Ignatius and Polycarp were two holy martyrs of Christ who were personally trained by the Apostles and therefore learned the faith directly from the very eyewitnesses of our risen Lord. These men were given the privileged and meeting with and learning directly from Apostles such as Peter, Paul and John. As such, their understanding of salvation, and specifically justification, becomes vitally since they would have learned these doctrines directly from the very Spirit-filled men whom Christ appointed to preach the Gospel and build his Church on earth.  

The readers are about to discover that neither one of these men taught Sola Fide, the doctrine of justification first foisted upon the church by Martin Luther and his contemporaries in the sixteenth century. This immediately raises a major problem for Protestants since the very men trained by the Apostles themselves, and those who subsequently followed them, being the very ones whom the Spirit empowered to both preserve the sacred writings and explicate them, did not believe in nor proclaim the doctrines which Luther and the other reformers foisted upon the Church.

As we are now about to see these very eyewitnesses of the Apostles of the risen Lamb of God, who boldly died as martyrs for the glory of Christ, taught that salvation is a process that is received and maintained by obedience to the commands of God.  

IGNATIUS

Ignatius warns Christians against succumbing to the temptation of seeking to be justified by keeping the Law of Moses, such as Sabbath observance. He further exhorts them to remember that the deeds which believers perform can never be sufficient enough to earn the right to immortality, which is why salvation depends on the kindness and grace of God.

At the same time, however, Ignatius is clear that this grace of God is received by faith and maintained by living in obedience to God’s will:

Chapter 9. Let us live with Christ

If, therefore, those who were brought up in the ancient order of things have come to the possession of a new hope, no longer observing the Sabbath, but living in the observance of the Lord’s Day, on which also our life has sprung up again by Him and by His death — whom some deny, by which mystery we have obtained faith, and therefore endure, that we may be found the disciples of Jesus Christ, our only Master — how shall we be able to live apart from Him, whose disciples the prophets themselves in the Spirit did wait for Him as their Teacher? And therefore He whom they rightly waited for, having come, raised them from the dead. Matthew 27:52

Chapter 10. Beware of Judaizing

Let us not, therefore, be insensible to His kindness. For were He to reward us according to our works, we should cease to be. Therefore, having become His disciples, let us learn to live according to the principles of Christianity. For whosoever is called by any other name besides this, is not of God. Lay aside, therefore, the evil, the old, the sour leaven, and be changed into the new leaven, which is Jesus Christ. Be salted in Him, lest any one among you should be corrupted, since by your savour you shall be convicted. It is absurd to profess Christ Jesus, and to Judaize. For Christianity did not embrace Judaism, but Judaism Christianity, that so every tongue which believes might be gathered together to God. (Epistle to the Magnesians)

Ignatius writes elsewhere that the eucharist is given as medicine for immortality, curing us from death, and also exhorts Christians to continue doing what is commanded, such as submitting to the Bishop, in order to receive their wages from God:

Chapter 20. Promise of another letter

If Jesus Christ shall graciously permit me through your prayers, and if it be His will, I shall, in a second little work which I will write to you, make further manifest to you [the nature of] the dispensation of which I have begun [to treat], with respect to the new man, Jesus Christ, in His faith and in His love, in His suffering and in His resurrection. Especially [will I do this ] if the Lord make known to me that you come together man by man in common through grace, individually, in one faith, and in Jesus Christ, who was of the seed of David according to the flesh, being both the Son of man and the Son of God, so that you obey the bishop and the presbytery with an undivided mind, breaking one and the same bread, which is the medicine of immortality, and the antidote to prevent us from dying, but [which causes] that we should live for ever in Jesus Christ. (Epistle to the Ephesians)

Chapter 6. The duties of the Christian flock

Give heed to the bishop, that God also may give heed to you. My soul be for theirs that are submissive to the bishop, to the presbyters, and to the deacons, and may my portion be along with them in God! Labour together with one another; strive in company together; run together; suffer together; sleep together; and awake together, as the stewards, and associates, and servants of God. Please Him under whom you fight, and from whom you receive your wages. Let none of you be found a deserter. Let your baptism endure as your arms; your faith as your helmet; your love as your spear; your patience as a complete panoply. Let your works be the charge assigned to you, that you may receive a worthy recompense. Be long-suffering, therefore, with one another, in meekness, as God is towards you. May I have joy of you for ever! (Epistle to Polycarp)

These statements from Ignatius show that he clearly did not believe in Sola Fide!

POLYCARP

Polycarp’s testimony is interesting since he quotes Ephesians 2:8-9, which is a text often cited in defense of Sola Fide, but explains it in a way that goes against this protestant doctrine.

Note what this beloved saint of Christ says:

Chapter 1. Praise of the Philippians

I have greatly rejoiced with you in our Lord Jesus Christ, because you have followed the example of true love [as displayed by God], and have accompanied, as became you, those who were bound in chains, the fitting ornaments of saints, and which are indeed the diadems of the true elect of God and our Lord; and because the strong root of your faith, spoken of in days Philippians 1:5 long gone by, endures even until now, and brings forth fruit to our Lord Jesus Christ, who for our sins suffered even unto death, [but] whom God raised from the dead, having loosed the bands of the grave. In whom, though now you see Him not, you believe, and believing, rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory; 1 Peter 1:8 into which joy many desire to enter, knowing that by grace you are saved, not of works, Ephesians 2:8-9 but by the will of God through Jesus Christ.

