EWTN And Sola Fide Part 1

Last night I was watching yet more misrepresentations of Protestant theology on EWTN. There was an apologist showing that there is nothing in the Bible that contradicts Roman Catholic theology and vice versa. Therefore Roman Catholic beliefs are taught explicitly or implicitly in the Bible.

The problem quite often is that Protestants do open themselves up to criticism from RC apologists. When a Roman Catholic hears "Once Saved Always Saved", he immediately wonders where is the role of works in salvation. So the RC apologist (on EWTN) points to Romans chapter 2 which says:

Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who WILL RENDER TO EACH PERSON ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS: to those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life; but to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation.

So how does the Protestant normally answer this. Well, he most certainly does not exegete this particular text, but instead runs off to other texts which plainly teach Sola Fide. This may be fine for the Protestant, but when a Protestant is dealing with someone who has an external authority overriding the text, he really must deal with the assumptions of the opposing apologist. But the RC apologist can simply fire back against the Protestant's Traditions and hence we have a theological tie.

I firmly believe that many Protestants need to reevaluate their beliefs in light of the Scriptures and challenge their Traditions. How many Protestants have we "lost" to RC apologists or Mormon apologists or Jehovah's Witnesses or ect..., simply because we were not being consistent in our view of Scripture.

If we want to be able to answer the RC apologist or the Mormon apologist who will discuss these texts and the role of works in salvation, then we need to be consistent in our approach to Scripture and not run from what God's Word has to say, even if we have to challenge our beliefs.