Three Levels of Assurance When the Storms Come

Listened to my first set of Francis Schaeffer lectures in the past few days. I can see why he was considered one of the most respected and well-known apologists of the Christian faith in the 20th century. He speaks with a level-headed intelligence and conviction with a tender, pastoral heart. You can hear the tenderness come through his speaking where he seems to empathize with those (Christians and non-Christians) who are in the midst of their struggles.

In one of the lectures that I listened to on the subject of Assurance of faith, he discussed something that was very helpful to me (and I hope will be helpful to others, as well). But essentially, he said that all Christians will have moments when storms will hit. That is, either because of moral or psychological “upheaval,” there will be times when genuine children of God will doubt whether they are genuine children of God. When those storms come, he offers a helpful paradigm that helps us make sense of those storms and, by God’s grace, begin to come out of them.

Three Levels of Assurance

1. Promises of God: This level is where we are assured that we are His children by trusting in His promises found in His Word. For instance, when the Holy Spirit reveals to us our need for a Savior because of our sin and lack of righteousness, we trust the promises that, in Christ, we have found that Savior (John 3:36) and that he will never let us go (John 10:29).

2. Fruit: This level is where we are assured that we are His by the fruit that is produced in our lives. Those who are born of God will necessarily produce fruit in their lives. Albeit, it’s a slow process, but nonetheless, there will be fruit. And so, by the observance of these fruits in our lives, we can be assured.

3. Inward Testimony of the Spirit: This level is where we are assured that we are His by the inward testimony of the Holy Spirit. This is where the Holy Spirit testifies with our spirit that we are His children. This is the quiet, settled inward conviction and assurance that we are His children (Romans 8:16).

Now, according to Schaeffer (and others), every Christian can and should attain the third level of assurance. However, as mentioned above, the storms come (brought about either by our moral failures or psychological upheaval) and we begin to doubt. In those times, it is often that we don’t hear the inward testimony of the Spirit (level 3) and we don’t see the fruit in our lives that evidence the fact that we are His (level 2).

In those moments, all we have left is to trust in the promises of God (level 1). We trust in the fact that our loving Father has chosen us from before the foundation of the world (John 3:16; Ephesians 1) and we trust that Christ has not only paid our penalty, but is also right now interceding for us on our behalf (Hebrews 7:25; Romans 8:34; 1 John 2:1).

And by God’s grace, as we continue to persevere and fight to believe the promises of God, He will, in His good time, begin to bring us into higher levels of assurance.

Click here to listen to the lecture yourself (these notes definitely do not do that lecture justice). Scroll down to the lecture titled, “Biblical Doctrine Series: Westminster Confession, part 52 – Assurance.”

And click here for thousands of more lectures by Francis Schaeffer and other apologists from L’Abri.

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Doubts Are About Fears… Not Facts

In this extremely insightful blogpost, Jon Bloom makes the point that just like the Israelites of the Old Testament who constantly fell into idolatry because of political pressures from surrounding nations, Christians today constantly fall into idolatry, as well, because of cultural pressures from the non-believing world.

More specifically, Bloom says this about the condition in which the Israelites lived in the OT:

The nations surrounding Israel had fruitful harvests and won wars. They grew wealthy, had many children, and flocks of livestock. Those nations mocked Israel’s invisible God and applied political pressure. These gods appeared to provide more immediate benefit than Israel’s God.

He then compares those conditions with the current conditions in which we live.

Those that serve other “gods” may prosper financially, accomplish impressive feats, wield power, have beauty. They may mock what you believe and apply cultural pressure to you. These gods may appear to provide more immediate benefit than your God.

Thus, Bloom concludes the following:

This battle is often not waged on the field of truth, but rather on the field of cravings and fears. The desires of the flesh and the eyes (1 John 2:16) are battles of appetite not reason.

Then, with this conclusion, he takes the issue of doubt head-on by saying the following:

And what of your last battle with doubt? Was it really based on a rational, fair comparison of truth claims? Or was it triggered by the fear-laden discouragement of circumstance, cultural consensus, or someone else’s confident contrary assertion?

Yes. And amen.

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9 Ways to Know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is True

Many non-believing skeptics and well-meaning, born-again Christians alike, at one point or another, question the veracity of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. John Piper, in this article from Desiring God, gives nine compelling ways to know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is true.

Again, I think it must be clarified that these truths do not form the basis or the foundation of our faith or trust in Christ; the Holy Spirit enlightening our hearts to the glory of Christ in the Gospel is the only basis for our foundation (and one which we must continually ask the Holy Spirit to help us see and savor on a daily basis). However, these truths and all others (e.g. evidential apologetics) give weight to the hope that we already have.

1. Jesus Christ, as he is presented to us in the New Testament, and as he stands forth from all its writings, is too single and too great to have been invented so uniformly by all these writers.

The force of Jesus Christ unleashed these writings; the writings did not create the force. Jesus is far bigger and more compelling than any of his witnesses. His reality stands behind these writings as a great, global event stands behind a thousand newscasters. Something stupendous unleashed these diverse witnesses to tell these stunning and varied, yet unified, stories of Jesus Christ.

2. Nobody has ever explained the empty tomb of Jesus in the hostile environment of Jerusalem where the enemies of Jesus would have given anything to produce the corpse, but could not.

The earliest attempts to cover the scandal of resurrection were manifestly contradictory to all human experience—disciples do not steal a body (Matthew 28:13) and then sacrifice their lives to preach a glorious gospel of grace on the basis of the deception. Modern theories that Jesus didn’t die but swooned, and then awoke in the tomb and moved the stone and tricked his skeptical disciples into believing he was risen as the Lord of the universe don’t persuade.

