R.C. Sproul Examined

[Saint Nicholas]

Below is a brief snippet from R. C. [Roman Catholic - pun intended] Sproul. Sproul, a professional clergyman to say the least is very careful of the wording and sentence structures he uses to infer false ideas and half truths to convey his false message. Can anyone detect the false messages? I will make comment shortly in the next post.........Nicholas


What role does human achievement or good works play in salvation?

Human good works play a tremendously important role. There can be no salvation whatsoever without good works, and your good works are crucial to your salvation. Now, how can a Protestant make a statement like that?

First of all, good works are absolutely crucial and are, indeed, necessary for salvation because God requires good works to save anybody. Those good works are supplied and provided by Christ, who in his perfect humanity earned the infinite merit of God—the reward of which is the very basis of my salvation. Without Christ’s righteousness, I am in very big trouble. So my salvation, initially, is grounded upon good works—Jesus’ good works.

What about my own good works? Do they have a role? Most Protestants would say no. Justification is only one part of salvation. Salvation is the big word. Salvation is the word that covers all of the process by which God fully brings us to total redemption. Justification is that point in the process when God declares me a person who is in a state of redemption. The fact is that you are already justified, and you are in a state of salvation to a degree, but there’s still more of your salvation yet to come. You still haven’t gone to heaven. You still haven’t been perfectly sanctified. You haven’t been glorified. None of those things will happen to you until you die and go to heaven. When you die and go to heaven, God will give you a reward for whatever degree of obedience you have rendered to him in your Christian life. The reward that God bestows upon you in heaven will be given according to your works but not because your works are so righteous and meritorious that they impose an obligation upon God to reward them. God has graciously given us the promise that he will reward whatever obedience we give him. He doesn’t have to, but out of his goodness and grace, as Augustine said, he crowns his own gifts. Our entrance into heaven is strictly by the righteousness of Christ. Our reward in heaven will be granted according to the works of obedience that we render.

[Whammer]

He, like most of the popular "theologians" of our time, denies EJ.
He also in this snippet almost sounds like he is talking about time salvation and an infused righteousness for the reward.
RC Jr is totally on his way back to Rome these last few years.

Either way, our own good (filthy rags) works dont play ANY part in our salvation whatsoever.......Sproul seems to say (playing off Augustine) that He rewards His gifts, but doesnt present any real strength on what that means........there's alot of talk in this snippet, alot of words
so at a quick glance, thats what Im seein'

[Saint Nicholas]

Another snippet by R.C. for your consideration. Again, my comments are to follow....Nicholas


If justification is by faith alone, how can we apply James 2:24, which says a person is justified by what he does, not his faith alone?

That question is not critical only today, but it was in the eye of the storm we call the Protestant Reformation that swept through and divided the Christian church in the sixteenth century. Martin Luther declared his position: Justification is by faith alone, our works add nothing to our justification whatsoever, and we have no merit to offer God that in any way enhances our justification. This created the worst schism in the history of Christendom.

In refusing to accept Luther’s view, the Roman Catholic Church excommunicated him, then responded to the outbreak of the Protestant movement with a major church council, the Council of Trent, which was part of the so-called Counter-Reformation and took place in the middle of the sixteenth century. The sixth session of Trent, at which the canons and decrees on justification and faith were spelled out, specifically appealed to James 2:24 to rebuke the Protestants who said that they were justified by faith alone: "You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone." How could James say it any more clearly? It would seem that that text would blow Luther out of the water forever.

Of course, Martin Luther was very much aware that this verse was in the book of James. Luther was reading Romans, where Paul makes it very clear that it’s not through the works of the law that any man is justified and that we are justified by faith and only through faith. What do we have here? Some scholars say we have an irreconcilable conflict between Paul and James, that James was written after Paul, and James tried to correct Paul. Others say that Paul wrote Romans after James and he was trying to correct James.

