When I was chatting with Linda Calhoun at the goat dairy, she brought up the “justification by faith, not works” issue as an argument against religion. What kind of God, she argued, would forgive someone who lived a life that harmed others (Hitler is the classic example), if that person simply confessed on his deathbed that he accepted Jesus as a personal savior?

The doctrine of Sola Fide, or “justificationism” (sole justification and forgiveness by faith, not by one’s deeds) is one of the five solas of many—but not all—Christian sects, and is summed up by Wikipedia:

Historic Protestantism (both Lutheran and Reformed) has held to sola-fide justification in opposition to Roman Catholicism especially, but also in opposition to significant aspects of Eastern Orthodoxy. Protestants exclude all human works (except the works of Jesus Christ, which form the basis of justification) from the legal verdict (or pardon) of justification. In the General Council of Trent the Catholic Church stated in canon XIV on justification that “If any one saith, that man is truly absolved from his sins and justified, because that he assuredly believed himself absolved and justified; or, that no one is truly justified but he who believes himself justified; and that, by this faith alone, absolution and justification are effected; let him be anathema (excommunicated).” Thus, “faith alone” is foundational to Protestantism, and distinguishes it from other Christian denominations. According to Martin Luther, justification by faith alone is the article on which the church stands or falls.

Some brands of Christianity reject the doctrine. Catholics, for example, claim that if you have the requisite faith in Jesus, you will necessarily do good works and lead a moral life, and if you don’t, mere confession on your deathbed won’t keep you from frying. But other churches adhere pretty strictly to the doctrine—with some theological waffling, of course. Here are some statements of church doctrine used to justify sola fide:

Anglican

Article XI Of the Justification of Man

We are accounted righteous before God, only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by faith, and not for our own works or deservings. Wherefore that we are justified by faith only is a most wholesome doctrine, and very full of comfort; as more largely is expressed in the Homily of Justification. Thirty-nine Articles of Religion (1571)

Lutheran [ edit ]

Article IV Of Justification Our churches by common consent…teach that men cannot be justified before God by their own strength, merits, or works, but are freely justified for Christ’s sake, through faith, when they believe that they are received into favor, and that their sins are forgiven for Christ’s sake, who, by His death, has made satisfaction for our sins. This faith God imputes for righteousness in His sight. Rom. 3 and 4. Augsburg Confession, 1530

Southern Baptist Baptist Faith and Message – 2000 Article IV, sub-article B. Justification is God’s gracious and full acquittal upon principles of His righteousness of all sinners who repent and believe in Christ. Justification brings the believer unto a relationship of peace and favor with God. United Methodist [ edit ]

We believe we are never accounted righteous before God through our works or merit, but that penitent sinners are justified or accounted righteous before God only by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Article IX—Justification and Regeneration (The Discipline of The Evangelical United Brethren Church 1963)

After Linda mentioned this, I realized that sola fide, besides being morally repugnant to us today (seriously, would God forgive Hitler if he confessed?), has another implication: it destroys the argument that religion promotes morality. After all, if, as many Christians aver, simple acceptance of Jesus as one’s savior is sufficient to get you to heaven—and works don’t count at all—what motivation is there to do good? (Remember that religion is supposed to provide the motivation that atheists lack, which is why we supposedly have no impetus to be moral.)

Now a believer may argue, in response, that if you accept Jesus you will naturally be a moral person and do good. That is the Catholic Church’s argument. But remember that sola fide claims that ONLY faith, and not deeds, matters when it comes to salvation. You can lead a moral and exemplary life, helping all kinds of people, but if you’re a heathen or a Jew, sola fide damns you to perdition.

Perhaps I’m missing something here, but it seems to me that those sects that embrace sola fide provide no genuine impetus to be moral, but in fact give you a loophole that allows you to live as immorally as you want and still sing with the choir invisible—something that secular humanists don’t have.

I know there are former adherents of those faiths here, so tell me: doesn’t sola fide argue against religion being a source of morality, at least in those sects? (Of course the Euthyphro Argument blows any argument for religiously-derived morality out of the water.)