"There is another thought I want to bring out, and that is, it is the privilege of every child of God in this vast assembly to know that their names are written in the Book of Life, and believe we can have that assurance that our names have gone on before us, and are registered in heaven. Christ sent out His disciples, seventy of them, and told them to go into the towns and villages, and preach the kingdom of God, and tell the glad tidings to the inhabitants; and when these men came back they had had wonderful success. Why, they said that the very devils were subject to them. All they had to do was to command the devils to leave the men, and the devils fled before them. They were all elated with their wonderful success; revivals had followed everywhere they had been; they were revival preachers; they were evangelists going into the towns and preaching. I have not any doubt but that there was a good deal of prejudice against them, but they went on preaching the glad tidings, and when they came back, Christ says, 'Well now, do not rejoice at that; I will tell you what to rejoice over. Rejoice that your names are written in heaven.' And I would like to ask every one in this audience to-night this question, Is your name there? Can you rejoice to-night that your name is written in heaven, that your name is in the Book of Life? Says Christ to His disciples, 'Rejoice that your names are written in heaven.'
[...]
Yes, every one whose names are written in the Book of Life shall not perish, but shall be saved....Oh, it is the privilege of every child of God to have his name there, and to know that it is there. I find so many people
LIVING IN DOUBTING CASTLE.
Why, it is salvation by doubts nowadays instead of by faith; there are so few that dare to say, 'I know that my Redeemer liveth; I know in whom I have believed.' We find most Christians nowadays shivering and trembling from head to foot, they do not know whether they are saved or not. Yes, Christ never would have told His disciples to have rejoiced unless they had known that their names were there."
____
Source: D. L. Moody, The London Discourses of Mr. D. L. Moody (London: 1875), pp. 121-123.
Some in Free Grace teach that "assurance is of the essence of saving faith." Do you agree with that ? Why or why not?
ReplyDeleteYes, I believe that assurance is of the essence of saving faith. For what do the Scriptures say? In Romans chapter 4, the apostle Paul says concerning Abraham that "with respect to the promise of God, he (Abraham) did not waver in unbelief, but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what He had promised, He was able also to perform. Therefore also it was reckoned to him as righteousness." (Romans 4:20-22, NASB). The fact that assurance is of the essence of saving faith was also the teaching of Martin Luther, John Calvin, and was "part and parcel of all the Confessions of all the Churches of the Reformation, down to the Westminster Assembly." (Sir William Hamilton, See the Appendix in Chevalier Bunsen's Life of Martin Luther, p. 225.)
ReplyDeleteBob Nyberg affirms: "Unfortunately, the legalists caught wind of what [Thomas] Boston was teaching and would have none of it! In 1720, the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland decided to weigh in on what was being taught by Thomas Boston and the Marrow Men who were advocates of free grace. The Assembly condemned the book on the following grounds. It taught that assurance of salvation was the essence of faith. Apparently, the Church of Scotland was numbered among those Reformed churches that were determined to correct the teaching of Luther and Calvin regarding assurance being the essence of faith." (Nyberg, "A History of Free Grace".)
Continued below . . .
Someone might ask about the Grace Evangelical Society's "Affirmations of Belief" web page under the heading "What We Believe – Fuller Statement," where it says under the sub-heading "Assurance of Salvation": "Assurance is of the essence of saving faith. That is, if a person has never been sure that he personally is eternally secure by faith alone, then he has never been regenerated. Assurance is always present at the moment of saving faith, though it is possible that a Christian may later doubt his salvation." ("Affirmations of Belief," emphasis added. https://faithalone.org/beliefs/) I agree with the GES statement on "Assurance of Salvation" except when it equates eternal security with assurance, because those two things are not the same (e.g. eternal security is objective; assurance of salvation is subjective). As Dave Anderson has said: "saying that assurance is of the essence of faith is not the same as saying that saving faith includes belief in eternal security." (Anderson, "Is Belief in Eternal Security Necessary for Justification?") Anderson goes on to say: "I would like to point out that Lewis Sperry Chafer did not equate assurance of salvation with eternal security: 'In the general signification of the doctrine, assurance is confidence that right relations exist between one's self and God. In this respect it is not to be confused with the doctrine of eternal security. The latter is a fact due to God's faithfulness whether realized by the believer or not, while the former is that which one believes to be true respecting himself at a given time.'" (Anderson, Ibid., quoting Chafer.) And finally, to once again quote Anderson, the point is this: "We are just establishing that assurance is of the essence of faith and that this assurance principle applies to any and every promise of God listed in the Bible." (Anderson, Ibid.)
