Comment from a Roman Catholic Friend

Dear Reader,

I have a cousin and friend named Jim who also happens to be a devout Roman Catholic; somehow (probably through mother) he came across my blog and has read many of them and commented on some. So far I have allowed his comments to be published after carefully reading them over; I did this because dialogue can be fruitful and his perspective may invoke further reflection on the part of many of my readers. However, because my blogs are not a forum for Catholics and Protestants to debate – that is not the purpose I created this site, my interest expands far beyond such debates, for example, I am curious about Eastern Orthodox Christianity as well – therefore I may limit the amount of comments Jim makes. This has nothing to do with Jim or his understanding of Christianity.

A word about Jim and Catholicism:

It seems the Catholic/Protestant debate is a hot subject for Jimmy. From what I know of him, he is not (how many Protestants perceive Catholics) a nominal Catholic, on the contrary, he is a reflective believer and if I may be so bold, he is no less committed to Christ then I. I have heard many in the Protestant tradition who try and exclude Catholics from the faith (and vice-versa I might add!), I am in no position to judge each individual Catholic, not least Jim. And while we stand in polar opposition on various matters (the Papacy, Solo Scripture, and evidently Solo Fide – see below), I wonder if I would have more in common with Jim then many of my own kindred (the Word of Faith people and the such).

Why this Blog

As I study the New Perspective on Paul which happens somehow to interact with the Reformed doctrine of “Righteousness by Faith Alone” Jim found it as an opportunity to declare that “Faith Alone” is not even in the bible. He has written his comment in such a way as to declare a sure fact: “To the shock of most Bible Christians” he says and then concludes, “I don’t mean to put a thorn in your side” as if he somehow swiftly and decisively sent the poor uneducated Protestant buck running for the hills with his tale tucked between his legs.

I am not concerned, not persuaded, not intimated and only a little bothered that I have to interrupt my agenda (the New Perspective on Paul) to respond to Jim’s charge. I will try and avoid the temptation to do this too often in the future.

Be advised that much of what Jim says is true and much of it is misleading. Here is his comment:

Jim Writes:

“Concerning Sola Fide (by Faith Alone): To the shock of most Bible Christians, this concept is not Biblical. Yes, you will be able to find it in some modern version of Scripture (Romans 3:28, 5:1, Gal 3:24); however, the word “alone” (monon, in Greek) was not in the original Greek New Testament, nor any translation between then and the Reformation. Martin Luther added the word “alone” to his German translation of Scripture after the Reformation had begun. Luther didn’t seem to have much of a problem altering scripture (A side note: Luther also wanted to take the epistle of James out of the NT altogether, calling it “...an epistle of straw”, because it barely mentions Christ”; probably also because of that book’s emphasis on works. It was Calvin who convinced him not to).

Furthermore, in the verses cited above Paul was not writing ‘faith’ as a thing which one has but a verb. Therefore, he would not have said “we are justified by faith alone” (the noun, the thing: faith, by itself), but he uses a verb which means ‘believing/to believe, trust/to trust’. It could be argued that Paul could just have easily written “...we are justified by believing alone”; however, the fact of the matter is he did not. The Greek does not say men are justified by believing ALONE, but by “...believing apart from the law”.

I don’t mean to be a thorn in your side, but it is always useful to consider differing views (a part of being “challenged in your faith”). Don’t take it the wrong way; I’ve been doing the same thing to Bob Dutko for a long time.

Jim Gomes”

Conclusion: I will show in the next blog how Jim’s understanding of what it means to be a “bible Christian” (which is patronizing) is warped, that good exegesis does not exclude “faith alone”, that his understanding of Faith Alone and “not by works of the Torah” as reflective in his comment above is probably based on folk Protestantism, that his appeal to faith being a verb is also probably a response to folk Protestantism and that I, like most non-Lutheran Protestants, am not interested in defending Luther as some type of infallible hero.

St. Augustine is quoted as saying: “In the essentials, unity; in the non-essentials liberty, in all things, charity”.

Derek