Should we really have blessed assurance?

Whether or not a person could know with certainty that he or she was saved from divine judgment and divine wrath has been a controversial issue in the history of the church.

The New Testament writers assume that it is part and parcel of the normal Christian experience (see, for example, 1 John 3:14). During the Middle Ages, however, Thomas Aquinas bracketed this experience as extraordinary, and argued that only a special revelation from God could give assurance.

At the time of the 16th-century Reformation, Martin Luther, Ulrich Zwingli, and John Calvin sought to return to the position of the New Testament. They maintained that assurance is a blessed dimension and privilege of authentic Christian experience. But they soon found themselves immersed in controversy with theologians who adhered to the view of Aquinas.