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Join Michael Patton, Tim Kimberley, JJ Seid and Sam Storms as they continue their series on Roman Catholicism by speaking a second week about Justification.
[display_podcast]
Join Michael Patton, Tim Kimberley, JJ Seid and Sam Storms as they continue their series on Roman Catholicism by speaking a second week about Justification.
4 replies to "Theology Unplugged: Roman Catholicism – Part 5 – Justification"
Hingepin
If faith alone is indeed a single idea that colors all the rest of your theology, and a lens through which all the rest of your theology is viewed, it deserves extra special consideration. Maybe it’s not the hingepin of truth. Maybe it’s what Protestants use, like a little boy’s thumb in the dike, to keep centuries of traditional, Catholic scripture interpretation from crashing down on their heads like water.
I don’t list these verses as a challenge for you to refute them, but to show it’s not just an obscure verse here or there that is troublesome for sola fide. You are admittedly interpreting them in light of a theology. (rather than letting the verses determine the theology) You are interpreting Jesus in light of Paul, and John in light of Romans, and James in light of faith alone. Why not Paul in light of Jesus? Romans in light of John? and faith in light of James? Because that would be the end of sola fide, upon which this whole Protestant house stands.
A man is justified by works and not by faith alone. Jam 2
Not everyone who says Lord, Lord. Mat 7
If you would enter life, keep the commandments. Mat 19
Strive for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. Heb 12
Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Phil 2
If I have all faith, but have not love, I am nothing. 1 Cor 13
This is his commandment, that we should believe in the name and love one another. 1 John 3
Parable of the talents. Mat 25
Religion that is is pure and undefiled before God is to visit orphans and widows. James 1
The Beatitudes. Mat 5
If you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive. Mat. 6
And all were judged by what they had done. Rev. 20
I am bringing my recompense, to repay every one for what he has done. Rev 22
Him who judges each one impartially according to his deeds. 1 Pet 1
So that each one may receive good or evil, according to what he has done in the body. 2 Cor 5
and so on…
Ahr! AGAIN with that darn ledger! Catholics do NOT live trying to get enough merits to outweigh their sins! It’s NOT like checking out at WalMart (at death) where money (like good works) must pay for groceries (sins) and you’d better hope you’ve brought enough cash… There is a mistaken notion that because Cath. holds holiness as necessary for salvation, then that holiness is what makes up for sin. That is incorrect. Sins are forgiven. By God. Through the sacraments. Because God is merciful. NOT because we have MERITED forgiveness.
Ex: missing mass. A Catholic, who knows what is expected of him, decides one morning, “I’m tired. I just don’t feel like getting up. I deserve to sleep in, so I’m not going today.” This is a serious sin. If he decides later, “Oh, what a stupid decision!” he can’t erase that sin by writing a check to a charity, or being extra helpful to his wife, to try to “fill up the credit side of the ledger.” He needs God’s merciful forgiveness.
So he goes to confession and says something like, “I missed mass. I chose my leisure over Christ….. Oh my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee. I detest all my sins, because I dread the loss of heaven and fear the pain of hell, but most of all, because I have offended Thee, my God, who art all good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to sin no more and to avoid the near occasion of sin. Amen.” The priest assigns a penance, such as a prayer, as a token of his repentance; then the priest forgives his sins by saying something like, “God the Father of mercies through the death and resurrection of his Son has reconciled the world to himself and sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins. Through the ministry of the Church may God give you pardon and peace, and I absolve you from all your sins, in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.”
God erases guilt, good…
God erases guilt, good deeds don’t.
I think post number 2 above and the example dialog described can be appropriately covered by John’s description as he writes in 2 John 1:9, “Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ” etc. Don’t you think?