NO CONDEMNATION
A Theology of Assurance of Salvation
By Michael.A. Eaton. Piquant Editions. 401 pages. £18.00
ISBN 978 1 903 689 721
The problem: many evangelicals suffer from a lack of assurance of salvation.
The causes. For the ‘Reformed’ (’developed’ or ‘scholastic’ Calvinists, as Michael calls them), they are: firstly, the tendency to live as if still under the Old Covenant, thus a tendency towards legalism; secondly, belief in limited atonement or particular redemption leading to doubts and morbid introspection about election; thirdly, for those of the ‘New Perspective’, a reductionist view of justification; and, finally, misunderstanding the warnings in the New Testament about ‘falling away’. For the ‘Arminian’ evangelical, the causes would be an inadequate view of eternal security and a tendency towards legalism.
The solution: an invincible assurance of salvation; combined with awesome warnings concerning the forfeiture of blessing (but not of salvation itself); freedom from Mosaic law; objective and universal atonement; faith in the ‘faith of Christ’; transfer to a realm of grace; eternal security.
As Michael writes, ‘Some of these matters are likely to be contentious’ (p.55). He is not mistaken ! Though I feel deeply with him for those who struggle in this area, I don’t believe this book provides either an accurate assessment of the causes of a lack of assurance or all the right answers. Chapter 6 on universal atonement is unconvincing; chapter 10 on ‘The faith of Christ’ made me go back to John Murray on Romans (Appendix B) where I found persuasive counterarguments; the warnings of Hebrews 10 about being ‘destroyed’ (v.39) sound to me far more serious than simply ‘losing rewards’. However, Michael’s treatment of Old Covenant, antinomianism, legalism, New Covenant and ‘Mosaicism’ (chapters 7,8,9,14,15) are all very salutary, as is his dismissal of ‘The New Perspective’ (11,12,13).
