God, while all other things which are requisite for a holy life follow after them. No man [truly] making a profession of faith sins; [1 John 3:7] nor does he that possesses love hate any one. The tree is made manifest by its fruit; [Matthew 12:33] so those that profess themselves to be Christians shall be recognised by their conduct. For there is not now a demand for mere profession, but that a man be found continuing in the power of faith to the end. (Epistle to the Ephesians, ch. 14)
In his Epistle to the Smyrnaeans, Ignatius couples “faith and love” three times (Greeting, chapters 6, 13), and he writes:
Let no man deceive himself. Both the things which are in heaven, and the glorious angels, and rulers, both visible and invisible, if they believe not in the blood of Christ, shall, in consequence, incur condemnation. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it.Matthew 19:12 Let not [high] place puff any one up: for that which is worth all is faith and love, to which nothing is to be preferred. But consider those who are of a different opinion with respect to the grace of Christ which has come unto us, how opposed they are to the will of God. They have no regard for love; no care for the widow, or the orphan, or the oppressed; of the bond, or of the free; of the hungry, or of the thirsty. (6)
He places faith and works together; directly reflecting the words of Jesus at the Last Judgment in Matthew 25:31-46, and when he is commenting on grace he immediately brings up various good works. He refers to grace, faith, love, and good works, all in the same context, which is what St. Paul habitually does. Again, in his Epistle to the Trallians, he makes similar connections: “Wherefore, clothing yourselves with meekness, be renewed in faith, that is the flesh of the Lord, and in love, that is the blood of Jesus Christ” (ch. 8). In his Epistle to the Magnesians, he couples “faith and love” three times (chapters 1, 6, 13). In his Epistle to the Ephesians, he again uses the phrase “faith and love” twice (chapters 1, 14). And he associates faith and works:
. . . your name, much-beloved in God, which you have acquired by the habit of righteousness, according to the faith and love in Jesus Christ our Saviour. (ch. 1)
For it was needful for me to have been stirred up by you in faith, exhortation, patience, and long-suffering. (ch. 3)
. . . faith cannot do the works of unbelief, nor unbelief the works of faith. (ch. 8)
. . . making use of the Holy Spirit as a rope, while your faith was the means by which you ascended, and your love the way which led up to God. You, therefore, as well as all your fellow-travellers, are God-bearers, temple-bearers, Christ-bearers, bearers of holiness, adorned in all respects with the commandments of Jesus Christ, . . . (ch. 9)
This simply isn’t faith alone, folks; no way, no how.
Bernard of Clairvaux… “solam justificatur per fidem,” (i.e., is justified by faith alone) (In Canticum serm. 22.8…PL 183.881):
I need a source in English, preferably with a link. Since St. Bernard isn’t one of the Church fathers, I’ll pass for the time being, since I am already devoting many hours of work to this response.
Obviously, the RCC arbitrarily picks and chooses which early teachers constitute “tradition” and choose only those which they feel are in conformity with the magisterium.
As I have shown in my own research (links above), the Church fathers en masse rejected “faith alone.”
This is dishonest, as was this video by not mentioning them.
The video was about biblical arguments. But charges of dishonesty of this sort aren’t allowed in this channel. Please cease and desist with the insults. “A word to the wise is sufficient.” We can discuss competing theologies without making such insinuations. The Catholic Church and Catholics honestly, sincerely believe what they do, and so do Protestants. The thing is to determine who is right. We do that by making rational, historical, theological, biblical arguments, not making sweeping charges of supposed heart-reading and sin. The great Protestant historian Philip Schaff observed:
If any one expects to find in this period [100-325], or in any of the church fathers, Augustin himself not excepted, the Protestant doctrine of justification by faith alone, . . . he will be greatly disappointed . . . (History of the Christian Church, Vol. 2, 588-589)
Second, Since Mr. B agrees that works of the Mosaic law “definitely” do not justify us (20:30). How nice. Why then are the Ten commandments of the Mosaic law “necessary for salvation” per CCC 2068???????
One must distinguish between the technical phrase “works of the law” (which referred to specifically Jewish works of national identity, per the understanding of some Protestants’ belief in “new perspective on Paul”) and works in general, or commandments. The Ten Commandments are still binding upon Christians. Or do you disagree with that? I imagine that the Catechism states that the Ten Commandments were necessary for salvation because Jesus said the same thing to the rich young ruler, when He asked Him, “what good deed must I do, to have eternal life?” (Mt 19:16). Jesus’ answer was, “If you would enter life, keep the commandments” (Mt 19:17).
St. Paul mentioned four of the ten (Rom 13:9) and then in the same noted that commandments were “summed up in this sentence, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'” Then he teaches that “love is the fulfilling of the law” (13:10) and in context proclaims that “salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed” (13:11). Then in Revelation 14:12, “the saints” are described as “those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus”. Then it is said about the “Blessed . . . dead who die in the Lord henceforth” that “their deeds follow them!” (14:13). Also in the same book Jesus taught that those who did not keep the Ten Commandments, such as “sorcerers and fornicators and murderers and idolaters” (22:15) would not enter heaven. St. John also states, “All who keep his commandments abide in him, and he in them” (1 Jn 3:24). It follows, then, that keeping those commandments are necessary to salvation and entrance into heaven (eschatological salvation).
Third, when we say (and the Bible concurs) that we are not saved by works, we mean ANY works, whether it be from the law, good works we do as a cheerful giver, or good works done in God’s grace. The distinction Mr. B tries to make between works of the law which don’t save — and faith and good works done with God’s grace which DOES save (CCC 1821) cannot stand biblical scrutiny.
Sure it can withstand biblical scrutiny. I’ve produced no less than 100 biblical passages that forbid faith alone. You have ignored them. Why is that: if you are so convinced we are wrong and you are right? You should have counter-explanations for every single one. Instead, you ignore and change the subject. This does not — to put it mildly — bespeak a confidence in your case or the courage of your convictions. Here are two of the clearest ones:
Romans 2:7 For he 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;
James 2:14 What does it profit, my brethren, if a man says he has faith but has not works? Can his faith save him?
Mr. B is advocating that anytime we hear we aren’t saved by works, to take that to mean the restriction of only those works emanating from the Pentateuch.
However, this cannot be so because Paul goes on record using the word “law” to designate the Scriptures as a WHOLE, which would mean he is NOT restricting good works of the law only to the Pentateuch, but ANY GOOD WORKS WHATSOEVER right up to this present day.
The Bible teaches that we aren’t saved by works in the sense of Pelagianism works-salvation (salvation by works alone), which the Catholic Church entirely rejects (e.g., Eph 2:8-9). But when Kenny is talking about the phrase “works of the law”, that has a specific meaning, applying to Jews who kept the Mosaic Law in its entirety (which no Christian does). “Works of the law” is a phrase that occurs seven times in Paul’s epistles. Paul also refers to “the law of the Jews” (Acts 25:8) and “the law of Moses” (1 Cor 9:9).
Good works in a generic sense are good! (a = a), and related to salvation: so say at least a hundred biblical passages. Protestants, on the other hand, believe in several things that have no scriptural support at all. The canon of the New Testament is one of those that they will readily admit. I would also contend that sola Scriptura and sola fide are two more things that lack any biblical support at all. But we can produce a hundred biblical passages against faith alone (I did that, myself), and I wrote a book called 100 Biblical Arguments Against Sola Scriptura.
