Select Page

Grace – False View

Grace – False View

  • BIBLE (Correct): The unmerited favor of God that is neither earned nor maintained through any effort of our own.
    • “For this reason it is by faith, that it might be in accordance with grace, in order that the promise may be certain to all the descendants, not only to those who are of the Law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all,” (Rom. 4:16).
    • “But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace,” (Rom. 11:6).
       
  • Christian Science: Grace is a spiritual understanding of the principles of Christian Science.
    • “Philosophical links, which would unite dead matter with animate, Spirit with matter and material means, prayer with power and pride of position, hinder the divine influx and lose Science,— lose the Principle of divine metaphysics and the tender grace of spiritual understanding, that love-linked holiness which heals and saves,” (Miscellany, p. 206).
    • “All this is accomplished by the grace of God,–the effect of God understood,” (Christian Science vs. Pantheism, p. 10).
    • “Comeliness and grace are independent of matter,” (S&H p. 247).
       
  • LDS – Mormonism: Grace is supposed to be the undeserved kindness of God. However, grace is confused in Mormonism. It follows works and denial of sin. Therefore it is partly earned.
    • “For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do,” (The Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 25:23).
    • “Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God,” (The Book of Mormon, Moroni 10:32).
    • “One of the most fallacious doctrines originated by Satan and propounded by man is that man is saved alone by the grace of God; that belief in Jesus Christ alone is all that is needed for salvation” (Spencer W. Kimball, The Miracle of Forgiveness, p. 206. See also The Book of Mormon Student Manual Religion 121 and 122, 1996, p. 36).
       
  • Roman Catholicism: Grace is God’s favor that is both infused into a person and earned.
    • ” . . . Moved by the Holy Spirit and by charity, we can then merit for ourselves and for others the graces needed for our sanctification, for the increase of grace and charity, and for the attainment of eternal life,” (CCC 2010).
    • Sanctifying grace “is infused by the Holy Spirit into the soul to heal it of sin and to sanctify it,” (CCC, 2023).
    • “Moved by the Holy Spirit, we can merit for ourselves and for others all the graces needed to attain eternal life, as well as necessary temporal goods,” (CCC 2027).

Return to Dictionary of…

Theology // Philosophy // Science // People // False Terms