Sola Fide: Luther's FALSE Teaching

 

"Sola" in the Reformation slogan coined by Martin Luther is the Latin for "alone". Does the New Testament REALLY summarize salvation as being justified by faith "alone"? Are we truly saved by faith alone?

We need a bit of church history and the Apostles' teaching to understand this. Luther's over-reaction to the Roman Catholic practice of salvation through indulgences or "works" pushed him to swing to the opposite extreme. He made the mistaken assumption that the issue between faith and works was a dichotomy (either you are saved by faith alone or by works alone) because he misinterpreted the book of Romans.

Luther made almost the exact same mistake that John Calvin made, that of developing a doctrine by mere word study.  While Calvin developed a whole doctrine out of the word "predestination" he thought and taught (either intentionally or unintentionally) should interpret (actually, supersede) the whole of Scripture. Luther looked at the phrase, "the just shall live by faith" and made a whole new doctrine out of a phrase study (just as bad as word study without context). 

And he was not teachable at all. In fact, history shows that he was as stubborn and ill-tempered as a mule and very anti-Semitic as well. He was a Greek scholar and when he read that the book of James stated that man CANNOT be saved by faith alone, and the epistle to the Hebrews declares that one can lose his salvation, he proposed to remove both books from the canon of the New Testament!

When he started drafting the Augsburg Confession of the Lutheran churches, even his closest friend and fellow professor, Melanchthon, refused to include the word "alone" in the Augsburg Confession even if he personally believed in justification by faith (obviously NOT in the same way Luther interpreted it).

So what does the New Testament and the early church believe? In summary, the first Christians believed in salvation by faith but it did not believe in salvation by faith "alone".  Whenever the New Testament mentions salvation or justification by faith IT NEVER FOLLOWS THE PHRASE WITH THE WORD "ALONE". In fact, the ONLY INSTANCE where the word "alone" followed the word "faith" is in James 2:24 where James explicit declares:

James 2:24 - "You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone."

NOT BY FAITH ALONE! What can be clearer than that IN ANY LANGUAGE unless one attempts to be arrogant enough to twist the word of God which history proves happens time and again producing many cults because of another false teaching from Luther, Sola Scriptura, but that is another discussion. 

We must realized that Sola Fide is not the faith of the early church fathers and is an innovation of the 16th century Reformation movement started by Luther. To be faulted by over-emphasizing, Sola Fide is a half-truth being preached as the full truth and therefore, is really an untruth or false teaching. Let us examine the Greek of James 2:19 which is ALWAYS MISTRANSLATED by protestant Bibles.

"You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!"

Both words for "believe" in this verse which come from the Greek, pistis, are the same word translated as "have faith"!!! Hence it should HONESTLY be translated as:

"You have faith that God is one; you do well. Even the demons have faith—and shudder!"

Hmmm...makes us reflect deeply on this verse... Do we have the righteousness that exceeds that of the Pharisees in order to enter the Kingdom of God (Matthew 5:20)? Do we have the kind of faith that exceeds that of the demons???? Are we truly saved?

Thus sayeth the Lord!!!