Part III, Chapter XLIII, 3

Now for the allegorical part, such as “the fire shall test each person’s work,” and “they shall be saved, yet as through fire,” or “through fire” (for the original is dia puros): none of it contradicts the conclusion I have drawn from the other, plain words. Nevertheless, since an argument for the fire of purgatory has been taken from this passage, I shall offer my own conjecture about what is meant by this testing of doctrines and the saving of people as through fire. Here the apostle seems to allude to the words of the prophet Zechariah, Ch. 13. 8,9., who, speaking of the restoration of the Kingdom of God, says: “Two parts within it shall be cut off and die, but the third shall remain there; and I will bring the third part through the fire, and refine them as silver is refined, and test them as gold is tested; they shall call on the name of the Lord, and I will hear them.” The day of judgment is the day of the restoration of the Kingdom of God; and St. Peter tells us (2 Pet. 3. v.7, 10, 12.) that on that day the world will be consumed by fire and the wicked will perish. But the remnant God will save shall pass unharmed through that fire and shall there be tested and cleansed of their idolatry (as silver and gold are cleansed of dross by fire), and brought to call upon the name of the true God. Alluding to this, St. Paul says here that the Day—that is, the Day of Judgment, the great day of our Savior’s coming to restore the Kingdom of God in Israel—shall test every person’s doctrine, judging which are gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or stubble. Those who have built false conclusions on the true foundation shall then see their doctrines condemned; nevertheless they themselves shall be saved, pass unharmed through this universal fire, and live eternally to call upon the name of the true and only God. Under this interpretation nothing conflicts with the rest of Holy Scripture, and there is not a glimpse of the fire of purgatory.

But one might ask here whether it is not as necessary for salvation to believe that God is omnipotent and Creator of the world, that Jesus Christ has risen, and that all other people shall rise from the dead at the last day, as to believe that Jesus Is the Christ. I answer that these things are necessary, as are many other articles; but they are contained in this one article and may be deduced from it with greater or lesser difficulty. For who does not see that those who believe Jesus to be the Son of the God of Israel, and the God of Israel to be the omnipotent Creator of all things, thereby also believe that God is the omnipotent Creator of all things? Or how could someone believe that Jesus is the King who shall reign eternally without also believing that he has risen from the dead? A dead man cannot perform a king’s office. In short, whoever holds to this foundation, Jesus Is the Christ, explicitly holds everything he sees to follow rightly from it, and implicitly holds everything that follows from it even if he cannot discern the connection. It therefore remains true that belief in this one article is faith sufficient to obtain remission of sins for the penitent, and consequently to bring them into the Kingdom of Heaven.

Now that I have shown that all the obedience required for salvation consists in the will to obey God’s law—that is, in repentance—and that all the faith required for it is contained in belief in the article Jesus Is the Christ, I shall cite further Gospel passages showing that everything necessary for salvation is contained in these two together. The people to whom St. Peter preached on the day of Pentecost, immediately after our Savior’s ascension, asked him and the other apostles (Act. 2.37.), “Men and brothers, what shall we do?” St. Peter answered (in the next verse), “Repent, and let each of you be baptized for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Therefore repentance and baptism—that is, believing that Jesus Is the Christ—are all that is necessary for salvation. Again, when a certain ruler asked our Savior (Luke 18.18.), “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” he answered (verse 20), “You know the commandments: Do not commit adultery; do not kill; do not steal; do not bear false witness; honor your father and your mother.” When the ruler said that he had observed them, our Savior added, “Sell everything you have, give it to the poor, and come, follow me”—which was as much as to say, Trust in me as the King. Thus fulfilling the law and believing that Jesus is the King are all that is required to bring a person to eternal life. Third, St. Paul says (Rom. 1.17.), “The just shall live by faith”—not everyone, but the just. Thus faith and justice (that is, the will to be just, or repentance) are all that is necessary for eternal life. And (Mark 1.15.) our Savior preached, saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is near; repent and believe the Gospel”—that is, the good news that the Christ had come. Therefore repentance and belief that Jesus is the Christ are all that salvation requires.

