ANNOUNCER: How assured do you have to be to have assurance? Is assurance always one hundred percent? What about the word certainty? Are there different types of certainty? Or is certainty just certainty? And why is the Bible on a higher level than philosophy? Thank you for joining us today. This is Grace in Focus. It is a ministry of the Grace Evangelical Society. Our website is faithalone.org. And you can learn a lot about this ministry by going to that website. I’d love to encourage you to find our blog there and subscribe to it. There’s always something interesting there. Our website again, faithalone.org. 

Now with today’s discussion, here’s Bob Wilkin along with Sam Marr.

SAM: All right Bob, we’ve got a question on a pretty core topic for GES on assurance. Our questioner is James and he is asking, is it possible to have faith, yet never have one hundred percent assurance? I cannot say that I have 100 percent assurance that George Washington was the first president of the United States, but based on the evidence I’m persuaded and convinced. Now that’s important because that’s an example you and a lot of other people use of faith or assurance. Talking about it being persuasion. I believe I’m persuaded I’m convinced that George Washington was the first president. Therefore, I believe that he is the first president. And so he’s saying, well, what if you can’t have one hundred percent certainty about that? 

BOB: My answer would be that you can over-psychoanalyze what it means to be certain. We don’t put percentages on this. If you’re convinced by the evidence that George Washington was the first president of the United States, then you are certain. You’re not saying, well, there might be some universe in which everybody has conspired to deceive me. 

Let me tell you, there’s another guy named James. He was a fellow PhD from Dallas Seminary and he was following some of the things I was saying, like I wrote in one article that I have the same certainty that I have everlasting life, I can never lose it, that I am certain that two plus two is four. And James wrote an article and I was kind of shocked by what he said. I guess this is something in philosophy or something. 

Have you ever heard of four types of certainty? Okay, I believe he said the highest kind of certainty is mathematical certainty. So he said the example that Wilkin uses of two plus two is four, we’re absolutely certain of that. There’s no doubt, although I would say in our postmodern world, people are even casting doubt on mathematical certainty. But James was saying no, we’re certain of that and that we can be certain of lots of things like that. He said the second level of certainty is less than mathematical, but it’s still very high and that’s scientific certainty. And I believe he said, for example, water boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit or 100 degrees centigrade as long as you’re at the right pressure. And the water has a certain triple point at which it’s solid and liquid and gas. 

Then he talked about historical certainty, which is what this James is talking about, right? And he would say historical certainty is far less than mathematical certainty or scientific certainty, but it’s still, if you’ve got lots of witnesses to something, then this historical certainty is still very good, but it’s not near as good as the other two. And guess what the worst kind of certainty is, the lowest level, moral certainty. That is scriptural certainty. Anything in the Bible is less than mathematical certainty. It’s less than scientific certainty. It’s less than historical certainty. But what this means is Jesus rising from the dead is not certain. But what this means is Jesus being born in Bethlehem is not certain. 

I once heard a prof at a leading conservative seminary. He was taking part in a discussion with Brian McLaren, who was a famous emerging church pastor at the time, who famously said that we don’t know anything for sure. He’s very postmodern. And so in the course of this seminar with him, he was asked by one of the students, are you sure of anything? McLaren’s response was something like, you know, when it’s late enough at night, I’m not sure of anything. 

The seminary professor who was sitting in with McLaren on this discussion, and occasionally would make comments, he said, you know, I once had a debate with Marcus Board. We were debating the resurrection of Jesus and Marcus said, there’s really no point for this debate because my opponent has to say that Jesus rose from the dead. And he has to say, he’s sure he rose from the dead. And this seminary professor says, no, you know, I surprised Marcus and I told him, I said, no, I don’t need to say, I’m sure Jesus rose from the dead. All I need to say is the evidence is convincing that He rose from the dead. It’s more likely that he rose from the dead, than he didn’t rise from the dead. That’s what I’m going to prove in this debate. 

What’s the guy’s name, is it Mangione? The guy that is on trial for shooting the CEO of the healthcare company. This guy is on trial for murder. Now, they have video of him shooting the person. They have eyewitnesses who saw him in the McDonald’s when he was arrested. They have officers that opened his bag and found the gun that was used to shoot the guy. They have all kinds of evidence. But I suppose somebody could say, you know what? This isn’t certain, but the truth is the evidence is rather overwhelming in the case of Mangione, that he killed that CEO. And I would say, it’s certain. Well, that’s historical. I wasn’t there, but I don’t need to be there. In fact, the Old Testament has the principle that a matter is confirmed with two or three witnesses. And that means it becomes certain. 

