Three Verses For Protestants

Martin Luther – Founder of Protestantism

The traditional Protestant belief is that man is justified by faith alone and that one cannot lose their salvation. The Catholic Church rejected this belief as they believed it was not found in scripture or tradition.

St. Clement of Rome was the Bishop of Rome and wrote about 100 AD. He wrote the following in chapter 30 of his Epistle to the Corinthians:

Let us clothe ourselves with concord and humility, ever exercising self-control, standing far off from all whispering and evil-speaking, being justified by our works, and not our words.

Similarly St. Augustine of Hippo agrees with St. Clement in his writings. In 427 AD St. Augustine wrote a book called On Grace and Free Choice. In Chapter 20, he writes:

And the apostle himself, after saying, “By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast;” saw, of course, the possibility that men would think from this statement that good works are not necessary to those who believe, but that faith alone suffices for them; and again, the possibility of men’s boasting of their good works, as if they were of themselves capable of performing them.

Regardless, Protestants regard the Scripture to be the only infallible authority on questions of faith and morals so it is to there that we must turn to fully refute this modern doctrine.

There are three verses that I want to present with some points that I supplemented.

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

• Philipians 2:12-13

If one is justified by faith alone and eternally secure, then where does the fear and trembling come from? It seems to me that if you’re working out your salvation with fear and trembling it makes it hard to believe that you’re justified by faith alone and eternally secure. When a Protestant tells a Catholic that he’s justified and eternally secure, I don’t see a lot of fear and trembling.

But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

• 1 Corinthians 9:27

St. Paul only preached to others after he became converted himself. If he was justified when he first believed, then why is he afraid of being disqualified? I think that this question is worthy of an answer.

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

• James 1:27

It is often argued that James 2 talked about justification before men and not before God. For the sake of argument lets assume that is true. It is impossible to square this with James 1, which provides the context for James 2. Notice that the author uses the words “before God”.

In 2001, Dr. James White published a book called The God Who Justifies. In this book, Dr. White doesn’t tackle any of these verses. I think they need an answer.

I know that Protestants read this blog. A couple of apologists have even commented on this blog including Dr. James White himself. I’m interested in hearing a response from him or anyone else who believes as he does.