“…a key issue is frequently overlooked by both Protestant admirers of Rome and those who convert to Catholicism—assurance of salvation. The Roman Catholic Church flatly denies that Christians can have certainty of their salvation.” - 9 Marks
Robert Vacendak rightly observes that “Catholics, Calvinists, and Arminians deny absolute assurance of salvation.”1 Vacendak adds a vital hermeneutic observation that “Scholarly analyses of assurance often prioritize earlier studies, not Scripture.”2 Vacendak’s poignant reminder is a call to action that we base our understanding on the Biblical text itself.
“The uniform teaching of Scripture is that ordinary Christians, should be able to make their ‘call and election sure,’ (2 Pet. 1:10), and that not by some ‘extraordinary revelation,’ such as Rome taught, but merely by looking for the unmistakable and certain evidences of the work of the Spirit in their lives.” - Ref21
When considering assurance of salvation, sooner or later we come to the question of saving faith. The ultimate issue concerns the nature of my faith, is it genuine or spurious? If I didn’t have some kind of faith, I wouldn’t be concerned with assurance at all. I wouldn’t even consider it.
However, if I have made a profession of faith in Christ, but am troubled about the reality of that profession, what I want to know is whether my faith is true saving faith, or something less. At some point I thought I believed in Christ, but is my faith now genuine or not?
Many refuse to allow questions about the nature of faith, at least in the heat of evangelistic efforts. Just ask Christ to save you, and if you are sincere, you will be saved. Never doubt it. To doubt that God saved you is to call God a liar, or so we are told. Some go so far as to assure people that “if you ever made this decision before, you don’t need to make it again. But if you have never before made this decision, you need to make it today, and if you do, you will be saved, never doubt it.”
“Jim became a Christian, not because he had any life problem he needed to fix… but because he became convinced that Christianity is true.” Salvo Magazine
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On Saturday, July 2, 1966, as a six-year-old boy, I told my mom that I would like to “get saved.” She replied that the next day following the sermon I should go forward during the invitation. That next morning my dad and I walked down the aisle of the First Baptist Church, and he helped me accept Christ. On Monday, we celebrated with fireworks.1 Seven or eight years later while at a youth retreat I felt the urge to re-pray the sinners prayer, but that didn’t end my occasional struggle with doubting my salvation.
Phil Johnson talks about “Settled Certainty” at Pyromaniacs.
Related: see “Brian McLaren’s Emerging Universalism” in the Baptist Bulletin.
