22

Works and faith.  Protestant teachers continue to propagate the fundamental error that all that matters is faith15, and that out of faith works must necessarily proceed. This is simply not true: but it has so seductive a sound it has confused other intelligences than Luther's (namely those of Socrates and Plato): even though the evidence of every experience of every day speaks against it. The most confident knowledge or faith cannot provide the strength or the ability needed for a deed, it cannot replace the employment of that subtle, manyfaceted mechanism which must first be set in motion if anything at all of an idea is to translate itself into action. Works, first and foremost! That is to say, doing, doing, doing! The 'faith' that goes with it will soon put in an appearance  you can be sure of that!

15. Protestant doctrine of faith: refers to one of the chief characteristics of all denominations of Protestantism: that justification before God comes by faith alone. Protestants hold that salvation is a gift, and since God has "acquitted" his creation, no one can "earn" it. God, on this view, has merely decided to bestow his grace.
Friedrich Nietzsche - Daybreak
Book I - Aphorism # 22

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