Salvation by works?

“If you die now will you go to heaven?” and “Do you want to have assurance of salvation?” are the two most common questions raised by “born-again” Protestants and/or “Bible only” Christians when they meet and challenge Catholics.  Many Catholics are not ready to give the answer because they hardly know the teaching of the Catholic Church on salvation.  Sadly, instead of trying to look for the answer from the Church, they simply accept what those Protestants or “Bible only” Christians explain about salvation in Catholicism.  As one may expect what they hear or read is the distorted teaching of the Church. 

Many Protestants and “Bible only” Christians think that Catholics must earn their way to heaven through good works, performing certain rituals like novena, pilgrimage, fasting, abstinence etc.  In short they think Catholics believe in salvation by works.  The late Calvinist scholar Lorraine Boettner, infamous for his anti-Catholic book “Roman Catholicism“, wrote:

In Protestantism salvation is a matter of grace.  In Romanism [Catholicism] one must work hard for it and must pay dearly for it, and after he has done all that the priest has prescribed he still cannot know whether he has it or not.

Boettner, Roman Catholicism, page 268

Echoing the same view, former Catholic James G. McCarthy who founded Good News for Catholics (http://www.gnfc.org/) with the aim to convert Catholics to his version of “Bible only” Christianity wrote:

For the Roman Catholic, eternal salvation involves a lifetime of doing, working and striving.   The Catholics must keep the commandments of God and of the Church.  He must receive sacraments and performs acts of piety.  He must do good works. His eternal salvation depends on all of these.

McCarthy, The Gospel according to Rome, page 69

As former Catholic either McCarthy is genuinely ignorant or he deliberately covers up what the Catholic Church really teaches.

It was Pelagius (c. 350 AD to 425AD) who first taught that men can earn their salvation without help (Grace) from God.  He believed that the Fall of Adam did not affect mankind (or there is no Original Sin) and neither did the death and resurrection of Christ.  While he did not deny the existence of God’s Grace, to him it only facilitates what we ourselves can do for our salvation.  The Catholic Church, through Augustine, teaches that men, because of the sin of Adam, cannot reach the justified state to enter heaven without God’s Grace. Pelagius’ teaching, known as Pelagian or Pelagianism, was condemned in the Council of Carthage in 418 AD and Orange in 529 AD.   After Reformation, the sixteenth century ecumenical council of Trent reaffirmed Catholic Church position that (1) we cannot reach salvation by our own works, i.e. without God’s Grace and that (2) God’s Grace is not facilitator but necessity for our salvation.

If any one saith, that man may be justified before God by his own works, whether done through the teaching of human nature, or that of the law, without the grace of God through Jesus Christ; let him be anathema.

Council of Trent, Canon I on Justification

If any one saith, that the grace of God, through Jesus Christ, is given only for this, that man may be able more easily to live justly, and to merit eternal life, as if, by free will without grace, he were able to do both, though hardly indeed and with difficulty; let him be anathema.

Council of Trent, Canon II on Justification

The Old Testament of the first two centuries Christians

What books did the first Christians in the first two centuries recognize as Old Testament?  Did they accept only the twenty four books of Jewish Scripture, which are equal to thirty-nine books of Protestant’s Old Testament?  From their writings we know that they recognized more books than the ones we have now in either Catholic or Protestant’s Old Testament.  

1 Clement (written c 96 AD) quoted from the Wisdom, Judith and from unknown scripture.

For this reason righteousness and peace are now far departed from you, inasmuch as every one abandons the fear of God, and is become blind in His faith, neither walks in the ordinances of His appointment, nor acts a part becoming a Christian, but walks after his own wicked lusts, resuming the practice of an unrighteous and ungodly envy, by which death itself entered into the world.  [Wisdom 2:24]

1 Clement 3

He established all things, and by His word He can overthrow them. “Who shall say unto Him, What hast thou done? or, Who shall resist the power of His strength? “ [Wisdom 12:12]

1 Clement 27

Many women also, being strengthened by the grace of God, have performed numerous manly exploits. The blessed Judith, when her city was besieged, asked of the elders permission to go forth into the camp of the strangers; and, exposing herself to danger, she went out for the love which she bare to her country and people then besieged; and the Lord delivered Holofernes into the hands of a woman. [Judith 8]

1 Clement 55

Such examples, therefore, brethren, it is right that we should follow; since it is written, “Cleave to the holy, for those that cleave to them shall [themselves] be made holy.”  [unknown scripture]

1 Clement 46

Didache, written in 1st or 2nd century AD quoted from Sirach. 

Be not a stretcher forth of the hands to receive and a drawer of them back to give. [Sirach 4:31]

Didache 4:5

In his epistle to the Magnesians Ignatius (died c. 107 AD), bishop of Antioch quoted from Susanna. 