For instance, he appeals to the law in 1 Cor 14:21, but he quotes Isaiah 28:11-12, which of course is NOT part of the Pentateuch. In Romans 3:19, he describes his citations from the O.T. in verses 10-18 as “what the law says”. However, these verses are derived from the Psalms (5:9, 10:7, 14:1-3, 36:1, 53:1-3, 140:3…as well as Proverbs 1:16, and Isa 59:7-8) all of which categorically proves that good works done under the old law– “for salvation”– cannot be restricted to the Mosaic law as is commonly supposed. Thus, we must not seek to qualify the kinds of works which are excluded for justification because the fact is, each and every kind of righteous work is prohibited; i.e., we are not to trust in them AT ALL, nor does God save us by ANY kind of righteousness on our part done with or without the grace of the Holy Spirit.
That’s simply not true, and I have a hundred Bible passages to prove it. So at this point the ball is in your court. In order to dissuade us, you have to produce counter-interpretations of all one hundred that are in line with “faith alone” and not in harmony with the Catholic and biblical soteriology of salvation by grace alone, by faith: to which works are organically connected and required. I dare say that you can’t do so, and that your refusal to even begin that necessary task is already pretty strong evidence that you can’t. You’re welcome to start at any time! We’ll be glad to publish that effort on our video channel and in any blogs I write in reply. And we will always answer and refute any such attempt, that is, unless you convince us, in which case we would be duty-bound to change our minds and become Protestants again. But clearly, that won’t ever happen if you completely refuse to engage in; indeed, run away from, what you must do to refute what we have offered — as you have done in this reply.
Mr. B will agree that no one can be justified by the Mosaic law, explicitly stated in Acts 13:39. Fine. But the problem with Catholicism emerges when you agree (for example) that if obeying one’s parent’s under the Mosaic law was not salvific, then how can you say that obeying your parents under the New Testament IZZZ salvific?
It is in conjunction with faith: all caused by God’s grace. It isn’t, in and of itself. We can say that it’s one thing that helps save one, because Jesus said so (Mt 19:17): honoring parents being one of the Ten Commandments. It’s one of dozens of works that the New Testament mentions as part of the overall equation of salvation. Jesus mentioned three works that helped cause salvation in one saying:
Matthew 25:34-35 Then the King will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; [35] for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, . . .
In another place, He mentioned five actions: the reward for each being eternal life:
Luke 18:29-30 And he said to them, “Truly, I say to you, there is no man who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, [30] who will not receive manifold more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life.”
Etc., etc., up to a hundred biblical passages. . . .
Yet that is exactly what they teach; i.e., God has created a new “system of grace” wherein the good works we do under the new covenant, now become the gateway to heaven. But by doing so, they have attached to their good deeds, a salvific EFFICACY on the same level as the blood of Christ. This is unacceptable and is “another gospel” per 2 For 11:4 which saves no one.
That doesn’t follow. I think I’ve gone through this before with you. To say that “x work plays a role in salvation, alongside faith, caused by grace” is not the same as equating that work in value with the blood of Christ. That simply doesn’t follow, either logically or theologically. But it sounds nice as anti-Catholic rhetoric and polemics. The only problem is that it’s a fallacy and falsehood.
I will continue in one more combox quoting from the #1 RC apologetic book for the last 25 years, Not By Faith Aloneby R. Sungenis, endorsed by all the major Catholic luminaries of today on the inside cover pages.
I believe the #1 Catholic apologetics book is Surprised by Truth, which has sold some half a million copies. My own conversion story is one of the twelve included in it.
To verify what I just said about good deeds having the same blood-cleansing efficacy as Christ’s blood, we read, “Works become JUST AS MUCH a salvific part of the individual’s justification as his faith” (p. 172). There is your equivalency factor, clear as the light of day and it is “100% unbiblical”… to use Mr. B’s video title.
It’s not unbiblical at all. I produced 100 biblical proofs. Christ’s blood brings about the possibility of salvation for anyone who repents and accepts God’s mercy, and is 1000% sufficient for that purpose. But then we have to do our part, which is exercising faith and doing good works. It’s not established by you at all that our faith or whatever good works we do are equivalent to Christ’s blood. I don’t see how they ever could be. Whatever good is in us is ultimately caused by God’s grace. Now, if faith without works is dead, then it logically follows that authentic faith cannot exist without works. And if that is the case, it also follows that works are as important as faith, seeing that the former literally bring the latter “to life”: so to speak.
Before I give more disturbing quotes,
“Disturbing”? What you have given is not “disturbing” in the slightest. I’ve had no problem refuting all or any of it.
the bulk of Mr. B’s time was throwing out the verses that tell us we ought to be good. But no Protestant alive or dead has ever advocated that faith be “dislocated” from works, to use Mr. B’s word. All the “good” passages simply mean that the elect in heaven will have had a GENERAL TENOR of being good, not that their goodness got them there!
That’s untrue. It’s a falsehood. I specifically chose my prooftexts — and Kenny uses my work in his videos –, keeping in mind this very thing: that Protestants would claim that works simply accompany faith, while supposedly having nothing to do with salvation itself. That’s not what the Bible teaches at all. Again and again, it establishes a causal relationship of works and salvation, just as with faith and salvation (grace being the main cause behind both). Matthew 25 (the judgment) and the Jesus and the rich young ruler passage (Matthew 19) show this most clearly. Here are a few more of the clearest of my biblical proofs, in terms of demonstrating a direct causal relationship:
Matthew 7:19, 21 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. . . . [21] “Not every one who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
John 5:29 . . . those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, . . .
Romans 6:22 . . . the return you get is sanctification and its end, eternal life.
Colossians 3:23-24 Whatever your task, work heartily, as serving the Lord and not men, [24] knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward;
2 Thessalonians 2:13 . . . God chose you from the beginning to be saved, through sanctification . . .
1 Timothy 6:18-19 They are to do good, to be rich in good deeds, liberal and generous, [19] thus laying up for themselves a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life which is life indeed.
Revelation 20:12-13 . . . And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, by what they had done. [13] . . . and all were judged by what they had done.
The dire difference is that we don’t believe we are saved or justified BYYYY them in any way whatsoever, whereas Catholics DO, which is their fatal error.
We are following clear and relentlessly repeated Scripture in this respect. You are not.
We say, yes, do a million good works to the glory of God, but if you begin to base your hope for HEAVEN on them (explicitly stated in CCC 1821), you are lost.
See the above seven passages in particular for the answer to this. But there are 93 more answers, too.
The “damnable works-righteousness” Mr. B (rightly) says Protestants accuse Catholics of, may be seen in Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma, p. 261. Catholics seek to be, “supernaturally endowed to perform ordinary and extraordinary heroic acts FOR the salvation of the soul”. This is precisely where and why we part company.
Yes, because you depart from Scripture, and we obediently follow it, since it’s God’s inspired revelation. We don’t deign to place our man-made unbiblical traditions above God’s written Word and in contradiction of that same Scripture.
Allegedly, as long as they admit their good works are done under the umbrella of God’s grace, all will be well, or so they think. Instead of a singular confidence in the doing and dying of Christ alone (Romans 5:10) a clever trick is sneaked in through the back door.
