When I was in seminary, one of my fellow students polled the students and the faculty members as to whether they were sure of their salvation. More than ninety percent of the respondents said they were not sure. Moreover, they thought it would be arrogant for someone to claim to be sure of his or her salvation. They saw the idea of assurance not as a virtue but as a vice. There was a negative connotation to the very pursuit of assurance of salvation, because it