Apologetics for the Masses #354 - What's Love Got to Do With It? (Part 2)

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Problems With Protestantism - What About Love? (Part 2)

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Introduction

After sending out last week's newsletter, in which I pointed out that the dogma of Salvation By Faith Alone (Sola Fide) - by definition - completely dismisses love as necessary for one's salvation, I had one person take issue with the fact that, as she essentially put it, I was being uncharitable to the vast majority of Protestants who do indeed believe love is important in their faith and that they do practice love for God and for neighbor.

And, I also received the following email from another person:

"John, since you have told us all the problems with sole fide and how Protestants ignore the need to love, I hope you will use your next newsletter to tell us what the Catholic solution is. How much love is needed to be saved? How is it manifested? Are the sacraments required or will acts of love outside the church do? Are Protestants (and Muslims and Hindus and other non-Christians) who perform sufficient acts of love able to be saved?"

That was from Preston S. So, in case others may have taken what I said in my last newsletter in the wrong way, as these two did, I will put my responses to their emails in this week's newsletter to see if it might add some clarification.

Challenge/Response/Strategy

First, my response to the young lady who wrote me about love indeed being important in Protestant theology on salvation and that Protestants do indeed believe in, and act on, the Gospel teaching of love of God and neighbor, and how could I say otherwise. And that I needed to separate the dogma of Sola Fide from the practice of Protestants who believe in it:

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Sorry, but I believe you have misunderstood and, therefore, mischaracterized, what I actually said in my newsletter. Let me explain:

First, I want you to think about the word, "alone." If something or someone is "alone," that means it, or they, are by themselves. So, a dogma of salvation by faith "alone," means that faith is by itself in terms of one's salvation. If faith is by itself, then that means love is - by definition of the word "alone" - excluded from the process of salvation. Faith is alone in saving someone. It is not faith and love that save us in Protestant theology, it is faith and faith alone. So, again, BY DEFINITION, love is excluded as an agent in any individual's salvation according to the dogma of Salvation By Faith Alone (Sola Fide).

     Let me ask you this: Do you believe the dogma of Sola Fide teaches that love is necessary for salvation - yes or no? If you say, "yes," then it is not Sola Fide that saves us, is it? It is faith and love that saves us, which means works - faith working through love - are necessary for salvation. A very Catholic position. Which no Sola Fide believer will agree with. If you say, "no," to my question, then are you being uncharitable by simply stating the truth of the dogma, as you implied I was being?

     Second, I never stated, explicitly or implicitly, that love is not important to Protestants or that they don't mention love or that they don't practice love of God and love of neighbor or any such thing. That, again, is a misunderstanding and mischaracterization of what I said. I have talked with literally thousands of Protestants in the last 15 years or so - Evangelicals, Baptists, Fundamentalists, Episcopalians, Methodists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Pentecostals, Church of Christ, Non-denominationalists, Messianic Jews, and on and on across the board. You name a type of Protestant and odds are I have come across them. I have worked with them on various projects related to life, to marriage, to religious liberty, political campaigns, etc. I have seen their works and their love. I know that most of them believe and follow what Martin Luther said about works: "We are saved by faith alone, but the faith that saves is never alone." So, my "experience with people going by that name in terms of doctrine and practice" is no different than yours, other than it is probably broader in its scope.

     But here's the thing, why do you think Martin Luther said that about faith never being alone (which, by the way, is not backed up by the Bible)? Because many of the people of his time who were following him quickly realized that if faith alone saves - not love - then it didn't matter if they were holy or not, it just mattered that they had faith. Martin Luther himself complained about the lack of morality among his followers. The dogma of faith alone unchains the beast within us. It is the basis of what Protestants themselves call "cheap grace." Why do you think James had to write in his letter that faith without works was dead? And that we are not justified by faith alone? Obviously because some Christians as far back as the first century had gotten their theology messed up and were believing in some sort of salvation by faith alone theology which was causing them to neglect love of neighbor, and love of God.

     Let me tell you a story: There was a deacon at a very large church here in Birmingham in a very affluent section of town. He was married to a radiology nurse. Beautiful woman - inside and out. One day, out of the blue, the deacon comes home and says he wants a divorce. The woman begs and pleads with him to go to marriage counseling; to try and work things out; to try and save their marriage. She tries to talk to him, find out what's wrong, why is he feeling this way, can't we work this out? He refuses all attempts at salvaging the marriage. After a couple of months, she relents and signs the divorce papers. Two months later, the deacon remarries. Now the woman knows why he wanted the divorce...he was obviously having an affair. So the woman goes to the pastor of her church and says her husband was having an affair, and that he should no longer be a deacon of the church. Do you know what the pastor told her? "Well, it's not really a matter of salvation, since he has accepted Jesus into his heart, so I see no reason to remove him as a deacon." So, not only was it an unholy kick in the gut to that woman, but, because of faith alone theology, that deacon had no incentive to repent of his adultery - "it's not really a matter of salvation."