Following biblical instructions and teachings isn’t “clever”; rather, it’s wise and spiritually fruitful and pleasing to God. I have nine passages from the letter to the Romans in my collection: proving that Paul rejects “faith alone.”
Specifically, when one has the intention of doing good works under the auspices of God’s grace, this mindset magically qualifies those deeds to become the hinge upon which the door into heaven swings (repeat, CCC 1821). What Catholicism is stipulating is that the power of his grace invigorates them on a path of good deeds, all of which are then instrumental in the verdict of justification (i.e., our right standing before God).
Now to Mr. Sungenis:
“Works are a primary criteria in [God] deciding whether or not the individual is saved” (p. 50).
“Works are the determining factor in our salvation” (p. 215; cf. p. 38 footnote).
“Works are the ultimate factor in the salvation of the individual” (p. 145).
“Salvation is either granted or denied based on works” (p. 159).
“A person’s eternal destiny is dependent on God’s final evaluation of the person’s deeds” (p. 484).
“If done through grace, they [works] are graciously meritorious for salvation”
(p. 102).
“The evaluation of our good works as noted in 1 Cor 3:13-17 and 2 Cor 5:10 will not result in personal rewards only, but “rather a judgment which will determine whether one will be saved” (p. 41).
That’s all biblical, per my 100 proofs. Matthew 25 is particularly clear in this respect.
In light of these audacious claims, there can be no doubt that Catholics have been rightly accused of working their way to eternal life, for that is exactly what they teach. Rather than trust in the mercy of God alone in the face of Jesus Christ (2 For 4:6) so that “no flesh should glory in his presence” (1 Cor 1:29) heavy emphasis is placed on their dazzling “performance rituals” to ensure a spot in heaven, and that being so, we shudder for the salvation of the Pope down to the pauper in the pew.
Contrary to the video’s thesis, “Faith Alone” is 100% biblical. The book on my shelf, “Faith Alone in 100 verses” by Wilkin is a case in point. I will NOT throw that book away after watching this presentation, for it did NOT have the power to persuade those of us aware of the facts Mr. B. OMITTED to say such as doing “heroic acts that save the soul” mentioned above which is downright preposterous.
Now why don’t you deal with my 100 passages, if you are so confident and sure of your belief? What stops you?
Hence, Evangelicals use the logo, “Faith Alone” merely as shorthand that guards against a tug-of-war. That is, a tug-of-war between trusting in our own “right conduct” to open heaven’s gate (per CCC 16) and the fatal error of giving equal trust to the “right conduct” of Christ the Lord!
“At the end of the day, “Faith Alone” brings perfect peace (Isa 26:3) to the one who trusts solely in the OBJECT of their faith, for “the one who believes in him will never be put to shame” (Romans 9:33).
God could have chosen to make “faith alone” the sole criterion of salvation. But He didn’t (as we know from the Bible). He chose to have works directly involved, too, since they are organically connected to faith and can’t be arbitrarily separated from it. The works are derived from His grace just as faith is. God crowns His own gifts, as St. Augustine stated, in choosing to regard our good works as meritorious.
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Summary: I reply to every argument made by a Protestant who objected to Kenny Burchard’s video, “Why ‘Sola Fidei’ is 100% unbiblical!!” yet mostly ignored its evidences.
. . . Proving That “Faith Alone” is a False Doctrine
Photo credit: self-designed cover of my 2013 book, Revelation! 1001 Bible Answers to Theological Topics.
[Bible passages: RSV]
1. The “doers of the law . . . will be justified” (Rom 2:13).
2. The “end” of “sanctification” is “eternal life” (Rom 6:22).
3. We should “abound in love to one another and to all men” in order for God to “establish” our “hearts unblamable in holiness” before Him (1 Thess 3:12-13).
4. We’re “saved, through sanctification by the Spirit” (2 Thess 2:13; cf. Heb 9:14; 10:10, 14).
5. “God . . . saves the upright in heart” (Ps 7:10).
6. If we “repent,” we’ll “be redeemed . . . by righteousness” (Is 1:27).
7. The “righteous” will be saved (Is 26:2).
8. Salvation is the “effect” and “result” of “righteousness” (Is 32:17).
9. “He who walks righteously” will be saved (Is 33:15).
10. “He who . . . speaks uprightly” will be saved (Is 33:15).
11. Those who “hearkened to” God’s “commandments” were saved (Is 48:18).
12. Those who “keep justice” will be saved (Is 56:1).
13. Those who “do righteousness” will be saved (Is 56:1).
14. The “righteous man . . . enters into peace” (Is 57:1-2).
15. Those “who walk in their uprightness” are saved (Is 57:2).
16. “According to their deeds, so will he repay, . . .” (Is 59:18).
17. If we “ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it” then we’ll “find rest for” our “souls” and be saved (Jer 6:16).
18. God commands us to “Obey my voice” in order to be saved (Jer 7:23).
19. God commands us to “walk in all the way that I command you” in order to be saved (Jer 7:23).
20. God will “give to every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings” (Jer 17:10).
21. If we “do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed” we’ll be saved (Jer 22:3; cf. 21:12).
22. If we “judge the cause of the poor and needy” we’ll be saved (Jer 22:16).
23. If we “obey the voice of the LORD” we’ll be saved (Jer 26:13).
24. “in accordance with their conduct and their deeds I judged them” (Ezek 36:19).
25. “I will . . . requite them for their deeds” (Hos 4:9).
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26. “Seek good, . . . that you may live” (Amos 5:14).
27. “As you have done, it shall be done to you, your deeds shall return on your own head” (Obad 1:15).
28. “A sound tree cannot bear evil fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will know them by their fruits” (Mt 7:18-20).
29. “Not every one who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Mt 7:21).
30. “For the Son of man . . . will repay every man for what he has done” (Mt 16:27).
31. “And behold, one came up to him, saying, ‘Teacher, what good deed must I do, to have eternal life?’ And he said to him, “. . . If you would enter life, keep the commandments” (Mt 19:16-17).
32. “And every one who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will . . . inherit eternal life” (Mt 19:29 + Mk 10:29-30 + Lk 18:26-30).
33. “Come, . . . inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food . . . And they will go away . . . into eternal life.” (Mt 25:34-35, 46).
34. “Come, . . . inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for . . . I was thirsty and you gave me drink. . . And they will go away . . . into eternal life.” (Mt 25:34-35, 46).
35. “Come, . . . inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for . . . I was a stranger and you welcomed me. . . And they will go away . . . into eternal life.” (Mt 25:34-35, 46).
36. “every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire” (Lk 3:9 + Mt 3:10; 7:19).
37. “love your enemies, . . . and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High” (Lk 6:35).
38. “do good, . . . and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High” (Lk 6:35).
39. “lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High” (Lk 6:35).
40. We must “obey the Son” in order to have “eternal life” (Jn 3:36).
41. “all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come forth, those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, . . .” (Jn 5:28-29).
42. “Every branch of mine that bears no fruit, he takes away, . . . He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If a man does not abide in me, he is cast forth . . . and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned. . . . bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples” (Jn 15:2, 5-6, 8).
43. “in every nation any one who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him” (Acts 10:35).
44. “he will render to every man according to his works” (Rom 2:6).
