LAST week we considered the free salvation of God by the faith that is the free gift of God, the faith that works by love.BEST June 10, 1895, page 179.1

THE CATHOLIC DENIAL OF FAITH

Now of this faith it is the boast of the Catholic Church that she knows nothing. This is the very doctrine of faith, and of justification by faith, which produced the Reformation and made original, genuine Protestantism. And of this faith, and of the Reformation which was produced by it, the Catholic Church speaks thus:—BEST June 10, 1895, page 179.2

“As in revolutions the leaders try to gain the people over by the bait of promised independence, so at the time of the so-called Reformation—which was a revolution against church authority and order in religion—it seems that it was the aim of the Reformers to decoy the people under the pretext of making them independent of the priests, in whose hands our Saviour has placed the administering the seven sacraments of pardon and of grace.BEST June 10, 1895, page 179.3

“They began, therefore, by discarding five of these sacraments.... They then reduced, as it appears, to a matter of form, the two sacraments they professed to retain, namely, holy baptism and the holy eucharist. To make up for this rejection, and enable each individual to prescribe for himself, and procure by himself the pardon of sins and divine grace, independently of the priests and of the sacraments, they invented an exclusive means, never known in the church of God, and still rejected by all the eastern churches and by the Roman Catholics throughout the world.... They have framed a new dogma of justification by faith alone, or by faith only.BEST June 10, 1895, page 179.4

“Luther invented, as we have said, the doctrine, and was the first to affix such a meaning to the word faith.... And from that period only there existed man who saw in the word faith, occurring so frequently in Holy Scripture, that which has never been seen by the fathers, doctors, saints, and by the whole Church of God.—Catholic Belief, pp. 365, 366, 374.BEST June 10, 1895, page 179.5

THE FAITH OF THE CREED

These extracts are enough to show, and they declare plainly enough, that the Catholic Church does indeed know nothing of the faith which is of God, and which, because it is of God, bears in itself sufficient power and merit to justify and save the sinner who will allow it to work in him the righteousness of God. What meaning then does she affix to the word “faith”? Here it is:—BEST June 10, 1895, page 179.6

“These texts, all of which refer to saving faith, prove beyond a doubt that not trust in Christ for personal salvation, but the faith of the creed, ... is the faith availing for justification.—p. 370.BEST June 10, 1895, page 179.7

But who made the creed?—Men, and men only. Constantine was the chief agent in the making of the original Catholic creed, the Nicene Creed. Men being the sole authors of the creed, and “faith” being “the faith of the creed,” it follows at once that that faith is solely of themselves, of their own manufacture, and not the gift of God at all, and is therefore not true faith at all. For the true faith, the faith that really saves, is “not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.” And it is as certain as anything can be that the Catholic faith is a base counterfeit that she would pass off upon all the world, and by force, too, to supplant the true faith.BEST June 10, 1895, page 179.8

It is not enough, however, to say that it is a mere human invention; it comes from lower down than that. And she herself has given us the means of tracing it to its original. Here it is:—BEST June 10, 1895, page 179.9

“By faith is not meant a trust in Christ for personal salvation, but evidently a firm belief that Jesus is the Messias, the Christ, the Son of God, that what is related of Him in the gospel is true, and that what he taught it true.—p. 369.BEST June 10, 1895, page 179.10

EXAMPLES OF THIS FAITH

Now there are recorded in the Scriptures several examples of this same identical “faith” here defined. Here is one:—BEST June 10, 1895, page 179.11

“And in the synagogue there was a man, which had a spirit of an unclean devil, and cried out with a loud voice, saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? Art Thou come to destroy us? I know Thee who Thou art; the Holy One of God. And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him. And when the devil had thrown him in the midst, he came out of him.” Luke 4:33-35.BEST June 10, 1895, page 179.12

Here is another:—BEST June 10, 1895, page 179.13

“And unclean spirits, when they saw Him, fell down before Him, and cried, saying, Thou art the Son of God. And He straitly charged them that they should not make Him known.” Mark 3:11, 12.BEST June 10, 1895, page 179.14

And here is another:—BEST June 10, 1895, page 179.15

“And when he was come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way. And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with Thee, Jesus, Thou Son of God? Art Thou come hither to torment us before the time?” Matthew 8:28, 29.BEST June 10, 1895, page 179.16

And yet another:—BEST June 10, 1895, page 179.17

“Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth. And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, and chief of the priests, which did so. And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye?” Acts 19:13-15.BEST June 10, 1895, page 179.18

In these examples there is every element of the “faith” above defined and set forth as the “saving faith” of the Catholic Church. Every one of these devils showed “evidently a firm belief,” and actually proclaimed it, “that Jesus is the Messias, the Christ, the Son of God”! And that legion of them that found a home with the hogs and set the whole two thousand of them crazy, showed also “evidently a firm belief that what is related of him in the gospel is true.” For from the beginning of the gospel in this world, it had been related of Him that He should bruise the devil’s head; and it was indeed related of Him that He should destroy the devil. And that this legion of devils had “evidently a firm belief” that this is true is clearly shown by their terrified inquiry, “Art thou come hither to torment us before the time?” They thoroughly believed that this time of torment was coming, as it had been related; and what they feared now was that it was to befall them “before the time.”BEST June 10, 1895, page 179.19

The Scripture plainly states that that is just the kind of faith that it is. Here are the words: “Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well; the devils also believe, and tremble.” James 2:19. There is the plain word of the Lord, that this “faith” that is proudly set forth as the Catholic faith is simply the faith that the devils have. And it does not save them. It has no power to change their lives. They are devils still. And, moreover, Jesus forbade them to preach this “faith.”BEST June 10, 1895, page 158.1

June 3, 1895

June 17, 1895