A Question to Protestants About Sola Fide (Monergism VS Synergism)?

In all honesty?

It's a remnant of the time of the Reformation, when new-found Protestants were seeking to distance themselves from the Catholic church they had just seceded from. Granted, there WERE corrupt practices at the time (such as the selling of indulgences) that spurred the Reformation in the first place; but in their zeal to toss out things they didn't like, they essentially threw the baby out with the bathwater. Their interpretations of the Bible were based on the opinions of people who had political motivation to secede, and over-simplify what the Bible had been meant for. The Bible itself was compiled and codified by the Catholic Church in the 4th century, and had been used in tandem with tradition and church doctrine for well over a millenia before the Reformation. Not surprisingly, the older the Protestant denomination is, the closer it tends to be to Catholicism in its beliefs and practices (Episcopalians/Anglicans and Lutherans, for example). The more-recent the invention of the denomination, the more extreme and insular it tends to be... such as the one Chris/David belongs to.

Neither faith alone nor works alone are sufficient. Faith without action is meaningless; anyone can declare themselves 'saved', but if they do nothing to justify it, if they do not strive to lead Christ-like lives, it's just empty words. Similarly, doing lots of good things but not having any faith in Christ means that those actions are not done for him (from a Christian point of view). You need BOTH.

EDIT: Chris/David/patterss/50,000 other sock accounts:

"Because you should not denigrate the finished work of JESUS CHRIST, with your filthy rags, I mean, your "works". Doing works as part of salvation, means that you don't believe in JESUS for salvation. You have a "Jesus plus works" plan, which Jesus will reject."

So sayeth the Gospel of Chris/David.

You put words in God's mouth, and have the audacity to act as though he's saying it himself? Wow. You must have some serious cajones. You presume to speak for him AND to judge for him, neither of which is in any way in that Bible you thump. Not that you've ever actually READ it, of course. Jesus himself lived a life of doing miraculous works, so that people would believe him and follow him. If he hadn't, do you think anyone today would be following him? He said himself that he did these things so that people would "see, and believe". His words were inspiring; his actions backed them up. Without them he would not have had any basis to his teachings or his claims.

He was also far, FAR less judgmental, open, and accepting than you are. Ask yourself honestly: are you REALLY acting the way Christ did? You've appointed yourself lord and judge of all you look down upon, Chris/David, and I think you have far more to answer for than anyone else here does.

When I was a protestant, I and many other protestants were/are under the misconception that Catholicism is works-based only. I really didn't recognize Catholics as having faith. Even arguendo if you showed me Catholic doctrine proving it is faith + works, I would speculate that the average Catholic was works-based in spite of official church teaching. I would point you to rosaries and holy water and idols, and all sorts of other works-based and superstitious things foreign to me as a protestant, all showing how Catholics are trying to work their way to salvation.

Even if you convinced me that it was faith+works, the counter to that argument is you actually don't have faith by the evidence that you feel you need works (i.e. a human need for works shows a lack of trust in God).

Good question since I agree with you. James says that "without works, faith is dead" and I've explained this to "Chris, the former David, the self-proclaimed pastor." His response was, "is that the only scripture Catholics know?" I figured it was useless trying to come to a consensus with him since his only motive his hatred toward Catholics and I gave up.

Synergism is not the Biblical gospel.

"Regardless of how bad you were, how unwilling you are to do what is right, or how unwilling you are to stop sinning or that which leads you to sin, just believe and be saved."

You said it yourself, "faith and works mean that you have faith". What shall we say, shall we keep sinning so that God's grace may abound? God forbid.

Ro 9:11-13 (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;) It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.

God makes the choice, and when the fullness of time comes, we make a choice as well; but only because He has first made the choice. Why do we love God?......Because He first loved us!