ANNOUNCER: We will return to our program content shortly, but we’re taking this break to let you know that Grace in Focus is shortly going to be transitioning to digital delivery only. We’ve appreciated this fine radio station and being part of its lineup has been a privilege indeed. But we’re going to say goodbye to this time slot and make room for another ministry right here. You can continue to listen to Grace in Focus, just pick the time of day, anytime 24/7, and find us on Spotify, Apple, and many other podcast outlets.

BOB: Don’t get into going, let’s see, yes, I’m convinced that George Washington, but you know, how do I know for sure that Jesus gives eternal life to the believer? Either way, you know it is because you know that the Word of God is true. The way we know the Word of God is true is it’s self-authenticating. That means that as you read the Bible, God reveals to us that this is His Word. And if you’re reading, for example, apocryphal books, those are books that are not part of the canon of Scripture. The apocrypha don’t read like Scripture. So when we read Scripture, it authenticates itself. 

I would ask, for example, James, do you have any doubts there was a person named Jesus. I wonder if He has doubts about people he’s seen in this lifetime. And if His answer is sure, of course, I’m certain Jesus existed because the historical evidence is overwhelming, right? Are you certain Jesus died in the cross? Yeah, the historical evidence is overwhelming. Are you sure He rose bodily from the dead? The historical evidence is overwhelming. Well, are you sure that what He said is true? Yeah, the evidence is overwhelming. So then when you read John 3:16, there’s really no mystery when He says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him will not perish but has everlasting life.” I recently read an article from someone who argued that there is no bullseye in John 3:16 or in the Gospel of John or in evangelism. 

So you don’t have to believe any particular fact about Jesus or any promise that Jesus made or anything else, all you have to do is believe in Jesus. The problem with that is, if believing in Jesus has no concrete meaning, then it means nothing, right? In other words, if I say whoever believes in Jesus has everlasting life and I don’t know what it means to believe in Jesus, then I might as well say, “for God so loved the world that He gave us only begotten Son that who [burbles lips] should not perish but have everlasting life. Since I don’t know what [burbles lips] means, I don’t know if I have everlasting life.

And so the good news for James is He is certain that George Washington was the first president. And He is certain that Jesus rose from the dead. I would say that we need to recognize that there aren’t four levels of certainty. Certainty is certainty. Mathematical certainty is not different than scientific or legal or historical or moral or scriptural. It’s all certainty and you’re either convinced or you’re not convinced. 

SAM: But I, within this question, there’s the question of, well, what about doubt? What about in my walk? At one point in time. I knew I was born again or I knew I’d ever lost in life, but then a couple years later, I have doubts. Or maybe even I am walking in the light. I am living the way I’m supposed to be or trying, but sometimes I have a doubt. What if God’s not real, what if? 

BOB: So I’ve read people who say that doubt and belief coexist all the time. I would argue know that when you’re doubting, you’ve stopped believing, but there’s no promise that if we believe in Jesus, we’re never going to doubt. The promise is once we believe we have eternal life. The person who comes to faith might stop believing a minute later and yet they’re still eternally secure. And so the key is to recognize that doubts can happen and it’s especially problematic for people who have what’s called obsessive compulsive disorder. And for those people, they oscillate between, yes, I’m sure, no, I’m not, I have doubts, no, I don’t. And that’s why it’s, for some people, they need to take medication in order to think clearly. 

SAM: Yeah, but also I think the Gospels are a great place for people like that because the Gospels are full of believers who were born again that had doubts and went back and forth between belief and unbelief. When Peter started to walk on the water and then took his eye of off Christ and then fell in, Jesus didn’t let him fall in and drown. He had doubts and Jesus knew that he was going to have doubts, but He gave him a chance to test his faith. When Christ died and then the time between His death and resurrection, the disciples were in despair. It’s not clear whether they really believed He was coming back or not. Their actions made it seem like they might have had some doubts and I think they were born again at that time. 

So that’s a great example for us that there might be times where you start to doubt and that’s the time when it’s greatest to lean into your faith and lean into the promises of God, to stand on a solid rock. But I think it is inevitable in the lives of most believers that you’re going to have doubt at some point and that does not prove that you’re not born again or haven’t been born again yet. 

BOB: Well, great question James, and I would encourage you to go to faithalone.org and look at some of the articles we have on this issue. In the meantime, let’s all keep grace in focus. Amen. 

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Friend, we appreciate so much your joining us all this week here on Grace and Focus. Hope you have a good weekend. We look forward to seeing you back here again next week for more. And in the meantime, keep grace in focus.