Offline
While are multiple definitions of the world "faith" in the English dictionary, the faith described in the Bible seems well defined:There are multiple definitions when you look faith up in the dictionary, there are multiple words used in scripture that translate in English versions of the bible to "faith", and there are multiple examples of when language used isn't definitely all inclusive. All doesn't always mean ALL, for example. I don't count the bible as the sole authority, nor do i trust my translation and personal interpretation as correct. I do trust the teaching of the Church who made the bible.
When you die and the "veil is lifted", you can no longer gain (or lose) merit, because as you say, then you'd know for sure. But what if, as an atheist, the face you rejected your entire life was not the true face of God, but a very broken and contradictory representation? And the face of the true God looks a lot closer to the internal code you live and believe by? The bible also says "If I have all faith, but have not love, I am nothing". What we do for others matters.
Love is NECESSARY for salvation. And not just as a byproduct of a "genuine faith" one may or may not have, rather as an integral part of the process of being saved. Where does the Bible say, "If you have a genuine faith, you will automatically love and do good works?" Where?! All those people who shout, "Lord, Lord," in Matthew 7, you don't think they had a "genuine" faith? They prophesied in Jesus' name; they cast out demons in Jesus' name; they did might works in Jesus' name." You don't think they believed that Jesus was the Son of God and had died on the Cross for their sins? Of course they did. They believed. They had faith. As it says in James, "Even the demons believe." So, the demons believe...they have faith in Christ...do they automatically do good works? Hell no!
And nowhere does the Bible say, "Faith, if it has no works, isn't really faith." Or, "If I have all faith so as to move mountains, but have not love, I don't really have faith." Look at the analogy in James 2:26: "As the body apart from the spirit is dead, so faith apart from works is dead." In this analogy, faith is the body, works are the spirit. For physical life, you need both body and spirit. The spirit is not just some byproduct of the body - it is integral to life. So, for spiritual life - if the analogy is to hold - you need both faith and works. The works - love - are not just some byproduct of faith - they are integral to life, spiritual life. A body without a spirit, is a real body. It's just a dead body. No one says, "Oh, if your body doesn't have a spirit, then it's not a real body." Just so, faith without works, is still faith. It's just a dead faith. You can't say faith without works isn't really faith. It is, it's just dead faith.
In the Bible, faith alone...faith by itself...faith without works...faith without love...is dead! Dead faith. Which means, there is no such thing as salvation by faith alone - Sola Fide - there is only damnation by faith alone. "Faith working through love is of avail," (Gal 5:6). Love is NECESSARY for salvation. You cannot be saved if you do not love. It is not just a sign that your faith is a "saving faith," it is an integral part of the process of salvation. The works that flow from love are an integral part of the process of salvation. "To those who by patience in well-doing [good works] seek for glory and honor and immortality, [God] will give ETERNAL LIFE." Which means, salvation...by faith alone...is not possible.
The fact that sin has consequences is a problem with Protestantism because, in Sola Fide Protestantism - Protestant faith traditions that believe we are saved by Faith Alone - when you actually examine what they are teaching, you realize that the logical consequence of the dogma of salvation by faith alone, and its corollary - Once Saved Always Saved - is that sin has no consequences.
Think about it. We are saved by faith alone. As long as I have faith, as long as I have accepted Jesus Christ into my heart as my personal Lord and Savior...I'm saved. The only determinate of whether we go to Heaven or to Hell is whether we have faith or not. Sin plays absolutely no role in the fate of our souls. Non-believers go to Hell. Why? Because they sinned? No! Because they didn't have faith. Believers don't go to Hell. Why? Because they were holy? No! Because they have faith. Regardless of the sins they commit, they still go to Heaven because they have faith.
The problem for Protestantism with all of this, is that it goes against almost every grain of the Bible. For example, in Matthew 25 when Jesus is talking about the Last Judgment (verses 31-46), what is it that separates the sheep (who inherit the Kingdom of Heaven) and the goats (who inherit Hell)? Do the sheep have faith and the goats don't? Nope. The sheep do things for others - feed the hungry, clothe the naked, etc. - and the goats don't. In other words, the goats commit sins of omission. They sin by not helping their fellow man. And their sins have consequences. They end up in Hell.
But, according to Sola Fide, this ought not be so! Jesus should have said to the sheep on His right hand, "You accepted Me into your heart as your personal Lord and Savior, come, inherit the kingdom prepared for you." And, He should have said to the goats, "You never accepted Me into your hearts as your personal Lord and Savior, so depart from Me into the eternal fire." But He didn't. He said one group had done right, and the other group had sinned. And there was a consequence - an eternal consequence - for those that sinned (and, of course, never repented of their sin). Sin has consequences.
In Revelation 21:8 we are told the following: "But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, as for murderers, fornicators, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their lot shall be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death." What do we see here? Well, we see people that the Word of God is telling us are headed to Hell - the "lake that burns with fire and brimstone...the second death" - because of their sins. Sin has consequences here. Furthermore, there is no distinction made here between believers and unbelievers. In fact, unbelief - being faithless - is cited as just one type of sin along with murder, fornication, sorcery, et al. The fact that unbelievers are specifically mentioned as just one type of sinner, shows that this list is talking about believers and unbelievers alike. Nowhere does it say that this list is just referring to unbelievers.
In fact, in Sola Fide theology, it wouldn't make sense for this list to be referring to just unbelievers. If it was referring to unbelievers, then it should have just said, "But as for the faithless, their lot shall be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone..." Because it isn't murder or fornication or sorcery or idolatry or lying that gets one sent to Hell, it is unbelief...period! In Sola Fide theology, believers can commit all of those sins, and not repent of them, and still go to Heaven - because it is by faith alone that you are saved.
