St Jerome's fascinating insights on the famous verse "The righteous man shall live by faith"

In the opening chapter of Romans, Paul famously says: "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, 'The righteous shall live by faith.'" The "as it is written" verse Paul is citing here in his thesis statement is from the relatively obscure book of the prophet Habakkuk, chapter 2:4. I have always been fascinated by this verse, especially considering Paul quotes it multiple places (e.g. Rom 1:17, Gal 3:11, Heb 10:38), and thus I've been highly suspicious of the general lack of Protestant commentary on the context and meaning of Habakkuk 2:4. I think too often Protestants have glossed over this verse, thinking merely that Habakkuk is saying "a man is justified by faith". But this surface level reading does not seem to fit the actual wording of the verse nor the context. In this post, I want to consider a fascinating commentary on this verse, which I had not considered, which I stumbled upon in St Jerome's Commentary on Galatians.

St Jerome, commenting on Galatians 3:11-12, says:

We should note that he did not say that just any man lives by faith, lest he provide an excuse for the devaluation of virtuous deeds. Rather, he said that the righteous man lives by faith. This means that before having faith and the intention to live by it, one must already be righteous and must by the purity of his life have claimed certain steps that lead to faith. It is therefore possible for someone to be righteous without yet living by faith in Christ. If this is troublesome to the reader, let him consider what Paul says about himself [Phil 3:6]: "As for righteousness according to the Law, I was faultless." At the time, Paul was righteous in terms of keeping the Law, but he was not yet able to live by faith because he did not have Christ

This is astonishing, because with this explanation, Paul is basically undermining the very erroneous Protestant idea which teaches that our own sinfulness prevents our works from saving us. In Jerome's explanation, a person who is already righteous still needs faith. This fits perfectly with what I've written about numerous times (e.g. Here and Here) against the Protestant heresy of Salvation By Good Works Alone, contrasted to the Catholic teaching of St Paul which is Salvation by Faith.

This lead me to another discovery, noticing the context in which Paul quotes Habakkuk within his Galatians 3:10-12 argument:

10 For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” 11 Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.” 12 But the law is not of faith, rather “The one who does them shall live by them.”

By citing Habakkuk 2:4 within the context of the "works of the law," per Jerome's insights this means that Paul has in mind particularly the Jew-Gentile controversy, and is thus saying even if a Jew were following the Mosaic Law, and thus were 'righteous per the Law', such is not enough. Faith would still be needed. Jerome further elaborates that Paul mentions "live" in two instances here: faith causes life and keeping the law causes life. Since both cannot be true in the same sense must mean that the "life" that the Law gives is a temporal living, such as long life and earthly blessings, as well as avoiding the death penalty that the Law holds over a person for grave violations of the Mosaic Covenant. Meanwhile, the "life" that faith in Christ brings is eternal life.   

UPDATE: Now there is a PART 2 of this series HERE.

How to preach the Gospel as a Catholic.

I've had multiple years of experience in preaching the Gospel to non-Catholics and so I've felt the need to share my findings and results so as to help other Catholics. Those who have an apologetics mindset tend to want to know the most effective tips and tricks (or even 'perfect formula') for to how to effectively evangelize, so it's a shame this topic isn't discussed more.

When I first began real life evangelizing several years ago, I quickly learned that most people are not interested in intellectual discussions. This isn't to say these non-Catholics were stupid, but rather that they weren't "nerdy" the way your typical Catholic apologist is nerdy and excited about theology. As a result, I learned the hard way that there's a real distinction between apologetics and evangelism. So the first thing to know about evangelizing is that not everyone is nerdy, or even has much knowledge on theological matters, so most of what you know isn't even applicable when you talk with them.

Do Jehovah's Witnesses "fulfill the prophecy" of Jesus to preach the Gospel "throughout the world"?

Matthew 24 is one of the most important chapters in the Bible for Jehovah's Witnesses since it deals with predicting the End Times (which JW theology is entirely based upon, see Here). Most of us have heard certain features of what Jesus said in this chapter, but JWs are unique in that they zoom in on certain details in order to emphasize that only they are the ones actually taking it seriously. The JWs are especially keen on what Jesus says in Mt 24:14, "This good news of the Kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come."

JWs think they are the only group that is preaching the Gospel everywhere, and thus that their global preaching ministry fulfills this prophecy that the end of the world will come any day now. To many who hear this it sounds convincing, because most Christians are not evangelizing at all, so the very fact only the JWs are evangelizing gives the JWs credibility that they are the true Biblical religion. So how do you counter this impressive JW claim? It turns out there's a powerful counter-argument that can pull the rug from under them, which we'll look at in this article. 

First, we should take a look at some official JW claims about Matthew 24:14, which can all easily be found on the official JW Online Library page:

• Jesus pointed out another part of the sign when he foretold: “This good news of the Kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.” (Matthew 24:14) While the world is experiencing terrible problems, over eight million people from all nations are declaring the good news of God’s Kingdom in 240 lands and in over 1,000 languages. This has never happened before in human history. (Watchtower, 2020, Public No.2)
  

• Whether people agree with us or bitterly oppose us, few would deny that as a group Jehovah’s Witnesses are well-known for their preaching activities. As we know, Jesus foretold that the good news of the Kingdom would be preached in all the inhabited earth. (Matt. 24:14) But how do we know that the work we do is in fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecy? Is it presumptuous on our part to think that we are the ones who are doing this work? Many religious groups feel that they are preaching the Gospel, or good news. However, their efforts are often limited to personal testimonies, church services, or programs broadcast through the media​ ... What group of people are preaching that message in “all the nations”? The answer is obvious​—only Jehovah’s Witnesses. (Watchtower, May 2016)

• But how would they [the 12 Apostles] preach “in all the inhabited earth” and give “a witness to all the nations”? Where would the workers come from? If only they could have looked into the future while sitting with Jesus that day! They would no doubt have been amazed to see the fulfillment of those few words that we now read at Matthew 24:14. We are living in the time of the fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecy. Millions have joined together to fill the earth with the preaching of the good news of the Kingdom. (Watchtower, April 2013)

This is but a few of dozens of passages expressing the same idea from official JW material throughout the decades. The sentiment is understandable and their argument is straightforward and apparently quite solid. So where should we turn? How about the Bible itself!

Revisting Abraham's "faith reckoned as righteousness" - Part 4 (Promise vs Law)

(In case you missed them: Part1, Part2, Part2b, Part3)

This past week I began to really think about Paul's terminology of "Promise" as contrasted with "Law," particularly within Romans 4 and Galatians 3. It seems that if we can zero in on precisely what this mysterious term Promise refers to we can better (or even properly) understand Paul's lesson within these key Justification texts. If Promise has nothing to do with some forensic status or of living a perfectly obedient life, then this would cast some serious doubt on the mainstream Protestant reading of these chapters. Here's what I've found regarding this term.

The Catholic Quran - proving Christianity using the Quran alone

I am convinced that Islam's holy book, the Quran, is the best resource that Catholics have when evangelizing Muslims. A few years ago I wrote a series of brief reflections on using the Quran to the advantage of Christianity, but I never got around to posting it because I kept waiting to polish it up more. I finally decided to just post it as is so below I present a 16 page PDF for you to view and give your thoughts on:

The Catholic Quran - Five Part Series (pdf link)