conviction” (1 Thess. 1:5). That is, God sent his Holy Spirit to change the minds of these hearers, so that they would come to believe, and believe with assurance (see also 1 Thess. 2:13). When that happens—that is, when God through our natural powers and the Spirit’s supernatural influence convinces us that a certain belief is warranted by God’s own speech—then God authorizes us to believe it with certainty, with assurance.4 That means that there are certain propositions, such as “Christ died for sinners” that
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