church of Christ at 26th and Connecticut
Joplin, Missouri

Phone
417-781-2326

1819 E 26th
Jopin, MO  64804

   Worship Schedule

Sunday
    Bible Class              9 am
    Morning Worship    10 am
    Evening Worship      6 pm

Wednesday
     Devotional & Class   7 pm
 

Upcoming Activities
 
 
Check out our Facebook page

FAITH ALONE

 

The expression “faith alone” occurs only once in the English Standard Version of the Bible—in a verse that teaches that we are not saved by faith alone: “You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone” (James 2:24 ESV).

 

Meet Martin Luther

The Lutheran church is named after a man named “Martin Luther” (even though Luther himself, to his credit, pleaded, “I pray you leave my name alone and do no call yourselves Lutherans, but Christians.”).  Luther was born in Germany in 1483.  He became the leader of the German Reformation.  He translated the Bible into German.  And he believed that a person is saved by “faith alone.”  Luther died in 1546.

 

“Right strawy”

Because the book of James teaches that a person is not saved by faith alone, Martin Luther called James “right strawy,” meaning, “worthless.”  But James is not worthless.  Like all Scripture, it is “breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16-17 ESV).

 

Luther’s addition to Romans

Martin Luther added the word “alone” to Romans 3:28 in his translation of the New Testament.  But Romans 3:28, when accurately translated, does not have the word “alone.”  For example, Romans 3:28 is translated this way in the English Standard Version: “For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.”

 

Modern additions to Romans

Sadly, there are modern translations that also add a word to Romans that supports the “faith alone” false doctrine.  Romans 11:20 in the Revised Standard Version reads, “They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast only through faith.”  When this translation was adapted into the New Revised Standard Version, the word “only” was left in.  But when the Revised Standard Version was adapted into the English Standard Version, the revisers had the sense to eliminate the added word.