A different view of faith?

I am just wondering if one major difference between Protestants and Catholics is their concept of faith or saving faith. The Catholics believe that faith has to be living as James states. Protestants so put the stress on faith alone that they tend to deny an active faith that works as being a necessary aspect of salvation. Both the Protestants and the Catholics believe that faith comes from grace. Both believe we must put our faith in Christ our savior for salvation. The difference seems to be that the Catholics believe faith is as Jesus defines it. It is not a faith that just calls Jesus Lord and does not follow him. It is a living active faith. Protestants seem to be able to separate faith from a faith that is working. This seems not only strange to me, but against the gospels, against James, against Paul's statements about walking in the Spirit, against Revelation ....in short against the whole Bible--including the Old Testament

Written by KD

L'Abri on the New Catholicism

A very strongly reformed friend of mine recently lent me a lecture from L'Abri on the New Catholicism. In it, the lecturer contends that the Catholic church changed radically and fundamentally after Vatican II. It is now a liberal church, affording salvation outside of the church and even outside of an explicit knowledge of Christ. He asserts that the Church has bought into moral and theological relativity in order to usher in a dangerous period of ecumenicalism.

I shared this with mom, who then asked what I thought of it. Here was my response:

I think it’s a warning that there are enemy voices with Catholic microphones. There always have been, and there always will be.

He tries to make it sound as if this is a novel thing—as if the Church has never faced changes of this nature. In one sense, he’s right, but ultimately, I think he’s wrong. Look at any period in the Church’s history, and you’ll find her battling heresy at all levels of the Church’s hierarchy. No sooner had she sufficiently tamped down a heresy than a new one would spring up to replace it. There’s a reason the Bible calls this life a spiritual battle. Sometimes those battles are loud and public. Sometimes, they are more subdued. So yes, the Church is facing something new, but it is at the same time something old.

He mentioned the modernist movement at the beginning of last century and how it was ruthlessly crushed by the pope. Kudos to the pope for doing his job. But ruthless crushing is not the only way to fight such problems. Different cultural and environmental settings call for different disciplinary approaches.

Vatican II brought with it a great deal of uncertainty. Big changes create confusion. Confusion is fertile soil for deception. Thus, in the decades following Vatican II, liberal theologians stepped in to capitalize on a rare opportunity. This time, the pope wasn’t so ruthless in stamping out the heresies. Does that mean that something has changed and for once heresy has won? No.

Recall the Church near the time of the Reformation. She was far astray at some very high levels. (Our friend from L’Abri could have made his case much more strongly then than now...) At that time, as in many before and since, God steered her back on course. Trace her course through history, and you will not see a straight line but something mildly resembling a sine curve. When she drifts to the north, the wind of the Spirit blows her southward. When she drifts south, a warm southern breeze nudges her back on course.

The Church herself, the papacy, the catechisms, the dogmas, and the doctrines seem to be solid and unshaken. With the new mass translations, the recent focus on Sacred Scripture, and the upcoming focus on evangelization, I think we see that the Church is pushing firmly against theological liberalism, relativism, and heresy.

Now, if I’m wrong, and heresy has won, and the Church has turned to false liberal ideology, I will be a little canoe adrift on a great, black sea. What other church holds the Biblical view of the Eucharist? Where else can I find the Church of history? Where can I go to find brothers and sisters with a Biblical, historical, and Traditional view of relics, sacramental life, communion of the saints, the authority of Peter? Nowhere. I feel that I must say to the Catholic Church: “Where else can I go? You have the words of eternal life.”