Since both faith and obedience (implied by repentance) must come together for our salvation, the dispute about which of the two justifies us is beside the point. Nevertheless, it is worth making clear how each contributes to salvation, and in what sense we are said to be justified by one and by the other. First, if by righteousness we mean the justice of works themselves, no one can be saved, for no one has failed to transgress God’s law. Thus when we are said to be justified by works, this must be understood of the will, which God always accepts in place of the work itself in both good and evil people. Only in this sense is a person called just or unjust, and does his justice justify him—that is, give him the title of just in God’s estimation and make him capable of living by his faith, which he could not do before. So justice justifies in the sense that to justify means to call a person just, not in the sense of discharging the law, which would make the punishment of his sins unjust.

A person is also said to be justified when his plea is accepted despite being insufficient in itself: for instance, when we plead our will and our endeavor to fulfill the law and repent of our failures, and God accepts these in place of fulfillment itself. And since God accepts the will for the deed only in the faithful, it is faith that makes our plea good. In this sense faith alone justifies. Thus faith and obedience are both necessary for salvation, though each is said to justify in a different sense.

Having thus shown what is necessary for salvation, we can readily reconcile it with obedience to the civil Sovereign, whether he is Christian or an unbeliever. If he is Christian, he permits belief in the article Jesus Is the Christ and in all the articles contained in it or evidently deduced from it; this is all the faith necessary for salvation. And because he is a Sovereign, he requires obedience to all his own laws—that is, to all civil laws—which also contain all the laws of nature, or all the laws of God. For besides the laws of nature and the laws of the Church, which are part of civil law (since the Church that can make laws is the Commonwealth), there are no other divine laws. Whoever obeys his Christian Sovereign, therefore, is not thereby prevented from either believing in or obeying God. But suppose a Christian king should draw false conclusions from the foundation Jesus Is the Christ—that is, build structures of hay or stubble upon it—and command that they be taught. Since St. Paul says the king will be saved, all the more will someone who teaches those things at his command be saved; and still more someone who does not teach but simply believes his lawful teacher. And if the civil Sovereign forbids a subject to profess certain opinions of his own, on what grounds can the subject disobey? Christian kings may err when drawing a conclusion, but who is to judge? Shall a private person judge when his own obedience is at issue? Or shall anyone judge but the person appointed to do so by the Church—that is, by the civil Sovereign who represents it? Or, if the Pope or an apostle judges, can he not err in drawing a conclusion? Did not one of the two, St. Peter or St. Paul, err in what he built on the foundation when St. Paul opposed St. Peter to his face? There can therefore be no contradiction between the laws of God and those of a Christian Commonwealth.

And when the civil Sovereign is an unbeliever, any of his subjects who resists him sins against God’s laws (for the laws of nature are such laws), and rejects the apostles’ counsel, which urges all Christians to obey their princes and all children and servants to obey their parents and masters in all things. As for their faith, it is inward and invisible; they have the liberty Naaman had, and need not endanger themselves for it. But if they do, they ought to expect their reward in Heaven and not complain of their lawful Sovereign, still less wage war against him. For a person who does not welcome any just occasion for martyrdom does not possess the faith he professes, but merely feigns it to lend a semblance of legitimacy to his own defiance. Yet what unbelieving king would be so unreasonable as to put to death or persecute a subject who, as the king knows, awaits Christ’s second coming after the present world is burned, intending then to obey him (which is what believing Jesus to be the Christ means), and meanwhile considers himself bound to obey that unbelieving king’s laws (as all Christians are obliged in conscience to do)?

This will suffice concerning the Kingdom of God and ecclesiastical government. I do not claim here to advance any position of my own, but only to show what consequences seem to me deducible from the principles of Christian politics—the Holy Scriptures—in support of the power of civil Sovereigns and the duty of their subjects. In citing Scripture I have sought to avoid passages of obscure or disputed interpretation, and to cite none except in the sense most plain and most consistent with the harmony and purpose of the whole Bible, which was written for the reestablishment of the Kingdom of God in Christ. For it is not bare words but the writer’s purpose that supplies the true light in which any writing must be interpreted. Those who insist on isolated passages without considering the chief design can derive nothing clearly from them. Instead, by tossing particles of Scripture like dust before people’s eyes, they make everything more obscure than it is: a familiar artifice of those who seek not truth but their own advantage.

