WHERES THE GOSPEL?
“The Gift of Salvation” affirms justification by faith alone. But ACE argues there are “irreconcilable” differences between historic Protestant and Catholic understandings of how God reconciles sinners to himself. The appeal says, “We see [imputed righteousness] as the heart of the Gospel.” The Protestant Reformers held that God justifies believers by imputing Christ’s righteousness to them. But Catholic doctrine, formulated in response to the Reformation, taught that God saves the faithful by infusing them with Christ’s righteousness through a process that requires human cooperation. As a result, one of the enduring fault lines between historic Protestantism and Catholicism is the question of whether a faithful Christian has full assurance of salvation or remains uncertain until death. In discussing justification, “The Gift of Salvation” does not use either the term imputed or infused, causing ACE to view the document as “dangerously ambiguous.” ECT signer George argues that the purpo
