Those who miss the Rapture will include professing Christians who prayed to receive Christ but did not belong to Him. This article encourages every reader to examine his or her heart as instructed by the apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:17.
A Sunday school teacher asked her class of seven-year olds how many would like to receive Jesus into their hearts. All the hands went up!
“Repeat this prayer after me,” said the teacher. “Dear Jesus, I love you. Please come into my heart and make me a new creature in Christ and I will serve you forever. Thank you Jesus. Amen!”
“Now boys and girls, you have been born0again and are all children of God,” said this teacher who had just led several children in a prayer to receive Christ. “Next Sunday I will give each of you a certificate that identifies when you received Jesus into your heart,” said the teacher.
Although the preceding paragraph was a “televised” event, the practice of leading young children to Christ in this manner occurs in many evangelical Sunday school classrooms each week. The parents and church leadership express joy over so many of their children have found Christ at an early age. As the children grow and mature, the certificates on their bedroom walls are vivid reminders of their decisions to receive Christ.
Although “recital prayer” (or easy prayerism as a perceived method for saving souls) is widely practiced by many churches, it is also widely practiced by popular television ministries. On a television program, a minister led a middle-aged woman (on a stage in front of millions) to receive Christ by reciting a salvation prayer. The salvation prayer was very similar to the one recited by the Sunday school children. Although we cannot judge whether these children and woman were saved, we can judge the results from such prayers.
Is reciting a prayer the way God intends for us to receive Christ?
Many churches and television ministries are producing false converts by using recital prayers that appear to misfire most of the time. Ironically, those who practice recital prayers (for getting one saved) think they are doing a great work for God. The confusion about salvation stems from the notion that we receive Christ by asking Him into our lives.
Although the act of asking Christ into our lives is an expression of our desire to receive Him, it is seldom ever the “decisive moment” for the new birth. Since most of those who pray to receive Christ fall away, the telltale results should be proof enough that something is seriously flawed with the practice of reciting a prayer to receive Christ. Telling a person who recites a prayer that he or she is now a new creature in Christ is risky (at best) because that person might not be.
Most evangelists agree that about 85percent of those who pray to receive Christ drift back into the ways of the world, believing they are saved because they made a decision for Christ at some point in their life. What could be more dangerous (or deceptive) then for church leadership to tell unsuspecting and trusting souls (who have just recited a prayer to receive Christ) that they are now new creatures in Christ? What a horrible deception if they were never really born- again.
It would seem that many people pray to receive Christ without any understanding of biblical truth, holiness and the need to be saved from the power of sin. There is no recognition of their need for Christ as a matter of life or death. People (both children and adults) feel (or are told they are) forgiven but do not seem to have realized the depth of their sinfulness and unholiness.
False conversions occur when people (including children) do not fully comprehend the basic truths leading to salvation summarized in 1 Corinthians 15: 1-4. If people are led to recite a prayer to receive Christ before being led to see their own sinfulness and hopelessness in Romans 3:23, they will not see their need for Christ to save them in Romans 6:23.
Jesus gave the parable about a sower who went forth to sow seed, God’s Word. All the people in the parable received the seed (God’s Word) gladly, but then soon fell away for diverse reasons. Only a few continued to feed themselves daily on the Word, becoming grounded in faith and growing deep roots in the soil of regeneration (Matthew 13:3).
The few who fed themselves daily on the Word were the ones who “received Christ” (by hearing, understanding and believing the salvation truths) and were born again by faith in the Word (John 15). And now under the grace, believers feed on the salvation truths presented in Romans through Hebrews. Salvation for the believer is found in the epistles of Paul based on the substitutionary death, burial, and resurrection of Christ described in the four gospels.
Is it wise to tell someone who makes a decision for Christ that she or he is now born-again and heaven bound?
Volumes have been written about the process of spiritual regeneration. However, what is known for sure about the majority of those who profess to receive Christ (using the modern recital prayer method) is that many will fall away or cease to continue in the truth. Easy prayerism (as the accepted approach) to winning souls contains ‘polished evangelical appeals’ that pressure people into making decisions for Christ before their hearts have been fully cultivated by the Word of Truth.
Unfortunately, these high-pressure (and often emotional) tactics are filling churches with false converts whose hearts remain hard as stony ground and consequently uncultivated to receive the salvation truths. They are lost thinking they are saved!
Why do most (professing) new converts (young and old) fall away?
Most fall away because they have been deceived (by church leadership) into believing they have answered the call to salvation. They fall away because they have no power to receive or continue in His Word, and in many cases simply lose interest in God and church. In John 8:31- 32, Jesus said:
“If you abide [continue] in my word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
Jesus plainly teaches that those who continue in His Word (and especially the epistles of Paul, which are for the church) are the ones who have been born again.
Church leadership must return to TEACHING the basic truths about salvation and victorious living. These truths will give the church body (and those who join the body) the vision with which to live in victory, discern growing deception in the church, uphold the brethren, and evangelize the lost.
Is the recital prayer the “definitive moment” for experiencing the new birth? While it can be for some, it is clearly not the ‘definitive moment’ for most. The “recital prayer” is dangerous in the sense that it can create false converts and unknowingly condemn those who repeat the prayer to an eternity without Christ.
Personal salvation occurs when the soul hears, believes and receives (personalizes) the ‘basic salvation truths’ according to the Biblical precepts of redemption. Although reciting a prayer is easy, it should not replace the need for the soul to personalize the basic salvation truths. Personalizing the basic salvation truths is a soul searching experience that occurs under the convicting power of the Holy Spirit (John 16: 5-11).