Chapter 2. An exhortation to virtue

Wherefore, girding up your loins, 1 Peter 1:13; Ephesians 6:14 serve the Lord in fear and truth, as those who have forsaken the vain, empty talk and error of the multitude, and believed in Him who raised up our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead, and gave Him glory, 1 Peter 1:21 and a throne at His right hand. To Him all things 1 Peter 3:22; Philippians 2:10 in heaven and on earth are subject. Him every spirit serves. He comes as the Judge of the living and the dead. Acts 17:31 His blood will God require of those who do not believe in Him. But He who raised Him up from the dead will raise us up also, IF WE DO HIS WILL, AND WALK IN HIS COMMANDMENTS, and love what He loved, keeping ourselves from all unrighteousness, covetousness, love of money, evil speaking, false witness; not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing, 1 Peter 3:9 or blow for blow, or cursing for cursing, but being mindful of what the Lord said in His teaching: Judge not, that you be not judged; Matthew 7:1 forgive, and it shall be forgiven unto you; be merciful, that you may obtain mercy; Luke 6:36 with what measure you measure, it shall be measured to you again; Matthew 7:2; Luke 6:38 and once more, Blessed are the poor, and those that are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of God.

Chapter 10. Exhortation to the practice of virtue

Stand fast, therefore, in these things, and follow the example of the Lord, being firm and unchangeable in the faith, loving the brotherhood, 1 Peter 2:17 and being attached to one another, joined together in the truth, exhibiting the meekness of the Lord in your intercourse with one another, and despising no one. When you can do good, defer it not, because alms delivers from death. Tobit 4:10, Tobit 12:9 Be all of you subject one to another 1 Peter 5:5 having your conduct blameless among the Gentiles, 1 Peter 2:12 that you may both receive praise for your good works, and the Lord may not be blasphemed through you. But woe to him by whom the name of the Lord is blasphemed! Isaiah 52:5 Teach, therefore, sobriety to all, and manifest it also in your own conduct. (Epistle to the Philippians)

Remarkably, Polycarp interprets Ephesians 2:8-9 in a consistent fashion with the Orthodox and Catholic views of salvation and justification. He understands this passage to refer to God’s graciously willing for all individuals to be saved through Christ, not that salvation comes by faith alone.

Polycarp is clear that this salvation is given to those who do God’s commandments, and even quotes from the deuterocanonical book of Tobit to prove that charity makes atonement for sins!

Here are the verses which this holy martyr references:

“Remember the Lord our God all your days, my son, and refuse to sin or to transgress his commandments. Live uprightly all the days of your life, and do not walk in the ways of wrongdoing. For if you do what is true, your ways will prosper through your deeds. Give alms from your possessions to all who live uprightly, and do not let your eye begrudge the gift when you make it. Do not turn your face away from any poor man, and the face of God will not be turned away from you. If you have many possessions, make your gift from them in proportion; if few, do not be afraid to give according to the little you have. So you will be laying up a good treasure for yourself against the day of necessity. For charity delivers from death and keeps you from entering the darkness; and for all who practice it charity is an excellent offering in the presence of the Most High.” Tobit 4:5-11

“Prayer is good when accompanied by fasting, almsgiving, and righteousness. A little with righteousness is better than much with wrongdoing. It is better to give alms than to treasure up gold. For almsgiving delivers from death, and it will purge away every sin. Those who perform deeds of charity and of righteousness will have fulness of life;” Tobit 12:8-9

Hence, not only does Polycarp teach that believers are saved by their obedience to God’s commandments, he even accepted the canonicity of the book of Tobit, a writing which Protestants reject as inspired Scripture!

The foregoing presents insurmountable problems for the Protestant doctrine of Sola Fide and the Protestant canon. After all, if two of the very eyewitnesses of the Apostles did not believe that a person is justified by faith alone, but by doing the will of God in obeying his commandments, then this either means that the Apostles misled their disciples since they failed to properly catechize them. Or it means that the very men whom the Spirit appointed through the Apostles to shepherd the Church became corrupt and apostate since they perverted the Gospel which they received from the eyewitnesses of the risen Lord.

The problem is that either one of these views would entail a blasphemy against God’s faithfulness and integrity, since it essentially means that God failed to preserve his Church from false teachers and their false teachings, and therefore nullifies the promises given in inspired Scripture that the Church is preserved by the Spirit who is sent to guide it into all truth (Cf. Matthew 16:18-19; 18:17-18; John 14:26; 16:12-13; Acts 20:25-35; 1 Timothy 3:15; 2 Timothy 1:13-14; 2:1-2).  

The only plausible conclusion is that it was Martin Luther and his contemporaries who got it wrong by introducing novel doctrines unheard of in the Church prior to the Protestant Reformation, and therefore they are the ones who perverted the true and pure Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. There’s simply no way of getting around this fact if we are to be faithful to the testimony of inspired Scripture.

Therefore, it is time for Protestants to look elsewhere for the true and correct understanding of the Faith since doctrines such as Sola Fide are both unbiblical and unhistorical when it comes to what the Christians of the first centuries actually taught and believed.

FURTHER READING

SOLA FIDE IN CLEMENT?

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