I’m convinced that we don’t really have a conflict here. What James is saying is this: If a person says he has faith, but he gives no outward evidence of that faith through righteous works, his faith will not justify him. Martin Luther, John Calvin, or John Knox would absolutely agree with James. We are not saved by a profession of faith or by a claim to faith. That faith has to be genuine before the merit of Christ will be imputed to anybody. You can’t just say you have faith. True faith will absolutely and necessarily yield the fruits of obedience and the works of righteousness. Luther was saying that those works don’t add to that person’s justification at the judgment seat of God. But they do justify his claim to faith before the eyes of man. James is saying, not that a man is justified before God by his works, but that his claim to faith is shown to be genuine as he demonstrates the evidence of that claim of faith through his works.

[Saint Nicholas]

Below is a brief snippet from R. C. [Roman Catholic - pun intended] Sproul. Sproul, a professional clergyman to say the least is very careful of the wording and sentence structures he uses to infer false ideas and half truths to convey his false message. Can anyone detect the false messages? I will make comment shortly in the next post.........Nicholas


What role does human achievement or good works play in salvation?

Human good works play a tremendously important role. There can be no salvation whatsoever without good works, and your good works are crucial to your salvation. Now, how can a Protestant make a statement like that?

First of all, good works are absolutely crucial and are, indeed, necessary for salvation because God requires good works to save anybody. Catholics would agree also.Those good works are supplied and provided by Christ, who in his perfect humanity earned the infinite merit of God—the reward of which is the very basis of my salvation. Catholics would agree to that also. Without Christ’s righteousness, I am in very big trouble.Catholics would agree also So my salvation, initially, is grounded upon good works—Jesus’ good works. Catholics would agree also.

Yes R.C., but are these good works imputed to us? or are they infused in us? The wording of the above statement can be accepted by Papist's also.

What about my own good works? Do they have a role? Most Protestants would say no. Justification is only one part of salvation. Salvation is the big word. Salvation is the word that covers all of the process by which God fully brings us to total redemption. Justification is that point in the process when God declares me a person who is in a state of redemption. Would this be similar to being in the state of sanctifying grace? Justification is God's verdict and declaration of righteousness. God in fact delares his people righteous before they are even born.The fact is that you are already justified, and you are in a state of salvation to a degree, but there’s still more of your salvation yet to come. You still haven’t gone to heaven. You still haven’t been perfectly sanctified. Well, if I have not yet been perfectly sanctified by the blood of Christ, will I need to be purged of all my sins in this life? or in the afterlife, perhaps in purgatory? You haven’t been glorified. None of those things will happen to you until you die and go to heaven. When you die and go to heaven, God will give you a reward for whatever degree of obedience you have rendered to him in your Christian life. I strongly disagree The reward that God bestows upon you in heaven will be given according to your works but not because your works are so righteous and meritorious that they impose an obligation upon God to reward them. God has graciously given us the promise that he will reward whatever obedience we give him. How can any of our good works be a ground for heavenly rewards. All of our good works are tainted with sin. He doesn’t have to, but out of his goodness and grace, as Augustine said, he crowns his own gifts. Our entrance into heaven is strictly by the righteousness of Christ. Our reward in heaven will be granted according to the works of obedience that we render.

The above statement by R.C. was in my opinion written in such an ecumenical fashion that it would not do violence or disagree with the Council of Trent.

[Brandan Kraft]

What role does human achievement or good works play in salvation?

The fact that Sproul's answer is longer than a few words tells me that he doesn't have a clue. The correct answer would be, "NONE AT ALL!"

If a person cannot answer accordingly, they simply do not understand.

[Robert R. Higby]

A lot of these statements remind me of Sproul's watered-down opposition to the Federal Vision teachings at the PCA General Assembly in June. Even though a stand was taken against the FV, there was no 'teeth' in it. It is going nowhere in the long run. This is because the epistemological method ('method of defending truth') of men like Sproul is so deficient that true and genuine conviction based on reason given by the Holy Spirit is not the determining factor.

The stance of historic churchmen on just about everything is doomed to fail, in terms of reforming their denominations. They have been playing all sides of the fence for so long that they cannot sound a clear and certain trumpet. 'Conservative' churches have resisted the advancing light of truth for generations; how can they now embrace it? They cannot. God has shut it up from them. As with all history, God has sent them a strong delusion that they should believe a lie, in judgment on the fact that they did not love the advancing light of the gospel with exhuberance.

[Saint Nicholas]

Another snippet by R.C. for your consideration. Again, my comments are to follow....Nicholas


If justification is by faith alone, how can we apply James 2:24, which says a person is justified by what he does, not his faith alone?

