Idk how accurate this is but apparently, here's a chart explaining the Church's as a whole's beliefs on Sola Fide and Sola Scriptura:
Three-in-ten U.S. Protestants believe in both sola fide and sola scriptura
I am aware of that quote from Luther but here's an article saying what Luther believed about Sola Fide and many of his teachings.
Martin Luther's Explanation of Faith, Faith Alone and Faith That Is Not Alone • EFCA
Luther believed that we were saved by faith alone but the faith that saves, is never alone. Therefore a faith that saves is a Christian willing to do good works, to live a Godly life for God, To completely and totally change their prior ways, To get baptized (Luther never really commented on whether or not infant baptism counts but the Baptists argue that the only valid form of baptism is by full immersion, and there are some Protestant denominations that argue for infant baptism) ...etc. Luther argued that a Christian who is not willing to do these things, than they never really believed or accepted Christ at all. I have to say, I agree.
The fact that so many "Christians" are leaving the faith only shows to me, that they never had saving faith to begin with, never had the Holy Spirit, and Eternal Security doesn't apply to them. Because one of the signs of the Holy Spirit is that a person remains in the faith for life. You have to have the Holy Spirit to have Eternal Security.
neosrarwcc,
1. As I said before in post 32# the question is not whether one believes in eternal security or not.
Both Arminians and Calvinists both believe in Eternal Security.
Armininists believe in ES conditionally as far as having free will and having to cooperate with God’s requirements of works of obedience not works to merit.
2. Full Calvinists of the Reformed theology believe more in line with no free will but God’s sovereign choice.
This is why they pretty much ascribe to if you leave and never come back you were never saved in the first place.
2. This is why Justification by Grace and Justification by works has to be properly understood in their separate context to get a clearer picture on this subject.
3. Faith without works is dead and saved by grace and not works has to be reconciled to not be a contradiction.
And they are reconciled through proper understanding of Justification by works and grace.
4. Free will choice is always with us whether Christian or not a Christian.
We are to be imitators of Christ and the more we choose his ways we grow in relationship and our choices automatically will be what his will is.
At the same time it doesn’t mean free will has left us at all to make a wrong choice even to the point of going apostate. That is highly unlikely with most true Christians but it is a possibility.
3. The T-U-L-I-P believes in God’s complete sovereignty in salvation from beginning to end, so they say.
In truth it is not true in their daily lives for they know they can sin and they believe they are sinners saved by grace.
We were sinners saved by grace is a better way to put it because most of them use we are sinners saved by grace to prove how much they can sin and most of that crowd results in living carnal while being saved. But since they are eternally secure they can lay the blame of sin on the Savior. I’ve actually heard some say this.
4. The truth is Satan is out there to steal, kill, and destroy Christian lives not just their testimony. If he destroys their lives he has destroyed their testimony.
1 John is but one example of people who were never saved at to begin with. But this doesn’t mean that every person who leaves the faith was never saved.
There are plenty of accounts in the Bible of saved people losing their salvation.
Under the Old Testament all were baptized under the cloud and sea and drank of that spiritual drink which was Christ, but those in Korah sinned and died in their sin. In Ezekiel the Lord would not remember their righteousness anymore if the Jew didn’t repent.
Annanias and Sapphira were part of the early church who were in one accord and they lied to the Holy Spirit and were stricken dead.
Jesus gave the parable of the woman and the lost coin but she found it again. That lost coin could be lost more than once and be found more than once.
5. Eternal life is an eternal substance, but that doesn’t mean it is an automatic guarantee eternal possession anymore than a coin that can’t be lost or a person that can’t get lost in the woods etc.
There are professors and possessors and God knows the heart. And he knows which we’re never saved and which ones were saved and left the faith.
There are some on the side of UES as a license to sin and some on the side of CES that just profess and both parties use their free will choice of their own volition.
So it is the faithful who choose freely to follow God to the end that will be accepted into Heaven.
The sinful and unfaithful God cannot save on either side of this issue.
Jerry Kelso