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Doubt as Virtue, Assurance as Arrogance
- 12/03/08
- 21
I have written often about the issues of doubt and assurance. They are, I think, issues that are well worth spending time on. Many fine Christians spend much of their lives doubting their salvation while other nominal Christians live in reckless assurance of their right standing before God. Meanwhile, many people today teach that doubt itself is a virtue while assurance is a mark of arrogance. John Frame offers some valuable perspective on this in his book Salvation Belongs To The Lord. Here is what he says about doubt as a virtue and assurance as spiritual arrogance.
“[T]he Bible presents doubt largely in negative terms. It is a spiritual impediment, an obstacle to doing God’s work (Matt. 14:31; 21:21; 28:17; Acts 10:20; 11:12; Rom. 14:23; 1 Tim. 2:8; James 1:6). In Matthew 14:31 and Romans 14:23 it is the opposite of faith and therefore a sin. Of course, this sin, like other sins, may remain with us through our earthly life. But we should not be complacent about it. Just as the ideal for the Christian life is a perfect holiness, the ideal for the Christian mind is absolute certainty about God’s revelation.
“We should not conclude, however, that doubt is always sinful. Matthew 14:31 and Romans 14:23 (and indeed the other texts I have listed) speak of doubt in the fact of clear special revelation. To doubt what God has clearly spoken to us is wrong. But in other situations, it is not wrong to doubt. In many cases, in fact, it is wrong for us to claim knowledge, much less certainty. Indeed, often the best course is to admit our ignorance (Deut. 29:29, Rom. 11:33-36). Paul is not wrong to express uncertainty about the number of people he baptized (1 Cor. 1:16). Indeed, James tells us, we are not always ignorant of the future to some extent and we should not pretend to know more about it than we do (James 4:13-16). Job’s friends were wrong to think that they knew the reasons for his torment, and Job himself had to be humbled, as God reminded him of his ignorance (Job 38-42).
“But as to our salvation, God wants us to know that we know him (1 John 5:13)…”
I believe Frame is correct on several important accounts. The Bible presents doubt largely in negative terms. Doubt is not presented as a reason for pride and assurance is not presented as something that is shameful. And in fact, doubt is a hindrance to doing God’s work and is the very opposite of faith. A person who is filled with doubt may well be a person of weak faith. The faith we are to pursue is one that has absolute certainty about God’s revelation.
And so we are to pursue assurance, for assurance of salvation and assurance of God’s revelation is a mark of faith—true faith—not something that is opposed to it.
I am a follower of Jesus Christ, a husband to Aileen and a father to three young children. I worship and serve as a pastor at 
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Comments (21)
In a recent discussion with someone over “The Shack”, I pointed out some of its major problems with respect to some key doctrines of the faith. They replied with this:
By the way, I’m not so certain in my positions about the godhead, salvation, free will, divine revelation, the sufficiency of scripture, etc. to claim that what another believes is necessarily false… especially when those things are not even explicitly mentioned in Scripture (give or take salvation depending on one’s interpretation).
I replied with this:
if you are not so certain of your beliefs regarding things like the godhead, salvation and the sufficiency of Scripture, may I suggest that you not spend time on something like The Shack, but instead feed on the pure milk of the word of God? For it is by it and it alone that you will grow in the grace and knowledge of God.
To which he came back with a claim of humility for not being “certain” on these doctrines. This is what he said:
“not so certain” is really a statement of humility… I basically meant that I have beliefs about all of those things - but I understand my own fallen state and am willing to realize that I could be wrong… but perhaps 2000 years of Christians debating about these issues should have sought your wisdom first
I think it drives home your point that doubt is not a virtue. I would even say that self-proclaimed doubt/humility is actually what is arrogant.
You hit the nail on the head with this line:
Doubt is not presented as a reason for pride…
Nor is assurance. Yet in over-reaction to the kind of doubt that borders on agnosticism, there are those (in increasing numbers) who are quite proud of their assurance, and see all doubt as sinful. Worse still, their assurance is not really in what God does/says, but in their interpretation thereof. Put more succinctly, their faith is in themselves.
Unfortunately, the human reaction of the “over-doubters” when confronted with arrogance masquerading as assurance, is to dig in even further. Then the “assured” dig in even further. And neither group is pursuing the correct kind of assurance.
I doubt that’s a good thing. (pun very much intended)
I have to disagree with both Challies and the previous posters. Doubt can be arrogant, such as when one continues to “doubt” something even in the face of overwhelming evidence, but more often it is humble. At the heart of doubt is the admission that “I don’t know”. It is self-deprecating. I suppose, like any other humble act, it can be contorted into the exact opposite (“Look at me! Look at how humble I am!”), but that needn’t always be the case.
This is such a thought-provoking topic. I was trapped by false assurance for decades, truly a non-believer despite my headful of biblical knowledge. So as you can imagine, false assurance is a huge issue in my mind. It seems to me that biblical assurance is always tied in to the evidence of the work and witness of the Spirit in our lives. It’s not about our works, but about His works in us. Without that, we’re fooling ourselves. With it, we can have assurance without arrogance.
Also, there’s a world of difference between honest uncertainty and a refusal to believe. You hit it on the head when you called the latter “arrogance.”
I’m wondering how poorly I expressed myself if JPH thinks that s/he is in disagreement with me.
Tim:
On this topic, it’s important to distinguish between doubt over (and assurance of) 1st level theological issues vs. 2nd or 3rd level theological issues. I wonder how many accusations of arrogance towards those of us in the Reformed/conservative evangelical camp are based largely on our refusal or inability to distinguish between those things that (a) the Bible talks about clearly; and (b) those positions that we believe or think (with an emphasis on the words believe and think) can be logically derived from what the Bible talks about clearly. As conservative evangelicals, we have to realize that we can’t treat (a) and (b) the same. The examples in the blog post seem to be mostly Category (a) issues, but I would suggest that we come across as assured and arrogant more often in discussions, conversations and arguments over Category (b) issues. Thoughts?
