Evangelical Statesman: "True Love Confronts"

John Ankerberg "Dr. Kennedy, all through the years that I have known you, you've had the reputation among evangelical leaders of being the statesman, the one that constantly wants to bring us together, you don't want any splits. And even in this situation we met in your office. But what's at stake is that the cry for tolerance today and love between Roman Catholics and evangelical Protestants is very, very strong. And when we make some of these statements, people say, "Don't you have any love for Roman Catholics? Are you guys so harsh?" Talk about love and tolerance and the priority that truth has over that...and that when we stand for the truth that does not necessarily mean that we don't love people. In fact, when we stand for the truth it means that we actually love them more."

D. James Kennedy: "Absolutely, John. If we believe as Christians the truth of the Scripture, if we believe what Christ said that He is THE way, THE truth and THE life, if we believe as Peter said that there is none other name under heaven given unto men whereby they must be saved, if there is no other way than through justification by faith in Christ alone, if we are willing for the sake of some temporal earthly peace and tolerance to ignore proclaiming that truth to people, then we are not demonstrating to them love, we are actually demonstrating hate because we are allowing those people to go to the judgment of God without ever telling them the one way by which they can be justified in the eyes of a just and holy God. And that is a false love. True love confronts. And it should do it with grace and with kindness but nevertheless firmly."

Irreconcilable Differences:

Catholics, Evangelicals, and the New Quest for Unity

Birds are Wiser than Greedy People

When a bird sees a trap being set, it stays away. But not these people! They set an ambush for themselves; they booby-trap their own lives! Such is the fate of all who are greedy for gain. It ends up robbing them of life. 
(Proverbs 1:17-19 NLT)

"The sight of danger leads to the avoidance of danger. Instinct directs the bird, reason the man. Yet man is so infatuated with sin that in his pride he will not do what the bird does by instinct. She flies away from the net that she has been being spread, but man rushes into it."

~ Charles Bridges

Is Faith a Meritorious Work?

"I may say also that Scott doesn't even discuss the point that some Protestants infelicitously express justification in a way that makes it sound as if the justification comes on the merit of  faith. Again, I have been saying for at least 50 years that it is incorrect to say the Bible and reformed theology teach that justification is based upon the merits of the believer's faith. Protestants are not saying that one act of Protestant faith can do what all the works of the Roman Catholic cannot do. Now if faith were viewed as a work, it would be teaching the same thing Rome is teaching, only in a form so diminished that it is more atrocious than the Roman Catholic doctrine could ever be. This would mean that one act of ours is so meritorious that it redeems us from sin and entitles us to heaven forever. When we talk about justification by faith alone as the Bible talks about it, we refer to faith alone as coming to Jesus, resting in Jesus, and being identified with Jesus. Because we are one with Jesus, all that Jesus has done for us is ours in the experience. Nothing in our hands we bring. Simply to His cross we cling. But clinging to Him does not save us. Coming to Him does not save us. Trusting in Him does not save us. He ALONE saves us."

According to the Reformed faith (again, the historical Protestant faith) Christ even produces in us the spirit of faith, which we exercise non-meritoriously... I stressed the fact that so far from faith being a meritorious work, it is itself a gift of God..."

-- JOHN GERSTNER

an Appendix titled Rome NOT Home (A Response to Rome Sweet Home, by Scott and Kimberly Hahn)

in Justification by Faith Alone