These days skepticism is in and certainty is out, especially in religious matters. You will seem enlightened when you doubt and question, but naive and unsophisticated when you express certainty about spiritual things. How can we really know if there really is a God, and if so which one is it? Is there really a heaven to gain and a hell to escape? How could we possibly have assurance we are headed to the one and avoiding the other? Yet in study of 1 John, God wants us to know for certain how we can know him and have hope of eternal life.