superchunk on 20 March 2008
| kazadoom said: That is not true superchunk. The book of James defines what true faith is. Salvation is only by Grace through faith, but James defines what that faith looks like. James states that faith without works is a dead faith, in other words non-existent. That does not contradict anything. It is merely the Bible defining itself. You need faith to be saved, and works are the evidence of that faith. You are not saved because you do good things, you do good things because you are saved. |
I would generally agree with you. However, I know for a fact there is a part where Paul/Saul says specifically that works get you no where and only, I repeat only faith in Jesus is needed.
To me there is an obvious contradiction between what Paul and James said.
Here is a decent discussion on the matter. Here they suggest that James and Paul are mearly choosing their words based on their audiences. i.e. telling them what they want to hear rather than the absolute truth. This also suggest that God is not the author, as God would have one way not a few essentially different ways.
http://gbgm-umc.org/umw/james/Background/FaithWorks.htm
