Q: Isn’t it an
indication of weak faith to doubt one’s salvation?
A: No – that view is relatively new on the theological landscape, and was not held by any of the great Christian preachers or writers prior to the late 1800’s. The Bible admonition is to “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith” (2 Cor. 13:5), and to “give diligence to make your calling and election sure” (2 Peter 1:10), by measuring oneself against the Biblical characteristics of a true Christian. Nearly all the pastors, evangelists and missionaries of earlier times, including John Bunyan, George Whitefield, John Wesley, Jonathan Edwards, and Charles Spurgeon, greatly feared counterfeit conversions and made calls to self-examination a regular part of their preaching, believing that it was better for their hearers to be duly warned and lack assurance than to be falsely assured and lack saving grace. Matthew Henry, one of the most beloved commentators of all time and the one whom Spurgeon advised that all Christians should read on their knees, wrote that it is “the great duty of all who call themselves Christians to examine themselves concerning their spiritual state. We should examine whether we be in the faith, because it is a matter in which we may be easily deceived, and wherein a deceit is highly dangerous: we are therefore concerned to prove our own selves, to put the question to our own souls, whether Christ be in us, or not.” Please see “What is the Gospel?” for a further explanation of this truth, as well as “Of the Assurance of Grace and Salvation” in the L.C.B.F.
Q: Isn’t it wrong
to judge someone else’s salvation?
A: Many will make such a claim by using, for example, Jesus’ words in Luke 6:37: “Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” (Other passages are also cited, such as Romans 14:4 or James 4:12.) However, the sin being most condemned here is hypocrisy, as seen in Paul’s warning to the Jews in Romans 2:1: “Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things.” But the fact is, the Scriptures often call on us to make judgments, even of people. Jesus said, “by their fruits you shall know them” (Matt. 7:20). This requires making a judgment, and John 7:24 gives instruction on how to make a proper judgment: “Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.” It is a Scriptural principle that God’s people are expected to make judgments concerning the people with whom they keep company. Malachi 3:16-18 describes the behavior of God’s faithful remnant, people for whom “a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name,” and who are described as begin those who will “discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him