PART IV. OF THE KINGDOM OF DARKNESS

Now consider the allegorical part: “The fire will test each person's work,” and “They will be saved, but as through fire,” or “through fire” (the original says dia puros). It does not count against the conclusion I drew from the plain words. Still, some have used this passage to argue for the fire of purgatory. So I will give my own guess about what this testing of doctrines and saving of people as through fire means. The apostle seems to be alluding to the prophet Zechariah, Ch. 13. 8,9., who says this about the restoration of the Kingdom of God: “Two parts in it shall be cut off and die, but the third shall remain in it. I will bring the third part through the fire and refine them as silver is refined, and test them as gold is tested. They shall call on the name of the Lord, and I will hear them.” Judgment Day is the day when the Kingdom of God is restored. St. Peter tells us (2 Pet. 3. v.7, 10, 12.) that on that day the world will burn. The wicked will die in that fire. But the remaining people whom God saves will pass through it unharmed. There they will be tested and freed from idolatry, as fire separates impurities from silver and gold, and they will be made to call on the true God's name. St. Paul alludes to this when he says the Day will test each person's doctrine, judging which doctrines are gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or stubble. By the Day he means Judgment Day, the great day when our Savior comes to restore God's Kingdom in Israel. Those who have built false conclusions on the true foundation will then see their doctrines condemned. Yet they themselves will be saved. They will pass unharmed through this fire that engulfs the world and live forever to call on the one true God. Under this reading, the passage agrees with the rest of Holy Scripture and says nothing at all about the fire of purgatory.

Someone might ask whether salvation requires believing not only that Jesus is the Christ but also that God is all-powerful and created the world, that Jesus Christ rose from the dead, and that everyone else will rise from the dead on the last day. I answer that it does, and that many other articles are necessary too. But they are contained in this one article and can be deduced from it, some more easily than others. If people believe Jesus is the Son of the God of Israel, and believe that the Israelites' God is the all-powerful Creator of everything, they also believe God is the all-powerful Creator of everything. Who cannot see that? And how could someone believe Jesus is the King who will reign forever without also believing he has risen from the dead? A dead man cannot act as King. In short, someone who holds to the foundation, Jesus is the Christ, explicitly holds whatever he can see is rightly deduced from it. He also implicitly holds every consequence of it that he cannot work out for himself. Therefore belief in this one article remains sufficient faith for repentant people to obtain forgiveness of sins and, in consequence, enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

I have shown that all the obedience needed for salvation is a willingness to obey God's law, which is repentance. I have also shown that all the faith needed for salvation is contained in the belief that Jesus is the Christ. I will now cite Gospel passages showing that these two together contain everything needed for salvation. The people to whom St. Peter preached at Pentecost, immediately after our Savior's ascension, asked him and the other apostles (Act. 2.37.), “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” Peter answered in the next verse: “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized for the forgiveness of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” So repentance and baptism, meaning belief that Jesus is the Christ, are all that salvation requires. Again, a certain ruler asked our Savior (Luke 18.18.), “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He answered (verse 20), “You know the commandments: Do not commit adultery. Do not kill. Do not steal. Do not bear false witness. Honor your father and mother.” When the ruler said he had kept these, our Savior added, “Sell everything you have, give it to the poor, and come follow me.” This meant, “Rely on me as the King.” Thus keeping the law and believing Jesus is the King are all that someone needs for eternal life. Third, St. Paul says (Rom. 1.17.), “The just shall live by faith.” He does not say everyone shall, only the just. So faith and justice, meaning the will to be just, or repentance, are all that eternal life requires. And our Savior preached (Mark 1.15.): “The time has come, and the Kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the Gospel.” The Gospel is the good news that the Christ has come. So all that salvation requires is repentance and belief that Jesus is the Christ.

