What Is Certainty?
Thus, our area of inquiry is circumscribed as holy ground, for it must be entered with reverence and fear. Here we touch the most intimate depths of the human heart. Here more than anywhere else we need a childlike and humble spirit, but at the same time a frank, unbiased attitude, in order to understand the life of religion in its inner essence and to purge it of all untruth and error. Wisdom and care dictate that in pointing out the way to obtain the certainty of faith, we first consider what this certainty of faith is and the different ways men have sought it.
What Is Certainty?
The question regarding certainty of faith is not only of scientific, theological but also of practical, religious importance. It is of concern not only to the theologian but also to the layman. It belongs not only in the study but also in the living room. It is not just a theoretical, academic issue but preeminently one of life and practice.
No matter how wicked and fallen anyone may be, at sometime in his life he will encounter moments of passionate seriousness. Everyone is at some time seized by the mystery of life, the power of death, the dread of judgment or the fear of the Lord. As one observer put it:
"Happiness leads us into paganism, but suffering leads us to Christ."
When the drunken stupor in which we often live wears off, when the happy glow dulls and the conscience awakens, when we are overcome by the mystery of life or the pain of suffering, then we all become conscious of death and the grave, of judgment and eternity.
Then no one can maintain indifference or hide behind the shield of neutrality. In this respect, people are better than we are sometimes inclined to think. There are no atheists, no people without a heart or conscience. Or more precisely, God never leaves Himself without a
witness. Whether it be through blessings or through trials, He speaks to the conscience of each and every person.
True, many seek to stifle this voice and sear their consciences with a cauterizing iron. And many have doubtlessly become very adept, persisting in their false assurance or disdainful indifference unto their deathbeds. But history also gives us incontestable evidence that the human has not been extinguished even in the most hardened sinner; the voice of the almighty and omnipresent God sets up a responsive chord somewhere deep in the heart. "There is no peace," says the LORD, "for the wicked" (Isa. 48:22).
By nature, each of us spoils this peace. No one stands blameless before the accusation of his conscience. No one is in himself assured that things will go well in life and later in death. The assurance of salvation is not something you can inherit; no one is born with it.
Neither is it the fruit of human effort nor a reward for duties conscientiously performed. We seek it in vain in the treasures of this earth, in life's joys, in the praise of the masses, in the fame of scholarship, in the acclaim of the arts, or in anything here below.
In order to live comforted and die happily, we need certainty about the invisible and eternal things above. We must know what we are and where we are going. We must know that our personhood is more than a ripple in the ocean, that the moral battle stands far above the natural order, and that the highest and purest ideals of the soul are not illusions but reality. We must know how we can be liberated from the accusations of our conscience and from the weight of sin. We must know that God is and that He is our God. We must be sure we are reconciled to Him and can therefore approach death and judgment without terror. In all this, our greatest need is for certainty.
It is the deepest, although often unconscious, need of the human soul.
Mankind has sought for certainty all through the ages, although along the wrong roads and with the wrong methods. Every religion,