Last week, I posted the first of a two-part response to a recent Pew study which claimed that modern Protestants sound more like Catholics when it comes to issues like sola scriptura and sola fide.
While modern Protestants certainly have some significant theological weak spots, I pushed back against the results of this study on the grounds that the questions being asked were fundamentally misleading. Indeed, the theological descriptions of the Protestant (and Catholic!) positions were flat out wrong.
Having already dealt with the sola scriptura issue in the prior post, we now turn to the issue of sola fide. Here is the summary of the Pew survey about the way Protestants view that issue:
For example, nearly half of U.S. Protestants today (46%) say faith alone is needed to attain salvation (a belief held by Protestant reformers in the 16th century, known in Latin as sola fide). But about half (52%) say both good deeds and faith are needed to get into heaven, a historically Catholic belief.
Again, this statistic, if true, would be quite discouraging. But, just like the issue of sola scriptura, it all depends on how the question is worded. Here are the two options given by the Pew survey:
1. Faith in God alone is needed to get into heaven (sola fide).
2. Both good deeds and faith in God are needed to get into heaven.
While the wording here is not as problematic as the wording of the sola scriptura portion, it is still quite confusing.
After all, the average Protestant might read #1 above and naturally think of all those people who profess faith in Jesus and yet don’t live a life of holiness or obedience. Such a person might naturally ask (along with James): “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?” (Jas 2:14).
Moreover, the average Protestant might read #1 above and think about a verse like Heb 12:14: “Without holiness no one will see the Lord.” How does a verse like that square with option #1 in the survey? Doesn’t a person have to have some good deeds to go to heaven?
These sorts of questions demonstrate that the choice between #1 and #2 in the survey is far too simplistic. In light of the verses just mentioned, a Protestant might be justified in picking #2! Thus, more nuance is needed.
On a fundamental level, the survey options do not allow for a very important distinction the Reformers made, namely the distinction between the instrument of justification (faith) and the results of justification (good works).
Reformed folks would certainly affirm that faith alone is the instrument by which God justifies a sinner. But, this does not mean that faith is the only characteristic present in the life of a true believer. Good works inevitably follow.
The Westminster Confession is very plain on this point: “Faith is the alone instrument of justification; yet it is not alone in the person justified, but is ever accompanied with all the other saving graces, and is no dead faith, but worketh by love” (11.2).
Or, as Calvin said, “Faith alone justifies. But the faith that justifies is not alone.”
Due to this lack of nuance, the survey creates a false distinction between Protestants and Catholics. It makes it seem that good works only have a place in the Catholic system and not the Protestant one.
To put it another way, both Protestants and Catholics believe that people who go to heaven have faith and good works. That is not what is in question. What is in question is the precise function of faith and works in a person’s justification.
For the survey to have been accurate, it would need to have been worded as follows:
1. We are not saved by our good works, as if we could earn our way to heaven. Rather we are saved by faith alone in Christ alone. Christ’s work is sufficient to make us acceptable to God. And all who truly trust in Christ, and are filled with the Spirit, will produce good works.
2. We are not saved by faith alone in Christ alone. A person must believe in Jesus and must also perform good works in order to merit God’s acceptance. Christ’s work alone is not sufficient to make us acceptable to God, we must add our own good deeds.
If worded in this manner, there is little doubt that the results of the survey would be substantially different.
So, in the end, what do we make of the Pew survey? It seems that is not necessarily modern Protestants who are theologically confused about sola scriptura and sola fide, but rather it is the Pew foundation itself that is theologically confused.
I might suggest (with tongue firmly in cheek) that they need to do a new study entitled, “Are Pew Pollsters Closer to Catholics than Martin Luther?”
John Roth says
Unfortunately, polls have to have short, pithy questions. Long questions confuse the people answering the poll. Maybe it would be possible to get the point you’re addressing across in a dozen words or less?
Dean says
Yes there are distinct differences between justification & sanctification in salvation by grace in Christ alone.
Sermons too can be misleading if they focus on the context of a passage without making it clear that there is also an overall context regarding salvation.
And if you are not taught that, how will you grow in understanding & discernment. It is a big responsibility for the church to exercise on behalf of & with the help of the maker of heaven & earth & the giver of light & life.
If the Pope becomes your conscience, or a minister, or a poll & not the Word then we may as well redefine Christianity & the Bible as well (all things being equal).
Almeda says
You really make it appear so easy along with
your presentation but I to find this matter to be really
something that I believe I’d by no means understand.
It sort of feels too complicated and very vast for me.
I’m looking ahead to your subsequent publish, I will attempt to
get the grasp of it!
Dot Bourne says
I think it’s time for Christians to come together. For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. If the difference is about works, then it is just a matter of semantics: God gives us specific works to do. And we do these works here on earth, before we go to heaven. He makes us do them. Come join the new catholic church – on the road to unification. As for the Pope, he has a flock, a following. What the Popes were forced into doing before, they will never do again, during this new season. Dare I call it a millennial season? Jesus is coming back to earth, as an infant, 12 times. He will be a King/Emperor each time. For various reasons, He won’t call himself Jesus, in perhaps any of the incarnations, but definitely not the first. He will be called Samson Alpha, born of an American woman, a homeless woman, who attended RTS (haha isn’t that funny?). It’s time for RTS to add Habsburgs to History of Christianity I and II. This woman is a hidden Habsburg heir. She’s already pregnant, picking garbage cans for food. Magicians keep the baby from growing (or dying, for that matter). Scientists made a clone of JC (they have his genes) and then magicians inserted the blastocyst into her using the same magic that got Mary pregnant with Joseph’s sperm. I don’t know why they did that to her, where they got the instructions from, what group is running the project, but I guess that is their ‘works’. Samson will be a pope/king of a new sect of Catholicism, and the Roman Popes will always know it is Him. Vatican City is not in the business of expanding their state, but this empire will be. I am told I am fed truth and lies, that is my ‘role’, my works, to spread the truth and lies. That might not be biblical, a false and true prophet, but if this is true, I am not the one to rebuke. Would you want the job of a false-and-true prophet? I don’t. Perhaps the bible itself is full of lies and truth as well. For example, not everyone off the ark died during the Noahic flood – they fled to high mountains – the water did not rise over the highest mountains. I don’t feel like arguing but I’ll add that scientists and geneticists would probably attest to this, that people all over the world have genes that are different from the Noahic line. Watch the news, shun the ‘harlot’, or not. She is not a harlot. She represents us, the church. She is going to ride a white horse in Vienna. Watch the youtube video about those horses, the one posted by Viking Cruises. The night she elopes, a magician is going to follow God’s instructions (why he is certain the instruction is from God, I don’t know) and make the Empire State Building pierce Satan’s Worshipper’s Headquarters, I guess using a plane to knock off the antenna. People are believing this rumor because governments are involved, and they have already started rebuilding the antenna.
Tyler says
2. We are not saved by faith alone in Christ alone. A person must believe in Jesus and must also perform good works in order to merit God’s acceptance. Christ’s work alone is not sufficient to make us acceptable to God, we must add our own good deeds.
Where is your proof that this an accurate statement of what the Roman Catholic Church teaches? Could you please cite the Catholic Catechism.
Thank you for your time.