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By the Blood said:
The Spirit makes doctrines of scripture known to the elect, that He does not make known to the unsaved. He also makes some doctrines known to some of the saved and not to other of the saved yet, hence all the great arguments about what scripture actually says. This is called personal, private revelation, much deeper than mere words. If you claim that assurance is ALL and ONLY just because YOU believe scripture, it becomes a little too Arminian at that point. Who is it that gives understanding? The Spirit of God. How does He do it? Personally, and privately. What is understanding? A revealing of the will of God. Hence we (I do anyway) have personal, private revelation by the Spirit of God in regards to my assurance.
First, it is the universal testimony of the true Church that there are only two types of revelation from God which are given to men since the close of Canon: 1) Natural revelation, that which can be perceived in the natural creation and 2) Special revelation, the inspired inscripturated Word of God, aka: the Bible. During the interim, when the Scriptures were in the process of being written, God spoke directly to the Prophets and a few others by various means (Heb 1:1). The "final word" came through Jesus Christ Who appointed certain disciples to record His teachings by His Spirit. Thus, it is by, through and in the Scriptures God speaks to men and not in any way, shape or form apart from or in addition to the Word. There is simply no way an individual can discern that some voice, feeling or intuition is from God, particularly where such things are beyond Scriptural teaching.

Second, it is certainly true that the Spirit of God "reveals" the truths of Scripture to the elect (true believers) and not to unbelievers. However, this is not to be misconstrued as merely intellectual comprehension. But rather, it is more the embracing of those truths with the whole being, i.e., one not only assents to truth but it has a definite life-changing power to the one who embraces it because it replaces the principles which formerly controlled and directed that individual. (cf. Rom 7; 12:2) Many heretics and even Atheists have been able to intellectually grasp biblical doctrine but they immediately reject it as folly. They understand all too well what Scripture teaches but find it odious and objectionable, even calling it foolishness. (1Cor 2:14; Rom 8:7, 8) For example, it is not a difficult task for an unbeliever to read Scripture and understand that Christ was crucified, buried and raised from the dead. But such things are deemed mythical, fiction and hardly something to be embraced as truth never mind adopted as a principle of life itself.

Third, on the matter of assurance and the "witnessing of the Spirit to our spirits". One may indeed have an "inner confidence" which is said to be God "speaking". But as I pointed out in #1, there is no infallible method to discern whether that "speaking" is truly of God. There have been and always will be a multitude of people who claim to have assurance of salvation, of varying definitions, due to an "inner confidence" which they claim to have been given to them by God Himself, yet who remain dead in sins and under the judgment of God. One of the more easily seen examples is that of the Pharisees who were adamant that they were blessed of God. Many "believed" upon Christ and had some measure of assurance that they were saved but were anything but saved. (cf. Jh 2:23-25; 8:30ff) Thus the doctrine of assurance which the Church as held is not grounded solely upon the teaching that the Spirit witnesses to one's spirit but rather it is based upon several factors, e.g., embracing the truth of the Gospel, a life that exhibits repentance and good works and the testimony of the Church as it witnesses these things as being active in one's life.

Last, as I have emphasized before, God does not communicate by sending postcards to us but rather He has deemed it most effective to speak in and through the written Word attended by the indwelling Spirit Who opens our minds and hearts to not only comprehend its truth but to embrace it as a principle of life.


Colossians 1:9-10 (ASV) "For this cause we also, since the day we heard [it], do not cease to pray and make request for you, that ye may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, to walk worthily of the Lord unto all pleasing, bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;"


For further reading on the matter of assurance, see here:

Assurance of Salvation, by William R. Crews

True and False Assurance, by J.C. Ryle

Assurance: How We Know That We Know Christ, by John H. Gerstner

How Are Believers Guided into "All Truth"?, by John Owen

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Of Assurance of Grace and Salvation


I. Although hypocrites and other unregenerate men may vainly deceive themselves with false hopes and carnal presumptions of being in the favor of God, and estate of salvation[1] (which hope of theirs shall perish):[2] yet such as truly believe in the Lord Jesus, and love Him in sincerity, endeavouring to walk in all good conscience before Him, may, in this life, be certainly assured that they are in the state of grace,[3] and may rejoice in the hope of the glory of God, which hope shall never make them ashamed.[4]

II. This certainty is not a bare conjectural and probable persuasion grounded upon a fallible hope;[5] but an infallible assurance of faith founded upon the divine truth of the promises of salvation,[6] the inward evidence of those graces unto which these promises are made,[7] the testimony of the Spirit of adoption witnessing with our spirits that we are the children of God,[8] which Spirit is the earnest of our inheritance, whereby we are sealed to the day of redemption.[9]

III. This infallible assurance does 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:[10] 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.[11] And therefore it is the duty of every one to give all diligence to make his calling and election sure,[12] 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,[13] the proper fruits of this assurance; so far is it from inclining men to looseness.[14]

IV. True believers may have the assurance of their salvation divers ways shaken, diminished, and intermitted; as, by negligence in preserving of it, by falling into some special sin which wounds the conscience and grieves the Spirit; by some sudden or vehement temptation, by God's withdrawing the light of His countenance, and suffering even such as fear Him to walk in darkness and to have no light:[15] yet are they never so utterly destitute of that seed of God, and life of faith, that love of Christ and the brethren, that sincerity of heart, and conscience of duty, out of which, by the operation of the Spirit, this assurance may, in due time, be revived;[16] and by the which, in the mean time, they are supported from utter despair.[17]
In His grace,

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simul iustus et peccator

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