Finding Assurance with Thomas Goodwin

Glory in nothing but that you are in Christ

In Finding Assurance with Thomas Goodwin, Andrew S. Ballitch explores how deeply the doctrine of assurance of faith impacted Goodwin’s life and how Christians can learn from him today. Doubt is a common Christian experience, and assurance of faith is a universal Christian desire. The Puritans were acutely aware of this reality—none more than Thomas Goodwin (1600–1680). Goodwin wrestled with doubt for seven years after his conversion. When assurance came, it was with joy and confidence that Christ was for him personally. His confidence fueled a life of holiness, service, and perseverance. Ballitch highlights how Goodwin’s life informed his theology and vice versa, so that readers can experience for themselves the joys of assurance.

168 pages.

Andrew Ballitch has done a tremendous service by bringing Goodwin’s seminal insights on assurance to a new audience—which is in many ways very comparable to his own seventeenth-century context. If you’re looking for a pastor from the past who seems to know you better than you know yourself, you’re in for a real treat.

—Michael Horton, J. Gresham Machen Professor of Theology, Westminster Seminary California

There are so many helpful pastoral insights into the nature of the Christian life in this book that it is worth reading regardless of one’s position on assurance of salvation.

—Mark Jones, senior minister, Faith Vancouver Presbyterian Church

Andrew Ballitch ably traces Goodwin’s experience and doctrine of assurance of salvation. As Ballitch helps us to see, Goodwin’s teaching fell within a spectrum of Puritan views of how God assures His children of His favor toward them and salvation in them. While Goodwin’s exegesis and doctrine are not above criticism at times, his writings contain many biblically experiential and practical lessons for us still today.

—Joel R. Beeke, president, Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary