Let's just say we're not the first to fight this battle. I think you are right that at least the finer points will have to wait for the beatific vision.
The big hairy concepts are
Also, I think you over-stated our opposition to "blessed assurance."(I think maybe we overstate it too, maybe.) When I cite Dominic and Terese of Lisieux, I don't mean that those destined to be canonized are the only sort who can enjoy the blessed assurance.
If the proposition to be debated is "Whether Catholics think no one can know he's going to heaven?" I think I've done my job if I can adduce one or two people who talked like they knew and did not get accused of anything.
BUT, just as we observe "All saints" in a few days, because we believe there are PLENTY of saints who are not known to us, so I think, the gift of blessed assurance is granted to many more than to just a couple of famous 'greats'.
It occurs to me that part of OUR problem (if it's a problem) is what I think of as the "Hosannah Rhetoric".
Look at the Mass: The priest does not say: Shuh-ZAYam, We done 'er agin!! He asks. He begs. And he asks for "some small share" of grace. Sure, he partakes and distributes in evident confidence that God has indeed done 'er agin, and so we receive. We ACT in confidence while we beg like beggars, for such we are.
So, maybe, with blessed assurance. (The Mass is central to Catholic life, piety, and thought in a way that is dauntingly hard to express to someone who does not live it.) Just as we are confident that God will do what (we think) he promised as regards the Eucharist, so also I put all my trust in God and His deep and, if I may say so, resilient mercy. He will do, as He always has done, ALL for my benefit. ("He does all for each," says Lewis in a wonderful account of Divine Providence.)
Now imagine the kid who goes to his father and says, "Dad, you know and I know that you're going to give me the money I'm asking for after I've argued and begged and promised for a while. So why don;'t you save us both a lot of time and give it to me now?"
Even if he KNOWS, it is indecent to assume, to adopt that attitude.
SO I think part of our reticence on this matter is more an aesthetic sense than a strict theological sense. It's just TACKY to say, "Oh yeah, I'm cool." We will remain like baby birds squawking with out mouths open for food,and our chief rhetoric will be that of supplication, though we are confident we will not be refused.
(Hosannah, though a cheer and little else, literally is a plea to be saved.)
I'm not saying good or bad. I'm just trying to convey the savor of it.
Look: my tears at Corpus Christi are not tears of fear. They are tears of release, of happiness that so great a need in me is met with so overwhelmingly generous a response. It is my part to beg,and His to grant. And I am happy to beg. Poverty is fun.
To the Catholics I pinged: I did not ping you to pile on boatbums but to ask if you think this is more or less okay.
There's at least one doctoral dissertation waiting on the influence of piety on theology. Lex orandi, lex credendi and all that.
All who believe on the Lord Jesus and put their trust in him can have “blessed assurance”. It just may be the most important subject we can discuss.
1 John 5:13 These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.
John 6:47 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.
The word translated "believeth" (KJV) is a continuous tense word. In other words, if you continue to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ can be assured that he/she has everlasting life.
As long as we are steadfast in the faith we are assured of our eternal life.
1 John 2:24 Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father. 25 And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life.
Thank you, as always, for your kind comments. What I see as the main problem with this denial (of sorts) of a believer having "blessed assurance" is not so much that no one can know they are going to Heaven but rather that just anyone can know. Sure, I grasp the Catholic idea of specially pious and holy people given assurance by God of their destination, but what usually is that assurance based upon? Their specially pious and holy lives? Or, rather is it based upon their faith and trust in the promises of God who says - repeatedly - that he wants us to KNOW we HAVE eternal life?
I remember hearing all the stories of the "saints" in Catholic "lore" and always getting the impression that I could never be THAT holy or brave or special. We were raised to revere them FOR their exemplary lives but I do not recall even one lesson about how much we could be like them through grace. How a life of faith - pure, simple, child-like faith - could move the mountains like Jesus said. There was too much emphasis on the internal, human-generated holiness and deprivation and not nearly enough on what God can and will do with any of us who submit ourselves completely to him.
SO I think part of our reticence on this matter is more an aesthetic sense than a strict theological sense. It's just TACKY to say, "Oh yeah, I'm cool." We will remain like baby birds squawking with out mouths open for food,and our chief rhetoric will be that of supplication, though we are confident we will not be refused.
