There is Only One Faith That Offers Assurance

 

Do you know that Christianity is the only faith system that offers us assurance of our eternal destiny? I am talking here about true Christianity; Biblical Christianity. This statement does not apply to all sects of christianity. I am making a bold, generalized statement here. I admit that I do not know all of the ins and outs of the different sects of Christianity, but those with which I am familiar fall safely within the bounds of this statement; the rest fall under the umbrella of assumption, based on the understanding that there is only one true faith, and everything else is anathema.

Catholicism is not included in this statement of assurance. Mormonism does not count either. Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism...these definitely do not offer assurance. As far as I have been able to determine over the years, only Biblical Christianity does not require some type of works to appeal to or appease God. Works are a byproduct of true faith, not a requirement for eternal life. As James states, faith without works is dead (James 2); but works do nothing to ensure entry into Heaven.

And I want to be very clear here; there are Christian churches that hold to general beliefs about Jesus that cause them to fall under the title of Biblical Christianity, but which fail to teach the fullness of the faith. There is still assurance of salvation in these churches, even if their theology is incomplete. I am not addressing those shortfalls here. I am merely pointing out that the Bible tells us that we can know where we will spend our eternity and with whom.

In 1 John 5, the Apostle tells us that we can know what our eternal destiny is. Verse one states, "Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him." This makes clear what is expected to meet the minimum threshold of salvation, but his statement in verse 13 tells us the outcome of this belief; "These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life." That is assurance.

John tells us in this chapter that this love of, or towards God is evidenced in our obedience to Him (1 John 5:2), which I drum on about over and over again in my articles. 

Failure to obey God is evidence of a lack of relationship with Him. 

I have just offered two different statements that state the same thing from different perspectives. Maybe you agree with one statement and disagree with the other, but they are contrary statements speaking of the same topic from different aspects; obedience and disobedience. If one statement is true, then so is the other. We are either obeying God or we are not; there is no in between. Partial obedience is not obedience. 

I am reminded of the parable of the two sons from Matthew 21. A man goes to his one son and tells him to go work in the vineyard. The son says that he won't go, but later he does go. The father goes to the second son and tells him the same, and the son says he will go, but does not. Jesus tells us that the son who eventually went to work was the obedient one, while the other one was not. To say you will obey God, but then to fail to do so is not obedience. So, looking at this through the earlier statements that partial obedience isn't obedience, and failure to obey is evidence of a lack of relationship with God, there is either relationship with God, or there is not.

While, on the surface, obedience to God does not seem to mesh well with this topic, I think that it does. What most religions teach is obedience to the church, or Temple, or Mosque, or whatever other form the hierarchy of the religion takes. It is obedience to this hierarchy that leads to the penitent achieving whatever higher form or eternal destiny the religion teaches.

But there is no assurance of attainment of the goal in these systems. What these hierarchy's demand is a never ending list that can never be completed. The bases of these demands lead to a lifetime of deeds, or works, that one can never know if they have achieved sufficiently for them to have "arrived". The adherents to these religions only find out if their works have been sufficient after they die and they stand for judgment.

Moving beyond the non-christian religions, which all share this doctrine that one has to earn their way to paradise, whatever that may look like, I want to look more closely at the 'christian' religions which, though they base their dogma on the Bible, it is their extra-biblical doctrines that remove the assurance that the Bible offers. I will touch on Catholicism and I will also look at Mormonism as well. This will not be an exhaustive exploration of even these religions, but I just want to make a point about certain christian sects and the lack of Biblical authenticity in their teachings.

I want to start with Catholicism, but I will start with an observation about the Catholic beliefs in general. Catholic means 'one' or 'united', but it is interesting to talk to various Catholics and state the official beliefs of the Roman Catholic Church (RCC), as presented by the Vatican, and have those who claim to be Catholic argue against the official theology. In particular, I have challenged Catholics about their veneration of Mary and other saints, praying to them for intercession, and many Catholics have argued that they do not pray to anyone but God. The church as a whole says that they do, but these individuals either do not recognize it as such, or they do not practice that aspect of the official Catholic dogma. This is merely one example among many. So as I move forward in this article, keep in mind that there is apparently quite a lot of disagreement about what Catholic theology actually includes, even among Catholics.

In Catholicism, one is required to observe the sacraments in order to be deemed worthy of Heaven. The RCC teaches that eternity is only entered through the church. If one claims to be Catholic but never attends church or refuses to partake of communion in the church, among many other requirements, they will not enter paradise. The church has made itself the arbiter of who enters Heaven. It is based on works. There is a way for Catholic believers to enter Heaven without the church, eventually, but it requires time spent in purgatory under punishment for their refusal to bow to the edicts of the church. 

But even with regular church attendance and observance of the sacraments, Catholics understand that they can never attain to the righteousness required to bypass purgatory. It is understood that every person will have to spend some time in a netherworld place of punishment for an undisclosed time before they can enter paradise. The amount of time required is determined upon their death, according to their works. This is not assurance of salvation, this is a promise of punishment, with a hope of salvation at some future time.

This is greatly simplified, but this is what the teachings boil down to. The church bases one's eternal destination, and the timing of entry into that destination, on the works that the penitent performs; not on the grace of God the Father through the salvation won by the Son.

Mormons also rely on works to attain to salvation, along with the sacrifice of Jesus. The church believes that everybody who believes in Jesus as God's Son will receive salvation from physical death; that is, they will all be raised from the dead in the Last Days. But, the church also believes that there is a second salvation, a spiritual salvation, that is earned outside of Jesus' sacrifice. The church sets out laws and ordinances that require obedience for one to attain to spiritual salvation.

According to the Mormonism Research Ministry, a ministry devoted to bringing Mormon believers into a true understanding of the Gospel, Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, compared the journey of salvation (exaltation) to climbing a ladder, stating that, "… You must begin at the bottom and ascend step by step,” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pg. 348). This teaching was supported by the twelfth president of the LDS church, Spencer W. Kimball, when he taught that, "Each command we obey sends us another rung up the ladder to perfected manhood and toward godhood; and every law disobeyed is a sliding toward the bottom where man merges into the brute world” (Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, pg. 153), also stating that, "… however powerful the saving grace of Christ, it brings exaltation to no man who does not comply with the works of the gospel” (The Miracle of Forgiveness, pg. 207). These are man-made doctrines that undermine the power of the Gospel and add to requirement for salvation, and these rules remove assurance from the people.

So we see that even in different sects that loosely attribute themselves to Christianity, their church teachings contradict the teachings of the Bible, the supposed Holy Scriptures that they claim to follow. I have found that Lutherans and Calvanists hold to assurance of salvation, which I discovered while researching this article. I find hope and comfort in this discovery, though there are other issues with these belief systems.

My desire is that people would reject their various religions and simply read and obey the Bible. Doing so would lead to much more harmony among those who profess Christianity. Thankfully, there is very little animosity between the different sects of Christianity in North America. We tend to get along well and even work together in some ways, but there is still a separation that exists largely due to man-made rules that are placed alongside or even on top of Biblical standards. This needs to stop.

The Bible is very clear about our assurance of salvation. Returning to 1 John 5, if we read verses 10-13 together, we see, "The one who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself; the one who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given concerning His Son. 11 And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. 12 He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. 13 These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life."

The truth is stated plainly. There are no caveats; no addendums; no additional rules that some self-proclaimed "prophet" has any right to add. A Bible believing Christian can know that his or her eternity will be spent in the presence of God on a renewed earth, and that assurance gives us confidence to pursue obedience to Him out of love and reverence, rather than out of fear of failure.

That is the gift of a loving Father.