Repentance is a gift so when I said God gives his love to repentant sinners it still falls within the happy and holy place of 'faith alone'.
Wait. So when
I ask about repentance and forgiveness you accuse me of focusing solely on Christian living and liken it to the scribes and Pharisees:
Your focus is solely on Christian living and what we 'do' to be acceptable in God's eyes. It is purely an external religion of works and deeds like the scribes and Pharisees had.
But when it is noted that
you are the one who brought up repentance in the first place it is no longer that but it is simply talking about the "happy and holy place of faith alone"?
Seems like a bit of a double-standard right there.
At any rate, belief AND repentance AND love AND forgiving/forgiveness now all fall into the idea of "faith alone".
Ok. I have no problem with that.
That is exactly what I was talking about in my very first post to you on this topic (#18) where I said that depending on what is meant by "faith alone", Catholics and Protestants can agree.
What you
mean by "faith alone" encompasses a lot. And it agrees quite well with Catholic teaching. There are other elements at play other than just belief/faith.
When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life - Acts.11:18
Repentance is granted or given not ached out by wearing the skin off your knees in faithless prayer that bounces off the ceiling.
I agree that it is through God's grace that someone can repent. But it is still an act of the sinner's will. A person can choose to repent or choose to not repent. God doesn't force anyone either way.
I don't know where you got that idea for repentance....but you wouldn't object to someone wearing the skin off of their knees in
faithful prayer to God, would you?
Peace.