If false assurance exist, which most will agree that it does then 100% "no if ands or buts" assurance cannot. Claims of 100% personal assurance cannot exist with the specter of flawed reasoning always present. The biblical promises of assurance are general in nature and apply to Christians as a group. This assurance should never be assumed on a personal level.
DJ2,
I will have to politely disagree with your post, and I will explain why.
Please don't take this as any kind of personal insult.
There are many wonderful Christians who disagree on this issue.
1. This type of argument is common, and often made by smart people... but it contains a logical error.
2. Here is the argument
A. False assurance exists
B. Therefore genuine assurance cannot exist.
This is a non sequitur, meaning the conclusion does not follow the premise.
The premise has no ability to cause any such necessary conclusion.
The existence of a FALSE thing has no effect on the existence of a REAL thing.
- Have you ever met a fake Christian?
- How about a fake Navy Seal?
- How about a fake twenty-dollar bill?
Does the existence of a fake thing make all the REAL things CEASE TO EXIST?
Of course not.
To find a FALSE Navy Seal does not disprove the existence of REAL Navy Seals
Often in life, we actually find it's just the opposite.
Usually we can only have a FALSE thing, if we first have a GENUINE thing which can be falsified.
(This happens because "false" is nothing more than a NEGATION of a thing... so before we can have a negation of a thing, we must first have the thing.)
Example: You can't have a FALSE twenty-dollar bill if there is not first a REAL twenty-dollar bill to falsify.
But regardless of this, the argument above is still a non sequitor, and doesn't work as proof of anything.
I am NOT saying everyone who disagrees about assurance is an idiot, or that they may not have some good arguments, I am ONLY saying that this particular argument has a logical error, and doesn't work.
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