Dear Costello:<br><br>You asked the following question(s):<br><br>"What assurance do I have that I am not one of "those"? The heart is deceptive above all things and desperately wicked. Even if I have been a Christian for 30 years, it might be by shear blind tenacity on my part like so many following false religions and not a true Christian at all. If I have never been persecuted, how do I know I am not a 'stony ground' hearer?"<br><br><br>I believe you are asking excellant questions, which fortunately have been answered by the scriptures and the Reformers and Puritans that followed them. The first epistle of John was written primarily to address this issue of assurance of faith and Dr. Joel Beeke, who did his doctoral dissertation on the Reformers (Calvin, Luther, Zwingli, etc) and their followers (Owen, Westminster Divines, etc) postion on this crucial doctrine, is now preaching a sermon series on this epistle and these can be heard at the following address:<br><br>http://www.sermonaudio.com/search.asp?seriesOnly=true&sourceID=hnrc&keyword=Series+on+the+Epistles+of+John&keyworddesc=Series+on+the+Epistles+of+John<br><br>His dissertation on assurance has been edited for the general reader and has been made available in the form of a book called "The Quest for Full Assurance", which is an easy and most wonderful read (don't be scared off by the doctoral disertation label) for only $7.50 and is available at:<br><br>http://www.heritagebooks.org/item.asp?bookId=83<br><br>I pray this helps you find the assurance that the scriptures reveal and the Reformers and Puritans preached so fully and wonderfully about.<br><br>In Him,<br><br>Gerry

Last edited by acts2027; Sat Oct 25, 2003 10:49 AM.