14 What shall it profit, my brethren, if a man say he hath faith, but hath not works? Shall faith be able to save him?  15 And if a brother or sister be naked, and want daily food:
 16 And one of you say to them: Go in peace, be ye warmed and filled; yet give them not those things that are necessary for the body, what shall it profit?  17 So faith also, if it have not works, is dead in itself.  18 But some man will say: Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without works; and I will shew thee, by works, my faith.  19 Thou believest that there is one God. Thou dost well: the devils also believe and tremble.  20 But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?
 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works, offering up Isaac his son upon the altar?  22 Seest thou, that faith did co-operate with his works; and by works faith was made perfect?  23 And the scripture was fulfilled, saying: Abraham believed God, and it was reputed to him to justice, and he was called the friend of God.  24 Do you see that by works a man is justified; and not by faith only?  25 And in like manner also Rahab the harlot, was not she justified by works, receiving the messengers, and sending them out another way?
 26 For even as the body without the spirit is dead; so also faith without works is dead.
Epistle of Saint James 2: 14-26
This is played for laughs, but coming within centimeters of death likely had a large impact upon him.
I think Trump knows he owes his life to Gods protection and wants to make it count.
If he’s not careful, he might become Catholic. 😉
Blessed are the peacemakers, they shall be called children of God
Charity covers a multitude of sins
Whatsoever you did to the least of My brothers, you did unto Me.
you are storing up wrath for yourself for the day of wrath and revelation of the just judgment of God, who will repay everyone according to his works: eternal life to those who seek glory, honor, and immortality through perseverance in good works
The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all who cause others to sin and all evildoers. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.
For the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father’s glory, and then he will repay everyone according to his conduct.
I knew the Calvinists would have a hissy fit over this.
Martin Luther and John Calvin shackled Protestant theology to the idea of predestination.
James 2:14-26 is a stumbling block for the slogan, “salvation by faith alone.” And, likewise, Jesus gave an answer to the question of the rich young man, “What must I do to be saved?” And the sheep are separated from the goats on the basis of the works of mercy.
President Trump needs to become Catholic. He has shown signs of appreciation for Catholic faith and morals. But maybe the first step is to bring the First Lady back into the beliefs and practices of her Catholc faith. She could have a big effect on him. I pray for both of them.
@Lepanto: While both Martin Luther and John Calvin affirmed the doctrine of predestination, they differed in their emphasis and interpretation of it. Luther emphasized predestination as a source of comfort for believers, focusing on God’s election of individuals for salvation, but he avoided elaborating on the specific mechanics of how this occurred. Calvin, on the other hand, developed a more systematic and comprehensive doctrine of predestination, often associated with double predestination (where God chooses both the saved and the damned).
Many other Protestants disagreed with John Calvin on predestination. Arminius believed in a form of predestination that is conditional, meaning it is based on God’s foreknowledge of who will freely choose to believe in Christ, rather than an unconditional decree of who will be saved. He believed that God elects individuals to salvation based on their foreseen faith, rather than simply choosing some for salvation and others for damnation regardless of their response.
,Reformed, Presbyterians, and Baptists tend to be Calvinist. Methodists, Nazarenes, and Pentecostals tend to be Arminian. Anglicans tried middle of the road and today outside of Canterbury and the ECUSA, they are divided into Calvinist, Charismatic, and “Catholic” streams.
BTW, each denomination differs on eschatology, premillennialism, postmillennialism, and amillennialism, pedo-baptism vs believer’s baptism, Cessationism vs Egalitarianism, dispensationalism vs covenant theology, etc. ad nauseam. There is endless variety among Protestants and no monolithic belief system except that they all claim to be Sola Scriptura. So the question becomes this: if you’re all Sola Scriptura, then how in the world did you ever arrive at all this multiplicity of differing beliefs?
BTW most modern day Protestants have no idea what John Calvin, Martin Luther, Ulrich Zwingli, John Knox, Thomas Cramner, etc, actually believed. Go to one of today’s Protestant “churches,” big or small, and congregants know how to cherry-pick Scripture verses, but they have no knowledge of Greco-Roman culture when the New Testament was written, much less early Church history. Sadly, we can say the same of a great many Catholics. But beware that occasional Calvinist who actually can quote St. Augustine, though in a very distorted way.
[…] MagazineA President’s Remark Causes Media Stir – Michael H. Brown at Spirit Daily Blog. . .More on President’s Remark. . . – Donald R. McClarey, J.D., at The American CatholicWhy Gen Z Rejects Progressive […]
With regard to Trump becoming Catholic, he no longer has one major obstacle: since his first wife, Ivana, is deceased and his second marriage to Marla Maples would be presumptively invalid, he and Melania could marry in the Church if they chose (unless there are other factors we don’t know about).