     So, even though love of God and love of neighbor were, and are, taught at that church, and the members of that church - including the deacon - do all sorts of good works in the community, the pernicious effect of Sola Fide - which at its core says love is not required to be saved - quite often results in mortal sin going unrepented, unconfessed, and thus...unforgiven.

     Man has a fallen nature. Sooner or later, even those who seem to be exceedingly holy on the outside, and do all sorts of good works, and preach and practice love of God and love of neighbor, are going to commit mortal sin (such as the aforementioned deacon). And if they believe that sin has no affect on their salvation, then it is very possible it will go unrepented and unconfessed. And Sola Fide will have claimed another victim. You can't separate the dogma from the practice. People either act as they believe, or they believe as they act. If the core belief of their theological system dismisses love as an agent of salvation, then no matter how much they dress it up, no matter how much they claim it's "not what it seems," they are affected by it...and affected in a negative way. We are saved because of love, not because of faith alone. As Paul said, if I have faith enough to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. Sola Fide, whether people understand it or not, or realize it or not, teaches that if I have faith, I really don't need love. And whether you consciously understand that or not, believing in Sola Fide will - in some way, shape, or form - eventually affect your path to salvation, and always in a negative way.

     Let me quote here from an article by Norman Geisler and Ralph McKenzie. Norman Geisler is one of the premier Protestant apologists alive today. Here is what they say:

"When a person is justified [by faith alone], God pronounces that one acquitted – in advance of the final judgment. Therefore, 'the resulting righteousness is not ethical perfection; it is ‘sinlessness’ in the sense that God no longer counts a man’s sin against him (II Cor. 5:19).' Thus we find in the New Testament that 'justification is the declarative act of God by which, on the basis of the sufficiency of Christ’s atoning death, he pronounces believers to have fulfilled all of the requirements of the law which pertain to them' (emphasis in original)."

What did they just say? "God no longer counts a man's sin against him." And they don't just mean a man's past sins, they mean all of his sins - past, present, and future - no longer count against him. Well, if I believe, truly believe, that my future sins do not count against me, is it now going to be harder, or easier, for me to fall into sin in the future? So, the fact that Sola Fide precludes love as an agent of salvation, works, in practice, to cause man to be even more prone to sin because if he does sin - sin being an absence of love for God or man - it doesn't count against him in regards to his salvation.

So, no, you cannot separate the dogma - the belief - from the practice, no matter how much you might want to think that you can.

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Okay, now to respond to Preston's email:

     Actually, I have not told you that "Protestants ignore the need to love." Please re-read the newsletter, nowhere in it do I say such a thing. What I said is that, BY DEFINITION, the Protestant dogma of Sola Fide - Salvation by Faith Alone - means that love has nothing to do with our salvation. I never said Protestants don't love or don't believe love is important. What I said is that love, in Protestant theology, has nothing to do with being saved. Big difference.

     Do you believe love has something to do with being saved? If you say, "Yes," then the dogma of salvation by faith ALONE is null and void. If love is necessary in order to be saved, then that means you need faith AND love, not just faith alone in order to be saved.

     Now, to your questions:

     1) How much love is needed to be saved? However much love it takes to make one holy. "Strive for peace with all men, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord." (Heb 12:14). We have to "strive" for the holiness that is necessary to see the Lord. We "strive" through acts of love. "If I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing." (1 Cor 13:2-3)

     2) How is it manifested? 1 John 3:14-18; James 2:14-17; Matt 25:31-46; Matt 6:14-15; Matt 5:3-12; Luke 10:29-37; there is more I could put here, but that should suffice to answer your question.

     3) Are the sacraments required or will acts of love outside the church do? Since the church is the Body of Christ, "the fullness of Him Who is all in all," (Eph 1:23), you are essentially asking me if acts of love apart from Christ will do. Sorry, but Scripture says, "Apart from Me you can do nothing." (John 15:15) If a person can be saved without Christ, then what was the use of Jesus dying on the Cross?

     Regarding whether or not the Sacraments are required, let's turn again to the Word of God:

a) Baptism - "Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you." (1 Ptr 3:21). Is being saved "required"? "Jesus answered, 'Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit [baptism], he cannot enter the kingdom of Heaven. Is being able to enter the Kingdom of Heaven "required"?

b) Confession - "Therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed." (James 5:16) "If you forgive the sins of any they are forgiven. If you retain the sins of any they are retained." (John 20:23). Is it "required" to have your sins forgiven in order to be saved?

     c) Eucharist - "Truly, truly, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day." (John 6:53-54) So, is it "required" to eat the flesh of the Son of Man and to drink His blood to have eternal life?

     4) Are Protestants (and Muslims and Hindus and other non-Christians) who perform sufficient acts of love able to be saved? God can save whomever it pleases Him to save. Catholics do not try to put restrictions on what God can and cannot do. The better question is: Would Protestants, Muslims, Hindus, etc. be better off receiving Christ in the Eucharist than not receiving Him? The answer is yes, they would be (see #3c above).

     Hope that helps!

Closing Comments

I hope all of you have a great week! Back with another Problem With Protestantism next week.

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