45. Those who engage in “well-doing” will be given “eternal life” (Rom 2:7).
46. “every one who does good” will be rewarded with “glory and honor and immortality” (Rom 2:7, 10).
47. “. . . heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him” (Rom 8:17).
48. “salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. . . let us conduct ourselves becomingly” (Rom 13:11, 13).
49. “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Phil 2:12-13).
50. “Do all things without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish” (Phil 2:14-15).
51. St. Paul wrote that he had “suffered the loss of all things, . . . in order that I may gain Christ” (Phil 3:8; cf. Mt 19:21).
52. Paul was willing to “share” in the “sufferings” of Jesus “that if possible” he could “attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this . . .” (Phil 3:10-12).
53. Paul thought that those who “labored side by side with me in the gospel” were saved (those whose “names are in the book of life”) (Phil 4:3).
54. “work heartily, as serving the Lord and not men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward” (Col 3:23-24).
55. “remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love . . . For we know, brethren beloved by God, that he has chosen you” (1 Thess 1:3-4).
56. “put on the breastplate of faith and love, . . . For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess 5:8-9).
57. “inflicting vengeance upon . . . those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. . . . To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his call, and may fulfil every good resolve and work of faith by his power” (2 Thess 1:8, 11).
58. “Yet woman will be saved through bearing children, if she continues in . . . love and holiness, with modesty” (1 Tim 2:15).
59. “set the believers an example in speech and conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. . . . attend to the public reading of scripture, to preaching, to teaching. . . . Practice these duties, devote yourself to them, . . . for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers” (1 Tim 4:12-13, 15-16).
60. “aim at righteousness, godliness, . . . love, steadfastness, gentleness. . . . take hold of the eternal life to which you were called” (1 Tim 6:11-12).
61. “keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach . . . They are to do good, to be rich in good deeds, liberal and generous, thus laying up for themselves a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life which is life indeed” (1 Tim 6:14, 18-19).
62. “he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him” (Heb 5:9).
63. “let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, . . . you have need of endurance, so that you may do the will of God and receive what is promised” (Heb 10:24, 36).
64. What does it profit, my brethren, if a man says he has faith but has not works? Can his faith save him? . . . So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. . . . faith apart from works is barren . . . You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by works, . . . You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. . . . faith apart from works is dead” (James 2:14, 17, 20, 22, 24, 26; this is the only time “faith alone” appears in the Bible, and this entire chapter directly refutes the doctrine over and over).
65. “chosen and destined by God the Father and sanctified by the Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ” (1 Pet 1:2).
66. “if you invoke as Father him who judges each one impartially according to his deeds, conduct yourselves with fear . . . Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth . . . love one another earnestly from the heart” (1 Pet 1:17, 22).
67. But “rejoice in so far as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed” (1 Pet 4:13).
68. “make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue . . . so there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom” (2 Pet 1:5, 11).
69. “make every effort to supplement your faith with . . . self-control . . . so there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom”(2 Pet 1:5-6, 11).
70. “make every effort to supplement your faith with . . . godliness. . . so there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom” (2 Pet 1:5-6, 11).
71. “make every effort to supplement your faith with . . . love . . . so there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom” (2 Pet 1:5. 7, 11).
72. “what sort of persons ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, . . . Therefore, beloved, since you wait for these, be zealous to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace” (2 Pet 3:11-12, 14).
73.”And by this we may be sure that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He who says “I know him” but disobeys his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him” (1 Jn 2:3-4; cf. 3:24).
74. “keep yourselves in the love of God; wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life” (Jude 21).
75. “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” (Rev 2:5).
76. “the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life” (Rev 2:10).
77. “I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first. . . . [23] . . . I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you as your works deserve . . . He who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, I will give him power over the nations” (Rev 2:19, 23, 26).
78. “they shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy. He who conquers shall be clad thus in white garments, and I will not blot his name out of the book of life” (Rev 3:4-5).
79. “Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. [13] And I heard a voice from heaven saying, ‘Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord henceforth.’ ‘Blessed indeed,’ says the Spirit, ‘that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!’ “(Rev 14:12-13).
80. “And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, by what they had done. [13] . . . and all were judged by what they had done” (Rev 20:12-13).
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Summary: Compilation of 80 biblical passages in which a good work or action or deed is said to be one of the direct causes of salvation: all contrary to Protestant “faith alone” soteriology.
Genesis 18:19 (RSV) I have chosen him, that he may charge his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice; so that the LORD may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.
Genesis 22:16-18 “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.”
1 Samuel 26:23 The LORD rewards every man for his righteousness and his faithfulness; . . .
2 Samuel 22:21-25 The LORD rewarded me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands he recompensed me. [22] For I have kept the ways of the LORD, and have not wickedly departed from my God. [23] For all his ordinances were before me, and from his statutes I did not turn aside. [24] I was blameless before him, and I kept myself from guilt. [25] Therefore the LORD has recompensed me according to my righteousness, according to my cleanness in his sight. (cf. Ps 18:20-23)
1 Kings 3:9-14 Give thy servant therefore an understanding mind to govern thy people, that I may discern between good and evil; for who is able to govern this thy great people?” [10] It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. [11] And God said to him, “Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches or the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, [12] behold, I now do according to your word. Behold, I give you a wise and discerning mind, so that none like you has been before you and none like you shall arise after you. [13] I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that no other king shall compare with you, all your days. [14] And if you will walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and my commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days.”
Psalm 106:30-31 Then Phin’ehas stood up and interposed, and the plague was stayed. [31] And that has been reckoned to him as righteousness from generation to generation for ever.
Proverbs 15:26 The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the LORD, the words of the pure are pleasing to him.
Isaiah 59:18 According to their deeds, so will he repay, wrath to his adversaries, requital to his enemies; . . .
Jeremiah 31:16 . . . your work shall be rewarded, says the LORD, . . .
Jeremiah 32:19 great in counsel and mighty in deed; whose eyes are open to all the ways of men, rewarding every man according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings;
Hosea 10:12 Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, . . .
Haggai 1:8 Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may appear in my glory, says the LORD.
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Matthew 5:19 Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but he who does them and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 6:3-4, 6, 17-18 But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, [4] so that your alms may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. . . . [6] But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. . . . [17] But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, [18] that your fasting may not be seen by men but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
Matthew 10:41-42 He who receives a prophet because he is a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward, and he who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward. [42] And whoever gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he shall not lose his reward.”
Mark 10:29-30 Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, [30] who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, . . .
Mark 16:20 And they went forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the signs that attended it. Amen.
Luke 14:13-14 But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, [14] and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. You will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”
Romans 15:17-18 . . . In Christ Jesus, then, I have reason to be proud of my work for God. [18] For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has wrought through me to win obedience from the Gentiles, by word and deed,
1 Corinthians 3:6-9 I planted, Apol’los watered, but God gave the growth. [7] So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.[8] He who plants and he who waters are equal, and each shall receive his wages according to his labor. [9] For we are God’s fellow workers . . .
1 Corinthians 9:15-18 . . . I would rather die than have any one deprive me of my ground for boasting. [16] For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! [17] For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward; but if not of my own will, I am entrusted with a commission. [18] What then is my reward? Just this: that in my preaching I may make the gospel free of charge, not making full use of my right in the gospel.
