Apologetics for the Masses #355 - What's Love Got to Do With It? (Part 3)

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Problems With Protestantism - What About Love? (Part 3)

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General Comments

Hey folks,

For any of you who live in Alabama and nearby environs, I would like to invite you to come and hear Dr. Scott Hahn speak at at one of the premier Baptist universities in the country - Samford University, here in Birmingham. It is truly an historic occasion with one of the leading Catholic theologians in the country, if not the world, speaking at a Baptist university.

And, the occasion of his talk even makes it even more historic. He will be here to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Catholic Student Association at Samford. Catholic theologian...Catholic Student Association...Baptist university. Awesome! I hope those of you in the neighborhood will be able to join us.

He'll be talking about the "First Society". Everyone seems to agree that Western civilization is in trouble. The problem is that no one agrees on what has gone wrong or what to do about it. Some think we have too much government, some not enough; some think we have too much capitalism, some not enough; some think we have too much sexual freedom, some not enough; and so on.

But, as Dr. Hahn will show, the problem is much more fundamental than that. The problem goes to the very foundations of who we are as human beings in a relationship with God. Come and hear what he claims is the root of society's ills and how those ills can be cured. I guarantee you will absolutely love what he has to say!

The talk will be on Thursday, September 26th, at 7:00 PM, in the Wright Center on campus. Cost? Absolutely free. We're hoping to fill up the 2000-seat theater. I look forward to seeing you there!

Introduction

Okay, I was going to move on to another "Problem With Protestantism" this week, but I received an email in response to last week's newsletter that I thought I would publish and respond to. This email comes from someone who wishes to remain anonymous, and was responding to my answer to Preston S. So, I will publish below the email from "Anonymous," in its entirety, and then give my response to it paragraph by paragraph.

To read what I wrote in the last newsletter that "Anonymous" is responding to, click here: Apologetics for the Masses, Issue #354

Challenge/Response/Strategy

Anonymous

It would have been reasonable for you to elaborate when, in your follow-up newsletter, you quoted Martin Luther as writing “We are saved by faith alone, but the faith that saves is never alone.” You mentioned it in passing, and I can’t tell whether you agree with it or not. I am not a Luther scholar, and I don’t know in what context it was written. My sense is that it tends to go along with what I wrote in my last note, namely one’s works, including love, are a sign of the genuineness of the faith behind them. If the faith is genuine, they will produce love and other works. What does a Catholic find objectionable about that? I think the quotation from Paul in 1 Corinthians 13 regarding having faith to move mountains but lacking love could be interpreted in the same way. If I don’t have the love, then obviously there is no genuine faith and I have nothing.

I appreciate your replies to my questions. I was particularly interested in your answers to 3) and 4). I hope you won’t interpret this as “throwing bricks,” but there seems to be an inconsistency. In the answer about the sacraments being required, you seem to be giving an emphatic “yes.” I gather the questions you posed at the end of each segment are rhetorical questions that are intended, based on the scripture you cited, to be answered in the affirmative.

But then we come to the answer to 4). You said “God can save whomever it pleases him to save. Catholics do not try to put restrictions on what God can and cannot do.” It would seem that in the scripture you cited, God has laid out requirements for salvation. Are you saying God didn’t really mean those as requirements? Are they just suggestions? Or are they “aspirational” as we have heard in some political circles recently? I think it would be reasonable to admit that there is a conundrum.

I don’t think there is a clear answer to this. I recently re-read a couple of fascinating essays by the late Avery Cardinal Dulles that were published in First Things a number of years ago. They are entitled “Who Can Be Saved” and “The Population of Hell.” They are available on the First Things website if you are not familiar with them. Or I can provide them in Word document form if you wish. The cardinal traces the evolution of Catholic teaching on this issue from the early fathers to the 20^th century. In brief, the early church taught that faith in Christ and actual membership in his physical church were necessary for salvation and that the population of hell was large. In the modern era the concepts of implicit faith and “anonymous Christians” have come to the fore, allowing not only non-Catholics to be saved but even atheists. Some seem to believe (or at least hope) that the population of hell will be very small.

Here is the last paragraph of “Who Can Be Saved?”

"Who, then, can be saved? Catholics can be saved if they believe the Word of God as taught by the Church and if they obey the commandments. Other Christians can be saved if they submit their lives to Christ and join the community where they think he wills to be found. Jews can be saved if they look forward in hope to the Messiah and try to ascertain whether God’s promise has been fulfilled. Adherents of other religions can be saved if, with the help of grace, they sincerely seek God and strive to do his will. Even atheists can be saved if they worship God under some other name and place their lives at the service of truth and justice. God’s saving grace, channeled through Christ the one Mediator, leaves no one unassisted. But that same grace brings obligations to all who receive it. They must not receive the grace of God in vain. Much will be demanded of those to whom much is given.”

I interpret that to mean that the sacraments are a requirement only to Catholics who accept them as necessary. Frankly I do not understand his statement that “atheists can be saved if they worship God under some other name and place their lives at the service of truth and justice.” An atheist worshiping God under some other name sounds like an oxymoron to me. Atheists don’t worship any god. I wonder if he meant that they worship “truth and justice” as their god, but he did not say that. If you have a clear take on his meaning, I would be interested to hear it.

