Assurance (theology)
As a general term in theological use, assurance refers to a believer's confidence in God, God's response to prayer, and the hope of eternal salvation. In
John Wesley and Methodism
John Wesley believed that all Christians have a faith which implies an assurance of God's forgiving love, and that one would feel that assurance, or the "witness of the Spirit". This understanding is grounded in Paul's affirmation, "...ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry Abba, Father. The same Spirit beareth witness with our spirits, that we are the children of God..." (Romans 8:15–16, Wesley's translation). This experience was mirrored for Wesley in his Aldersgate experience wherein he "knew" he was loved by God and that his sins were forgiven.
- "I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation, and an assurance was given me that He had taken my sin, even mine."—from Wesley's Journal.[4]
Early in his ministry Wesley had to defend his understanding of assurance. In 1738,
In a letter dated September 28, 1738, Wesley wrote, "The assurance of which I alone speak I should not choose to call an assurance of salvation, but rather (with the Scriptures), the assurance of faith. ...[This] is not the essence of faith, but a distinct gift of the Holy Ghost, whereby God shines upon his own work, and shows us that we are justified through faith in Christ. ...The 'full assurance of faith' (Hebrews 10.22) is 'neither more nor less than hope; or a conviction, wrought in us by the Holy Ghost, that we have a measure of the true faith in Christ.'"[5]
The full assurance of faith taught by Methodists is the
The
The witness of the Spirit is that inward impression wrought on the soul whereby the Spirit of God immediately and directly assures our spirit that Bible conditions are met for salvation and the work of grace is complete in the soul (Romans 8:16). Therefore, the Spirit bears witness to both the salvation of the sinner and the sanctification of the believer (Hebrews 10: 14-15; (I John 5:10).[7]
The
The witness of the Spirit is that inward impression wrought on the soul, whereby the Spirit of God immediately and directly assures our spirit that the Bible conditions are met for salvation and the work of grace is complete in the soul (Romans 8:15, 16). Therefore none should think they are either saved or sanctified until the Spirit of God has added His testimony (1 John 5:10). And if we take car to all with God, and not grieve the Holy Ghost, we shall have an abiding testimony (Ephesians 4:30).[2]
Quakerism
The Central Yearly Meeting of Friends, a Holiness Quaker denomination, teaches in reference to the experiences of the New Birth and Perfection "that the Spirit of God gives to each born again person an inward witness that he is truly a child of God and to each truly sanctified person a witness that he is entirely sanctified."[3] Quakers hold that the "witness of the Spirit is nothing more than the communication and assurance of God through the Spirit to the inward consciousness of the seeking and the believing soul that he has received that which he desired of God, that God has both hear the prayer and performed His work of grace in the heart (Rom 8;16; I Jn. 5:14, 15)."[3]
Baptists
Lutheranism
Reformed
Reformed Christianity (Calvinism) has had controversies over the doctrine of assurance, many however teach that believers may have assurance of their salvation especially through the work of the Holy Spirit and also by looking at the character of their lives. The idea that because good works necessarily result from true faith one can gain assurance by observing evidences of faith in their life is called the practical syllogism.[19] If they believe God's promises and seek to live in accord with God's commands, then their good deeds done in response with a cheerful heart provide proof that can strengthen their assurance of salvation against doubts. This assurance is not, however, a necessary consequence of salvation, and such assurance may be shaken as well as strengthened.[20]
The Westminster Confession of Faith affirms[21] that assurance is attainable though the wait for it may be long:
...infallible assurance doth not so belong to the essence of faith but that a true believer may wait long and conflict with many difficulties before he be partaker of it: yet, being enabled by the Spirit to know the things which are freely given him of God, he may, without extraordinary revelation, in the right use of ordinary means, attain thereunto. And therefore it is the duty of everyone to give all diligence to make his calling and election sure; that thereby his heart may be enlarged in peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, in love and thankfulness to God, and in strength and cheerfulness in the duties of obedience, the proper fruits of this assurance...