1 Corinthians 15:10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God which is with me.
1 Corinthians 15:31 . . . my pride in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord . . .
1 Corinthians 15:58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
2 Corinthians 1:12, 14 For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience that we have behaved in the world, . . . [14] . . . you can be proud of us as we can be of you . . .
2 Corinthians 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive good or evil, according to what he has done in the body. . . . [12] . . . giving you cause to be proud of us, . . .
2 Corinthians 6:1 Working together with him, then, we entreat you not to accept the grace of God in vain.
2 Corinthians 7:4, 14 I have great confidence in you; I have great pride in you; . . . [14] For if I have expressed to him some pride in you, I was not put to shame; but just as everything we said to you was true, so our boasting before Titus has proved true.
2 Corinthians 8:24 So give proof, before the churches, of your love and of our boasting about you to these men.
2 Corinthians 9:2-3 for I know your readiness, of which I boast about you to the people of Macedo’nia, saying that Acha’ia has been ready since last year; and your zeal has stirred up most of them. [3] But I am sending the brethren so that our boasting about you may not prove vain in this case, so that you may be ready, as I said you would be;
2 Corinthians 12:5 On behalf of this man I will boast, . . .
Galatians 6:4 But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor.
Galatians 6:7-9 Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. [8] For he who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption; but he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. [9] And let us not grow weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap, if we do not lose heart.
Ephesians 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Ephesians 5:10 and try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. (cf. Phil 2:13)
Ephesians 6:8 knowing that whatever good any one does, he will receive the same again from the Lord, . . .
Philippians 2:13 for God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
Philippians 2:16 holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.
Philippians 4:18 I have received full payment, and more; I am filled, having received from Epaphrodi’tus the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God.
Colossians 1:10 to lead a life worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, . . .
Colossians 3:20 Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.
1 Thessalonians 2:4 but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please men, but to please God who tests our hearts.
1 Thessalonians 2:19 For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you?
1 Thessalonians 4:1 Finally, brethren, we beseech and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you learned from us how you ought to live and to please God, just as you are doing, you do so more and more.
2 Thessalonians 1:4 Therefore we ourselves boast of you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions which you are enduring.
2 Timothy 2:15, 21 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, . . . [21] If any one purifies himself from what is ignoble, then he will be a vessel for noble use, consecrated and useful to the master of the house, ready for any good work.
2 Timothy 4:7-8 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. [8] Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.
Hebrews 13:16 Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.
2 John 1:8 Look to yourselves, that you may not lose what you have worked for, but may win a full reward.
1 John 3:22 and we receive from him whatever we ask, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.
St. Augustine said that our merit was merely God crowning his own gifts. That’s what the Catholic Church teaches. It ultimately doesn’t come from us; it comes from God, giving us the grace to do any good thing (Ps 51:7, 10; 84:11). But we can and should willingly participate and do what He wants us to do, and God rewards that.
Practical Matters: I run the most comprehensive “one-stop” Catholic apologetics site: rated #1 for Christian sites by leading AI tool, ChatGPT — endorsed by popular Protestant blogger Adrian Warnock. Perhaps some of my 4,800+ free online articles or fifty-five books have helped you (by God’s grace) to decide to become Catholic or to return to the Church, or better understand some doctrines and why we believe them.
Or you may believe my work is worthy to support for the purpose of apologetics and evangelism in general. If so, please seriously consider a much-needed financial contribution. I’m always in need of more funds: especially monthly support. “The laborer is worthy of his wages” (1 Tim 5:18, NKJV). 1 December 2021 was my 20th anniversary as a full-time Catholic apologist, and February 2022 marked the 25th anniversary of my blog.
Summary: 50 explicit biblical passages prove that meritorious works (fully enabled by God’s grace) are God’s will and are rewarded by Him. Yet, oddly enough, Protestants deny this.
The following exchange took place in the combox of the video by Kenny Burchard, “Purgatory is 100% BIBLICAL!!” (Catholic Bible Highlights, 8-29-24). I provide the biblical research for this series of videos. Our Protestant friends’ words will be in blue. I cite all of them. I added a few little tidbits just for this article. I use RSV for biblical citations.
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I love the way you articulate your position, and it is easy to see your loving heart for seeking God’s Truth. As a lifelong disciple of Our Lord Jesus Christ, I have something that I would like to offer as another position to you and your followers. As you put forward your beliefs, and that of the Catholic doctrine I hear you say that we can define “the act by which we are purified” after death as “Purgatory.”
I believe that the Bible is very clear, stating in Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
We do know that if we are under the blood of Christ, that He has paid out debts in full, and we can miraculously receive the Holy Spirit in this current life. Even being made into a new creation, we still must suffer the penalty of death, ending our Earthy lives. Having salvation, abiding, and being sanctified through the Holy Spirit inside of us is happening while in this life.
We actually do individually pay the penalty for sin at our death, and yet the insurmountable amount of punishment we deserve is satisfied through Jesus Himself covering over our multitudes of debt. The Holy Spirit testifies for us as sons and daughters under his blood!
The mode by which the punishment due us is dealt with is explained in scripture by “The Passed Over” in Exodus. If the blood was over the door posts, “God’s wrath passed over and saved those inside” hence “covered by the blood,” despite the sinfulness of those inside! The same goes for all those who look to Christ and abide with him. This all leads to an even more beautiful picture of Grace! The undeserved gift!!! That is the Gospel!
It is with brotherly love and a humble spirit that I say the following: Your portrayal of the Catholic position takes away from the power and beauty of what God did for us on the cross and His Grace! By saying we must still go through a painful process of burning away our sins till Jesus comes back is saying He didn’t pay our debts in full on the cross.
We actually are accused and found wanting at the moment of our death, but like you stated, we will be able to have right communion with God at that very moment! That would be impossible if we had not been purified by his Holy Spirit.
When we die, we will be outside of the limitations of time and this current physical world. Your example of John in Revelation having his lips touched by the fire is odd because he hadn’t died yet, so it is strange to apply that situation to all of us from that one moment. I agree that God does burn away our sins and for some it will be a lot more than others, if you want to title that moment “Purgatory” that is fine, but it will be the most humbling and joyful moment of our lives.
The great “White throne Judgment” is when the true evil will be dethroned and cast down, bringing about the “Second Death.” All those, not written in the book of life, are and will be awaiting that final Judgment during the “Day of the Lord.” That is when all those who chose to fully rebel against Him will be cast into the lake of fire.
If you want to call the process that God purifies us at death. “Purgatory,” that is fine with me, I guess, but like you said, it is not a place. Not only that, it is not a person. Christ is the Righteous Judge, He is the One on the throne, and He is the refining fire, but there is nothing tangible or clear that says He is still going to be purifying us after death until His second coming. That process does not continue since He technically paid it once and for all.
That passage was talking about “The Church” which is something that goes beyond all our little lifetimes and is the bridegroom of Christ. He is continuing to purify the church despite how many of us live and die. Perhaps that is why you thought it continues.
