Which Beeke book on assurance to pursue?
- Thread starter RamistThomist
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Backwoods Presbyterian
Puritanboard Amanuensis
I could be wrong on this, but I think they are substantially the same work. The first is his Ph.D dissertation and the second one (the green cover) is an expanded version for publication.
RamistThomist
Puritanboard Clerk
I know the first deals with Gijsbertus Voetius. I am wondering if the second one does as well.
psycheives
Puritan Board Freshman
Back when I was a 5 point Calvinistic Baptist and didn't know the difference between MacArthur and Reformed theology, I thought MacArthur's book "Saved Without a Doubt" was the best book on earth. After reading his book, I used MacArthur's 11-point list to examine my life to find evidences "within myself and within my experiences" to "give myself assurance." I would check off MacArthur's 11 point list and go "I got that one" and 8 out of 11 is pretty good. But even back then, I saw the weakness in this teaching - I could never feel that much assurance looking at myself because the closer I came to Christ, the worse I looked! Where I used to notice all my outward sins before, now I began to really notice the inner ones more and more and there was no end to those! No end to my failure to "love God with all my mind, heart and soul" and no end to my failure to "love my neighbor more than myself."
But later, as I read Reformers and Calvinistic John Piper, I realized they taught that self-focused assurance was not where we were to put our trust. We are to trust Christ and not ourselves. Now that I've become Reformed, my entire view of assurance has changed. Rather than having assurance in MY FRUIT/WORKS/outward evidences in my life (which I never could really get much assurance from anyway), I now have assurance in Jesus Christ and His ability to accomplish His will and promises. I think MacArthur's book gives you 11 steps to feel assurance based on your fruit/works/feelings/outward events in your life but the focus on Jesus Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit is sadly missing from this book. My assurance should come from the Holy Spirit and Christ, not from being self-focused and observing myself and my works. Re-reviewing this book years later, I now believe MacArthur's book misses the Christian's main source of assurance - by the Holy Spirit upon the work of Christ. Christ alone is able to save me.
I believe MacArthur's points are quite subjective and based on feeling and on outward degrees of obedience:
MacArthur's 11 points on "How You Can Tell Whether You Are Truly A Christian"
1) Have you had communion with Christ and God by 1) loving them, 2) sensing their presence and 3) experiencing sweet prayer? (pg 70)
2) Do you obey God's word (pg 73) - To what degree? We all fail daily in "loving God with all our mind/heart/soul" and "loving our neighbor as ourselves".
3) Do you eagerly await Christ's return (Pg 75) - Even non-believers who think they will get rewards in heaven can easily hold this one.
4) Do you see a decreasing pattern of sin in your life (Pg 76) - Even non-believers can will-power fantastic outward works, like the Mormons
5) Do you love other Christians? - How many of us TRULY loves our neighbor daily MORE than ourselves? Do you remember all your neighbors in prayer or first remember to pray for yourself?
6) Does God answer your prayers?
7) Do you experience the ministry of the Holy Spirit?
8) Can you discern between spiritual truth and error? - This comes with prayer and maturity. We can't expect all new Christians to have a great deal of discernment.
9) Have you been rejected by man for your faith? - Many non-Christians experience this.
The other two points are listed elsewhere in the book and not clearly outlined.
But later, as I read Reformers and Calvinistic John Piper, I realized they taught that self-focused assurance was not where we were to put our trust. We are to trust Christ and not ourselves. Now that I've become Reformed, my entire view of assurance has changed. Rather than having assurance in MY FRUIT/WORKS/outward evidences in my life (which I never could really get much assurance from anyway), I now have assurance in Jesus Christ and His ability to accomplish His will and promises. I think MacArthur's book gives you 11 steps to feel assurance based on your fruit/works/feelings/outward events in your life but the focus on Jesus Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit is sadly missing from this book. My assurance should come from the Holy Spirit and Christ, not from being self-focused and observing myself and my works. Re-reviewing this book years later, I now believe MacArthur's book misses the Christian's main source of assurance - by the Holy Spirit upon the work of Christ. Christ alone is able to save me.
I believe MacArthur's points are quite subjective and based on feeling and on outward degrees of obedience:
MacArthur's 11 points on "How You Can Tell Whether You Are Truly A Christian"
1) Have you had communion with Christ and God by 1) loving them, 2) sensing their presence and 3) experiencing sweet prayer? (pg 70)
2) Do you obey God's word (pg 73) - To what degree? We all fail daily in "loving God with all our mind/heart/soul" and "loving our neighbor as ourselves".
