Blessed Assurance

It takes a lot to knock a Calvinist off his assurance. Books have been written (a particularly good one by James Hogg about it going too far) concerning our unflagging trust in our own election. Our God is absolutely sovereign and his choice is so ironclad absolute that if he picks us, we can rest assured (hah!) that no devil or man, even our own foolish self, can wrest us away. This has its advantages and disadvantages.

Advantage: we never have to toss at night, doubting whether God truly loves us or whether we are good enough to receive his love. No matter how black the night may be, God is confidently there and still holds this relationship.

Disadvantage: we get lazy. Having so perfect an assurance, we don't delve into the moral and ethical aspects of Christianity as much as we should. Now, this is merely an expectation; many great Calvinists are mightily moral. But on the whole, a Calvinist will have less reason to perform righteous works, given that our salvation is not in question.

Methodists, as my observation allows, have an assurance based on the inner witness of the Spirit. God speaks to them, warms their heart, assures them that they are well within the family. This witness of the Holy Spirit is interwoven with one's own spirit's witness, that through reading Scripture's precepts and coming one's life to Scripture, we can rationally deduce that we are within the good graces of God.

Without question, this results in a motivation to holier living. Your assurance is linked to your holy behavior; living as a sinner will earn a rebuke from the Spirit and, reasonably, put your correlation with Scripture into doubt. But I feel like it holds a great weakness compared to the Calvinist assurance: it immediately falters during the dark moments when God feels distant. The assumption is that when one is right with God, his warm assurance is constant, never ending. But it seems that there are time of perseverance where God does not warm the soul, where darkness lies on the heart and closeness seems empty. The answer from a Calvinist is simple; cling to the Lord all the more, but be assured, Christ is still in you. From a Methodist, I'd wager, the answer would be to pray, read, and worship more, seeking that assurance to return. But if the assurance is not present, if you do not having the witness of the Spirit at a moment, can you truly call yourself saved? If Calvinists are too complacent in their sovereign God, Methodist are too dependent on an experiential aspect that may not always be present.

Now, application. As a Christian, nominally a Calvinist, I feel pulled to the necessity of holy living, but perhaps I needed a Methodist kick to get there. The theology of Methodism is backed by an an astounding bounty of spiritual fruit. Pondering it, I wonder if I would not benefit from integrating some portions into my Calvinism. Is it strange to say, by going to a Methodist seminary, I will become a better Calvinist?