I pray this comment comes across in the right light, and I’m sure you get lots of messages that contradict your videos. I almost never have commented on videos, but felt called to share how I see sound doctrine. Keep up what you are doing, and I appreciate your loving spirit for the lost. I would be happy to discuss this further and give you far more contextual verses that Prove this case. Thank you so much,
Your brother in Christ,
Timothy
Thanks for your comment. It’s fine to make critiques. You have the right spirit, and civility and charity, and it’s great to see that. All we require here is civility and the right spirit. People can disagree all they like, provided they properly “behave.” Kenny and I are well familiar with Protestant doctrine, including in this regard. He was a pastor, with a Masters degree in theology, and I was an apologist and missionary as an evangelical, and have intensely studied apologetics and the Bible for now 43 years, including almost 23 years of full-time apologetics). So none of this is new to us. We understand the Protestant view; we simply have an honest and respectful disagreement, where it differs from the Catholic (and we would say, biblical) outlook.
I’ve often used what I call the “nutshell” argument for purgatory: we must be without sin to enter into God’s presence (Eph 5:5; Heb 12:14; Rev 21:27; 22:3, 14-15). Therefore, God must purge or wash away our sin to make us fit to be in heaven with Him (actual, infused holiness; not merely imputed or declared). All agree so far. The only disagreement is whether this “divine cleansing” takes place in an instant or is more of a process. This is merely a quantitative difference; not an essential one.
Protestants agree that sanctification in this life is a lifelong process, although (unlike us) they remove it categorically from any direct connection (alongside faith and grace) salvation itself. Be that as it may, it stands to reason that if sanctification does indeed occur after death (as it must in order for us to be sinless and fit for heaven), that it would be — by straightforward analogy — a process there, too, and it would resemble in particulars what the Bible describes as refining and purifying processes in this life. Catholics agree that purgatory has nothing to do with determining salvation, which is already attained (everyone in purgatory is already saved). In that sense, we agree that it is non-salvific, yet necessary (just like works are in the Protestant view).
Purgatory is indicated most directly in 1 Corinthians 3:13, 15: “Each man’s work will become manifest; for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. . . . If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.”
The Bible also often refers to this same purging process taking place before we die: the very common biblical theme of God’s chastising or purifying His people. By analogy, this shows us the same notions that lie behind the apostolic and Catholic doctrine of purgatory (methods of how God works, so to speak). When these passages are included, one can find (as I did) at least fifty biblical passages that are relevant to purgatory. Protestants can ignore, if they wish, the deuterocanonical passages (highlighted in green below), which they exclude from the biblical canon. The argument doesn’t stand or fall on them, in any event.
Scripture refers to a purging fire (in addition to 1 Corinthians 3 above): whatever “shall pass through the fire” will be made “clean” (Num 31:23); “Out of heaven he let you hear his voice, that he might discipline you; and on earth he let you see his great fire, and you heard his words out of the midst of the fire” (Dt 4:36); “we went through fire” (Ps 66:12); “For gold is tested in the fire, and acceptable men in the furnace of humiliation” (Sir 2:5); “our God is a consuming fire” (Heb 12:29); “do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal which comes upon you to prove you” (1 Pet 4:12); We also see passages about the “baptism of fire” (Mt 3:11; Mk 10:38-39; Lk 3:16; 12:50).
The Bible makes frequent use also of the metaphor of various metals being refined (in a fire): “when he has tried me, I shall come forth as gold” (Job 23:10); “thou, O God, hast tested us; thou hast tried us as silver is tried” (Ps 66:10); “The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold, and the LORD tries hearts” (Prov 17:3); “I will turn my hand against you and will smelt away your dross as with lye and remove all your alloy” (Is 1:25); “I have refined you, . . . I have tried you in the furnace of affliction” (Is 48:10); “I will refine them and test them” (Jer 9:7); “I will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested” (Zech 13:9); “he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap; he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi, and refine them like gold and silver” (Mal 3:2-3); “Having been disciplined a little, they will receive great good, because God tested them and found them worthy of himself; [6] like gold in the furnace he tried them, . . . “ (Wis 3:5-6); “. . . your faith, more precious than gold which though perishable is tested by fire” (1 Pet 1:6-7).
God cleansing or washing us is another common biblical theme: “Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! . . . Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean” (Ps 51:2, 7); “Blows that wound cleanse away evil; strokes make clean the innermost parts” (Prov 20:30; cf. 30:12); “the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and cleansed the bloodstains of Jerusalem from its midst by a spirit of judgment and by a spirit of burning” (Is 4:4); “I will cleanse them from all the guilt of their sin against me” (Jer 33:8); “I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses” (Ezek 36:25); “cleanse them from sin and uncleanness” (Zech 13:1); “our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water” (Heb 10:22); “he was cleansed from his old sins” (2 Pet 1:9); “the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).
Divine “chastisement” is taught clearly in many passages: “as a man disciplines his son, the LORD your God disciplines you” (Dt 8:5); “do not despise the LORD’s discipline or be weary of his reproof,” (Prov 3:11); “I will chasten you in just measure” (Jer 30:11); “For thou didst test them as a father does in warning” (Wis 11:10); “God who tests our hearts” (1 Thess 2:4); “For the Lord disciplines him whom he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives. It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? . . . he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness” (Heb 12:6-7, 10).
We are subject to God’s indignation or wrath, insofar as we sin: “God will bring every deed into judgment” (Ecc 12:14); “I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him, . . . He will bring me forth to the light” (Mic 7:9).
Purgatory is “written all over” the passages above. It all goes back to sin not being allowed in heaven. Once we get there, there is no longer mere “imputation” of righteousness. At that point it’s actual righteousness in play. Therefore, we have to transition from our present sinful life or state of being, to the sinless life we will live in heaven. So the question is: how does God bring that result about? Is it instantaneous? Zap! And we’re there! Or is it more of a process?
That’s the heart of my argument in the 50 passages: by analogy, the Bible teaches that purging of sin is a process in this life. If that’s true, then it’s plausible and reasonable to believe also that the same purging of sin in heaven is a process rather than an instantaneous “zap.” And that is the essence of purgatory. Once the analogy is understood, then all of the passages I produced are relevant to understanding (and accepting) purgatory.
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Practical Matters: I run the most comprehensive “one-stop” Catholic apologetics site: rated #1 for Christian sites by leading AI tool, ChatGPT — endorsed by popular Protestant blogger Adrian Warnock. Perhaps some of my 4,800+ free online articles or fifty-five books have helped you (by God’s grace) to decide to become Catholic or to return to the Church, or better understand some doctrines and why we believe them.
Or you may believe my work is worthy to support for the purpose of apologetics and evangelism in general. If so, please seriously consider a much-needed financial contribution. I’m always in need of more funds: especially monthly support. “The laborer is worthy of his wages” (1 Tim 5:18, NKJV). 1 December 2021 was my 20th anniversary as a full-time Catholic apologist, and February 2022 marked the 25th anniversary of my blog.
Summary: In-depth reply to a Protestant in which I discuss the many biblical themes that suggest a process of purgation after we die, which is analogous to ongoing sanctification in this life.
Photo credit: Book cover (designed by myself) of my own self-published book.
This exchange took place in the combox of the video by Kenny Burchard: “Can Catholics even know if they’re saved?” (9-19-24). I provide the biblical research for the videos in this series, called Catholic Bible Highlights. The Protestant commenter’s words will be in blue. I have cited all of them.
