Well, you asked. Dude, justification sola fide sets up an irreconcilable dilemma: If all your sins, past, present, and future were forgiven at Jesus' death on the cross, by the instrumentality of your faith in that event, and that alone, there is no theological necessity to pursue holiness. God either sees you as you really are, or you are covered with Christ. It really must be one or the other. God cannot truly threaten consequences for sins He cannot see. You might say that none of its proponents ever actually intended that "faith alone" meant, "intellectual assent alone," but that's what you're left with, if you stick with the Reformation sola fide. If you say there is a connection between the pursuit of holiness and your justification before God, that's good, I think, but that ain't Reformed. And you're stuck with the former as a Protestant, because the Protestant notion of the Fall doesn't allow you to say that man is able to become more just, more conformed to the image of Christ in response to the Cross and in the hope of attaining eternal life. To be blunt about it, to believe the pursuit of holiness by grace is not only possible but necessary, (and not inevitable) is to be Catholic.
Update: I read the whole thing. I’m sorry, but what a weirdo. I thought you [Tom Darrow, of Denver, CO] made a trenchant case for why lockdowns are bad, and I definitely appreciated it. But a graduation speech is *not* the place for that. Secondly, this is an august event. It always is. I would never address the President of the United States in this manner. Never. Even the previous president, though he deserves it, if anyone does. Thirdly, the affirmations of Catholic identity should be more general. He has no authority to propound with specificity on all matters of great consequence. It has all the hallmarks of a culture war broadside, and again, a layman shouldn’t speak like this. The respect and reverence due the clergy is *always due,* even if they are weak, and outright wrong. We just don’t brush them aside like corrupt Mafia dons, to make a point. Fourthly, I don’t know where anyone gets the idea that the TLM is how God demands to be worshipped. The Church doesn’t teach that. ...
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