When Martin Luther (1483–1546) made his big break from the Roman Catholic Church, he originated a new doctrine, which he set up as the foundation stone of Protestant belief. That doctrine is “justification by faith alone,” also known by its Latin shorthand name, sola fide (“by faith alone”).

Justification by faith alone is taught only within Protestantism. It is rejected by the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church, which together represent nearly two-thirds of Christianity.

And yet, because Protestants—especially evangelical Protestants—are so vociferous about faith alone, many people think that being saved by faith alone is the cornerstone of Christianity, and the most important teaching in the Bible.

There’s only one problem: The Bible doesn’t actually say that we are saved by faith alone.

In fact, in the one and only place in the entire Bible where “faith alone” appears, it is specifically rejected as “justifying,” or saving a person:

You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. (James 2:24)

This doesn’t seem to bother most Protestants. They say that the important thing about being saved by faith alone is that it means salvation is completely God’s work; we can’t take any credit for it by piling up enough good works to earn heaven for ourselves. However, as I said in this comment on my article, “Faith Alone Does Not Save . . . No Matter How Many Times Protestants Say It Does,” doing good works has nothing to do with earning heaven.

Besides, there are deeper problems with Luther’s doctrine of justification by faith alone. It is based on a whole series of non-Biblical and false doctrines, without which it falls to the ground:

1. God is a Trinity of Persons.
2. We are born with Original Sin from Adam, and are guilty from birth.
3. It is impossible for us to be righteous or to satisfy God’s justice.
4. God the Father therefore condemns us to eternal hell.
5. Jesus Christ paid the price, or penalty, for our sins
6. This satisfied the Father’s justice, and appeased the Father’s wrath.
7. Christ’s righteousness is “imputed” to those who believe in him.
8. The Father then accepts us as righteous even though we are still sinners.

These are the faulty foundations of faith alone.

Let’s look at each of them, and see why no matter how good salvation by faith alone may sound to some people, these faulty and crumbling foundations completely invalidate the doctrine that Luther invented in order to make a decisive break with the Catholic Church.

For more on the faulty foundations of faith alone, please click here to read on.