Protestant Imperialism made rivers of blood to flow even as they insisted: “I am saved by Faith, Alone.” Sometimes, pretentious Protestants translate it into Latin, “Sole Fides” as if that gives it some sort of intellectual or moral credibility.
The monstrous idea was popularized by Martin Luther as he made the transition from his Catholic Vows of Obedience and Chastity into into doing his own thing.
When we face one painful fact, that the tens of millions of American Indians who filled an entire Continent were wiped out by the Protestant settlers of North America, we see the horrors unleashed by “I am saved by Faith, alone.”
Protestant Imperialism marched to the beat. “Faith, Alone! Faith, Alone! I am saved by Faith, Alone!” as Indian villages and fields were burned at the beginnings of awful winter after awful winter. “It’s yer Christian Duty!” pulpit-pounding preachers proclaimed to generations of Protestant Imperialists. No one can deny the historical tragedy caused by Protestant Imperialists who justified horrifying slaughter by repeating, even with blood up to their elbows, “I am saved by Faith, Alone.”
Settlers who took possession of the nearly free land agreed! They saw their new fiefdoms as God-given blessings of such magnitude that no further proof was needed to believe “I am saved by Faith, Alone.” Some, proclaimed as “great thinkers”, wrote learned books on “The Protestant Ethic” as the vast American wealth that flowed from virtually free land and minerals began to multiply with no thought as to its having been the result of receiving stolen goods from centuries of mass murder.
Similarly, many small scale sins are justified by “I am saved by Faith, Alone.” Lesser, individual tragedies of souls lost to eternal pain come from following the vain lunacy of Sola Fides. When Catholic marriages are ended by infidelity, the adulterous person often ends up in some Protestant group, repeating piously to the approval of others, “I am saved by Faith, Alone.”
Those falling into the sinkhole of Sola Fides are too vain to let themselves ask “Am I making my sin worse by telling the lie that I am not sinning?”
Sins compounded by lies keep people farther from Heaven. Rev 15:21 is clear. “Outside are the dogs, the sorcerers, the unchaste, the murderers, the idol-worshipers, and all who love and practice deceit.”
Those seeking to justify their vanity often embrace the great deceit of Sola Fides. “I am saved by Faith, Alone.”, they say to each other, nodding wisely as great throngs of them go marching proudly down the broad path to destruction.