Since faith and obedience, which is included in repentance, must both come together for our salvation, it is pointless to argue about which of the two justifies us. It is useful, though, to show how each contributes and in what sense each is said to justify us. First, if righteousness means that our actions themselves are just, no one can be saved. Everyone has broken God's law. So when we are said to be justified by works, this must refer to our will, which God always accepts in place of the action itself, whether in good people or evil people. Only in this sense is a person called just or unjust. In this sense a person's justice justifies him: in God's judgment it gives him the standing of a just person and makes him able to live by his faith, which he could not do before. Justice justifies when “to justify” means to call a person just. It does not mean that the person has fulfilled the law so completely that punishing him for his sins would be unjust.

A person is also said to be justified when his plea is accepted even though it is inadequate on its own. We offer our will and our effort to keep the law, and we repent of our failures; God accepts that in place of actually keeping it. But God accepts the will in place of the action only in those who have faith. Faith is therefore what makes our plea valid. In this sense, faith alone justifies. So both faith and obedience are necessary for salvation, but each is said to justify us in a different sense.

Whether the Sovereign is Christian or not, it is not hard, now that I have shown what salvation requires, to reconcile salvation with obedience to the civil Sovereign. If the Sovereign is Christian, he permits belief in the article that Jesus is the Christ and in all the articles contained in it or clearly deduced from it. This is all the faith salvation requires. As Sovereign, he demands obedience to all his own laws, that is, to all civil laws. These include all the Laws of Nature and therefore all God's laws. Apart from the Laws of Nature and the Church's laws, which are part of civil law because the lawmaking Church is the Common-wealth, there are no other divine laws. Obeying a Christian Sovereign therefore prevents no one from believing in or obeying God. Suppose, though, that a Christian King drew some false conclusions from the foundation that Jesus is the Christ. He might build with hay or stubble on that foundation and order others to teach those conclusions. St. Paul says the King will still be saved. So the person who teaches them on his order will be even more likely to be saved, and the person who merely believes his lawful teacher, without teaching them, more likely still. If the civil Sovereign forbids a subject to profess some of his own opinions on these matters, on what grounds can the subject disobey? Christian Kings can make mistakes in drawing conclusions, but who is to judge? Should a private person judge when his own obedience is at issue? Or should judgment belong to the person appointed by the Church, that is, by the civil Sovereign who represents it? And if the Pope or an apostle judges, can he not make an error of reasoning? Did not one of the two, St. Peter or St. Paul, make a mistake in what he built on the foundation when St. Paul confronted St. Peter to his face? So there can be no conflict between God's laws and the laws of a Christian Common-wealth.

If the civil Sovereign is not a believer, any of his subjects who resists him sins against God's laws, which are the Laws of Nature. He also rejects the apostles' advice that all Christians should obey their rulers, and all children and servants should obey their parents and masters in everything. As for their faith, it is inward and invisible. They have the permission Naaman had and need not endanger themselves for it. If they do put themselves in danger, they should expect their reward in Heaven, not complain about their lawful Sovereign, and certainly not wage war against him. Anyone who does not welcome a just opportunity for martyrdom lacks the faith he claims to have. He only pretends to have it to give his own defiance an excuse. And what unbelieving King would be so unreasonable as to kill or persecute a subject who expects Christ's second coming after this world has burned and intends to obey him then—which is what believing Jesus is the Christ means—while believing himself bound in the meantime to obey that King's laws, as every Christian is obliged in conscience to do?

This is enough about the Kingdom of God and church government. I do not claim to put forward any position of my own. I have only shown the conclusions that seem to me to follow from the principles of Christian politics, which are the Holy Scriptures, in support of the power of civil Sovereigns and the duty of their subjects. When citing Scripture, I have tried to avoid passages whose interpretation is unclear or disputed. I have cited only interpretations that are the most straightforward and that fit the meaning and purpose of the whole Bible, which was written to reestablish God's Kingdom in Christ. The writer's purpose, not just the words themselves, gives us the light we need to interpret a text correctly. People who insist on isolated passages without considering the main purpose can draw nothing clearly from them. Instead, they scatter fragments of Scripture like dust before people's eyes, making everything more obscure than it is. This is a common trick of people who seek their own advantage rather than the truth.

PART IV. OF THE KINGDOM OF DARKNESS