What does God render, in Romans 2:8, to those who are contentious and do not obey the truth, but obey wickedness? The Book says God will render to them wrath and fury. That's not talking about Heaven. Sin has consequences.
And there is literally passage after passage after passage in the New Testament that tells us sin has consequences. But let me wrap this up with one final passage. This passage in Matthew, chapter 5, shows beyond a shadow of a doubt that sin can, and does, have consequences - eternal consequences - for believers, contrary to what Sola Fide theology teaches. In verses 27-30, Jesus tells His listeners that if their right eye causes them to sin, pluck it out. Or, if their right hand causes them to sin, cut it off. Why did He say that? He said it to stress in a very strong way the point that you need to avoid sin at all costs because sin will get you sent to Hell. And we know he was not talking about unbelievers here, because if His listeners are able to avoid sin, then they will not go to Hell. Which means, they will be going to Heaven. And, for that to happen, Protestant theology says they have to be believers.
If Sola Fide is true, then there would be no reason for Jesus to tell these folks to pluck out their eye or cut off their hand to avoid sinning. There would be no reason, because if He is talking to believers, then they are going to Heaven whether they sin or not...so why pluck out an eye or cut off a hand? So not necessary, Jesus. There would be no reason, because if He is talking to unbelievers, then even if they pluck out their eye or cut off their hand, they are still going to Hell because of their unbelief. If Sola Fide is true, then this passage of Scripture, along with many, many others, is completely bogus.
So Jesus is telling believers here in Matt 5:27-30, that if they sin, they could end up in Hell. Again, that is not possible in Sola Fide theology. In Sola Fide theology, believers go to Heaven. Their sins have no consequence in regard to their salvation. However, in the Bible...in the Word of God...sin does indeed have consequences in regard to the salvation of believers. In the theology of the vast majority of Protestantism, sin does not have consequences when it comes to your salvation. You either believe or you don't believe. If you believe, you go to Heaven. If you don't believe, you go to Hell. So, which do you believe - the Bible...or Protestant theology?
Does the Iroquois indian living in what is now upstate New York in the year 1350 have any chance of going to Heaven? No Christian has ever set foot anywhere within a couple thousand miles of him, so he has never heard - and never even had the possibility of hearing - of the Triune God, of Jesus Christ, of the Catholic Church, of Baptism and the other Sacraments. Is he then automatically condemned to Hell? The Church says, "No." The Church teaches that God is a just God, Who, according to Scripture, wants "all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth," (1 Tim 2:4). So, if God is just, and He wants all men to be saved, then it is reasonable to believe that there is some means provided by God by which all men at least have the opportunity to be saved. So, we say that the "ordinary" means of salvation comes through the Church, by way of the Sacraments. However, if one never knows the Church or the Sacraments, then the Church reasons that there could be some extraordinary means of salvation, known only unto God, by which that person maybe saved. That does not mean, though, that they are automatically saved because of their ignorance...far from it. Paul tells us in Romans 2:14-16 that when Gentiles (which would include our Iroquois) "who have not the law do by nature what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse, or perhaps excuse them on that day when...God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus."
The Church teaches that the Sacraments are necessary for salvation. However, we are bound by the Sacraments, God is not. God has given us the ordinary means of salvation - through the Sacraments. We hold out the belief, though, that God, being a just and loving God, and being a God Who desires all men to be saved (1 Tim 2:4), gives all men at least the opportunity to be saved, even if they have never heard of Him or His Church or the Sacraments. This would be through some extraordinary means of salvation known only unto God Himself. So, God has given us the requirements by which we are to be saved - faith, Baptism, holiness, forgiveness of sins, the Eucharist, etc. - but He is able to make exceptions to what He has bound us by. Does He make those exceptions? We don't know. And, are they really "exceptions," or is He just able to convey those to someone - possibly at the point of death - in some extraordinary way? We won't ever know in this lifetime.
My point is that your definition of faith is very rigid and limited. Furthermore, what the Church does say, is that "Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or His Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and moved by grace, try in their actions to do His will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience - those too may achieve eternal salvation." (CCC #847). In other words, as I stated above, the Church holds out the possibility that God can save those outside of the Church through some extraordinary means known only to Him. We don't know that He does, but that He can. It is, as Romans 2:14-16 says, "When Gentiles who have not the law do by nature what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse, or perhaps excuse, them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus." Their conflicting thoughts "perhaps" excuse them...perhaps.
So, when the Bible tells us Baptism "saves us," and that we need to eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood to have "eternal life," and that we must confess our sins in order to be forgiven, and so on...these are requirements that hold for all men. Which is why the Church tells us we have the right and the duty to evangelize, so that all men can be saved and "come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim 2:4), because it is the truth that "makes us free" (John 8:32).
Hebrews 11:1
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
Speaking of contradictions, you don't count the Bible as the sole authority, but trust the teachings in the church who made the Bible? Are you referring to the Catholic church? The Catholic church didn't write the Bible. The Catholic church definitely didn't write the Old Testament. And the last book of the New Testament was written some 3 centuries before the Holy Roman Catholic Church was founded by Romans.
Without the Bible, there is no Christianity. How can the Bible not be the sole authority of Christianity?
And again, the point I am making is not that by faith alone you are saved, but that faith is THE prerequisite for salvation. Without faith, without the conviction of things not seen, there is no salvation, so says the Bible, in many places.