For Daniel the wise, at twelve years of age, became possessed of the Divine Spirit, and convinced the elders, who in vain carried their grey hairs, of being false accusers, and of lusting after the beauty of another man’s wife.  [Susanna or Daniel 13]

Ignatius, Epistle to Magnesians 3 (longer version)

Polycarp (died c. 156), bishop of Smyrna, quoted Tobit in his epistle. 

When you can do good, defer it not, because “alms delivers from death.”  [Tobit 4:10]

Polycarp, Epistle to the Philippians 10

Epistle of Barnabas written in c. 130 AD cited Wisdom, 1 Enoch as scripture and quoted from unknown work.   Note that 1 Enoch 1:9 is also quoted in Jude 14-16.

For the prophet speaks against Israel, “Woe to their soul, because they have counselled an evil counsel against themselves, saying, Let us bind the just one, because he is displeasing to us.” [Wisdom 2:12]

Barnabas 6

What, then, says He in the prophet? “And let them eat of the goat which is offered, with fasting, for all their sins.”   [unknown scripture]

Barnabas 7

In like manner He points to the cross of Christ in another prophet, who saith, “And when shall these things be accomplished? And the Lord saith, When a tree shall be bent down, and again arise, and when blood shall flow out of wood.”  [unknown scripture]

Barnabas 12

For the Scripture saith, “And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the Lord will deliver up the sheep of His pasture, and their sheep-fold and tower, to destruction.” [1 Enoch 89:56,66]

Barnabas 16

Shepherd of Hermas (written c. early second century) cited as scripture the apocryphal (now lost) Eldad and Modad.  Eldad and Modat are the names of two prophesying Jews in Numbers 11:26-27.

The Lord is near to them who return unto Him, as it is written in Eldad and Modat, who prophesied to the people in the wilderness.”

Shepherd of Hermas, Second Vision 3

Irenæus, bishop of Lyon (c. 115 to 202) quoted from Baruch, Susanna, Bel and Dragon and 1 Enoch. 

And Jeremiah the prophet has pointed out, that as many believers as God has prepared for this purpose, to multiply those left upon earth, should both be under the rule of the saints to minister to this Jerusalem, and that [His] kingdom shall be in it, saying, “Look around Jerusalem towards the east, and behold the joy which comes to thee from God Himself. Behold, thy sons shall come whom thou hast sent forth: they shall come in a band from the east even unto the west, by the word of that Holy One, rejoicing in that splendour which is from thy God. O Jerusalem, put off thy robe of mourning and of affliction, and put on that beauty of eternal splendour from thy God. Gird thyself with the double garment of that righteousness proceeding from thy God; place the mitre of eternal glory upon thine head. For God will show thy glory to the whole earth under heaven. For thy name shall for ever be called by God Himself, the peace of righteousness and glory to him that worships God. Arise, Jerusalem, stand on high, and look towards the east, and behold thy sons from the rising of the sun, even to the west, by the Word of that Holy One, rejoicing in the very remembrance of God. For the footmen have gone forth from thee, while they were drawn away by the enemy. God shall bring them in to thee, being borne with glory as the throne of a kingdom. For God has decreed that every high mountain shall be brought low, and the eternal hills, and that the valleys be filled, so that the surface of the earth be rendered smooth, that Israel, the glory of God, may walk in safety. The woods, too, shall make shady places, and every sweet-smelling tree shall be for Israel itself by the command of God. For God shall go before with joy in the light of His splendour, with the pity and righteousness which proceeds from Him.” [Baruch 4:36 to 5:9 quoted as part of Jeremiah]

Irenæus, Against Heresies 5.35.1

For who is the God of the living unless He who is God, and above whom there is no other God? Whom also Daniel the prophet, when Cyrus king of the Persians said to him, “Why dost thou not worship Bel?” did proclaim, saying, “Because I do not worship idols made with hands, but the living God, who established the heaven and the earth and has dominion over all flesh.”  [Bel and Dragon or Daniel 14:24-25]

Irenæus, Against Heresies 4.5.2 

and they shall hear those words, to be found in Daniel the prophet: “O thou seed of Canaan, and not of Judah, beauty hath deceived thee, and lust perverted thy heart, Thou that art waxen old in wicked days, now thy sins which thou hast committed aforetime are come to light; for thou hast pronounced false judgments, and hast been accustomed to condemn the innocent, and to let the guilty go free, albeit the Lord saith, The innocent and the righteous shalt thou not slay.”  [Susanna or Daniel 13:56]

Irenæus, Against Heresies 4.26.3

Enoch, too, pleasing God, without circumcision, discharged the office of God’s legate to the angels although he was a man, and was translated, and is preserved until now as a witness of the just judgment of God, because the angels when they had transgressed fell to the earth for judgment, but the man who pleased [God] was translated for salvation.  [1 Enoch 12:4-5, 13:4-7 and 15:2]

Irenæus, Against Heresies 4.16.2

Justin Martyr (died c. 165), martyr and apologist, alluded to 1 Enoch. 

