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Pilgrim said:
Flunky1 [Linked Image]

As I wrote speratus, it is NOT "either/or" but rather BOTH the objective truths concerning the efficacy of Christ's atonement done for us AND the testimony of the Spirit to our spirit. The latter consists of BOTH inward impressions AND the manifestation of His indwelling which are evidenced in good works. It is true that the motivation behind those good works is essential, but even that is imperfect.

As to faith, true saving faith is "fiducia", that is an acceptance of the object truths concerning God, Christ, salvation, sin, etc., AND a reliance on them, a trusting in Christ, and an obedience to God in all things. In short, a true faith is something which controls one's entire life based upon the propositional truths revealed by God. Today, most profess a "faith" which is known as "assensus"; i.e., a simple affirmation of some truth(s) concerning God, salvation, etc. For example, "I believe that Jesus died for me." Such a statement says nothing of one's union with Christ and submission to Him. In fact, it is a statement which only belongs to one who has already believed on Christ, not one that unites one to Christ. Historically, this false profession of faith is known as "Sandemanianism" (re: Robert Sandeman) or as it is more commonly known, "Easy Believism".

In His Grace,

First of all, nice cat...

I agree entirely with your comments on Sandemanism, for it is but the same faith the devils have.

Inward impressions... Well, I would only trust any such impression of God's favour upon me if it were first based on some objective truth of Scripture. Having owned a false assurance and a false sense of god's favour in the past, and having had contradictory inward impressions - or "subjective impressions" - over the years, I am inclined to trust first and foremost objective statements of Scripture and build my assurance and guidance upon that, rather than any impressions.

Maybe the difficulty here is the precise definitions of terms like inward impressions... All I know is that if we love God selflessly, the Word of God promises that this is an evidence of a work of grace, and so we can know and gain a very definite and realistic impression, nay certainty, that God is with us and loves us dearly.

I suppose I am very wary about impressions because of the leadings / claimed revelations that some of the Covenanters and people like Bunyan received in the past. For example, Bunyan in his "Grace Abounding" spoke of intuitive revelation, i.e., his affliction was to last for many days.

In closing, I am not opposed to objective impressions (e.g. being assured that God will accept me for Christ's sake when I boldly cry Abba Father), but I'm deeply suspicious of subjective ones built around an intuitive feeling / hunch that God is with me.