Monday, 17 August 2009
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Were You Falsely Converted?
I spend a fair amount of my time witnessing to people, often come across other professing Christians, and what many commonly call backsliders. To my horror, I have seen a disturbing pattern in the testimonies of many of these believers and back sliders alike. Many have apparently come to Christ because they were led to believe that He would enhance their life. They were promised peace and joy, prosperity, purpose, destiny, love, and/or happiness to some degree if they would only give their lives to Jesus. Understandably, when things go wrong many are disillusioned, confused, and even angry. I fear that some of the people who regularly roam this site are likely to have a testimony similar to this. I have learned that around the turn of the last century a shift had taken place as to what many churches and individual Christians began to use as a draw card to attract potential converts. Up until that time, the message was pretty clear and boldly proclaimed: that mans greatest need is not for happiness, but for righteousness. It doesn’t matter how happy someone is, they will perish on the day of judgment without the righteousness of Christ. Don’t get me wrong, peace, joy, etc. are legitimate fruits of salvation, but if we use these as a draw card we will continue to produce false converts. These people are too often strangers to Biblical repentance, without which they will not be saved. The modern message has an inoculating effect, as when someone comes to them with the true message, they are already embittered to the things of God.Sinners must see themselves lost before they will cry out for mercy. They will not escape danger if they don’t see that it exists. Often these false converts will speak of hell as though they believe in it, but are convinced that they are either good enough to avoid it or that God is simply too kind to really send someone like them to such a horrible place. I am not advocating hell fire preaching. To simply tell someone that they will go to hell if they don’t accept Christ makes no sense to them, however if we help them to see that hell is reasonable, and that they have offended a holy and just God, then they will begin to understand their need for a savior. Some of you may be thinking that you don’t want to portray God in this way. You want to tell them that He simply wants a relationship with Him. If sinners are helped to see their sin the way God sees it they can then begin to see what an amazingly kind and gracious God He really is.
Do you feel that you were falsely converted like some of these people? Does this new tactic work?
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- From: cornerstonechwk
- Name: cornerstonechwk
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Comments (55)
good post, i don't think i was deceived in my conversion, however many others unfortunately are I believe depending on how the Gospel was presented to them.
there are several people who like to claim I was falsely converted. They say that mostly because of political differences. That's really sad if you think about it. How some could let politics get in the way with their relationship with the lord, and their Brothers and sisters in Christ.
I would never call someone else fasly converted, however I do ask how one who claims to be a follower of the lord could possibly spend so much time driving people away from him.
Amen! Think you so much for posting this. I'd rec it again if I were able!
It scares me to think that so many are lead to supposed faith, which is no faith at all, thinking they are coming to Christ because He will make them happier, rich, healthy, or make their idols love them more, etc. It is idolatry, it's not Christianity at all.
Christianity, well traditional orthodox Christianity, is based in being born again. It is a spiritual rebirth which is completely the work of God. We do not choose we receive. Father draws; the Holy Spirit convicts, gifts us with the ability to choose; Jesus saves. We repent, in faith, trusting Jesus to save, and God does the work of giving us new birth. The proof is found in changes to ourselves that we could not have possibly made. That proof continues throughout our lives, as God conforms us to the image and likeness of His Son.
There are, undoubtedly, false conversions, but I've seen God work through those to, eventually, bring people to a true born again state.
Still Christians need to be very careful about how they present a salvation which belongs exclusively to God. It isn't ours to give as we like. The Church must present the truth of God, not our watered down, or hell fire and brimstone versions.
You've addressed an interesting problem. One that doesn't have an easy solution. How should someone present the message of Christ? We have many denominations portraying this message according to their own preferences. There is a lack of agreement of these denominations as to what salvation is and how one achieves it. Each congregation handles it a bit different. Many would agree that God is capable of using any experience; fire and brimstone preaching notwithstanding. I personally believe this is due to the fracture of the Church in the 1500s, but it's still all of our problem. Unity among Christian groups would help, but that may be too much to ask. Prayer is the only weapon we have in common and that is the weapon I believe we should use to help those struggling in the faith. Nice post.
Selling the Gospel doesn't work like living the Gospel does. We don't have to sell church to people, we have to be Church for people.
Hmm, interesting. I was 13. I'd just read an article in Brio magazine about the rapture. I'd never heard of the rapture before and it scared the crap out of me. That's when I decided once and for all that I do believe in God and Jesus and the cross and all that.
I'm not sure I think there ought to be a "tactic" to getting people to convert. It feels wrong, somehow. I'm also not very good at debating over evangelism.
is this really a new fad? i don't think so...
I really appreciate this post but feel that one thing is missing. As we present the Gospel, the only way people see hell is reasonable, believe God is holy and come to admit they are sinners in need of a Savior is the work of the Holy Spirit (like @Such_Were_You@xanga said). Apart from the regenerating power of God, the human mind is hostile to God and the Gospel.