God, when He had made the whole world, and subjected things earthly to man, and arranged the heavenly elements for the increase of fruits and rotation of the seasons, and appointed this divine law-for these things also He evidently made for man-committed the care of men and of all things under heaven to angels whom He appointed over them. But the angels transgressed this appointment, and were captivated by love of women, and begat children who are those that are called demons; and besides, they afterwards subdued the human race to themselves, partly by magical writings, and partly by fears and the punishments they occasioned, and partly by teaching them to offer sacrifices, and incense, and libations, of which things they stood in need after they were enslaved by lustful passions; and among men they sowed murders, wars, adulteries, intemperate deeds, and all wickedness.

Justin Martyr, 2 Apology 5

Clement of Alexandria (c. 160 to 215), Christian writer and theologian, quoted Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch and 4 Ezra. 

At this stage some rise up, saying that the Lord, by reason of the rod, and threatening, and fear, is not good; misapprehending, as appears, the Scripture which says, “And he that feareth the Lord will turn to his heart; “ [Sirach 21:6]

Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor 1.8

This Scripture has briefly showed, when it says, “What thou hatest, thou shalt not do to another.”  [Tobit 4:15]

Clement of Alexandria, Stromata 2.23

By ignorance he means, in my opinion, death. “And he that is near the Lord is full of stripes.” [Judith 8:27]

Clement of Alexandria, Stromata 2.7

“By alms then, and acts of faith, sins are purged.”  [Sirach 3:30]

Clement of Alexandria, Stromata 2.15

And so it is said in the book of Wisdom: “For He hath given me the unerring knowledge of things that exist, to know the constitution of the word,” and so forth, down to “and the virtues of roots.” Among all these he comprehends natural science, which treats of all the phenomena in the world of sense. And in continuation, he alludes also to intellectual objects in what he subjoins: “And what is hidden or manifest I know; for Wisdom, the artificer of all things, taught me.” [Wisdom 7:17,20,21,22]

Clement of Alexandria, Stromata 2.2

Accordingly it is rightly said in Solomon, “Wisdom is in the mouth of the faithful.  [Sirach 15:10] …….  aided doubtless by Solomon, who says, “If thou lovest to hear, thou shalt comprehend; and if thou incline thine ear, thou shalt be wise.  [Sirach 6:33] 

Clement of Alexandria, Stromata 2.5 

 ”Why did my mother’s womb not become my tomb, to prevent me from seeing Jacob’s trials and the troubles of the house of Israel?” says the prophet Esdras.  [4 Ezra 5:35]

 Clement of Alexandria, Stromata 3.16

It is in relation to these matters that the prophet says, “It was through your own sins that you were sold,” [Isaiah 50:1] and again, “you experienced defilement in an alien land.” [Baruch 3:10]

Clement of Alexandria, Stromata 3.12

Priesthood of the Old and New Covenants

In the New Testament, Greek word diatheke translated as covenant (RSV, NIV) or as testament (KJV) appear in a number of places (Matthew 26:28, Mark 14:24, Luke 1:72, 22:20, Acts 3:25, 7:8, Romans 9:4, 11:27, 1 Corinthians 11:25, 2 Corinthians 3:6, 14, Galatians 3:15, 17, 4:24, Ephesians 2:12, Hebrews 7:22, 8:6, 8 – 10, 9:4, 15 – 17, 20, 10:16, 29, 12:24, 13:20 and Revelation 11:19.).   God made covenant of circumcision (Acts 7:8) and promise (Galatians 3:17) with Abraham and covenant of Law with Moses (Galatians 4:24).   Christ established a new covenant (Matthew 26:28, Luke 22:20, 1 Corinthians 11:25) on the night he was betrayed and of which He is the mediator (Hebrews 9:15).  Paul wrote that he was minister of this new covenant (2 Corinthians 3:6).   Here the old covenant refers to the one God made with Moses, and it is to be replaced with the new and better covenant of Christ (Hebrews 8:6), prophesied in Jeremiah 31:33-34 (cf. Hebrews 8:8-12, 10:16-17).  The old covenant has sanctuary, sacrifice, high priest, priests and Levites and so does the new covenant but they take new and better forms.   The following Table compares the two covenants.

