For any Christian, one of the most important questions a person can ever answer is, “How does a Believer know that they are for sure a Christian?” All Believers needs to have the assurance of their salvation. Finding the answer to this question brings confidence and contentment to the Believer’s life. Sadly, many people live their lives never really having an answer to this question. However, the Word of God is the starting point to find this assurance.
The assurance that will be discussed in this paper is an assurance found in the faith of the regenerated life. Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible defines “assurance” as, “Certainty or confidence about one’s beliefs or actions.” J. I. Packer defines “assurance” as “divinely given.” Assurance is
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In Romans 10:9 Paul says, “Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Salvation is the promise of God for those who receive Christ. Again, in Romans 5:1 Paul speaks of a peace that comes with assurance when he says, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
There are many views of the assurance of salvation. Most current denominational systems are based on one of these views of salvation. This research will only look at three of the most popularly held views.
Catholicism teaches that assurance of salvation is not possible. Noted Professor Karl Barth at one point in his theology was very outspoken on this topic. Barth completely denounced the possibility of assurance of salvation. David Martyn Lloyd-Jones writes, “Barth dislikes experience altogether and his whole view is that you really can be certain of none of these things, and, moreover, that all our attempts at expression of our faith are, of necessity, wrong and fallacious.” Although Barth eventually drifted away from this view the Catholic Church holds it to this
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J. Hampton Keathley III summarizes Charles Bell as saying, “John Calvin emphatically warned against looking to ourselves, that is, to our works or the fruit of the Spirit, for certainty of our salvation. He taught that we should look to Christ as the objective basis for assurance. To look to ourselves produces doubt and detracts from the saving work of Christ. He rejected the exhortation to self-examination as a dangerous dogma.” Calvin finds his assurance in scriptures alone and not on any achievements or experiences of
In Paul Tillich’s 1957 work Dynamics of Faith, he mentions that there are six major components of faith. These six components of faith describe the Franciscan perspective of “faith”. According to Tillich, the first component of faith is “the state of being ultimately concerned”. The second component of faith is that it is supposed to be at the center of all of our personal lives and everything that we do throughout our own individual lives. The third component of faith is that we should have an awareness for “infinite” things such as God himself. The fourth component of faith is that we need to understand that faith can act as fear, fascination, or both of these qualities at the same time. The fifth component of faith is that doubt is a major product that will always exist with faith. The last component of faith is that we need a community in order to have a “language of faith”.
It is clearly evident that the five principal beliefs in Christianity, the divinity and humanity of Jesus, the death and resurrection of Jesus, the nature of God and the trinity, the revelation and salvation all deeply impact on and influence the lives of its adherents.
Christianity is considered to be a living religion especially in terms of the reach for salvation. In the present through the practice of Baptism, Christians believe they die to the life of Original Sin and are born again to Christ, thus able to achieve Salvation. Thus, the tradition and sacred ritual of baptism implies that in order to be active adherents in the Catholic church, one must be baptised, just as Jesus was in the New Testament, “Peter said to them, Repent, and be baptised every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ.” (Acts 2:38) Another way in which baptism demonstrate that Christianity is a living religious tradition, is through the teachings associated with the purpose of human existence. Through the act of Baptism, which is a direct display of the belief in Salvation through Jesus, the purpose of human life is presented in terms of adherent’s purpose to lov...
In I.17.1 of John Calvin’s work, Calvin argues that people do not need to worry about anything they do not understand because God takes care of everything. It is important to understand that this is not the beginning of Calvin’s Institutes of Christian Religion, because his points in chapter sixteen set the basis for his argument in this next section. Chapter sixteen on providence gives the foundation of
Man knows that the Gospel is God’s power to save, that the truth purifies the heart and the truth sanctifies the heart; for, that information has been revealed through His Word by the Holy Spirit. (Rom. 1:16; I Peter 1:22; John
Reetzke , James. "Beliefs." John Hus. Chicago Bibles & Books, 2001. Web. 24 April 2012. .
On the issue of predestination Wesley held that “God has decreed that those who believe will be saved; those who do not believe will not be saved” (p. 174, Abraham). Wesley went ever farther in the “God makes the decree, but the decree does not exclude genuine human agency and freedom; indeed, it builds the exercise of such freedom into the very content of the decree” (p. 174, Abraham). He held that if one would come to God that they should have no doubts about their salvation. God has a drive for our salvation but it is an active choice that we must make, even those God knows what the decision will be from the very beginning.
"EXPLORING THEOLOGY 1 & 2." EXPLORING THEOLOGY 1 2. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 May 2014.
And that is why we say “Amen” through Christ to the glory of God.” This passage demonstrates that God has fulfilled his promise to those who believe in Christ. Those who believe in Christ is revealed by the word of the Holy Spirit, which is the third persons of the Trinity. Calvin based his definition of faith through understanding the Trinitarian. I believe that Calvin conclusion regarding the nature of faith is valid. He explained that faith involves in a person’s heart and mind, which transformed us internally. Calvin also stated, “Faith is not human insight; it is personal knowledge of God made possible by the Holy Spirit.” The Holy Spirit is the one who helps us understand God’s love and desire to seek Him. Calvin pointed out that we have also to believe with our “heart” and not just with our mind. I think it means that we cannot just say that God exists without trusting in his love and promises. Overall, I believe that Calvin definition of faith is adamant and
Wesley thought there was "nothing of greater consequence" than the doctrine of atonement. Without belief in the atonement, religion becomes merely deism, Wesley feared
Justification by faith is an imperative aspect of the Christian faith, no matter one’s denomination. This aspect is stressed in the beginning of the book of Romans when Paul is evangelizing to Galatia. The Judaizers, who believed Gentile converts needed to keep the old law, were disagreeing with Paul’s view that Gentiles needed just faith to become followers of Christ. By pointing out the similarities of both Jews and Gentiles, he explains justification by faith for all who believe in this powerful verse, “This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus (Romans 3:22-2).” This following paper will compare and contrast the theology regarding justification by faith held by Catholics versus Lutherans. By first defining both Catholic and Protestant theology of justification by faith, the root differences, and how they interpret passages differently, we can have a greater understanding of justification by faith (Hereafter JBF).
The definition of eternal security, or perseverance of the saints, is defined in the Moody Handbook of Theology as “The Calvinistic doctrine of the believer’s security. Those whom Christ chose and died for are eternally secure in their salvation; they can never fall away or be lost once they are saved (Enns 643)”. The Arminian counterpart of this doctrine is commonly called conditional perseverance, which states that “Believers have been empowered to live a victorious life, but they are capable to turning from grace and losing their salvation (Enns 495). ”
The knowledge of salvation is not a subject to be determined. Salvation only has one way of process, but the scenarios of why people cry out to The Lord are numerou...
The doctrine of salvation contains various aspects. The intent of this research paper is to provide a general overview of salvation from the angle of justification, propitiation, grace, redemption, and sanctification.
(1) Hick demonstrates the problem of verification in which he explains the idea of life after death, by a step by step process of how it can be verified. Hick explains that because of certain underlying principles of verification, "life after death" may in fact be true because it can't be disproved. However, I do not agree with Hick in that "life after death" can't be disproved, does not mean it's true. This leads my essay in which nothing in religion can be verified.