Only The Inspired Word Of God Can Give Assurance

John 5:39, “Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.”

I sometimes get web visitors writing to me repeatedly, asking all sorts of hypothetical questions about salvation. What if this? What if that? One man literally asked me if it mattered which of Jesus' hands were nailed to the cross first? Another wanted to know if a person can just believe in Christ's death, and not the cross? One man asked if it matters if you believe the cross was made out of wood or plastic? Uh, plastic wasn't even invented until 1907. You must include the cross to be saved. It doesn't matter which of Jesus' hands were nailed to the cross first. It doesn't matter what the cross was made out of, but it was wood! There, happy? Oh boy, where do these people come from?

What these people want from me, is the assurance that they are 100% saved, and I cannot give them that assurance. Since I am flesh and bone, they want flesh and blood to confirm that they are going to Heaven. Psalms 118:8, “It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man.” Since I am only a sinful man, they cannot find lasting assurance, so they continue asking more questions.Jeremiah 17:5, “Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD.” I exchanged over 300 e-mails with one man from India over a three year period, trying to help him. I shared several dozen books, charts and sermons with him all about salvation, but nothing helped. He just thinks he is going to Hell. 

Kindly, I finally told him that I couldn't help him, when I realized that I am enabling his problem, making it worse. He's is looking to me for his assurance of salvation, instead of trusting God. Although I am glad to answer questions for as long as it takes, to help people for Christ, there comes a point where it is simply counterproductive to continue answering the same questions over and over. I strongly encourage people that they “SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES” (John 5:39), and not rely upon me for their assurance. I can guide people into the Scriptures, pointing them in the right direction; but until they familiarize themselves with the PROMISES of God in the King James Bible, they'll merely go in circles and keep doubting. What saith the Scripture?

We must be like the Bereans, who SEARCHED THE SCRIPTURES to see if what Paul taught them was true or not. Acts 17:11, “These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.”