James 2:24 is the only place in Scripture where the phrase "faith alone" appears, and it explicitly negates it: "a man is justified by works and not by faith alone."
Reformed exegesis has to do real work to harmonize that with Romans, and the standard move is saying James means "demonstrated before men," Paul means "before God", which is itself an interpretive choice, not a plain reading. Galatians 5:6. "Faith working through love" is Paul's own qualifier and reads pretty Catholic to me.
By the logic of "losing justification = not gospel", Lutherans, Methodists, Arminians, Anglicans, Pentecostals, and the Eastern Orthodox are all preaching a false gospel. The Roman Rite gets called out a lot for some reason. Or maybe I just notice it because I am Catholic. But history shows that no Christian tradition before 1500 taught perseverance of the saints in the Reformed sense.
A lot of non-Catholics try to tell me what my Church teaches. But when trying to discuss the actual documents directly from the Church, it usually gets dismissed. At some point the question isn't whether Rome's gospel is true, it's whether one is willing to engage what she actually says.
People are capable of cooperating with God's will. I take John, Paul, and Jesus pretty seriously when they say:
Romans 2:6 — Paul: "He will render to each one according to his works"
Revelation 20:12, 22:12 — John: "the dead were judged...according to what they had done" / "to repay each one for what he has done"
Matthew 16:27 — Jesus himself: "repay each person according to what he has done"
I've found that simply living the gospel in love often tends to do more than calling everyone else to repent for not living your own precise interpretation. And I love the Roman Church for helping me to see that.
My goal isn't to convert Josh here, but rather to defend and represent the Church and her beauty.
Reformed exegesis has to do real work to harmonize that with Romans, and the standard move is saying James means "demonstrated before men," Paul means "before God", which is itself an interpretive choice, not a plain reading. Galatians 5:6. "Faith working through love" is Paul's own qualifier and reads pretty Catholic to me.
By the logic of "losing justification = not gospel", Lutherans, Methodists, Arminians, Anglicans, Pentecostals, and the Eastern Orthodox are all preaching a false gospel. The Roman Rite gets called out a lot for some reason. Or maybe I just notice it because I am Catholic. But history shows that no Christian tradition before 1500 taught perseverance of the saints in the Reformed sense.
A lot of non-Catholics try to tell me what my Church teaches. But when trying to discuss the actual documents directly from the Church, it usually gets dismissed. At some point the question isn't whether Rome's gospel is true, it's whether one is willing to engage what she actually says.
People are capable of cooperating with God's will. I take John, Paul, and Jesus pretty seriously when they say:
Romans 2:6 — Paul: "He will render to each one according to his works"
Revelation 20:12, 22:12 — John: "the dead were judged...according to what they had done" / "to repay each one for what he has done"
Matthew 16:27 — Jesus himself: "repay each person according to what he has done"
I've found that simply living the gospel in love often tends to do more than calling everyone else to repent for not living your own precise interpretation. And I love the Roman Church for helping me to see that.
My goal isn't to convert Josh here, but rather to defend and represent the Church and her beauty.
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