3) Do you eagerly await Christ's return (Pg 75) - Even non-believers who think they will get rewards in heaven can easily hold this one.
4) Do you see a decreasing pattern of sin in your life (Pg 76) - Even non-believers can will-power fantastic outward works, like the Mormons
5) Do you love other Christians? - How many of us TRULY loves our neighbor daily MORE than ourselves? Do you remember all your neighbors in prayer or first remember to pray for yourself?
6) Does God answer your prayers?
7) Do you experience the ministry of the Holy Spirit?
8) Can you discern between spiritual truth and error? - This comes with prayer and maturity. We can't expect all new Christians to have a great deal of discernment.
9) Have you been rejected by man for your faith? - Many non-Christians experience this.
The other two points are listed elsewhere in the book and not clearly outlined.
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ChristianTrader
Puritan Board Graduate
Psyche,
Are you saying that the MacArthur book is problematic because it does not properly balance self-focused assurance with trust in Christ and the Holy Spirit or that it has an emphasis on self observation at all?
CT
Are you saying that the MacArthur book is problematic because it does not properly balance self-focused assurance with trust in Christ and the Holy Spirit or that it has an emphasis on self observation at all?
CT
psycheives
Puritan Board Freshman
If I'm incorrect, please correct me. However, from listening to Horton, Piper, reading the Confessions, etc, they seem to put the main focus on receiving assurance from the Holy Spirit and upon trust in Christ and a lesser focus on self-observation. Often, I notice the self-observation discussion also tends to be in the "if you live like this, you may not be a believer" rather than "if you live like this, you might be a believer" language. So I believe that the emphasis/balance in this book is very different than the teachings I hear from Reformers.
As far as I understand it, "Saved Without a Doubt" has the main focus on self-observation. I am not at all saying that MacArthur does not teach "assurance by the Holy Spirit" because he absolutely does teach this. However, I see the main focus of our assurance in this book as being unbalanced. I am also concerned with the effect the 11 point check list has on new believers who haven't experienced years of sanctification, persecution, answered prayers etc. I'm also concerned that many of the 11 points can be subjective. How can one measure one's "discernment of truth and error?" What are we measuring this against? And doesn't this also come with being taught, being discipled and growing over years? What if you haven't been taught or have been taught incorrectly? It can take years to come out of some false beliefs. We all know many Christians who have for many years been caught in beliefs we see as false (dispensationalism, rewards earning better placement in heaven, age of accountability, etc). What would one say about their discernment? Might most of the 11 points be answered as "no" by many Christians who have been believers for a year or even perhaps 5 years? I guess I see that these 11 points can easily lead to false assurance for those who jump a few hoops or have a few experiences and also lead to damage the assurance of baby Christians who just haven't experienced or noticed they experienced some of these points. These are some of the shortcomings that I perceived in this book. Again, please correct me if you think I have missed something. I seek to edify and be edified.
As far as I understand it, "Saved Without a Doubt" has the main focus on self-observation. I am not at all saying that MacArthur does not teach "assurance by the Holy Spirit" because he absolutely does teach this. However, I see the main focus of our assurance in this book as being unbalanced. I am also concerned with the effect the 11 point check list has on new believers who haven't experienced years of sanctification, persecution, answered prayers etc. I'm also concerned that many of the 11 points can be subjective. How can one measure one's "discernment of truth and error?" What are we measuring this against? And doesn't this also come with being taught, being discipled and growing over years? What if you haven't been taught or have been taught incorrectly? It can take years to come out of some false beliefs. We all know many Christians who have for many years been caught in beliefs we see as false (dispensationalism, rewards earning better placement in heaven, age of accountability, etc). What would one say about their discernment? Might most of the 11 points be answered as "no" by many Christians who have been believers for a year or even perhaps 5 years? I guess I see that these 11 points can easily lead to false assurance for those who jump a few hoops or have a few experiences and also lead to damage the assurance of baby Christians who just haven't experienced or noticed they experienced some of these points. These are some of the shortcomings that I perceived in this book. Again, please correct me if you think I have missed something. I seek to edify and be edified.
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