How the Roman Catholic Doctrine of Assurance Distorts the Conscience

As a former atheist from a Roman Catholic background, I find the perennial evangelical fascination with Roman Catholicism perplexing.

Many evangelicals seem dissatisfied with, or even embarrassed by, Protestantism. This is evident within the spiritual formation movement, where some self-identified Protestants^{11 .} Daniel Schreiner, “Engaging with Practicing the Way: Nine Thoughts on John Mark Comer’s Bestseller,” 9Marks, March 12, 2025, https://www.9marks.org/review/engaging-with-practicing-the-way-nine-thoughts-on-john-mark-comers-bestseller/ are more eager to quote Jesuits than Reformers. Most concerning is the number of high-profile conversions from various branches of Protestantism to Rome or Orthodoxy.

These discussions typically focus on liturgy, church tradition, and authority structures. But a key issue is frequently overlooked by both Protestant admirers of Rome and those who convert to Catholicism—assurance of salvation.

The Roman Catholic Church flatly denies that Christians can have certainty of their salvation. Cardinal Robert Bellarmine (1542–1621), a leader in the Catholic Counter-Reformation, wrote that “the greatest of all Protestant heresies is assurance.” The Council of Trent, which Bellarmine vigorously defended, states in Session 6, Canon 16: “If anyone saith, that he will for certain, of an absolute and infallible certainty, have that great gift of perseverance unto the end, unless he have learned this by special revelation; let him be anathema.” Summarizing Trent’s teaching in layman’s terms, one Catholic publication put it this way: “As sinners we are not assured of our salvation. But Christians, who faithfully use the Sacraments—channels of God’s saving grace—without giving up, can certainly hope for salvation.”^{22 .} Catholic News Agency, “Salvation: Assurance or Hope? Are You Saved?” https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/resource/55991/salvation-assurance-or-hope-are-you-saved/

There is a world of difference between having hope for salvation and assurance of salvation. One might say that difference is what ignited the Protestant Reformation. It led Luther to risk his life and the Oxford Martyrs to lose theirs. The lack of assurance offered by Rome is what led me to reject religion altogether and become an atheist. By God’s grace, I later repented of my sin and trusted in Christ.

To be sure, while Protestants rightly affirm the possibility of assurance, many sincere believers still struggle to experience it. This can stem from present sin, guilt over past sin, or an overly sensitive conscience. The good news for such Christians is this: a lack of assurance doesn’t mean we lack the promises of the gospel, only the full enjoyment of them. When I carry my two-year-old daughter, she’s most at ease when she clings tightly to me. But even when her grip loosens, I won’t let her fall. It is not the strength of our grasp of Christ but Christ’s hold on us that is ultimately decisive (John 10:27–30).

The recovery of sola fide and, with it, the recovery of assurance in the Reformation lifted a heavy burden from the consciences of millions of Christians. Conversely, Rome’s ongoing denial of assurance continues to distort the conscience in at least three ways.

1. Rome’s Denial of Assurance Creates Despairing or Burdened Consciences

One reason Rome denies the normative possibility of assurance is because they see it as an impossibility for believers to know whether they will commit a mortal sin and thereby fall from the state of grace. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says in article 1861:

Mortal sin . . . results in the loss of charity and the privation of sanctifying grace, that is, of the state of grace. If it is not redeemed by repentance and God’s forgiveness, it causes exclusion from Christ’s kingdom and the eternal death of hell.

In other words, if someone falls out of the state of grace through mortal sin and dies without repentance (specifically, without receiving the Sacrament of Penance) they will go to hell (not Purgatory). Article 1446 defines the Sacrament of Penance this way:

Christ instituted the sacrament of Penance for all sinful members of his Church: above all for those who, since Baptism, have fallen into grave [mortal] sin, and have thus lost their baptismal grace. . . . It is to them that the sacrament of Penance offers a new possibility to convert and to recover the grace of justification.

Roman Catholic theologians typically avoid creating definitive lists of mortal sins, but they generally define a mortal sin as a grave sin, committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent.

The ambiguity and anxiety created by this theological system tend to push those who (a) truly understand their own wickedness and (b) consistently apply Roman Catholic teaching toward either a despairing or scrupulous conscience.

In my case, it was despair. Learning about mortal sin in Catholic middle school religion class was the first step on my journey to atheism. I remember thinking: “I could live my entire life as a devout Catholic, only to commit a mortal sin, get hit by a bus before I can confess it to a priest, and go to hell.” I concluded that I wouldn’t be able to keep up with the sacerdotal treadmill of mortal sin and confession; I would end up condemned anyway. The only hope, it seemed, was that God did not exist.

The same despair haunted Martin Luther. As an Augustinian monk, he spent up to six hours a day confessing every sin he could remember having committed. He later recalled:

My conscience could never achieve certainty but was always in doubt and said: “You have not done this correctly. You were not contrite enough. You omitted this in your confession.” Therefore the longer I tried to heal my uncertain, weak, and troubled conscience with human traditions, the more uncertain, weak, and troubled I continually made it.^{33 .} Michael A. G. Haykin, “Luther’s Timely Discovery of a Merciful God,” https://equip.sbts.edu/publications/towers/luthers-timely-discovery-merciful-god/#_edn8

Roman Catholic apologists frequently dismiss Luther as an overanxious monk. But he was simply following their system to its logical conclusion.