	Old Covenant	New Covenant
Sanctuary	Worldly and man-made (Exodus 25:8, Hebrews 9:1)	Heavenly and not man-made (Hebrews 8:5, 9:11, 24)
High Priest	Male descendant of Aaron, mortal (Leviticus 21:10, Hebrews 7:23)	Jesus Christ (Hebrews 9:11), Immortal (Hebrews 7:24)
Priests	Hereditary, male descendant of Aaron (Leviticus 21:1)	Non-hereditary, chosen from among the nations (Isaiah 66:21) to be bishops and presbyters.
Levites	Hereditary, males of the tribe Levi	Non-hereditary, chosen among the nations (Isaiah 66:21) as deacons
Sacrifice to be offered	Animals (lamb, goat).  They cannot take away sins (Hebrews 10:4, 11)	Jesus Christ, un-blemish (Hebrews 9:14, 1 Peter 1:19) Paschal (1 Corinthians 5:7) Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29).
Frequency of sacrifice	High Priest offered atonement sacrifice in the inner sanctuary once a year (Exodus 30:10, Hebrews 9:7). Priests offered sacrifice in the outer sanctuary (Hebrews 9:6) daily and continuously (Exodus 29:38, Hebrews 10:11).	Jesus Christ offered Himself as sacrifice (Hebrews 9:12) once for all (Hebrews 9:26, 10:12, 14) in heavenly sanctuary.Priests without sacrifice are not priests.  Without violating Christ unique and single sacrifice, bishops and presbyters make present the same sacrifice He offered on the cross when they celebrate Mass daily.
General priesthood	All Israelites (Exodus 19:6)	All believers of Christ (1 Peter 2:5,9, Revelation 1:6)

on Justification

The Council of Trent (Chapter 4 of the Decrees on Justification ) defines Justification as a translation from the state in which man is born a child of the first Adam, to the state of grace and of the adoption of the sons of God through the second Adam, Jesus Christ, our Saviour.  According to Martin Luther Justification is redemption from sin, death, and the devil and we are made partakers of life eternal, not by ourselves but by help of Christ (What Luther Says, page 701).  John Calvin defined Justification as the acceptance with which God receives us into his favour as if we were righteous (Institute of Christian Religion, III.11.2). Catholics and Protestants consider justification as important and prime issue.  The Catholic Church declares that Justification is the most excellent work of God’s love made manifest in Christ Jesus and granted by the Holy Spirit (Catechism of the Catholic Church # 1994). Citing Augustine’s words, the Catechism of the Catholic Church also states that Justification of the wicked is even greater than the creation of the world.  Luther wrote that the article of Justification is the master and prince, the lord, the ruler, and the judge over all kinds of doctrines.  It is the head and the cornerstone and it alone begets, nourishes, builds, preserves, and defends the church of God (What Luther Says, pages 703-704).  To John Calvin Justification is the principal ground on which religion must be supported (Institute of Christian Religion, III.11.1).

Catholics and Protestants (and “Bible only” Christians) agree that Justification comes from God’s grace (Titus 3:7) and has been merited by Christ (Romans 3:23-25, 5:9).  By ourselves, using only our own efforts, we can never reach the justified state to enter heaven.

“Justification has been merited for us by the Passion of Christ who offered himself on the cross as a living victim, holy and pleasing to God, and whose blood has become the instrument of atonement for the sins of all men.

 Catechism of the Catholic Church # 1992

“Our justification comes from the grace of God.

 Catechism of the Catholic Church # 1996

However though they use the same word, Justification, Catholics and Protestants do not mean the same thing.  Their disagreement arises from different understanding in the scriptural term “Righteousness”.  In Greek, Justification (dikaiosis) and Righteousness (dikaiosune) have the same root (Greek dike means righteous or just) or they are related.  Justification has something to do with righteousness as the Scripture testifies: the righteous will go to eternal life (Matthew 25:46) while the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 6:9).  To Protestants and “Bible only” Christians, “to justify” means “to declare righteous” because their Justification is one time event while to Catholics it means “to make righteous” because to them Justification is a process.  The following Table compares Catholic and Protestant’s understanding of Justification.

Catholicism	Protestantism
Justification is a process that starts with our genuine conversion to Christ and ends at our entrance to heaven.	Justification is one time event in our life, i.e. at our genuine conversion to Christ.
Because it is a process, Justification comprises our genuine conversion to Christ and Sanctification.  Justification is conferred in Baptism.	We are justified only by faith in Christ.  Sanctification is not part of Justification.
In Justification the righteousness of God through Christ is infused (by the Holy Spirit) in us.  The righteousness of God becomes inherent part of us or through Justification we are made just/righteous.	In Justification the righteousness of Christ is imputed on us. The righteousness of Christ remains external, covering our unrighteousness or through Justification we are declared just/righteous.
Catholics use Family Analogy for Justification.	Protestants use Forensic (courtroom style) Analogy for Justification.