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The answer to the video’s title question must be answered with an unequivocal NO. Catholics cannot know the certainty of their salvation because, “Nobody can with certainty of faith know whether or not he has fulfilled all the conditions which are necessary for achieving justification” (Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma, p. 262). The fact that there are so many “conditions” must surely put Catholics in a frazzled state of mind.
We must also answer “no” to the question because all fans of the Pope are seeking to be, “supernaturally endowed to perform ordinary and extraordinary heroic acts for the salvation of the soul” (ibid, p. 261). But where is this mandate found in the Bible, let alone how can any Catholic ever know if they’re doing enough? The fact is, they can’t. A salvation based on works is sure to backfire come Judgment Day.
Finally, we must answer “no” because they are taking a position that has no biblical precedent; namely that “Christ’s redemptive activity finds its apogee [climax] in the death of sacrifice on the cross, [but] it is not exclusively the efficient cause of our redemption….” (ibid. 185).
I wonder what Jesus would think about those who don’t consider him the “efficient cause” as to the saving of the soul?
It’s not “NO” at all. Catholics are as much assured of their salvation (if they are free of mortal sin) as any Protestant. The bottom line is that no one knows the future, and whether they will fall away or not. Calvinists play the game, when one of their number falls into sin and rebellion, of saying that they never were saved, because their theology requires them to do that. But they don’t know that. Even John Calvin said we can’t know for sure who is in the elect and who isn’t.
What must be better understood here is the Catholic belief in “moral assurance of salvation.” I wrote about it. Here is a large chunk of the article:
The degree of moral assurance we can have is very high. The point is to examine ourselves to see if we are mired in serious sin, and to repent of it. If we do that, and know that we are not subjectively guilty of mortal sin, and relatively free from venial sin, then we can have a joyful assurance that we are on the right road.
I always use my own example, by noting that when I was an evangelical, I felt very assured of salvation, though I also believed (as an Arminian) that one could fall away if one rejected Jesus outright. Now as a Catholic I feel hardly any different than I did as an evangelical. I don’t worry about salvation. I assume that I will go to heaven one day, if I keep serving God. I trust in God’s mercy, and know that if I fall into deep sin, His grace will cause me to repent of it (and I will go along in my own free will) so that I can be restored to a relationship with Him.
We observe St. Paul being very confident and not prone to lack of trust in God at all. He had a robust faith and confidence, yet he still had a sense of the need to persevere and to be vigilant. He didn’t write as if it were a done deal: that he got “saved” one night in Damascus and signed on the dotted line, made an altar call and gave his life to Jesus, saying the sinner’s prayer or reciting John 3:16.
The biblical record gives us what is precisely the Catholic position: neither the supposed “absolute assurance” of the evangelical Protestant, nor the manic, legalistic, Pharisaical, mechanical caricature of what outsider, non-experienced critics of Catholicism think Catholicism is, where a person lives a “righteous” life for 70 years, then falls into lust for three seconds, gets hit by a car, and goes to hell (as if either Catholic teaching or God operate in that infantile fashion).
The truth of the matter is that one can have a very high degree of moral assurance, and trust in God’s mercy. St. Paul shows this. He doesn’t appear worried at all about his salvation, but on the other hand, he doesn’t make out that he is absolutely assured of it and has no need of persevering. He can’t “coast.” The only thing a Catholic must absolutely avoid in order to not be damned is a subjective commission of mortal sin that is unrepented of. The mortal / venial sin distinction is itself explicitly biblical. All this stuff is eminently biblical. That’s where we got it!
In the article, I back this up with tons of Scripture.
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“But where is this mandate found in the Bible, let alone how can any Catholic ever know if they’re doing enough? The fact is, they can’t.”
We Catholics believe in being very self-aware and “vigilant” in the spiritual life: we’re always examining ourselves to make sure that our hearts are oriented towards God (as a result — always — of God’s grace, that we must seek and ask for).
This very self-examination is what Protestants sometimes critique and scorn as “uncertainty of salvation,” as if it were a bondage or something undesirable, or altogether lacking in the hope and joy and peace that we have in Christ. Not at all. St. Paul expressed something that I believe is very much along these lines:
1 Corinthians 9:24-27 (RSV) Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Well, I do not run aimlessly, I do not box as one beating the air; but I pommel my body and subdue it, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.
Paul also wrote to the same Corinthians about the same necessity of self-examination:
1 Corinthians 11:28 Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.
2 Corinthians 13:5 Examine yourselves, to see whether you are holding to your faith. Test yourselves. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you? — unless indeed you fail to meet the test!
“A salvation based on works is sure to backfire come Judgment Day.”
I agree! I disagree, however, that the Catholic Church teaches Pelagianism. Look up the first three canons on justification from the Council of Trent. Even John Calvin agreed with them in his critique of Trent. And they teach salvation by grace alone, not by works, just as in Protestantism.
“I wonder what Jesus would think about those who don’t consider him the ‘efficient cause’ as to the saving of the soul?”
“Efficient” and “sufficient” are two different concepts. “Sufficient” is defined at Dictionary.com as “adequate for the purpose; enough.” “Efficient” is defined as “producing an effect, as a cause.” The cross was 1000% sufficient for the salvation of anyone. But it’s not 100% efficient because the damned refuse to freely assent and cooperate with God’s free gift of grace for salvation. As a result, they go to hell and even the cross can’t prevent that outcome, because God allows them to make that sad choice.
Therefore, Jesus’ death on the cross is not 100% efficient for the salvation of all, given human free will. It’s sufficient for anyone who accepts God’s mercy and the free gift of salvation by grace alone. If it were efficient, no one would go to hell, and universalism would be true. But we know from the Bible that it’s not. We deny irresistible grace, because it’s not a biblical doctrine.
I am familiar with your articles and even quoted you in one of my papers; namely, your statement on “merit” saying that, “Our meritorious actions are always necessarily preceded and caused and crowned and bathed in God’s enabling grace”.
I disagreed violently with that statement because it’s a half truth, that ultimately amounts to no truth at all. I mention it here because it will relate to your current comment.
Essentially, you failed to make the distinction between being SAVED by grace (defined as God’s unmerited FAVOR) and its secondary meaning, as you correctly point out above, of it being defined as his “enabling grace” (or “actual” grace, that being the power to perform this that or the other thing). The problem with Catholicism is that those in her ranks are hoping for heaven based on the good deeds they do with God’s ENABLING grace, explicitly stated in CCC 1821, but NOWHERE mentioned in Scripture.
In your comment, you mention the free gift OF God’s grace FOR salvation which only proves you’re trusting in his ENABLING grace to do good deeds, rather than saying we are saved BYYYY grace…WITHOUT the merit of works (the biblical view). You prove your own point by saying, “I assume that I will go to heaven one day, if I keep serving God”.
Well that’s nice, but THAT’S NOT THE GOSPEL Mr. Armstrong. Nor is Mr. Ott’s proclamation I made previously that salvation will be granted when God’s grace “supernaturally endows” someone “to perform ordinary and extraordinary heroic acts FOR the salvation of the soul” (ibid, p. 261).
NO! Only faith in the “extraordinarily heroic act” of Christ’s life and death saves the soul (Romans 5:10) and nothing more or less than that. It is the charity of what Christ has done altogether OUTSIDE of us that saves, not the charity of the Holy Spirit IN us!