Additionally, the Augustinian doctrines of grace regarding
The Marrow Brethren, being a group inside Reformed theology instead taught that assurance is to be grounded upon the gospel, while their opponents emphasized the human element in assurance.[22][23]
Anabaptism
Anabaptists who belong to
Similarities in Catholic teaching
The
"If any one saith, that he will for certain, of an absolute and infallible certainty, have that great gift of perseverance unto the end, unless he have learned this by special revelation; let him be anathema."[26]
In critiquing the Reformed doctrine of the assurance of salvation, prominent Catholic
The burden is on the Reformed position because [it] says that a person can live his whole life thinking that he is justified by faith and yet come to the point in time where he stands at the judgment seat of God and finds out that he did not have the works that qualified the faith to be justifying faith and therefore God would say to him, "I'm sorry, you were never justified in the first place." So, if there’s anyone who lives under a cloud of terror, it’s the Reformed position because he never knows whether he did the proper works in order to qualify the faith that he needs for justification. And this is especially important because the Reformed position says that works can never enter into the faith that procures my justification, because works are all in sanctification. So, if works can never enter into the faith that I need for justification, how can they ever qualify the faith that I need for justification? So, he's in a double dilemma now.[27]
Catholics recognize that a certainty of faith is ascribed to St.
In the Catholic tradition, a close equivalent to a doctrine of assurance has been a doctrine of final perseverance.
See also
- "Blessed Assurance", hymn by Fanny Crosby
- Conditional preservation of the saints
- Perseverance of the saints
References
- ^ ISBN 9781498205047.
Writing to Arthur Bedford on 4th August 1738, Wesley says: 'That assurance of which alone I speak, I should not choose to call an assurance of salvation, but rather (with the Scriptures) the assurance of faith... . I think the Scriptural words are ...
- ^ Emmanuel Association. 2002. p. 9.
- ^ a b c Manual of Faith and Practice of Central Yearly Meeting of Friends. Central Yearly Meeting of Friends. 2018. p. 28.
- ^ "John Wesley: Journal of John Wesley – Christian Classics Ethereal Library".
- ^ The discussion of Wesley's understanding of assurance is a revision of information presented on the website "Days of Wesley", copyright 2004, Days of Wesley, Conrad Archer, Entry on Assurance Archived 2005-01-22 at the Wayback Machine.
- ^ ISBN 9780191607431.
- ^ a b "Holiness". The Witness of the Spirit. Pilgrim Nazarene Church. 2017. Retrieved 6 June 2018.
- ^ ISBN 978-99960-27-02-4.
- ^ See Augsburg Confession, Article XVIII: Of Free Will
- ^ 1 Cor. 2:14, 12:3, Rom. 8:7, Martin Chemnitz, Examination of the Council of Trent: Vol. I. Trans. Fred Kramer, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1971, pp. 409–453, "Seventh Topic, Concerning Free Will: From the Decree of the Sixth Session of the Council of Trent".
- ^ Augsburg Confession, Article 18, Of Free Will Archived 2008-09-15 at the Wayback Machine.
- ^ Acts 13:48, Eph. 1:4–11, Epitome of the Formula of Concord, Article 11, Election Archived 2008-10-10 at the Wayback Machine, Mueller, J.T., Christian Dogmatics. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1934. pp. 585–589, section "The Doctrine of Eternal Election: 1. The Definition of the Term", and Engelder, T.E.W., Popular Symbolics. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1934. pp. 124–128, Part XXXI. "The Election of Grace", paragraph 176.
- ^ 2 Thess. 2:13, Mueller, J. T., Christian Dogmatics. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1934. pp. 589–593, section "The Doctrine of Eternal Election: 2. How Believers are to Consider Their Election, and Engelder, T. E. W., Popular Symbolics. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1934. pp. 127–128, Part XXXI. "The Election of Grace", paragraph 180.
- ^ Rom. 8:33, Engelder, T. E. W., Popular Symbolics. St. Louis, Missouri: Concordia Publishing House, 1934. pp. 127–128, Part XXXI. "The Election of Grace", paragraph 179.
