A biblical philosophy will never result in a denial of the self-knowledge promised by the biblical gospel. It will never weaken it even slightly. A biblical philosophy will guarantee the self-knowledge promised by the biblical gospel. It will affirm as certain – beyond any doubt – the self-knowledge affirmed by a biblical theology.

Christian otaku still wonder about this, and some of them demand answers from me, even though I never belonged to the camp that is the target of the challenge. I have always insisted – to the fullest extent and without reservation – the knowledge and assurance that the Bible promises. The Bible teaches us that the Spirit testifies with our spirits that we are God’s children, and by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” Those in my circle experienced this the first day we became Christians, and learned about it from Scripture probably within the first week or so.

This self-knowledge is guaranteed by the Bible, and generated by the Spirit. There is no issue with epistemology, and no issue with the limitations of human faculties and methods, because it is not something that we perform or something that we discover, but it is something that the Spirit causes, and something that he performs apart from our effort. This private knowledge is not employed for public argument, but we still have this private knowledge. It is a gospel fact. If your philosophy denies this, your philosophy can burn in hell.

People have stumbled over this. The Catholics lack assurance for their own reasons, but they should not have assurance to begin with, because they are not Christians. Following the Catholics, the Puritans, the Reformed, various other Evangelicals, and some zealots of Christian philosophy, also lack assurance because they trip over their own traditions and theories. It is utterly pathetic. Theological otaku study voraciously, debate endlessly, but never come to a knowledge of the truth. Of course we have self-knowledge. Of course we have assurance of salvation. We can have all the knowledge that the Bible says we can have. Anything weaker than this is an anti-Christian philosophy, and an anti-Christ religion.