Why do people keep saying the Catholic Church teaches salvation by works?

Question

I know that Fundamentalists do not like to be bothered with actual "facts", but every once in a while I have to throw a few out there when I see posts full of errors.

Here is what the church teaches regarding grace, justification, and works:

CCC 1996: "Our justification comes from the grace of God. Grace is favor, the free and undeserved help that God gives us..."

CCC 2010: "Since the initiative belongs to God in the order of grace, no one can merit the initial grace of forgiveness and justification..."

CCC 1992: "Justification has been merited for us by the Passion of Christ who offered himself on the cross as a living victim, holy and pleasing to God, and whose blood has become the instrument of atonement for the sins of all men."

Catholics do NOT believe in justification by works apart from Christ. As usual, the Catechism (CCC) is out there for all to see, but people would rather parrot anti-Catholic rhetoric then bother to actually read what the Church teaches - and I don't mean read what the Church teaches according to Jimmy Swaggart or Jack Chick, I mean. mean read what the Church teaches according to the Church.

I hope this clears things up a little. Comments are welcome. Email me more questions if you have them. You might want to read this link to: http://www.catholic.com/thisrock/1999/9911fea1.asp

God bless. Let's see some comments....

Answer 1

The Catholic position on salvation can be summed up thus: We are saved by Christ's grace alone, through faith and works done in charity inspired by the Holy Spirit.

It takes more than simply knowing Jesus is the Messiah to be saved; even the Evil One knows Who Christ is.

James 2:14-26
What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works. Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God. Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way? For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

All salvation comes from the grace of Christ's Sacrifice and only from the grace of His Sacrifice. Salvation is a free gift -- a gift that is not "owed" to us, that God didn't have to offer us, and that we could never "earn" on our own -- that we accept by faith and works. Christ doesn't have to give us this gift of salvation; we don't "deserve" this gift, we can't "earn" it; but He, in His endless Love for us, offers it nonetheless. We have to believe this gift exists (have faith) and then open our hands to receive it (obey, inspired by the grace given to us).

Answer 2

All the rhetoric aside, God is sovereign and all powerful. Nobody can force God to save them, by any means, so salvation will ALWAYS remain a free gift. That said, works are required to keep God's law of love, for faith without works is not only "dead" ... it is also decidely NOT Christian. Catholics have ALWAYS understood this. Protestants make an issue of it in a vain attempt to gain some sort of advantage over Catholics, or to portray the Catholic church in a bad light ... but in the end, it just makes protestants appear to be ignorant. Perhaps those who choose to believe lies, really are.

Answer 3

In my personal (non Yahoo!) experience, the people who say the Catholic Church teaches salvation by works fall generally into two categories.

The first group belong to the anti-Catholic faith. For the most part, they couldn't tell you what the faith community they nominally belong to actually teaches on any subject except to attempt to contradict some misrepresentation of what the Catholic Church teaches. Certain denominations seem to produce more than others, but you'll find a few of these everywhere (including some within the Catholic Church itself). There really isn't much point in arguing with these types except for entertainment purposes. All we can do is pray that someday they might avail themselves of God's infinite mercy.

In the second group are people of goodwill and faith who do not fully understand what the Church teaches. Their ignorance should not be held against them any more than my ignorance of any particular protestant denominations teachings should be held against me if I don't understand some belief they hold. One sign of the difference between the first group and the second is that if you explain (and back up with something other than your own impressions) people of the second group will thank you for clarifying the point. That doesn't mean they will completely agree and be at Mass with you the very next Sunday. But you can have a conversation with them based on facts rather than lies. The other thing I notice with people in this group is that many of the disagreements are more semantic than actual. If I'm discussing a topic with someone and we each have a different definition of some term, we're just going to go in circles. We have enough genuine and significant differences that there is really no point in arguing over those things which in reality we are in agreement (or near agreement).

†Pax Vobiscum†

Answer 4

The Body of Christ has no denomination. My gosh, God is not silent. He left us with His Word, the Bible. How can we lead others to Christ if we can't agree, even with the study Book. The Bible.

Why don't we just be believing Christians, which will make Christ (our visible God) happy, and deter satan from us. Look at the world. Satan is busy at work and alive in our Church.

Answer 5

NO BIBLE ONLY (Sola Scriptura)

The idea that all revealed truth is to be found in "66 books" is not only not in Scripture, it is contradicted by Scripture (1 Corinthians 11:2, 2 Thessalonians 2:15, 2 Thessalonians 3:6, 1 Timothy 3:15, 2 Peter 1:20-21, 2 Peter 3:16). It is a concept unheard of in the Old Testament, where the authority of those who sat on the Chair of Moses (Matthew 23:2-3) existed. In addition to this, for 400 years, there was no defined canon of "Sacred Scripture" aside from the Old Testament; there was no "New Testament"; there was only Tradition and non-canonical books and letters.
Christianity did not embrace Judaism, but Judaism Christianity," Christianity can only be fully grasped by understanding it for what it is: the Old Covenant growing into the New Covenant, the fulfillment of the Old Testament religion, the organic result of the coming of the expected Messiah Who was Himself from the Tribe of Judah. Tradition and earthly authority have always been an extremely important part of this.
To believe that the Bible is our only source of Christian Truth is unbiblical and illogical.



NO FAITH ALONE: (Sola fide)

Did the apostle Paul teach justification by faith alone? Why didn't he use the specific phrase in his New Testament writings.
A thorough study of his epistles reveals he used the word faith over 200 times.....but not once did he couple them with "alone" or "only".

Paul used the word "alone more than any New Testament writer. Even while Paul was teaching the nature of justification, he was aware of the word "alone" and its qualifying properties.

Although the Holy Spirit prohibited Paul from using "faith alone", he intentionally allowed James to make a clear and forceful point by inspiring him with the words, "man is justified by works and not by faith alone".(James 2:24),

Paul's use of the word "faith" with theological meaning and implications that absolutely preclude it with being coupled with the word "alone".

Scripture written by Paul was this God-given wisdom which prevented him from joining the word "alone" with "faith".

Answer 6

Through my 16 years of Catholic schools, I was taught two things -- both a belief in Jesus and good works are required to enter heaven. Many protestants do not believe the latter, and do not understand that Catholics believe the former.

If Catholics are right -- they are in for a shock when they die.

Answer 7

When one learns what Catholics really teach and back it up with the catechism all they can say is we are lieing about what we believe. That is so sad and shows the depths of hatred one will stoop to who hates Christ's Church.

In Christ
Fr. Joseph.

Answer 8

Who says that? Just fundamentalist christians? I am neither catholic nor fundie, but I was never under the impression that the church taught salvation by works. Like you said, that sort of thing is easy enough to find out.

Answer 9

Catholicism is so mysterious to some people and it's really not mysterious at all......I think it's because there's a lot of symbolism and pageantry that's centuries old.

Take away the symbolism and it's as clear cut and straight forward as any of the other religions.

Answer 10

Why be confused with actual facts when they do not feed your biases? Most Funda. Prots i know rarely avail themselves of info that contradicts their edicts and presuppositions

Phobia of primary sources.