- ^ 1 Tim. 2:4, 2 Pet. 3:9, Epitome of the Formula of Concord, Article 11, Election Archived 2008-10-10 at the Wayback Machine, and Engelder's Popular Symbolics, Part XXXI. The Election of Grace, pp. 124–128.
- ^ Hos. 13:9, Mueller, J. T., Christian Dogmatics. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1934. p. 637, section "The Doctrine of the Last Things (Eschatology), part 7. "Eternal Damnation", and Engelder, T.E.W., Popular Symbolics. St. Louis, Missouri: Concordia Publishing House, 1934. pp. 135–136, Part XXXIX. "Eternal Death", paragraph 196.
- ^ Luke 23:42-43, 2 Cor. 5:8, Engelder, T. E. W., Popular Symbolics. St. Louis, Missouri: Concordia Publishing House, 1934. p. 130, Part XXXIV. "The State of the Soul in the Interval Between Death and the Resurrection", paragraph 185.
- ^ "Bible Gateway passage: 1 Corinthians 15:22–24 – English Standard Version". Bible Gateway. pp. 616–619. Retrieved 25 April 2023.
- ^ Beeke, Joel (2011). "The Assurance Debate". In Haykin, Michael A. G.; Jones, Mark (eds.). Drawn Into Controversie: Reformed Theological Diversity and Debates Within Seventeenth-Century British Puritanism. Göttingen, Germany: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. p. 273.
- ^ "Westminster Standards – 1647 Westminster Confession of Faith | Reformed Theology at A Puritan's Mind". Chapter 18. Retrieved 25 April 2023.
- ^ Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 18, paragraph 3
- ISBN 978-0-19-153717-2.
- ISBN 978-1-60178-329-5.
- ^ a b "What's the difference between New Order and Old Order Amish?". Amish America. 2010. Retrieved 22 May 2021.
- ^ Fretz, Clarence Y. "How To Make SURE You Are Saved". Anabaptists. Retrieved 22 May 2021.
- ^ "CT table". history.hanover.edu. 1848. Retrieved 25 April 2023.
- ^ Justification by Faith Debate (Robert Sungenis vs James White), Part 19-20 of 25.
- ^ Ludwig Ott, Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma IV/I § 22.
- ^ Ludwig Ott, Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma IV/I § 12.
- ^ St. Thomas Aquinas, S. th. II/II 18 IV
- ^ see S. th. II/II 21 I for the differences. – Let it be said, for the sake of those readers that may feel difficulty in overcoming some sins whatever, that hope in even only a future repenting, combined with a certain sorrow for the sins, is as such valid hope; that not hoping is never a legitimate way of avoiding presumption; and that despair is worse than presumption, as St. Thomas teaches in S. th. II/II 21 II.
- ^ "CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Final Perseverance". www.newadvent.org. 1911. Retrieved 25 April 2023.
Further reading
- Lochman, Jan Milič (1999), "Assurance of Salvation", in Fahlbusch, Erwin (ed.), Encyclopedia of Christianity, vol. 1, Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans, pp. 146–147, ISBN 0802824137
External links
- Questions of Clarification for Wesley's Doctrine of Assurance by Michael E. Lodahl
- The Relationship of Assurance to Justification and Regeneration in the Thought of John Wesley by Scott Kisker
- That We Know Him: The Doctrine of Assurance by Michael Avery (Wesleyan-Arminian)
- Sermon #10: "The Witness of the Spirit, Part 1" by John Wesley
- Sermon #11: "The Witness of the Spirit, Part 2" by John Wesley
- Sermon #12: "The Witness of Our Own Spirit" by John Wesley
- Heaven on Earth: a Treatise on Christian Assurance by ISBN 0-85151-356-5
- Guthrie, William (1620–1665). "The Christian's Great Interest". Retrieved 2010-07-23.
- Ryle, J.C. "Assurance". Retrieved 2010-07-23.
- Assemblies of God position on Assurance of Salvation
- Monergism.com: Directory of Theology: Assurance