I see a lot of confusion regarding doubting self and doubting God. The two are not the same thing. To doubt God is sin: to doubt His ability to save, to doubt His truthfulness, wisdom, love, or any one of His other attributes. To doubt our ability to correctly interpret His word is healthy—remember, our perceptions are skewed by our sin. When you believe your interpretations of Scripture are beyond review, it opens the door to many theological wanderings that can lead you to trouble.
This should keep us on our toes and remind us that no matter how “sure” we are on some doctrines, we need to recognize that there are others out there who disagree and we need to be gentle and understanding with them as we seek to discuss and discern truth.
Sorry Brendt. I was mostly talking about the first post.
JPH,
As the author of the first post, allow me to ask - Are you saying, then, that it is ok to be uncertain about things like the nature of the godhead, salvation and the sufficiency of Scripture?
At the risk of being overused, may I include in this very pertinent quotation from G. K. Chesterton:
“What we suffer from today is humility in the wrong place. Modesty has moved from the organ of ambition. Modesty has settled upon the organ of conviction; where it was never meant to be. A man was meant to be doubtful about himself, but undoubting about the truth; this has been exactly reversed. Nowadays the part of a man that a man does assert is exactly the part he ought not to assert - himself. The part he doubts is exactly the part he ought not to doubt - the Divine Reason… The old humility made a man doubtful about his efforts, which might make him work harder. But the new humility makes a man doubtful about his aims, which makes him stop working altogether… . We are on the road to producing a race of man too mentally modest to believe in the multiplication table.” (Orthodoxy, 29-30)
I think the key here is the ability to understand the abuse of doubt. I see far more “doubt as a virtue” in our culture today than any other misuse of the normal human response to the unknown, fear, etc.
We can and should, as we mature and grow up into our faith, trust God all the more about all the things He says about himself (His nature, salvation, His enduring love and long suffering, his hatred for sin, etc)… even if we cannot FULLY understand the depths of these things we can believe them truly and Believe that God’s Word is true while we are being sanctified and growing.
The kicker for me is when doubt is elevated to a virtue whereby someone can claim a higher form of Spirituality because they doubt something over someone who claims to be sure of something. “I’m more spiritual than you because I am unsure of more stuff than you are…”
There are a number of “evangelicals” who are using this logic and it is troubling because they seem to be quickly moving toward a theology that has no authority upon which to stand.
I haven’t read the book Tim is reviewing… but I am putting it on my list!
Thanks Tim for all you do! Blessings!JakeFargo, ND
Brian-
We’d have to define “okay”. I’d say being “willfully uncertain” about clear doctrinal issues is sinful. However, I’d add that being “honestly uncertain” is not. The former represents a rejection of the truth, disguised as honest uncertainty. The second is represents an incomplete or immature understanding of the truth.
In response to Jake #11, who writes “I see far more ‘doubt as a virtue’ in our culture today”, I might agree, but I’d add that I see far more “prideful assurance” than I do “doubt as a virtue”.
Brian J. Auten, exactly right. And it’s “assurance” over Category (b) that drives the over-doubters into further doubt.
Jake, neither doubt nor assurance should call for a claim to “a higher form of Spirituality” — either way, it’s pride. But I don’t think it’s necessarily correct to even assume a higher form in the assured person over the doubting person. After all, the assured person may be absolutely certain of the wrong thing. Depending on the specifics, it may be that the doubter is more spiritual than the assured.
Again, it comes down to what one puts his faith in.
BTW, am I the only one that clicks “Subscribe to Comments” on this blog and yet gets nothing in his email? Am I holding my mouth wrong?
Good post. It seems that doubt is only sexy when it relates to God, the inerrancy of Scripture or some other “construct” in which people have supposedly expressed too much certainty. Some of the same people who extol the virtue of doubt would probably not admit to doubting the love of their spouse, the existence of global warming, or the brakes in their car.
Nicely done TIm. Never really thought about doubt in those terms - both good and right and not so good in other areas. I don’t know how I would’ve expounded on that tricky subject as you did. well played brotha. well played.
J. C. Ryle has a helpful, readable book about this subject entitled “Assurance.” I highly recommend it.
The chapter on “Preaching the Gospel to Yourself” in Bridges book “Discipline of Grace” has been tremendously helpful to me in regards to my existent sin and assurance of salvation based on the Gospel alone. Its when I see my sinfulness I begin to doubt.
mattg,That was a very astute observation. Thanks for sharing it.
Brian@voiceof thesheep
As I read the responces of the person who you had the discussion with, what came to my mind is this person would feel comfortable in the Unitarian Church. Perhaps that is a little unfair, but…
Perhaps if we were less focused on ourselves and more focused on growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, living lives that bring Him glory instead of dishonor to His name, and worshipping Him we would simply place our souls into His hands and trust Him with the ultimate outcome. I (personally) would rather be a born-again believer who lacks assurance than an unregenrate sinner with a false assurance.
I do not serve Him, follow Him, pray to Him because I am “certain” that I have been saved; but, because of Who He is. My love, faith, and delight in God is not one bit diminished based on whether or not I have assurance of my own salvation.
I am compelled to be His ambassador, to be salt and light to a dying world, to share the beauty of Christ and the Cross, because I love Him and love others; not because I am 100% certain that I am saved. If I am self-deceived about the condition of my soul, so be it. I rest in His promises and do not trust my “feelings” one way or the other. I trust Him.