“Peace if possible, truth at all costs.”
-Martin Luther
Lately, my thoughts and studies have centered upon Roman Catholic doctrine. To say the least, I have been shocked at what I have discovered. I have found that Rome believes in a primarily works-based soteriolgy. Though they mask justification in words like grace and faith, Roman Catholic apologists really mean that merit is responsible for people attaining eternal life. Yet, is this the view given by Holy Scripture? I argue that it is not. There will be more on this later.
My primary concern is with evangelicals. (1) They do not know what they believe about justification and sanctification. (2) Some do not understand why it would be detrimental to re-unite with Roman Catholicism.
This is unfortunate. We leave the studying up to the theologians and the philosophers. Likewise, we don’t read our Bibles as nearly as we should. We just don’t want to invest the time and energy into such a hard task. We evangelicals want that “quick word from God.” We just want to open our Bibles to some random verse and expect God to some how give us that “personal word.”
“What,” I dare ask, “about exegesis? What about context?”
There are many who wish to compromise those precious Protestant doctrines. Blood has been spilt in order to preserve sola fide and sola scriptura. We dare not abandon these Scriptural teachings solely for some supposed “peace” between us and Rome.
More will be written, proving that faith alone is the only way to salvation.
It is not “unity at all costs,” but, rather, “truth at all costs.”
Semper Reformanda,
Matthew Halsted
Soli Deo Gloria
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