Sola Fide is Latin for “Faith alone.” Martin Luther popularized “Sola Fide” as “the way” to get into Heaven. He didn’t believe that anyone was saved by good works. Luther taught that only faith would save. Others conclude “Sola Fide? Fraud.”
The Bible disagrees with Martin Luther and all who teach “Sola Fide” St. Paul is very clear in Romans 1:20. “Ever since God created the world, His everlasting power and deity, however invisible, have been there for the mind to see in the things He has made. That is why such people are without excuse: they knew God and yet refused to honor Him as God or to thank Him; instead they made nonsense out of logic and their empty minds were darkened. The more they called themselves, philosophers, the more stupid they grew . . .”
What was the result of disobeying God? We are told in Romans 1:29 “. . . God has left them to their own irrational ideas and to their monstrous behavior. And so they are steeped in all sorts of depravity, rottenness, greed and malice, and addicted to envy, murder, wrangling, treachery, and spite. Libelers, slanderers, enemies of God, rude, arrogant and boastful, enterprising in sin, rebellious to parents, without brains, honor, love, or pity.”
Romans 1:32 tells us that those sins are compounded by one sin that is even deadlier and another that is deadlier than that: “They know what God’s verdict is: that those who behave like this deserve to die-and yet they do it; and what is worse, encourage others to do the same.”
The next Chapter of Romans, 2:1-5, St. Paul is clear: “So, no matter who you are, if you pass judgement you have no excuse. In judging others you condemn yourself, since you behave no differently from those you judge. . . . and when you judge those who behave like this while you are doing exactly the same, do you think you will escape God’s Judgment? . . . Your stubborn refusal to repent is only adding to the anger God will have towards you on that day of anger when His just judgements will be made known. He will repay each one as his works deserve.”
Each of us is repaid as our “works deserve”. It is tempting for all of us to say “St. Paul was talking those whom ‘God left to their filthy enjoyments and the practices with which they dishonor their own bodies. . ‘ and insist “I am better than that.” Is using artificial birth control a “filthy enjoyment“? Have we used any artificial birth control chemicals or devices that cause the tiniest and most invisible of our babies to die?
As we consider where we stand, we must heed Romans 2: 5-6. “Your stubborn refusal to repent is only adding to the anger God will have towards you on that day of anger when His just judgments will be known.”
What must we do to be saved from the sin of artificial birth control? We must carefully consider Christ’s words to His first Bishops. They would ordain successor Bishops and priests in The Only Church He Founded. To the end of the age, Catholic priests are ordained with the power to forgive sins. Proof? John 20:23 has the very words of Jesus to His chosen priests and Bishops: “Receive the Holy Spirit. For those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven; for those whose sins you retain, they are retained.”
For Heaven’s sake, be Catholic! Confess such sins! Get Absolution!