You admit to trusting in the latter by mentioning your hand-clapping SERVITUDE, but it can never be. Neither will the statement by Robert Sungenis pass the fiery eyes of the Judge on that final day; namely, “Works become JUST AS MUCH a salvific part of the individual’s justification as his faith” (Not By Faith Alone, p. 172). That book came with the official stamps of approval by the higher ups, as well as page after page of endorsements from all the typical Catholic luminaries. (Can’t recall if you were one of them and I’m too lazy to get up and look). [I wasn’t]
So: unless I receive some sort of rebuttal, be it resolved then that the RCC attaches a salvific EFFICACY to such things as that coin you dropped in the homeless man’s hat, and THAT COIN may be considered to have “JUST AS MUCH” saving power as the blood that dripped down Calvary’s cross. Like it or not, this is what logically follows such thinking and it is… DIS-graceful.
As you can see, I’ve put aside the topic of assurance for now because it’s more important it be emphasized that assurance, let alone salvation, does NOT result from works that COME FROM grace. Scripture says that salvation “is by faith, that it may be ACCORDING TO grace” (Romans 4:16; i.e., his unmerited favor); it does not say, “by faith according to works that COME FROM grace”, which is exactly what Catholicism teaches and must be countered for those of us inclined to do so.
Yes, the works that come from his grace-producing power may be derivative of, may be a consequence of, and may actually PROVE grace is active, but good works cannot be compared to the blood of Christ, nor can it CONSIST of the saving grace of Romans 4:16; namely, a free gift which is said to be “guaranteed” by faith, and I would say, faith ALONE. God does not give us that free gift based on what WE do, but based on faith in what someone ELSE has done. Neither do those works have any part in the SAVING grace (not enabling grace) in which we now STAND (Romans 5:2).
Good day.
Again, we do not teach salvation by works. We teach justification by grace alone: by faith alone (initially), and then after that, salvation by the grace-enabled faith that organically contains within itself grace-enabled works, without which it is dead. Good works must be done after initial justification, and can’t be separated from the overall equation of salvation and arbitrarily placed in a separate box of “non-salvific sanctification.” The latter interpretation was not taught by the Church fathers and was introduced by Philip Melanchthon 1500 years after Christ. Protestant scholars Alister McGrath (an expert on the history of justification) and Norman Geisler affirm this.
You can’t just repeat Protestant slogans and the usual handful of verses that are almost always mentioned. You have to actually grapple with and incorporate relevant Scripture. You have offered three verses: that we can easily harmonize with our view. I have 78 on the relationship of salvation, faith, and works. For this discussion to proceed, you have to show us all how all those Bible passages can and must be interpreted within the framework of “faith alone” soteriology. I say that they cannot. It’s impossible. Meanwhile, you have still not fully comprehended Catholic soteriology. It contains some subtleties and complexity, because it’s based on the Bible, which also contains things difficult to understand (2 Pet 3:16), so this is to be expected.
“the RCC attaches a salvific EFFICACY to such things as that coin you dropped in the homeless man’s hat, and THAT COIN may be considered to have “JUST AS MUCH” saving power as the blood that dripped down Calvary’s cross.”
That’s not what we believe. As a Catholic apologist for now 34 years, I have never ever said anything as ridiculous as — or within a million miles of — your example of giving someone a coin in charity, and that this supposedly has as much saving power as Christ’s blood. It’s a caricature. You get nowhere creating straw men and knocking them down. We believe that sanctification can’t be separated from justification and salvation, and that works have some relevance to salvation, because Jesus and Paul and all other Bible writers said so. I just summarized this compelling biblical teaching in a recent 1000-word article for National Catholic Register. Here is the heart of that:
Jesus taught that “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire” (Mt 7:19), and when directly asked about how one obtains eternal life, He said, “keep the commandments” and, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor” (Mt 19:16-17, 21). Jesus stated that His disciples who had done the good, self-sacrificing works of leaving “houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands” for His sake, would “inherit eternal life” as a reward (Mt 19:29).
Jesus said that those who would receive “eternal life” (Mt 25:46) would because “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me” (Mt 25:35), and then He clarified that if they “did it to one of the least of these my brethren” they “did it” to Him (Mt 25:40). He also said, “love your enemies, and do good, . . . and you will be sons of the Most High” (Lk 6:35) and that “those who have done good” will be saved (Jn 5:29), and, “do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand” (Rev 2:5). Jesus stated that the saved were those who were “sanctified by faith in me” (Acts 26:18).
St. Paul taught the same: “as it is written, ‘He who through faith is righteous shall live.’” (Rom 1:17); “to those who by patience in well-doing seek for . . . immortality, he will give eternal life . . . glory and honor and peace for every one who does good” (Rom 2:7, 10); “the doers of the law . . . will be justified” (Rom 2:13). The “end” of “sanctification” is “eternal life” (Rom 6:22), and indeed we are “saved, through sanctification” (2 Thess 2:13); we’re “fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him” (Rom 8:17; cf. 1 Pet 4:13). He taught that we must do many good things and be fruitful in order to be saved:
Galatians 5:14, 19, 21–23 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” . . . [19] Now the works of the flesh are plain: . . . [21] . . . those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. [22] But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, [23] gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law.
2 Thessalonians 1:8, 11 inflicting vengeance . . . upon those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. . . . [11] To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his call, and may fulfil every good resolve and work of faith by his power,
1 Timothy 4:12, 15-16 . . . set the believers an example in speech and conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. . . . [15] Practice these duties, . . . [16] Take heed to yourself and to your teaching; hold to that, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.
Paul frequently makes many similar points in his letters: “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Phil 2:12-13); “work heartily, . . . knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward” (Col 3:23-24); “woman will be saved through bearing children, if she continues in faith and love and holiness” (1 Tim 2:15); “aim at righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called” (1 Tim 6:11-12); “keep the commandment. . . . do good, . . . be rich in good deeds, . . . so that they may take hold of the life which is life indeed” (1 Tim 6:14, 18-19).
All of this (and several more passages I have from NT writers besides Paul) contradicts the Protestant “pillar” of “faith alone”: where works are – although highly urged – optional in the sense that they supposedly have nothing whatsoever to do with salvation. The Bible — as always — is clear, and it refutes faith alone soteriology and proves the Catholic view of justification and salvation.
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Practical Matters: I run the most comprehensive “one-stop” Catholic apologetics site: rated #1 for Christian sites by leading AI tool, ChatGPT — endorsed by popular Protestant blogger Adrian Warnock. Perhaps some of my 4,800+ free online articles or fifty-five books have helped you (by God’s grace) to decide to become Catholic or to return to the Church, or better understand some doctrines and why we believe them.
Or you may believe my work is worthy to support for the purpose of apologetics and evangelism in general. If so, please seriously consider a much-needed financial contribution. I’m always in need of more funds: especially monthly support. “The laborer is worthy of his wages” (1 Tim 5:18, NKJV). 1 December 2021 was my 20th anniversary as a full-time Catholic apologist, and February 2022 marked the 25th anniversary of my blog.
Photo credit:Book cover (designed by myself) of my own self-published book.
Summary: Spirited exchange with a Protestant in which we discuss what Catholics understand to be the “moral assurance of salvation”: which is as solid as any Protestant assurance.
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