2. Rome’s Denial of Assurance Teaches the Conscience to Equate Good Works with Extra-Biblical Ceremonies

Roman Catholicism fears that sola fide will lead to antinomianism. They claim that, in denying justification by faith alone, they are merely guarding the “faith working through love” that Paul speaks of in Galatians 5:6. In 2008, former Pope Benedict XVI put it this way:

Luther’s phrase “faith alone” is true, if it is not opposed to faith in charity, in love. Faith is looking at Christ, entrusting oneself to Christ, being united to Christ, conformed to Christ, to his life. And the form, the life of Christ, is love; hence to believe is to conform to Christ and to enter into his love.^{44 .} Benedict XVI, “General Audience of 19 November 2008: Saint Paul (13). The Doctrine of Justification: from Works to Faith,” https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/audiences/2008/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20081119.html​

Though seemingly conceding ground to Protestantism, Benedict’s statement repeats the very error the Reformers fought against in the sixteenth century. To believe is not to conform to Christ; it is to trust in Christ. Benedict subtly conflates faith and works, confusing the essence of faith (“entrusting oneself to Christ”) with the result of faith (“being . . . conformed to Christ”).

Moreover, this statement gives the impression that Rome, in elevating the role of works, is merely emphasizing the importance of Christlikeness (a point Protestants readily affirm). In reality it goes far beyond this, constructing a system in which anxious consciences are offered merely temporary relief through ritual observances found nowhere in Scripture.

One present-day example is the Papacy regularly granting plenary indulgences (relief from punishment for sin in Purgatory) to those who participate in 40 hours of Eucharistic Adoration (that is, kneeling and worshiping Christ in the Eucharist).^{55 .} Archdiocese of St Andrews & Edinburgh, “Rome Grants Indulgence for 40 Hours’ Devotion,” https://archedinburgh.org/rome-grants-indulgence-for-40-hours-devotion/ Rome, claiming the keys of the kingdom from Matthew 16:13–19, teaches that it can dispense Christ’s righteousness from the Church’s “Treasury of Merit” (see Catechism of the Catholic Church 1471–1479).

Still more alarming is the practice of wearing a scapular, two small pieces of wool joined by strings worn over the shoulders. On a popular Catholic goods website, where scapulars can be purchased for $26.95, the following origin story is given:

On July 16, 1251, Mary gave St. Simon Stock a brown scapular, stating: “Accept this scapular. It shall be a sign of salvation, a protection of peace. Whoever dies clothed in this Scapular shall not suffer eternal fire.” These promises extend to you! Browse our selection of scapulars and wear the promise of Mary.^{66 .} “Scapulars,” Catholic.Store, https://catholic.store/collections/scapulars

As tortured consciences in the Medieval Church desperately sought after breadcrumbs of assurance through superstitious practices, the Reformers pointed the church back to the rich gospel feast of assurance found in God’s Word. “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:13). Those who truly believe in Christ do not merely hope for eternal life. They can know they have it.

To be sure, the Reformers insisted on the necessity of good works (as defined by Scripture), not as the cause, but as the consequence and evidence of justification. The Reformed confessions, such as Westminster (WCF 18.2), present assurance as a “three-legged stool”:

1. The objective promises of God in his Word (Rom. 10:9–13)
2. A transformed life characterized by love for fellow Christians (1 John 3:14–16) and ongoing repentance from sin (1 John 3:6–9)
3. The inner testimony of the Holy Spirit that we are children of God (Rom. 8:16–17)

3. Rome’s Denial of Assurance Drives Consciences to Seek Relief Outside of Christ’s Righteousness

When I had only been a Christian for a few months, I knew I wanted to follow Jesus, but I was unsure whether to be Protestant or Catholic. However, when I read Galatians for the first time and saw Paul’s words, “I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose” (Gal. 2:21), I knew I could never be a Roman Catholic.

My whole life, I had been taught to relieve my troubled conscience by participating in the sacraments and traditions of the church. Catholic theologians insist that their sacerdotal system with its regenerating baptism, saving grace-dispensing communion, and mortal sin-absolving penance is one of grace and not of works. But the Christianity I experienced under that system certainly felt like “righteousness through the law.”

If, as Rome claims, my righteousness came from Christ through the church’s “Treasury of Merit,” it was a righteousness that constantly leaked. It was a righteousness I had to keep patching up through my “cooperation with grace.”

John Bunyan struggled with assurance of salvation, which he recounts in his 1666 autobiography, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners. Bunyan’s troubled conscience was only at last set free when he looked to the unchanging, spotless righteousness of Christ:

One day, as I was passing in the field, and that too with some dashes of my conscience, fearing lest yet all was not right, suddenly this sentence fell upon my soul, “Thy righteousness is in heaven”; and methought withal, I saw, with the eyes of my soul, Jesus Christ at God’s right hand; there, I say, was my righteousness. . . . I also saw, moreover, that it was not my good frame of heart that made my righteousness better, nor yet my bad frame that made my righteousness worse; for my righteousness was Jesus Christ himself, the same yesterday, to-day and for ever.^{77 .} Bunyan, John. Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners. Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2006. Volume 1. Page 35.

In a fallen world, true believers will struggle with assurance. Neither man-made rituals nor even God-ordained sacraments can lift the crushing weight of a guilty conscience before God. Only the biblical doctrine of assurance, recovered in the Reformation and rooted in Christ’s imputed righteousness, can offer true and lasting peace of conscience.