Faith alone is faith in oneself

On my virtual walk through the internet, I met a fellow with whom I had a discussion about salvation. He is one of those who always asks, "Are you saved?" And then extolls the value of the false doctrine of faith alone. At one point, he said this to me.

Faith in works to obtain salvation is not faith in Christ.

Faith in works? Really?

Let’s see if that is true. When has any Catholic proclaimed himself saved by works? Name one. You said that you were once Catholic, so I suppose your parents were or maybe, are still, Catholic. Ask them if they have declared themselves saved because of their works.

Ok. If you are honest, you will admit that we deny that we are saved in this lifetime. Again, if you are honest, you will remember that when you were Catholic, you were told that we do not know if we are saved, but we await God’s judgment of our deeds.

True or not?

If a Catholic were to declare himself saved because he did so many good works, then that Catholic doesn’t know his Catholic faith.

Ok. Now, let’s look at those who claim to be saved by faith alone. There’s many of you. You roam the streets asking people if they are saved and when they say that they don’t know, you pounce and say, “I am saved by my faith alone!”

But that isn’t faith in Christ. That’s you declaring your faith in yourself. Here’s the proof.

You say that one is saved unto good works. Because, you say that faith which does not provide good works is not a saving faith. Ok. If your faith is a saving faith, what works do you have to your credit to prove that your faith is a saving faith? How many works must you do in order to prove that your faith is a saving faith? If you can’t provide any proof, why do you declare yourself saved?

I’ll tell you why. Because of your exceedingly great faith, in yourself.