Dear Editor,
Like many others I am sure, I was deep-ly moved by the poignant letter from an anonymous person in the June edition of
en, in which he (I am presuming it was a ‘he’) confessed to living a double-life for many decades within the evangelical church in this country, including in leadership pos-itions. The acute sense of lacking assurance of faith has remained with this person even up to now, as the end of life draws near. The letter was written to warn others not to follow the same path. How honest!
I do not think I would have responded in the way that you did, with a reply which sought to offer the very reassurance that the writer clearly lacked, and was signed off ‘Your brother in Christ’ – when the writer had made it clear that this was now what he realised he was not! Rather, I would praise God for the revelation given to this person of their true situation, and urge them not to despair of God’s grace to reach down and save even right at the end of our days. Was this, I wonder, what happened to Nicodemus? I suspect there are many others in need of a similar revelation in our churches today.
What I believe we can learn from this let-ter is the importance of including the need of assurance in our gospel preaching and pres-entation. For a while it was quite common to tell people after they had ‘made a commit-ment’ that, if nothing much happened, they should just believe they were saved because of faith, and not rely on feelings – partly in response to a charismatic movement that was over-reliant on emotion and feeling. But the Bible is clear that if we do come to faith, something must happen! Hebrews 11:1 teaches us that faith is being sure of what we hope for, and certain of what we do not see – and this certainty is given through the anointing of the Holy Spirit, spoken of in 1 John 2: 20, 26-28. It is surely wrong for us to preach a gospel which says that such an anointing may pass unnoticed in our lives! The title of Stuart Olyott’s book on this very subject, Something Must be Known and Felt, expresses this sentiment exactly. May our preaching include this vital element, that others may be kept from walking this same path of spiritual futility in years to come – and may this person’s brave confession yet result in spiritual life, for him and for others reading his testimony!
Yours sincerely,
