Why do Protestants claim "faith alone" when even Satan believes in God and has "faith alone"?

Question

The only place in the bible that the words "faith alone" appear, the words "not by" appear right before it.

And if all we needed is "faith alone" and everyone knows that no matter what they do they will go to Heaven, then why does it say in the bible that we have to work out our salvation with fear and trembling? The goats called Jesus "Lord, Lord", but Jesus separated the sheep from the goats by their deeds.

The Catholic Church teaches FAITH AND WORKS have to go together. Not one separated from the other.

I do read the bible, and I would love to have a bible study with a Protestant. But I don't think they would want to have one with me. I could provide dozens of bible references, but whenever I do, Protestants ignore them and still accuse me of not using the bible.

cindy, here is a website that was made just for you:
http://www.scripturecatholic.com/

Answer 1

I am Southern Baptist, and if that is what the Catholics say, I have to agree with it. Faith without the works, and good deeds without faith are both useless. In other words, if you are going to talk the talk, be prepared to walk the walk.

Answer 2

Eph 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 NOT as a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Yet with this in mind James says that "faith without works is dead" (James 2:26). So in other words, saving faith automatically brought good works. This salvation was for the avoidance of the "wrath to come" which Jesus spoke of. This was a first century event so none of this applies to people today.

Answer 3

you are so true- faith alone is dead- even the demons belieive and tremble- i will show oyu my faith BY my works. Ia mnot catholic- and have no intention of putting the Catholic faith down - I grew up in the catholic church- unfortunately I found that a lot of what they teach is not Biblical. I am a messianic Christian and study the Bible from its Jewish / Hebrew roots.
I truly believe that if we truly have faith we will obey God's statutes and walk in the way that Jesus did .

Answer 4

I think you need to actually read the bible and not the little misseletts that you are handed.

Satan does not have faith in GOD, he knows him , he can quote scripture better than most of us. But he has no faith, because he was created in the presence of GOD and never knew his existance without GOD.

So, it is fair to say that Satan knows GOD, but does not believe that GOD should be the headship, Satan wants to be equal to or have his throne higher than GOD.

We are human and are separated from our creator, we have never seen him, so we are to believe that he is our creator and sustainer and that all he has said is true. IF we do this , we have faith.

Now the works part, IF we have faith that all of this that is unseen and unknown by us, we will come to understand that we need the free gift that is offered to us by the sacrifise of Jesus Christ. Once we admit this, and pray the sinners prayer, asking Jesus to come into our heart and lives, we shoul feel a strong desire to read and reread the bible.

The bible gives us what GOD wants us to do (works). We should feel a desire to do these things. To please GOD and not man. Sometimes if you replace the word works with the word obey, it could help you understand that God wants us to obey his word and by obeying his word, we do GODs work(s).

Basically , the bible is telling you that you cannot have one without the other. You can proclaim to be a Catholic believer, but if you do not feel the desire to read GODs word and to obey the word that you read, then your faith is Dead as James states.

I know the sticking point for many Catholics on this issue is exactly what works means. For my mother in law, she is told by the church that she must obey the Catholic rules and this is what she does. She will not read her bible and follow it, because she is told that she only needs to go by what she is told by her parish and the pope. This is not what GOD writes. We are to obey his word, and the only way to know for yourself what that is, is to read the bible for yourself, pray about what you have read, and act upon it.

Answer 5

That's Right! And don't forget in St. Paul's 1st Letter to the Corinthians, 13:13 - ""So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is LOVE."

As you say, this does not mean that faith is to be disregarded: for, in St. Paul's Letter to the Romans, love is the fulfillment of the law, "But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because this is not from faith; for whatever is not from faith is a sin" (14:23). Acts of love are to be performed, but in faith. Thus, faith and works must go together!

Answer 6

James 2:26
As a body without a spirit is dead, so is faith without deeds.

"Deeds" here refers back to John 8:11 << Neither do I condemn you,' said Jesus. 'Go away, and from this moment sin no more. >>

The expectation is that when one accepts Christ, one will follow God's commandments.

The position that acceptance of Christ alone is enough comes from Luke 17:3-4 << Keep watch on yourselves! 'If your brother does something wrong, rebuke him and, if he is sorry, forgive him. (4) And if he wrongs you seven times a day and seven times comes back to you and says, "I am sorry," you must forgive him.' >>
The theory is that since Jesus taught the disciples that they had forgive somebody, who kept doing something wrong, so he will forgive those who keep doing something wrong. The lesson here is that the person who does something wrong must be sorry for doing it.

The idea behind "Repentance" is that one will change one's ways. Luke 5:32 << I have come to call not the upright but sinners to repentance >>

Some have made the distinction between "sin" and "evil" as the former being an unintentional violation of God's commandments, and the latter being a deliberate violation of God's commandments. The basic reasoning for this position is that the sacrifices of the Tanakh were only valid for when one unintentionally violated God's word. Exodus 32:33 appears to refute this distinction: << Yahweh said to Moses, 'Those who have sinned against me are the ones I shall blot out of my book. >>

This passage (Exodus 32:33) also implies that there is a limit to God's willingness to forgive sinners who do not repent of their ways.

One other issue is what constitutes "Works".
Is it merely adhering to God's commandments?
Or is it going forth doing mission work / social welfare / etc?
Or is it something else?

To put it in purely commercial terms: Do you get Green stamps for doing something good, and can they be redeemed when one does something bad?

Satan believes in God. The issue is that Satan has rejected God, as Leader. "My Will", rather than "Thy Will".

Answer 7

Ah, the Catholic mantra of Faith PLUS Works = Heaven.

Tragically, that undermines the entire point of Jesus' death on the cross and his subsequent resurrection. Was that not sufficient? If not, then all forms of Christianity go out the window. If it is, then faith and acceptance of that gift is indeed enough.

Also, what can I do that God cannot do in and of himself? Nothing. The sole remaining turning point is my choice to accept his gift or not. If I accept it, I'm in. If I choose not to, then I'm out. In both cases, the individual is given exactly what he wants. An eternity with God or an eternity without.

No works involved.

Answer 8

you may be right
except not.
Although true that salvation is faith with works, the Catholic Church is so contaminated by pagan practices and unscriptural doctrines, that even if they truly understood what it meant to have faith with works, that would all be negated by the lies they promote regarding the person of God, or Jesus, or Jesus earthly mother.
Transubstantiation, trinity, purgatory, and the clergy class, are all not Christ initiated doctrines.

Answer 9

i have self belief my faith is quite on the fringe of the reality, besides the undeniable fact that it's not the authentic One. i have self belief each faith has somewhat of the reality and if lets merely placed our products jointly, we may have peace on the earth, tolerance in all tiers and Love spread international huge. We lack humbleness to comprehend that user-friendly theory, that we in reality at the prompt are not the reality holder... no one individuals is! we are different, we come from different cultures and we've different factors of view and that i have self belief God meant it to be like that, so as that we how you are able to strengthen with the adjustments. If each body contained in the international had a similar theory, a similar faith and a similar perception, we may have no longer something to study. I comprehend all religions and that i see absolutely everyone in each faith as a brother or a sister, member of a similar relatives. the in basic terms enormous difference is that one chooses a distinct device to strengthen spiritually than mine, yet it is genuinely ok. Peace!

Answer 10

Protestants believe in "faith alone" because they believe in "faith alone". Although, in the context of history and of the bible, that sort of belief makes little objective sense, that is irrelevent. In their minds, there is no contradiction - in their minds, it makes perfect sense. Some of them actually try to justify this belief through reasoning (and usually fail), but most just plain old believe.