exercise in futility

Faith + Works is logical, and makes sense. Seems like Calvinists should be all for it. But in the end, they are the opposite.
For what do we exist for but to serve God and to do good? We derive pleasure from good acts because they are good. If Sola Fide is an accurate belief, then that means that if a man is to follow every rule of the Lord, but to find a way to commit evil outside of the lines of the Bible, he will see heaven. Faith + Works patches that hole by making it so that good acts can allow one reward, and evil acts punishment. Of course, in the past this has led to some issues (*cough cough Indulgences cough cough*), but overall it is truly the best way.
Beyond that, if there is only one true gospel (Which, between you and I, is Faith + Works), as Protestants so loudly proclaim , than what right did Martin Luther, a Catholic monk who sought to cleanse the clergy of heretical secularity, have to go about making the accusations he made (The Pope is the Antichrist and the like, not to mention the hypocrisy in that he supported the slaughter of German laymen because their revolt supposedly went against his doctrine, which it did not) and to change the Bible and Gospel, immediately after claiming the infallibility of the Scripture? Obviously something is off there. I feel that Protestants and Calvinists are our brothers and sisters, simply led astray by who I find to have been a charlatan.

Faith of course, is vital but to have to explain the self-evident (Letter of James). . .well a meme is worth 5000 words. Never mind the fact that the argument often used "Scripture is self-refuting" is using circular reasoning. More like "start with a point-of-view and then find the scripture to support it." . .which goes back to the necessity of Tradition (the teaching authority of the Church). . .

James 2

[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?

http://drbo.org/chapter/66002.htm

Luther would have 'deleted' this epistle, too, along with the Deuterocannon. but maybe he thought he would be pushing his luck.

Thank you very much for that. Is that the reading I spoke of? It has a far more archaic lexile, but has almost the exact same message. I am honestly surprised that Luther did not omit that section- perhaps he had just a bit more merit as a servant of God than he is granted.

It's the Pre-Vatican 2 Catholic Bible AKA the Douay-Rheims Challoner revision. But you can still find it in the NAB, the Ignatius Bible, the RSV-CE, the Jerusalem Bible, or any church-approved Bible.