Matthew 19:26
But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.
Why do Baptists claim works and repenting isn't necessary for heaven?
Adam Morris
Caleb Martin
Amen.
To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
Dylan Stewart
Just wanted to mention, in case it wasn't clear: I have no ill will towards Catholics and don't lump them all in with every bad thing one of them does. It was just a rhetorical device I was using to show the problem with the way OP was formulated. I don't like inter-denom bickering, tbh. We have a lot more in common than not.
Daniel Lewis
He cute
Matthew James
Slightly off topic, but I'm curious as to what Baptists (and other Protestants) here think of how the Orthodox view the relationship between faith and works. From Met. Kallistos Ware's "The Orthodox Church":
Thomas Morgan
Your typical prod will tell you that works are a necessary component of faith, which in a roundabout way means that they do believe works are necessary for salvation. This debate is largely one of semantics. The notion that you could just never do anything good for anyone and still get into Heaven is so unbelievable that even those who claim to believe in Sola Fide don't really believe it.
Josiah Hughes
It is semantics and mental gymnastics as Prots use the works aren't nesscary as an excuse to not take the eucharist, go to confession, or participate in other sacrments. The only type of works that matter in thier eye is to lead Christians astray and have them join their splinter factions of Christianity.
Wyatt Sanchez
No, you're still not getting it. Your salvation comes from faith in Christ alone, and any good works that you do are simply a consequence of the Holy Spirit working in you. It's not just a semantic disagreement.
Nicholas Morales
I believe said it pretty well. The faith comes first, and is what saves you, and once you have a saving faith and the Holy Spirit dwells in you you'll start to do good works. That's why the Bible tells us that faith without works is dead. If I just say that I believe in Christ, but don't actually put my faith in him like I would a parachute, then I'm not saved and good works will not be manifest in me (or very rarely so, driven by happenstance instead of the Holy Spirit guiding my heart to do good).
Nice strawman you got there. Protestants do still celebrate communion with bread and wine (or juice in some cases), we just don't believe in transubstantiation. Jesus told his disciples "do this in remembrance of me". We don't "go to confession" with a priest because we believe that God, being omnipotent and knowing the content of one's heart, can hear our prayers and confession without needing an earthly vessel to act through (a priest). When Jesus died, the veil of the temple was torn, which symbolized how God was now allowing anyone to come to Him, not just the high priest of the tabernacle who would make the sacrifices. Jesus is our new high priest, and with Him being fully God he is able to hear our prayers and forgive us directly, "for there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus". We don't want to lead Christians astray, we just believe that the Roman church has moved away from the Bible and has started to place too much authority in its traditions and clergy instead of scripture, which is the breathed word of God. I hope this helps you understand our position a bit better, if you have more questions I'll gladly try to answer them but I warn you I'm still just a bit new to protestant theology myself.
Nathan Watson
You are kidding me if you are going to tell me that there is unity among the 1.3Billion professing Roman Catholics in the world. This current Pope is pretty much a Universalist. Do you think we should have fellowship with Muslims? You had better, because ol' Francis certainly thinks so. What about the many so -called Catholic women that support abortion 'rights'? Why is Vatican II so far removed from traditions Catholicism? Why does it seem that the majority of Rome's Ecclesiarchy is filled with theological liberals?
And to address the apparent disunity among Protestants. Yes we disagree on peripheral issues, even important ones such as pedo vs credo baptism. But we still consider each other brothers in Christ because we agree on the fundamentals of the faith. Luther himself had many disagreements with many other reformers, and that's ok, because he still considered them brother's in Christ.
As for works, any Protestant who knows anything about theology (and admittedly there are many that don't, particularly among my Evangelical friends) will tell you that you are saved by grace through faith in Christ, apart from works. However, as James points out, if a man calls himself a Christian, yet his life is steeped in unrepentant sin and he doesn't seem to care, then his works show that he probably isn't really saved. BUT his works did not save him. A truly saved man will, because of the Holy Spirit working in his heart to sanctify him and renew his mind, begin to mortify sin and live out the fruits of the Spirit. A saved man still sins, because he isn't fully sanctified (something that only happens in heaven), but he gradually overcomes those sins, he seeks after Christ in all of his ways, his thinking is changed and he begins to perform those good works. Those works have not saved him, but a saved man will ALWAYS display good works. Good orthodoxy (doxy meaning doctrine) will inevitable lead to good orthopraxy (praxy meaning practice). A truly saved man, one who is filled with the Holy Spirit will produce good works; a false convert may for a time perform works that outwardly seem 'good', but inside he is unregenerate. His heart is cold and his very essence is still hostile to God. This many (though he may fool you and himself for a time) will eventually show through his lack of good works that the Holy Spirit does not reside within him and he is not a true believer.
On a side note, this is what you say to the atheist who posts memes like "I asked god for a bike but he didn't give it to me so I stole one and asked for forgiveness instead." The person who does that is (obviously) not a true convert, and his still still rests upon him.