More concern is the teaching that almsgiving alone would save a person. according to the Book of Tobit (4:11; 12:9), a
clear contradiction with the New Testament's teaching of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone (
Ephesians 2:8-9).
The New Testament does not teach this. Jesus Christ commands us to be perfect even as the Father is perfect; almsgiving is specifically iterated as a good work, St. James says in his epistle that "Faith without works is dead," and Martin Luther to his permanent credit wanted to delete these epistles and he did edit Romans to insert the word "Alone" where it was not, to his lasting discredit, in an attempt to promote an extreme form of sola fide that went well beyond Calvinism.
Even a Calvinist would say that an apparent Christian who does not give alms is unregenerate and a reprobate.
We can definitely argue from the Bible that the story of Tobit is free from doctrinal error, because almsgiving is facilitated by grace; by giving alms, we align ourselves with the uncreated energies of God; almsgiving is a gracious act of mercy, a work of righteousness inspired by divine grace and we receive grace in return for it. Our Lord seems to suggest that such almsgiving instead of hoarding wealth on Earth as a way of amassing treasure in Heaven.
It is also possible for someone to be saved through faith by grace, through the specific act of giving alms, as in Tobit. You could have a marginal and hypocriticial Christian, baptized as an infant, who sometimes goes to Church, but who believes he will be saved just on the basis of his baptism, and that he can lie, cheat and behave ruthlessly in business with impunity and God will forgive him without even being asked because he is Christian.
This man acquires a great fortune, and becomes famous, a legend, a celebrity entrepreneur, appearing on magazines and socializing with the rich and famous.
Then, God, desiring his salvation, sends grace to him; in some manner, perhaps in a flash of self-realization, perhaps through embarassment, perhaps, if he still did not get the message, through a life threatening and potentially terminal illness.
Now, fearful for his own mortality, the man, by the grace of God, is convicted of his hypocrisy and realizes his faith is a dead faith, that he will be numbered among the many who say to Christ Pantocrator, "Lord, Lord!" to which He replies, "I know ye not." So, the man, finally fearing God as he should have from the beginning, immediately rewrites his will, giving his fortune to charity. He does not stop there: he seeks out financially desparate people; he pays off their mortgages; he buys food and provides space for homeless shelter; he subsidizes the rent for families that have fallen on hard times; he gives large amounts of money to the many charities operated by the Christian Church, like the Antiochian Orthodox Order of St. Ignatius, which built housing amd saved hundreds of completely impoverished and destitute children and teenagers in the region of Tijuana and Ensenada from death by exposure; he might donate vast quantities of medical supplies and equipment to Brother Dismas Mary, the Blue Hermit, a Roman Catholic consecrated hermit and unmercenary healer who provides free medical care to the people of an impoverished and mostly Islamic village in Gambia; he might fund the Samaritan Centers run by the Episcopal Church for the needy, or any number of other ecclesiastical charities. He might set up his own.
In so doing, he would exhange his worldy treasure for heavenly treasure; he would, through the grace of God be saved by almsgiving, performing a good work so as to repent from his hypocrisy and make his dead faith a living faith, and to not be among those to whom the Lord says "I was hungry, and ye fed me not; I was naked, and ye did not clothe me..." ; considering our Lord struck down a tree which failed to bear fruit, how much more will He strike down Christians whose faith fails to bear fruit?
As for your allegation that Tobkt prescribes magical acts, this is unreasonable. Material things are good, and ojr Lord works through them to deliver healing.
Did not our Lord command Moses to make a golden rod, adorned with snakes, to heal the Israelites of a disease by touching them with it?
Did our Lord not command that showbread, drink offerings and a vast array of animal sacrifices as well as incense be made to him, placed in special altars designed specifically according to His commandments?
Did our Lord not institute the ritual of circumcision amomg the Jews, and rituals for the purification of those who had become ritually unclean?
Did not these rituals of immersion, still practiced by the Jews, serve as the basis for the baptism performed by St. John, an ascetic in the wilderness, that many people sought out as a blessing, and did our Lord not command that we also baptoze the nations in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit?
Did our Lord not institute His Supper, the Eucharist, the Great Thanksgiving, Holy Communion, in which bread and wine are ceremonially consumed as His body and blood as a permanent memorial to Him?
Did the Holy Apostle St. James not direct us to annoint the sick with oil, and did our Lord himself not command us to annoint ourselves with oil when fasting?
Lastly, did our Lord not spit on the ground to make mud, which he rubbed into the eyes of a blind man, giving him sight?
All of these actions could be misinterpreted by the superstitious as ritual magic. All of these actions are physical rituals involving material objects performed with the intent of producing a spiritual or divine outcome. The actions in Tobit are no different.
There is a reason why these actions are not ritual magic; our Lord or His apostles, prophets, patriarchs and beloved performed them, and we perform them, according to Nis commands and inspiration. These rituals may seem arbitrary. Why not instead of baptizing our babies do what the aboriginal Australians do, and expose their babies to sweet smelling smoke from a fire? Why not drink beer and eat rice in Communion, or milk and honey, or fish and water? Why did God command the offering of incense? Our Lord is unsearchable in His ways; his divine ordinances are completely arbitrary; they are mysteries the operation of which has just barely been touched upon by the field of Sacramental Theology after 2,000 years; we have arrived at typological inferences linking old testament mysteries in the tabernacle and the Temple with the mysteries of the Christian church; we can say for example that the showbread and drink offerings anticipated the bread and wine which in turn symbolize, represent and, most Christians believe, become the body and blood of our Lord. I would posit that the fish used in Tobit was used to prophecy the later connection of our Lord with fish; his recruitment of fishermen as disciples, "fishers of men", and his miracle of feeding the multitudes with just a few pieces of fish.
But why fish? Why not chicken or steak? Ask God. Perhaps through fervent prayer the answer may be clearer, but I am content to simply accept these mysteries, just as I am content to accept Tobit as the story of a redemption that typologically anticipates and prophesizes the saving work of our Lord.
They differ from ritual magic in that in ritual magic, like Wicca, the witch or wizard seeks to control and manipulate supernatural forces herself or himself, using various rituals, and sorcerers constantly seek to broaden their knowledge and increase their power (if, in fact, they do have real occult powers, these come from the actions of demons and are meant to lead the faithful astray).
There is a very good article on the blog Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy entitled "The Gospel according to Tobit," which explores the beauty and spiritual meaning of this work, and how it is a prophecy of the Gospels, much like the full version of Esther, an account of specific salvation through divine grace that anticipates the general salvation provided by our savior in Nis incarnation, passion, and resurrection.