My comments will be in blue by the text in question.

That question is not critical only today, but it was in the eye of the storm we call the Protestant Reformation that swept through and divided the Christian church in the sixteenth century. Martin Luther declared his position: Justification is by faith alone, our works add nothing to our justification whatsoever, and we have no merit to offer God that in any way enhances our justification. This created the worst schism in the history of Christendom. As you can see. R.C. Sproul thinks that this schism was the "worst" thing that could have happened. Perhaps in his view, we would have all been better off if the reformation had never happenned, and better yet we should be following the Augustinian/Thomist model of Christianity. Augustine and Thomas Aquinas are R.C.'s heros and also "titans of the Church" in his view.

In refusing to accept Luther’s view, the Roman Catholic Church excommunicated him, then responded to the outbreak of the Protestant movement with a major church council, the Council of Trent, which was part of the so-called Counter-Reformation and took place in the middle of the sixteenth century. The sixth session of Trent, at which the canons and decrees on justification and faith were spelled out, specifically appealed to James 2:24 to rebuke the Protestants who said that they were justified by faith alone: "You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone." How could James say it any more clearly? It would seem that that text would blow Luther out of the water forever. This text did not blow Luther out of the water. The Papist theologians were correct on their interpretation of James 2:24. It was Luther who said that James was an epistle of straw. However, in an attempt to reconcile with the Roman church, some of the reformers, including Calvin cowered to the pressure of the Roman Church and accepted the letter of James as canon. This however posed a great problem for the protestants. How could they reconcile Paul with James seeing that James contradicted Paul. Well the Protestants had to re-invent the wheel so to speak and come up with an alternative interpretation of James. And that phony interpretation has been enshrined in bedrock in all the non-Catholic churches today. See below as to what I mean.

Of course, Martin Luther was very much aware that this verse was in the book of James. Luther was reading Romans, where Paul makes it very clear that it’s not through the works of the law that any man is justified and that we are justified by faith and only through faith. What do we have here? Some scholars say we have an irreconcilable conflict between Paul and James, that James was written after Paul, and James tried to correct Paul. Others say that Paul wrote Romans after James and he was trying to correct James.

I’m convinced that we don’t really have a conflict here.R.C. is forced to accept this conclusion or else he would be de-frocked and banished from his clergy friends and theologians. What James is saying is this: If a person says he has faith, but he gives no outward evidence of that faith through righteous works, his faith will not justify him. I will not cover this issue here. Please read my paper on this. Martin Luther, John Calvin, or John Knox would absolutely agree with James. We are not saved by a profession of faith or by a claim to faith. That faith has to be genuine before the merit of Christ will be imputed to anybody. Christ's merits were imputed to the elect before they were even born. You can’t just say you have faith. True faith will absolutely and necessarily yield the fruits of obedience and the works of righteousness. R.C. admits that works of righteousness flow from genuine faith. And I agree also. However R.C. believes that these good works do merit rewards of sanctification and glorification which are all part of the salvation process. This is pure heretical Augustinian soteriology. Augustine, whom R.C. worships, taught that as we cooperate with infused grace, this cooperation will merit salvation before God. Luther was saying that those works don’t add to that person’s justification at the judgment seat of God. But they do justify his claim to faith before the eyes of man. James is saying, not that a man is justified before God by his works, but that his claim to faith is shown to be genuine as he demonstrates the evidence of that claim of faith through his works. James is not teaching that at all. James cleary states that Abrahams faith alone was imperfect before God, and needed good works to make it perfect. However God Justified Abraham before Isaac was born. See the James exposed paper.

Nicholas

[Robert R. Higby]

Even though you hit the nail on the head, Nicholas, Protestants will NEVER admit that their acceptance of James as authoritative, innerrant scripture occured as a result from pressure from the Catholics in the first half of the 16th century, especially at Regensburg. Though this fact is historically accurate! Here is a blog related to the issue:

http://beggarsallreformation.blogspo...defenders.html

FYI: Dave Armstrong is the most well-published of the 'coming home' Roman Catholics: those who used to be 'evanjellyfishers'. Swan is an Armstrong opponent.