tigersnare said:
I want to know, what doctrine or doctrines most influenced your decision to be Protestant or remain Protestant after learning, studying, and researching other faiths.
*(This is somewhat of a followup of my last thread, but also rewored to gain the answers I am wanting to know.)*
Please only talk about the doctorines you belief in whole heartedly, there is no need to talk about the ones you do not, or the people whom believe those doctorines you don't agree with. Thanks!
Where to start? What would be helpfull is to ask which doctrines you are questioning
I have 2 books to recommend you,
Commentary on Romans by Martin Luther (translated by J. Theodore Mueller), and
Faith Alone by RC Sproul.
The docrine I hold closest to my heart, and that has kept my faith despite researching and considering the other Christian faiths, is the view of grace alone, faith alone, and the sinful state of man. That the book of Romans cannot be ignored, nor rationalized away.
The fact is, though no one likes to admitt it these days, is that man is sinful, that without the Holy Spirit he is bound by sin and will choose nothing but sin. We can do no good work outside of Christ, so salvation can only come from Him, and nothing we do can obtian it or increase it.
"For even thoughyou keep the law outwardly, with works, from fear of punishment or love of reward, neverless, you do all this without willingness and pleasure, and without love for the law, but rather with unwillingness, under compulsion; and you would rather do otherwise, if the law were not there."
Skipping a ways
"Accustom yourself, then, to this language, and you will find that doing works of the law and fulfilling the law are two very different things. The work of the law is everything that one does, or can do toward keeping the law of his own free will or by his own powers. But since under all these works and along with them there remains in the heart dislike for the law and the compulsion to keep it, these works are all wasted and have no value. That is what St. Paul means in chapter 3, when he says, "By the works of the law no man becomes righteous before God." Hence you see that the wranglers and sophists are deceivers, when they teach men to prepare themselves for grace by means of works. How can a man prepare himself for good by means of works, if he does no good works without displeasure and unwillingness of heart? How shall a work please God, if it proceeds from a reluctant and resisting heart?
To fulufil the law, however, is to do good works with pleasure and love, and to live a godly and good life of one's own accord, without the compulsion of the law. This pleasure and love for the law is put into the heart by the Holy Ghost, as he says in chapter 5. But the Holy Ghost is not given except in, witih, and by faith in Jesus Christ, as he says in the introduction; and faithdoes not come, save only through God's Word or Gospel, which preaches Christ, that He is God's Son and a man, has died and risen again for our sakes, as he says in chapters 3, 4, and 10...."
Martin Luther
The chapters are references in Romans, and "he" is Paul. Didn't want to type more because of copyrights.