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Anonymous

My Response

You ask, "What does a Catholic find objectionable about that?" in regards to Martin Luther's saying, "We are saved by faith alone, but the faith that saves is never alone." I'll tell you exactly what a Catholic finds objectionable about it: First, nowhere do I see such a thing said anywhere in the Bible. Second, what that statement is, is a rationalization for a dogma that is contrary to the Bible. It's the result of a realization on Luther's part that the Bible nowhere says such a thing, but that the Bible does say things like, "Faith, by itself [i.e., faith alone], if it has no works, is dead." And, "You see that a man is justified by works, and NOT BY faith alone." And, "If I have all faith, but have not love, I am nothing." And, that in order to have eternal life we must, "Keep the commandments." And that Baptism, "Now saves you." And passage after passage after passage that thoroughly negate the dogma of salvation by faith alone. So, in order to make his dogma of salvation by "faith alone" sound more acceptable, more palatable, more in line with what the Bible actually says, Luther had to invent that little saying of his.

Love is NECESSARY for salvation. And not just as a byproduct of a "genuine faith" one may or may not have, rather as an integral part of the process of being saved. Where does the Bible say, "If you have a genuine faith, you will automatically love and do good works?" Where?! All those people who shout, "Lord, Lord," in Matthew 7, you don't think they had a "genuine" faith? They prophesied in Jesus' name; they cast out demons in Jesus' name; they did might works in Jesus' name." You don't think they believed that Jesus was the Son of God and had died on the Cross for their sins? Of course they did. They believed. They had faith. As it says in James, "Even the demons believe." So, the demons believe...they have faith in Christ...do they automatically do good works? Hell no!

And nowhere does the Bible say, "Faith, if it has no works, isn't really faith." Or, "If I have all faith so as to move mountains, but have not love, I don't really have faith." Look at the analogy in James 2:26: "As the body apart from the spirit is dead, so faith apart from works is dead." In this analogy, faith is the body, works are the spirit. For physical life, you need both body and spirit. The spirit is not just some byproduct of the body - it is integral to life. So, for spiritual life - if the analogy is to hold - you need both faith and works. The works - love - are not just some byproduct of faith - they are integral to life, spiritual life. A body without a spirit, is a real body. It's just a dead body. No one says, "Oh, if your body doesn't have a spirit, then it's not a real body." Just so, faith without works, is still faith. It's just a dead faith. You can't say faith without works isn't really faith. It is, it's just dead faith.

In the Bible, faith alone...faith by itself...faith without works...faith without love...is dead! Dead faith. Which means, there is no such thing as salvation by faith alone - Sola Fide - there is only damnation by faith alone. "Faith working through love is of avail," (Gal 5:6). Love is NECESSARY for salvation. You cannot be saved if you do not love. It is not just a sign that your faith is a "saving faith," it is an integral part of the process of salvation. The works that flow from love are an integral part of the process of salvation. "To those who by patience in well-doing [good works] seek for glory and honor and immortality, [God] will give ETERNAL LIFE." Which means, salvation...by faith alone...is not possible.

Anonymous

My Response

No, there is no conundrum. The Church teaches that the Sacraments are necessary for salvation. However, we are bound by the Sacraments, God is not. God has given us the ordinary means of salvation - through the Sacraments. We hold out the belief, though, that God, being a just and loving God, and being a God Who desires all men to be saved (1 Tim 2:4), gives all men at least the opportunity to be saved, even if they have never heard of Him or His Church or the Sacraments. This would be through some extraordinary means of salvation known only unto God Himself. So, God has given us the requirements by which we are to be saved - faith, Baptism, holiness, forgiveness of sins, the Eucharist, etc. - but He is able to make exceptions to what He has bound us by. Does He make those exceptions? We don't know. And, are they really "exceptions," or is He just able to convey those to someone - possibly at the point of death - in some extraordinary way? We won't ever know in this lifetime.

Anonymous

Here is the last paragraph of “Who Can Be Saved?”

My Response

With due respect to the late Cardinal Dulles, I would have to say that there has been no evolution of Catholic teaching on these matters. There has been evolution in the teaching of a number of Catholic theologians on this matter, but theologians are not the official Church. A papal encyclical of the early 20th century makes that point very clear. You do not find the language these theologians use in the official magisterial documents of the Catholic Church. For example, "implicit faith" and "anonymous Christians" are not terms that I find in 20th century papal encyclicals, nor in Vatican II, nor in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Nor do I find the Church saying anything close to "even atheists can be saved if they worship God under some other name." As you rightly said, that is an oxymoron.

In terms of the quote you cite from the article, "Who Then Can Be Saved," nowhere does the Magisterium of the Church say such things. What the Church does say, is that "Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or His Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and moved by grace, try in their actions to do His will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience - those too MAY achieve eternal salvation." (CCC #847) [emphasis mine]. In other words, as I stated above, the Church holds out the possibility that God can save those outside of the Church through some extraordinary means known only to Him. We don't know that He does, but that He can. It is, as Romans 2:14-16 says, "When Gentiles who have not the law do by nature what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse, or perhaps excuse, them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus." Their conflicting thoughts "perhaps" excuse them...perhaps.

So, when the Bible tells us Baptism "saves us," and that we need to eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood to have "eternal life," and that we must confess our sins in order to be forgiven, and so on...these are requirements that hold for all men. Which is why the Church tells us we have the right and the duty to evangelize, so that all men can be saved and "come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim 2:4), because it is the truth that "makes us free" (John 8:32).

Closing Comments

I'm on the road the next couple of Fridays, but I'm still going to try and get a newsletter out at least next week, on the next "Problem With Protestantism." I hope all of you have a great week!

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