I was talking to a very devout Catholic the other day about the differences between Catholicism and "Evangelical Protestantism," also known as Christianity.  He was saying that he (and the church) disagrees with the idea of salvation solely by faith because a person can claim to be saved and even accept Christ as savior, but the person may then continue to lead their previous way of life, thereby showing no commitment or change.  I agree with this to a certain point.  If a person is truely saved, the Holy Spirit will work through them and they will eventually become more like Jesus Christ.  But the problem is this:  how many good deeds must a person do to prove that their salvation is sincere?  The Catholic would answer that a person doesn't need to prove their salvation through deeds, but that the deeds would naturally follow if the person was sincere.  So I ask this:  would the Catholic say that a person who accepts Christ as their personal savior is not actually saved until their faith is shown through their deeds?  If this is the case, then it sounds to me like a person isn't saved until they do something to prove it (or verify it), which is a deed.  In other words, faith and deeds save a person.  The Catholic person I talked to was very careful about his wording; he would find a way to contradict what I've just said.  So this brings up another point:  isn't a person acting out of faith by accepting Christ as their personal savior?  Does this not count as an action performed out of faith?  This would satisfy the requirements for the Catholic (faith accompanied by a deed) and the Christian (faith alone). #religion