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Thursday, October 23, 2014

Sola Fide Before The Reformation

The doctrine of justification through faith alone is foundational to the Christian life. It's a source of great peace, love, joy, and other blessings. And it's one of the central themes of the Reformation, which is relevant in light of Reformation Day coming up next week.

Disputes over sola fide often focus on Biblical and philosophical objections to the concept. But there's a common historical objection that's seldom addressed in depth, and it's even more uncommon for it to be addressed well. It's an objection that has a lot to do with the Reformation and, thus, Reformation Day. Did anybody hold to justification through faith alone between the time of the apostles and the Reformation? If not, then isn't that absence of the doctrine strong evidence against it? There are many implications that follow for the plausibility of a Protestant reading of scripture, how we view church history, and other issues.

I've addressed sola fide before the Reformation in many posts over the years. What I want to do here is link my central post on the subject. The comments section of the thread has some relevant material as well, such as a discussion of sola fide in Clement of Rome. You can find similar material in other threads in our archives, like the ones I link in the post just mentioned.

4 comments:

  1. Speaking of which what is the link for the table of contents to the development of doctrine posts?

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  2. I am learning from this current post and also from those from the past. Unlike the RCC, do you believe that the Methodist Church, for example, subscribes to 'sola fide'? I am in a UMC small group & recently discovered that several men have significant "salvation doubting" issues (of course our present reading of Chan's 'Crazy Love' may have fostered a low level of guilt in some.)

    I am wondering to what extent the doctrine of 'infusion' or 'impartation' has influenced some or many Protestant denominations today. (perhaps I should study your past posts in detail, which i'd like to do)

    Thank you for your help!

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    Replies
    1. chet,

      I don't know much about Methodism. I've occasionally read Methodist statements of faith, had conversations with Methodists, etc., but I haven't studied the movement in much depth.

      Different Methodists hold different views of justification. Some are Reformed, whereas far more are opponents of Reformed theology, for example. Methodist churches and denominations range across the liberal to conservative spectrum.

      The comments I see from Methodists on matters related to justification are often highly ambiguous or inconsistent. My impression is that the large majority profess some form of justification through faith alone while holding to some form of justification through works. A lot of people are inconsistent on the issue, including many Methodists. They might, for example, affirm that justification is attained through faith, but then refer to maintaining justification through good behavior, all the while denying that they believe in justification through works. As I mention in my article linked above, we also see such inconsistencies in some of the church fathers and other figures who lived prior to modern times. It's not a recent development.

      Often, individuals and groups are of a mixed character. Judging their orthodoxy is made more difficult by actual or apparent inconsistencies. What we have to do is make a probability judgment based on the balance of the information we have. People can be inconsistent about the gospel, yet be saved. I'd judge Methodist individuals and groups case by case. I think there's enough orthodoxy in Methodism to expect a large percentage of conservative Methodists to be Christians, but I'd expect the consistency of those Christians to be less than what we'd find among, say, members of the Presbyterian Church in America or Reformed Baptists. I'd expect the typical Methodist church to be unorthodox in its position on justification, but with a significant amount of accurate belief accompanying the errors. Those who follow the accurate beliefs to the point of believing the Biblical gospel will be saved. If they're inconsistent to some extent by following the erroneous beliefs of their church as well, then they're saved in spite of those errors, not because of them.

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