I'm sorry, but I just do not get that sense. Not from some here, not from my Mom, and not from what I read in Catholic literature. The reticence, I believe, is very much theological and to equate an assurance of salvation based on faith in the promises of God to a "tacky" self-assured "I'm cool" swagger is a great example of that difference. See, I'm not basing my assurance of salvation on how good I am or how many good deeds I've done for God. If I was, then you have every right to shoot me down off my imagined perch. I don't belong up on one, Jesus does. It is ONLY because of him and what he has done for us through his atoning sacrifice, that we can even BE saved. Not a one of us can count on our efforts of merits, not even Sts. Dominic or Terese. So, that's the real point, not of our works means exactly that and because we are not saved because of works we are not kept saved by them either.
(Hosannah, though a cheer and little else, literally is a plea to be saved.) I'm not saying good or bad. I'm just trying to convey the savor of it. Look: my tears at Corpus Christi are not tears of fear. They are tears of release, of happiness that so great a need in me is met with so overwhelmingly generous a response. It is my part to beg,and His to grant. And I am happy to beg. Poverty is fun.
I am happy that I can trust the giver of life to do what he says he will do. The promises of God are sure and he WILL do what he has promised. I really do not believe he has the slightest desire to hear us beg for redemption. In fact, I believe to do so is an insult to him. Imagine, for a minute, that your beloved wife on the day you asked her to marry you and she accepted, that that night she went home and called you on the phone to plead with you to marry her. Every day you saw her, she got on her knees and begged and pleaded with you to PLEASE marry me. She sent you letters, and postcards with the words, "Please, please marry me!". Be honest now, wouldn't you start to feel a little uneasy about the woman you asked to marry you? "What the heck's wrong with her?", you wonder, "I asked her, she knows I love her, she knows I want to. She knows we will be. What's her problem!".
Can you see my point? Certainly God wants us to come to him in prayer asking in faith for the things we need, but, COME ON, he did not leave us wondering about the most important thing we could ever want to know, "Where am I going when I die?". There's not one book in the whole Bible that doesn't speak about the mercy, love, grace and trustworthiness of our Almighty God. Don't you think on this issue he wants us to HAVE assurance?
I agree in the main with your points and caveats, however...
In general there are some obvious problems with blessed assurance when coupled with easy believerism - as it often is.
An extreme example to make a point: Say I told you, "Believe there are purple striped carrots and I'll give you a thousand bucks." "I believe," you say. And it's quite possible you did believe it. But how do we quantify "believe." First, did you really believe (enough); did you believe correctly (are the stripes vertical or horizontal) and did you believe with the proper motivation?
If blessed assurance is "believe in Jesus Christ and you are saved now and forever,' well, you get the analogy.
Believe, faith, trust in are all similar, nearly identical in this case. If I say I believe do I really? "the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do." Do I qualify under this?
"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven." Well, certainly not nearly enough, but I believe don't I?
"The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel." Gee, I thought just believing got me in the kingdom.
Then there's the motivation question. if I believe in order to be rewarded, of what value is this? Would I *not* believe if it got me the same reward? Am i marrying for money or for love?
We can easily fool ourselves of our true motivation. And, in the end, who is the judge of this? Me or Christ?
Then there is the problem of the increased tendency toward the sin of presumption that, IMHO, is more likely with blessed assurance/easy believerism.
Finally, if I am assured, have I got God in a box in my pocket? No way He can change his mind about me if I take advantage or forget my proper position or sin boldly without sincere repentance?
I have little doubt there are saints with assurance as you mention; but, the bulk application of blessed assurance/easy believerism to every Christian?… don't think that's good exegesis, theology or good practice. Certainly at least when compared to increasing in love, doing our very best to follow jesus in that love - while repenting our failings and praying for His mercy.
MHO, FWIW.
Thanks as always for your posts.
Confidence is good...But nowhere in the scriptures does Jesus promise, or even suggest that he will turn himself into a piece of (unbroken) bread or a bottle of wine...
And nowhere is it suggested that any human should pray to have it done...
But hey, that's just scripture...
Now imagine the kid who goes to his father and says, "Dad, you know and I know that you're going to give me the money I'm asking for after I've argued and begged and promised for a while. So why don;'t you save us both a lot of time and give it to me now?"
Even if he KNOWS, it is indecent to assume, to adopt that attitude.
And conversely, our Father not only didn't require for us to argue for it, and gave it freely, he told us numerous times in the scripture that we are to expect it...It's a done deal...
Our Father even told John to write some scripture so that we would KNOW that we have it all...Right now...
Unlike your religion which pulls a lot of this stuff out of thin air, we rely only on the Bible...And there is scripture after scripture confirming what we believe...
We want to be in heaven because we love Our Lord. Assurance of salvation would be like telling a newlywed: "Now that you are married, you don't have to love your wife, -- she is not going anywhere". Beside the point.