In the eighteenth century the religious life of Europe suffered from the blight of Rationalism. Religion became a matter of the intellect only, and religious truth was made to depend on rational arguments. Religious certainty was identified with a rational insight into the truth, and divorced from the experience of a supernatural change, and the resulting testimony of the Holy Spirit. Under this chilling influence real spiritual life fast declined, and alongside of it there appeared a luxurious growth of a purely historical or a merely temporal faith.
It was but natural that reaction should follow. When a spurious faith became alarmingly prevalent, the question forced itself upon serious-minded Christians with an ever increasing insistency: How can we distinguish the true from the false? The proper method was found in a close and sustained self-examination. The life of the soul was submitted to a very careful scrutiny and to an analysis surprising in its minuteness. A constantly growing number of marks were discovered by which true faith might be recognized, many of them based on an unwarranted generalization and therefore of a very questionable character. The spiritual experiences of those who were regarded as established Christians became the standard by which others were judged. But, though this method was undoubtedly applied with the best intention, it did not promote the glad assurance of salvation in the Church of God; in many cases it even led to hopeless confusion.
louis Berkhof | The Assurance of Faith (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1939), 29–30.
RESOURCES
- Subscribe To The Heidelblog!
- Download the HeidelApp on Apple App Store or Google Play
- Browse the Heidelshop!
- The Heidelblog Resource Page
- Heidelmedia Resources
- The Ecumenical Creeds
- The Reformed Confessions
- The Heidelberg Catechism
- Recovering the Reformed Confession (Phillipsburg: P&R Publishing, 2008)
- Why I Am A Christian
- What Must A Christian Believe?
- Heidelblog Contributors
- Support Heidelmedia: use the donate button or send a check to
Heidelberg Reformation Association
1637 E. Valley Parkway #391
Escondido CA 92027
USA
The HRA is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization
Heidelblog
The Heidelblog has been in publication since 2007. It is devoted to recovering the Reformed confession and to helping others discover Reformed theology, piety, and practice.
More by Heidelblog ›
One question I’ve often had (not sure if this is the best forum to answer this) is, “What is the nature of the testimony of the Holy Spirit in Rom. 8:16 and is it consistent with lack of assurance of salvation, or even lack of assurance that one has experienced something that is fit to be called The Testimony of the Holy Spirit?”
Hi Cole,
The passage (Rom 8:12–17; ESV) says:
It is the internal witness by the Spirit with ours that what the Word says and promises is really true. Do we all experience this without interruption? No. If you’re asking whether it is a “second blessing,” as some say, reserved for, as one wag put it, “the select of the elect,” no, it is not. It’s not as though some believers are given this witness and others are not. It is not true, as some have argued, that there are believers and then there are believers who have “the sealing of the Spirit,” which is just another version of the so-called “second blessing.”
In this passage Paul is describing the ordinary Christian life. It’s not the case that there are some Christians who are led by the Spirit and sons of God. All who are united to Christ by grace alone, through faith alone are sons and heirs. Remember, we’ve just left Romans 7 where Paul also described the regular struggle with sin. His testimony there is that of a believer. That’s normal too. That’s why says, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:1). He’s describing here what and who we are in Christ. He’s reminding us to walk toward being what and who we are. The Spirit does bear witness with ours. He does say, in effect, “the promises of grace, forgiveness, acceptance with God are yours.”
For more on Romans 7 and 8 take a listen to the series on Romans.
Dr. Clark,
I’d be very interested to hear your thoughts on the strain of preparationism that emerged with Puritanism.
Chris,
I would want to be precise about who was a preparationist and who and what a “Puritan” is. I would rather just speak about English Reformed theology as I’ve lost confidence that the word Puritan means much any more. It’s about as useful as evangelical.
Baxter was a preparationist.
Were there others? Probably.
Perhaps a similar “philosophical and deceitful threat, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ:” which led the Apostle Paul to write to the believers at Colossae.