3. Cynical opponents of Christianity abounded where claims were made that many eyewitnesses were available to consult concerning the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

“After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep” (1 Corinthians 15:6). Such claims would be exposed as immediate falsehood if they could. But we know of no exposure. Eyewitnesses of the risen Lord abounded when the crucial claims were being made.

4. The early church was an indomitable force of faith and love and sacrifice on the basis of the reality of Jesus Christ.

The character of this church, and the nature of the gospel of grace and forgiveness, and the undaunted courage of men and women—even unto death—do not fit the hypothesis of mass hysteria. They simply were not like that. Something utterly real and magnificent had happened in the world and they were close enough to know it, and be assured of it, and be gripped by its power. That something was Jesus Christ, as all of them testified, even as they died singing.

5. The prophesies of the Old Testament find stunning fulfillment in the history of Jesus Christ.

The witness to these fulfillments are too many, too diverse, too subtle and too interwoven into the history of the New Testament church and its many writings to be fabricated by some great conspiracy. Down to the details, Jesus Christ fulfilled dozens of Old Testament prophecies that vindicate his truth.

6. The witnesses to Jesus Christ who wrote the New Testament gospels and letters are not gullible or deceitful or demented.

This is manifest from the writings themselves. The books bear the marks of intelligence and clear-headedness and maturity and a moral vision that is compelling. They win our trust as witnesses, especially when all taken together with one great unifying, but distinctively told, message about Jesus Christ.

7. The worldview that emerges from the writings of the New Testament makes more sense out of more reality than any other worldview.

It not only fits the human heart, but also the cosmos and history and God as he reveals himself in nature and conscience. Some may come to this conclusion after much reflection, others may arrive at this conviction by a pre-reflective, intuitive sense of the deep suitability of Christ and his message to the world that they know.

8. When one sees Christ as he is portrayed truly in the gospel, there shines forth a spiritual light that is a self-authenticating.

This is “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God” (2 Corinthians 4:6), and it is as immediately perceived by the Spirit-awakened heart as light is perceived by the open eye. The eye does not argue that there is light. It sees light.

9. When we see and believe the glory of God in the gospel, the Holy Spirit is given to us so that the love of God might be “poured out in our hearts” (Romans 5:5).

This experience of the love of God known in the heart through the gospel of Him who died for us while we were yet ungodly assures us that the hope awakened by all the evidences we have seen will not disappoint us.

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Why We CHOOSE To Believe the Bible

1 Peter 3:15 says that we are to always be “prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.” Voddie Baucham, in the video clips below gives his reason as to why he chooses to believe the Bible. It will do us good to invest an hour to watch this talk.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

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Gary Habermas’ Book on Doubt Available Online for Free

Gary Habermas is Professor of Apologetics and Philosophy and chairman of the department of philosophy and theology at Liberty University. In his book The Thomas Factor: Using Your Doubts to Draw Closer to God, Habermas carefully examines an all-too-common, but not-too-talked-about reality of doubt in Christians. This book is specifically geared towards Christians who doubt.

You can view the entire book here for free, provided by www.bethinking.org, an apologetics website. The following is the table of contents:

Table of Contents

Introduction: Defining Religious Doubt
Professor Habermas gives the background to his book, explaining his own battle with doubts and his experiences of meeting many people with doubt. He explains that doubt can take a number of forms, and surveys the words used in the New Testament to express ‘doubt’.

Chapter 1: Both Believers and Unbelievers
It is not just believers who suffer doubt. Atheists can also doubt their atheism! Almost everyone doubts their beliefs at some time. Old and New Testament examples are given of believers who doubted, and lessons from these are drawn out.

Chapter 2: Common Myths
Some of the common myths about doubt are dispelled, considering what doubt is and does, as well as what it is not and does not do!

Chapter 3: Two Species of Doubt
Three species of doubt are identified – factual, volitional and emotional. Emotional doubt is the key concern of the rest of this book, but this chapter investigates doubts arising from factual questions and from issues relating to the will. Ways to identify these two species of doubt are given, and factors that lead to or aggravate such doubts are also discussed.

Chapter 4: Emotional Doubt: What If … ?
In this chapter, Professor Habermas narrows his focus onto Emotional Doubt, the most common, and most distressing, form of doubt. The chapter looks at how to identify emotional doubt and then at some of the factors that can lead to it.

Chapter 5: A Solid Foundation
Professor Habermas briefly explains the factual and historical basis of Christianity, which is the essential backdrop when dealing with emotional doubt. Christians do not believe that Christianity is true because believers are helped with emotional and other problems. Rather, believers can be helped by their Christian faith precisely because Christianity is true.

Chapter 6: Mapping a Specific Strategy
This chapter is the first of three which describe one process which can help to conquer emotional doubt. Some Biblical principles are described, based on Philippians 4:6-9, ensuring that our thoughts reflect God’s truth.

Chapter 7: Additional Suggestions
Further practical advice on overcoming emotional doubt.

Chapter 8: Practice! Practice! Practice!
This chapter addresses the need to apply the principles described in previous chapters. Additional steps that can be taken to help to overcome emotional doubt are also described.

Chapter 9: Living with Questions
Sometimes we have to accept that there are some questions we simply cannot answer definitively. This chapter considers how we live with elements of doubt and with differences between Christians.

Chapter 10: Negative and Positive Consequences
This chapter considers the negative consequences of religious doubt, but also emphasises the positive consequences that can follow when it is properly addressed.

[HT: Bethinking.org]

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