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Regarding the topic of faith alone, I'd recommend RC Sproul's book Faith Alone: The Evangelical Doctrine of Justification as well as James White's book called The God Who Justifies.
Sproul's book in particular caused me to totally change my outlook on Christianity.
It should be pointed out that if someone denies justification by faith alone, they are not an evangelical Christian. While I would not deny that some non-evangelicals are saved, evangelical Christianity pretty well defines essential Christianity and I would not attend a non-evangelical church personally. Evangelical churches include all Protestant churches by definition..at least all real ones...there may be some calling themselves Protestants who aren't evangelical but if they deny justification by faith alone, they aren't Protestants. Some of those teaching Pelagian/Finneyist doctrines are not Protestants by definition as they deny justification by faith alone. All cults would deny justification by faith alone too which should tell you something.
Justification by faith alone is a logical necessity. The main issue is that unconverted mankind has a nature that cannot please God, and so he cannot do any good works to merit or earn his salvation. He cannot do anything to restore the relationship and to eliminate the barrier of sin that stands between him and God. So, he really has nothing to offer God in that regard, and by necessity salvation is totally by grace and cannot be by works.
At salvation, the person receives a new nature when he is born from above or born again. This new nature wants to please God and does good works as a manifestation of this nature. The works are a fruit of salvation, and do not earn, merit, or continue salvation.
Some Christians think that seekers need to start acting like a Christian to become a Christian. This is basically what the faith+works = salvation view teaches.
It is true that repentance is part of faith, but this is more a change of mind which manifests itself later in actions. The person turns from sin and toward Christ. Faith encompasses this entire movement.
It's pretty obvious from the New Testament that individuals were saved in a moment of time..examples are the thief on the Cross, the 3000 saved on the day of Pentecost, and the Philippian jailer.
Anyways the above books are pretty good in this regard. There are a lot of statements which say that faith is what is required for salvation, and only a few that even mention works. Faith manifests itself in works. The faith is what comes first, and the works are a manifestation of that.
James reference to faith and works is talking about the KIND of faith which saves. Faith that does not manifest itself in good works won't save, because it is not a real faith. There is a fake, counterfeit faith and there is a real faith. A real faith manifests itself in good works. It is the kind of faith which results in receiving a new nature that wants to obey God.
I'd highly recommend the above books. Those who claim that salvation is not by faith alone have some real issues as they don't understand that the unconverted man cannot please God, so there's no way they could do good works to merit salvation to start with.
Sproul's book in particular caused me to totally change my outlook on Christianity.
It should be pointed out that if someone denies justification by faith alone, they are not an evangelical Christian. While I would not deny that some non-evangelicals are saved, evangelical Christianity pretty well defines essential Christianity and I would not attend a non-evangelical church personally. Evangelical churches include all Protestant churches by definition..at least all real ones...there may be some calling themselves Protestants who aren't evangelical but if they deny justification by faith alone, they aren't Protestants. Some of those teaching Pelagian/Finneyist doctrines are not Protestants by definition as they deny justification by faith alone. All cults would deny justification by faith alone too which should tell you something.
Justification by faith alone is a logical necessity. The main issue is that unconverted mankind has a nature that cannot please God, and so he cannot do any good works to merit or earn his salvation. He cannot do anything to restore the relationship and to eliminate the barrier of sin that stands between him and God. So, he really has nothing to offer God in that regard, and by necessity salvation is totally by grace and cannot be by works.
At salvation, the person receives a new nature when he is born from above or born again. This new nature wants to please God and does good works as a manifestation of this nature. The works are a fruit of salvation, and do not earn, merit, or continue salvation.
Some Christians think that seekers need to start acting like a Christian to become a Christian. This is basically what the faith+works = salvation view teaches.
It is true that repentance is part of faith, but this is more a change of mind which manifests itself later in actions. The person turns from sin and toward Christ. Faith encompasses this entire movement.
It's pretty obvious from the New Testament that individuals were saved in a moment of time..examples are the thief on the Cross, the 3000 saved on the day of Pentecost, and the Philippian jailer.
Anyways the above books are pretty good in this regard. There are a lot of statements which say that faith is what is required for salvation, and only a few that even mention works. Faith manifests itself in works. The faith is what comes first, and the works are a manifestation of that.
James reference to faith and works is talking about the KIND of faith which saves. Faith that does not manifest itself in good works won't save, because it is not a real faith. There is a fake, counterfeit faith and there is a real faith. A real faith manifests itself in good works. It is the kind of faith which results in receiving a new nature that wants to obey God.
I'd highly recommend the above books. Those who claim that salvation is not by faith alone have some real issues as they don't understand that the unconverted man cannot please God, so there's no way they could do good works to merit salvation to start with.
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You can believe the gospel or you can pervert the gospel by adding works to it. The choice is yours. I hope and pray that one day you will make the right choice.