ReplyDeleteJoseph Dillow affirms: "Assurance Is of the Essence of Faith . . . Finally, the Bible explicitly and implicitly affirms that assurance is part of saving faith. The writer to the Hebrews unambiguously declares this to be true when he says, 'Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.' (Hebrews 11:1). But in addition, the scores of passages that tell us that 'whoever believes has eternal life' surely imply that a person who has believed has eternal life. If he is not assured of that fact, how is it possible that he has believed the promise?" [Answer: Because Christians can obviously lapse into doubt.] (Dillow, The Reign of the Servant Kings, 1992 edition, pp. 288, 291.)
Although Reformed in his theology, R. Scott Clark has well said: "Assurance is of the essence of faith in itself but not always in our experience of faith. We are all sinners and our sinfulness & sins cause us to look away from Christ, to ourselves, and to doubt. As Rob indicates the WCF [Westminster Confession of Faith] speaks to this as did Calvin and the Canons of Dort." (R. Scott Clark, "The Gospel According To John (MacArthur) — Part 1," see his comment dated April 17, 2023 @ 8:11 AM.)
LIVING IN DOUBTING CASTLE.
ReplyDeleteWhy, it is salvation by doubts nowadays instead of by faith; there are so few that dare to say, 'I know that my Redeemer liveth; I know in whom I have believed.' We find most Christians nowadays shivering and trembling from head to foot, they do not know whether they are saved or not. Yes, Christ never would have told His disciples to have rejoiced unless they had known that their names were there." This would seem to run contrary to your comment since Moody believed " MOST CHRISTIANS" ........do not know whether they are saved or not>
I wouldn't interpret Moody's comment that way. When Moody says "most Christians nowadays...do not know whether they are saved or not," he affirms that those people (those doubters) are Christians. So at one time they had assurance if assurance is of the essence of saving faith. If those same Christians after that time lapsed into doubt (which many do), then they would lose that assurance or at least have doubts about it. That is how I understand Moody's comment.
ReplyDeleteAnd when Moody says, "it is salvation by doubts nowadays instead of by faith," I interpret that as hyperbole (exaggeration to made a point), because Moody is contrasting "doubts" with "faith". Obviously salvation is not "by doubts" (as I mentioned, Moody is using hyperbolic language to make a point); salvation is "by faith". So that actually supports the claim that assurance is of the essence of faith, because with that statement Moody is contrasting doubting with believing: so it is doubt vs. faith, meaning that faith excludes doubt. That is not to say that Christians can't doubt (indeed they can doubt). But it means that if and when Christians doubt, they are not exercising faith.
Here are some Bible verses that contrast doubting with believing:
Matthew 14:31 – "Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. 'You of little faith,' he said, 'why did you doubt?'"
Matthew 21:21 – "Jesus replied, 'Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, "Go, throw yourself into the sea," and it will be done.'"
Mark 11:23 – "Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain... and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them."
John 20:27 – "Then he said to Thomas, 'Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.'"
Romans 4:20 – "Yet he [Abraham] did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God."
Romans 14:23 – "But whoever has doubts is condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin."
James 1:6 – "But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind."
If assurance is of the essence of saving faith then that would eliminate about 97% of those who would confess that "Jesus is the Messiah , the Son of God" from eternal salvation . Believing that Jesus of Nazareth is who He said He was (the Messiah, God's anointed Savior, the Divine and human Son of God ) who was born of the virgin Mary, lived a sinless life, died a substitutionary death on the cross for the sins of all mankind ,was buried and rose from the dead, is sufficient belief for God to impart eternal life (along with 38 other promises received upon simple belief in His name. John 1:12
ReplyDeleteHolman Christian Standard Bible
12 But to all who did receive Him,
He gave them the right to be[a] children of God,
to those who believe in His name,
I don't follow the logic of when you said: "If assurance is of the essence of saving faith then that would eliminate about 97% of those who would confess that 'Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God' from eternal salvation." Maybe you can explain the logic of your statement because it appears to be a non sequitur, i.e. the conclusion does not follow from the premise.
ReplyDeleteTo be clear, I'm not saying that a person must understand the theology of assurance as you seem to think I'm saying. Rather, I'm saying that saving faith IS assurance. Saving faith is being "fully persuaded" (i.e. assured) of what God has said, as was Abraham when he "believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness" (see Genesis 15:6; cf. Romans 4:20-22).
Most Calvinists and Armenians lack assurance of salvation. They don't understand or believe the "theology of assurance." Calvinists believe in perseverance ,Armenians believe in conditional salvation. If assurance is a requirement for salvation then that would eliminate those two groups (97% of professing Christians).
DeleteI agree, if you mean believing or understanding the theology of assurance. But that's different than saying "assurance is of the essence of saving faith." (As I pointed out in my previous comment.)
ReplyDelete