Questions and Answers About the Amish

Do the Amish believe for certain that they will go to heaven, or do they think they can't know for sure until after death?

This question came up recently on my Facebook page, and though I was able to give a brief reply there, I thought I might go into a bit more detail here.

In this excerpt from my book Plain Answers About the Amish Life, this is how I addressed the subject...

Various Amish affiliations seem to be of different minds on the topic of what is known as “assurance of salvation.” The majority of Amish believe it would be prideful to state outright that they have received salvation and instead maintain what they call a “living hope” or a “continued effort” on the topic. They trust the ultimate fate of their soul to God’s providence rather than claim it with certainty.

There are other Amish groups, however, that feel an assurance of salvation is not prideful but biblical, citing verses such as 1 John 5:13, which says, “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life” (emphasis added). Amish who fall on this side of the matter believe that everyone who has accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior can know with certainty that they have been saved for eternity.

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About the Amish and Then Some

All of Plain Answers About the Amish Life is written in a question-and-answer format, which makes it an easy (and hopefully fascinating!) read. The book covers numerous other Amish-related topics, including:

Sorry to sound like an ad, but it's been a while since the book came out, and it struck me that I ought to remind my Amish fiction readers that this non-fiction resource about the Amish is still available.

Other guides to the Amish you might enjoy include Donald Kraybill's Simply Amish: An Essential Guide from the Foremost Expert on Amish Life and 20 Most Asked Questions about the Amish and Mennonites (People's Place Book 1) by Merle and Phyllis Good. Both are excellent and informative.

Amish Voices

Finally, there's a great new resource coming out soon: Amish Voices: A Collection of Amish Writings, compiled by Brad Igou and written by the Amish themselves. I was fortunate enough to get an advance peek at this one, and I found it quite compelling. It won't be out till June, but at least it's available for preorder now.

Amish Fiction and Nonfiction

And that's it for today's roundup of resources on Amish life. I hope you find this helpful and that you'll consider sprinkling a bit of Amish-related nonfiction among your reading of Amish fiction. :)