Protestant/catholic Relationship

[Papist]

[quote name='Timothy J. Hutama' timestamp='1341117382' post='2451073']
Mmm I do wonder, how would you respond to this pastor if you had the opportunity for an open discussion. Is his criticism of catholic theology accurate (being on a catholic forum the answer is no so why xD)
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItX-vG06QFk[/media]

I feel the the central division between catholicism and protestantism (and thus my main qualm with catholic/othrodox/coptic theology) is justification, the centre difference of reformed theology.

I feel what he says does line up with what I read in the catechism (and my now obtained copy of Kreeft's book), albeit in a very negative way.
[/quote]

This is very sad. Why is a pastor of an evangelical church teaching(very poorly) the Catholic theology? Where he learn what he is saying in the video? And who is his target audience?

[Papist]

Salvation is by grace alone (Ephesians 2:8) and salvation is through Christ alone (Acts 4:12). Look up every occurrence of the word "faith" in the Bible, you will come up with an undeniable fact the only time the phrase "faith alone" is used in the entire Bible is when it is condemned (James 2:24). The epistle of James only mentions it in the negative sense.

The Bible tells us we must have faith in order to be saved (Hebrews 11:6). But is faith nothing more than believing and trusting? Searching the Scriptures, we see faith also involves assent to God's truth (1 Thessalonians 2:13), obedience to Him (Romans 1:5, 16:26), and it must be working in love (Galatians 5:6). These points appeared to be missed by the reformers, yet they are just as crucial as believing and trusting. (1 Corinthians 13:1-3) should be listened to by all and it's certainly an attention grabber.

Paul speaks of faith as a life-long process, never as a one-time experience (Philippians 2:12). He never assumes he has nothing to worry about. If he did, his words in (1 Corinthians 9:24-27) would be nonsense. He reiterates the same point again in his second letter to Corinth (2 Corinthians 13:5). He takes nothing for granted, yet all would agree if anyone was "born again" it certainly was Paul. Our Lord and Savior spoke of the same thing by "remaining in Him" (John 15:1-11).

Paul tells us our faith is living and can go through many stages. It never stays permanently fixed after a single conversion experience no matter how genuine or sincere. Our faith can be shipwrecked (1 Timothy 1:19), departed from (1 Timothy 4:1), disowned (1 Timothy 5:8) wandered from (1 Timothy 6:10), and missed (1 Timothy 6:21). Christians do not have a "waiver" that exempts them from these verses.

Do our works mean anything? According to Jesus they do (Matthew 25:31-46). The people rewarded and punished are done so by their actions. And our thoughts (Matthew 15:18-20) and words (James 3:6-12) are accountable as well. These verses are just as much part of the Bible as Romans 10:8-13 and John 3:3-5.

The Catholic Church has never taught we "earn" our salvation. It is an inheritance (Galatians 5:21), freely given to anyone who becomes a child of God (1 John 3:1), so long as they remain that way (John 15:1-11). You can't earn it but you can lose the free gift given from the Father (James 1:17).