Assurance (theology)

This understanding is grounded in Paul's affirmation, "...ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry Abba, Father.

"[7][6] John Wesley emphasized that this is not an assurance about the future, but about the present state of the believer (Methodist theology teaches that apostasy can occur through sin or a loss of faith).

[21] The Westminster Confession of Faith affirms[22] 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 predestination are taught in the Reformed churches primarily to assure believers of their salvation since the Calvinist doctrines emphasize that salvation is entirely a sovereign gift of God apart from the recipient's choice, deeds, or feelings (compare perseverance of the saints).

[23][24] Anabaptists who belong to Conservative Mennonite and New Order Amish communities teach the belief in assurance—"that one can know the state of his soul while on earth".

[25] Obedience to Jesus and a careful keeping of the Ten Commandments, in addition to loving one another and being at peace with others are seen as "earmarks of the saved".

[26] The Catholic Church teaches that an infallible certitude of final salvation, as supposed in Calvinism, is not a usual experience, as seen in the sixteenth canon of the sixth session of the Council of Trent: "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.

"[27] In critiquing the Reformed doctrine of the assurance of salvation, prominent Catholic apologist Robert Sungenis notes a complication of the doctrine as it relates to the historic Protestant doctrine of Sola fide: 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.

[28]Catholics recognize that a certainty of faith is ascribed to St. Paul (2 Cor 12,9) and speculate that the Virgin Mary also probably possessed it.

Ludwig Ott argues that a high moral, human certainty of having sanctifying grace is possible, on the grounds that one is not conscious of an unforgiven grave sin, but by no means faith which is believing with divine certainty,[29] and that with some probability one can locate positive signs of predestination, which does not mean that their lack be a sign of reprobation: He lists persistent action of the virtues recommended in the Eight Beatitudes, frequent Communion, active charity, love for Christ and the Church and devotion to the Blessed Virgin.

[30] Moreover, and especially, a Catholic can, and should, have certain[31] hope for eternal salvation, which does not rest chiefly on a grace already received, but rather on prospective future forgiveness by God's omnipotence and mercy.