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life."
Thank you for sharing your experiences in reaching the lost.
Blessings,
frank
@Such_Were_You@xanga - @naphtali_deer@xanga - I agree with you both that conversions are the work of the Holy Spirit and all glory is due to God and God alone. We can plant seeds, water them, tend to them, etc. under the Spirit's guidance, but the true conversion is a work of God.
You can hear this type of conversion when people give their testimonies. So much about what they were saved from and almost always nothing about what they came to believe about Christ. The proof of their faith therefore becomes that they stopped smoking or drinking instead of that they came to trust in the atoning work of Christ on the cross.
Amen! Good post!
21"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' 23Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!' (Matthew 7:21-3).
Whether one believes in 'once saved always saved' or the idea of coming to Christ & then later 'apostatizing' (falling away), it is nevertheless true that in the last day, some coming before Christ claiming to be His followers ("Did we not do many wonderful works in your name!?"), will hear Him say; "Depart from me, you evil doers". I believe followers of Christ have a tremendous security, & yet there are warnings---Paul said; "Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you--unless indeed you fail the test." ('are reprobate'--KJV)--II Corinthians 13:5. The believer must never be 'lulled' into a complacetency(Sp) that they're 'In like Flint'. Scripture urges believers to be vigilant and aware of our adversary's schemes--to not neglect one's salvation (Hebrews).
Our Lord does not want us to constantly be frantic about our salvation---He wants us to rest in Him. On the other hand, He doesn't want us to have the arrogance of the Pharisees who came to John's baptism with the attitude---'We are God's children thru Abraham--We have it made, unlike others'. John said, don't trust in your pedigree--(connection as Abraham's children). God can take these stones & raise up children to Abraham!' (see Luke 3:7-9). We cannot afford to be 'smug' in our salvation!!
Living in humility before God, sends a strong messge to 'would be' followers of Jesus to follow Him in the same way that we do & certainly goes a long way in protecting/galvanizing 'converts' from the danger of 'falling away'. LAW--
All human actions have happiness as their final end. We know this from Genesis for God created man for Paradise. Paradise is a place where people can live in happiness.
Because Adam and Eve lost Paradise through disobedience man's Godly nature was destroyed. Man became disordered, sinful, unrighteous, corrupt. So even though his actions have happiness as their final end man's disordered nature would insure unhappy results.
It is only through Jesus that man's Godly nature is restored. Nevertheless we continue to suffer from the tendency to fall into sin and are in constant need of grace. It is through grace that man's actions once again lead to happiness.
Our life on earth is a walk toward heaven the place of eternal happiness. For the Christian it is possible for actions to have happiness as their final end, because our actions have been blessed by the Son of God.
This happens at baptism where we become adopted children of God.
I think you are right in what you say, but we need to be careful in talking about "false conversions." It might be more productive to highlight instead that those who preach happiness instead of righteousness are preaching a false Gospel. Same thing, but placing the accusation where it belongs.
i was raised to believe that only Christians were decent human beings. as soon as that illusion was shattered, i no longer had any reason to believe.
and besides that... i don't believe in the concept of original sin, so why should i think i need saving?
@shards_of_beauty@xanga - The original title to my post was have you believed another gospel, but the editors changed it to what you now see.
@too_pretty_to_die@xanga - It's not so much about what you believe, but weather or not what you believe is true. If I believed with all my heart that the sun was square, came out at night, and was made of ice, it would do no good because it's not true.
@naphtali_deer@xanga - agreed!
@too_pretty_to_die@xanga - For someone who claims to not hate God, you do work hard to overthrow the faith of those who follow Him.
@cornerstonechwk - well, i don't consider a 2000-year-old book to be enough evidence that a belief is true. if God doesn't like that, He can take it up with me in the afterlife. but i'm not going to halfheartedly practice a religion i don't understand.
and if someone's faith is going to be overthrown because i doubt and question, their faith wasn't that strong to begin with.
@cornerstonechwk - Thanks. When we write we come with a certain set of assumptions that are second nature to us, but sometimes we don't always make those explicit in everything we write. Then when we have new readers, they don't have all that background.
Thank you for proclaiming Christ clearly here. Revelife is quite the mixed bag, so, as I said previously, I really did appreciate this post.
good post. I've been hitting a rough patch (I'm a recent convert), and this gave me something to think about. I don't think I was falsely converted (I came of my own realization), but there are a few things I'm struggling with. Thank you.
i remember a sermon about the details of what heaven looked like. how it was made of gold and silver and everything shiny and expensive. i felt like they were trying to tap into people's greedy side......
People should expect Yeshua/Christ to enhance their life. Other people are going to make it hard for Him to do that, but He died on a cross so He could offer the Fullness of Life. Don't teach righteousness over love. That's ridiculous. Faith, hope, love, and the greatest of these is Love.