Making Sure of Your Salvation
Although the Lord knows them that are His (2 Timothy 2:19), do we know with certainty that we are his? We cannot look at other believers and say whether or not they have been born again, even if they profess that they have been.
All professing believers need to examine themselves according to 2 Corinthians 5:17:
“If any man be IN CHRIST, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
Those who have been ‘born again’ by the power of the Holy Spirit will know it (Romans 8:16-17) because they will typically be:
1.In agreement with what the Bible says about judgment, their sinfulness and depravity before a Holy God (before conversion).
2. In harmony with what the Bible says about grace, their acceptance and holiness before God as they abide in Christ (after conversion).
3. Hungry for the Word and persistent in searching the scriptures for truth.
4. Overwhelmed and grateful by the fact that Jesus died in their place on the cross
5. Convinced by the resurrection power that gives them daily victory over sin
6. Appreciative to the Holy Spirit who sustains them day-by-day through the power of the Word and prayer.
7. Able to produce the fruit of the Holy Spirit, which is love, joy peace (Galatians 5:22).
8. Mournful for those who are lost and without hope in the deadly sea of worldly deception. According to Charles Finney, a professing Christian who has no burden for the lost is himself lost.
To leave someone believing they are born again when they are not is an awful prospect. Yet that is what many evangelicals are risking when they use easy prayerism to convince people they have received Christ.
Examining Ourselves
Basic Salvation Truth One
Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…”
The Bible teaches non-Christians are subject to the wrath of God because they are displeasing to Him. What makes man displeasing to God? The sin nature! Matthew 7 talks about the strait gate and narrow way that leads to eternal life. Finding and then walking through the strait gate is the most difficult part about being saved because the soul must look at itself and come to grips with its spiritual depravity and acknowledge what it sees. Unfortunately, what most souls refuse to see reflected in the mirror of the Ten Commandments is the sin nature. The sin nature is ugly. Sin is the ‘spiritual essence’ of every heart, which is at the center of every soul (Romans 3:10-18). We are not sinners because we sin but sin because we are sinners.
Basic Salvation Truth Two
Romans 6:23 says: “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Since everyone is born in sin, all have the disease except Christ who was born without sin (Romans: 3:21). Everyone needs a new heart, a transplanted heart. Unfortunately, most people are unwilling to admit they have the disease and for that reason unwilling to say “yes” to the Surgeon of their souls. They are unable to view themselves as the Publican in Matthew who said: “Lord, be merciful to me a sinner.” They are unwilling to look in the mirror of the Ten Commandments.
Why?
The answer is many evangelicals would have you believe one’s “heart disease” is nothing more than a “mild cold” that will go away with a simple prayer. Many ministries have diluted the seriousness of sin down to nothing more than innocent mistakes. The Bible paints a different picture of sin, one that shows our sinful nature as a terminal disease. The Bible teaches that every human heart is (corruptible) beyond repair and needs a new (incorruptible) heart, one that God Himself transplants through the seed of His Word (John 3: 1-21; 1 Peter 1:22-25).
1 John 5:4-5 says: “He that overcomes (or is given a new heart by the renewing of our minds through the Word of God) will come out from under God’s judgment into Christ. For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world— our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.” 1 Corinthians 15: 1-5 says essentially the same but under the inspired penmanship of the Apostle Paul.
Salvation Truth Three
The Bible says there are two sides to salvation. From God’s side, salvation is possible by grace through the finished work of the Cross (Romans 3:22, 24-25, 28). From man’s side, faith in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the only condition God requires for salvation (John 3:16, 14:6; Acts 4:12; and 1 Corinthians 15:1-4). Faith is our response to the gift of salvation. From Genesis to Revelation, God uses grace and faith to put man right with Himself. Faith and faith alone is what please the Father (Romans 1:17; Romans 5:1).
To borrow from a popular analogy used by evangelists, imagine two brothers trapped by fire on a window ledge several floors up. Their only hope of escape is to jump into the net that has been spread out below. Suddenly, one brother leaps from the building and lands safely in the net. He is saved! The other (blinded by smoke and lacking faith in the net) backs away from the ledge and looks for another escape route. In the ensuing moments that follow, the second brother is overcome by the poisonous fumes and perishes in the fire.
What saved the first brother’s life? It was his faith in the net. What took the second brother’s life? Obviously, it was his lack of faith in the net. The net was there for both of them. One said yes and the other said no.
From this analogy we see that grace (made possible by the finished work of the Cross) is the net that God has spread out before all mankind. Those who jump by faith will be saved. Those who do not jump will be lost. What causes a person to be lost? Lack of faith (unbelief)!
To be saved, one must come to the knowledge that he is a sinner (caught in a burning building) with no way out and in danger of losing his life (soul).
To be saved, one must come to the knowledge that she or he can escape God’s wrath (the fire) by placing his or her faith in the unseen net far below (the finished work of the Cross)
To be saved, one must then (by faith) jump believing there is a net to catch him or her and that the one holding the net is Christ Himself.
How do we make that leap?
According to the apostle Paul, we make that leap by believing the gospel (with all of our heart) as outlined in 1 Corinthians 15 1-4:
“Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also you have received, and wherein you stand; by which also you are saved, if you keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.”
In closing, the Bible instructs believers to examine themselves to see if they are in Christ (and rapture ready).