WHAT’S WRONG WITH MOST SOUL WINNING COURSES?
December 15, 2010 (David Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O.
Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org; for
instructions about subscribing and unsubscribing or changing addresses, see the
information paragraph at the end of the article)
Since attending in Bible School in the 1970s, I have gone through several
evangelistic courses and they contain many helpful things.
But something is wrong with the standard technique taught in these courses,
because all too often they produce a host of empty professions, and surely we
all know that an empty profession of faith that doesn’t change the life is not
biblical salvation.
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed
away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
“He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and
the truth is not in him” (1 John 2:4).
I read about a pastor who reported 4,000 professions in five years of ministry,
but the church only grew from 98 to 100. Those are interesting “professions,”
to say the least.
I read about a first-year missionary who reported over 700 professions of faith
and 25 baptisms.
One evangelist comments: “How could you even pen those words without asking
yourself if there isn’t something wrong with that picture? I seem to remember
3,000 saved at Pentecost, and 3,000 baptized! The most refreshing missionary
that I have heard in a long time gave his update to our church recently. He has
been in Poland
for 14 years and to date knows of only five people who have been saved under
his ministry. Just like at Pentecost, he only counts the ones who have been
saved, baptized, and are in the church. Most of our ‘one, two, three, pray
after me’ fellows would have dropped his support a long time ago! Myself, I
would drop the guy with 738 saved and 25 baptized and shift the support to the
fellow from Poland!”
After I graduated from school and moved back to my home town before we started
missionary deputation, my pastor asked us (my wife and me) to follow-up on the
church’s Foster Club outreach. Each week the ladies would report a good number
of salvations, but no one was following up the “decisions.” We were given a
stack of cards and began our follow up, but we quickly found that these “saved
people” wanted nothing to do with us and had no interest in the church in
particular or the things of Christ in general. Most wouldn’t even let us into
the home. I thought to myself, that is not the type of salvation I got.
While visiting a large fundamental Baptist church in California, a friend went on visitation with
the most notable soul winner in the church. A lady answered the bell at one
house and stood impatiently behind the screen door while the soul winner went
hastily through the plan of salvation. She wanted to attend to her child, who
was fussing in the background, but he begged her to listen to the presentation.
During the entire time, she was looking back into the house, severely
distracted. At the end of his presentation, he boldly demanded that she open
the door partially and take his hand. She seemed shocked by this request, but
she cautiously did as he said. He then asked her if she wanted to go to Heaven
when she died. When she answered in the affirmative, he asked her to pray after
him the sinner’s prayer, which she did. He announced her gloriously saved, and
she immediately closed the door and went about her business.
This lady, and millions like her, have prayed the sinner’s prayer without Holy
Spirit conviction of sin, clear understanding of the gospel, or repentance
toward God. Such empty “decisions” are the sad products of a faulty
soul-winning technique.
The churches that have adopted this method of evangelism have produced millions
of false professions. There are many churches that can show only a handful of
new creatures in Christ for every hundred converts they claim. There is
something extremely wrong about that picture. It is a great confusion.
For nearly 40 years I have observed the sad fruit of this technique: multitudes
of false professions, confusion about salvation, indifference to biblical
truth, agnosticism, reprobate living, and blasphemy against God. In many
communities across the land a large percentage of the population has prayed a
sinner’s prayer under the ministry of churches practicing quick prayerism. Vast
numbers of these have never been born again and they are now almost inoculated
to biblical salvation. When challenged about their lifeless spiritual
condition, they commonly reply, “I have done that,” meaning they have prayed a
prayer and have been given assurance of eternal life. They are assured that
they have a ticket to Heaven. Those who observe these things are made to think
that salvation means little or nothing in relation to one’s manner of life, and
Christianity appears foolish and powerless. This technique also tends to
populate churches with unregenerate people who are trying to act right without
having experienced genuine spiritual conversion.
There are many helpful things in the standard soul-winning programs, but they
are missing some things and they are wrong about some things, and I believe
that if the following changes were made we would see fewer empty professions
and far less confusion.
The following points would add scriptural correction and balance to the
typical soul winning program.
1. The typical soul-winning program neglects repentance (Acts 20:21).
Repentance was preached by John, by Jesus, and by Peter. It appears 68 times in
New Testament, 10 times in the book of Acts alone.
Repentance was a major part of Paul’s message (Acts 17:30; 20:21; 26:19-20).
The Bible teaches that repentance is not same as believing (Acts 20:21).
Sometimes repentance is emphasized (Luke 5:32; 13:3,5; 24:47; Acts 3:19; 5:31;
17:11; 26:20; 2 Peter 3:9); sometimes faith is emphasized (John 3:16; Acts
16:30-31; etc.); and sometimes both are mentioned together (Acts 20:21; Hebrews
6:1).
Repentance is not a change of life; it is a change of mind that results in a
change of life (Acts 26:20). It is a surrender (1 Thess. 1:9). “Believing”
without surrender is not salvation.
Repentance is an assassin laying down the knife. Evangelist James Stewart
wrote: “The hand that clutches the assassin’s knife must open ‘ere it can grasp
the gift its intended victim proffers; and opening that hand, though a single
act, has a double aspect and purpose. Accepting the gift implies a turning from
the crime the heart was bent on, and it was the gift itself that worked the
change. Faith is the open hand, relatively to the gift; repentance is the same
hand, relatively, not only to the gift but more especially to the dagger that
is flung from it” (Stewart, Evangelism, pp. 48, 49).
Repentance is the thief returning the stolen property. The late Lester Roloff
said: “I believe we ought to make right what we can make right. What if I was
staying with a group of preachers and one of them stole my wallet while I was
sleeping? The next day he comes up to me and tells me he is terribly sorry and
asks me to forgive him. I would be glad to hear that he is sorry for stealing
my wallet, but I would certainly want and expect more than that from a
repentant thief. I would want my wallet back! I don’t believe he has really
repented unless he brings my billfold back. I DON'T BELIEVE YOU HAVE REPENTED
UNTIL YOU GET RIGHT AND SAY, ‘LORD, I’M GOING TO LIVE DIFFERENT FROM NOW ON,’
AND BY THE GRACE OF GOD YOU WILL LIVE DIFFERENT” (Roloff, Repent or Perish).
The question is how do we use repentance in soul winning?
First, we must not skip over it. We should explain that the individual must be
ready to surrender to God, and not give him the idea that it is possible to be
saved without this (Lk. 13:3; Acts 17:30). Of course, we explain that God will
do the changing, but the sinner must be ready to accept God’s working. If the
individual is not ready to do this, he is not ready to be saved. I have dealt
with many people who understood and believed that Christ died for their sins and
that faith in Christ is the only way of salvation, but they simply were not
ready to surrender to God. They refuse to repent.
This is often the case with people who grow up in Christian homes. Repentance
was the thing that was missing in my life when as I grew up in a Baptist
church. I don’t recall a time when I did not believe in Christ. I had no doubt
that He died on the cross for my sin. I made a public profession of faith at
about age 10, but it was empty because I had no intention of surrendering my
life to Christ. Bowing before Him as Lord was the farthest thing from my mind.
The course of my life did not change one iota.
When my wife and I first began our missionary work in South
Asia in 1979, our landlord began coming to our house to have Bible
studies. He was a wealthy middle-aged Hindu and had a concubine with whom he
spent most of his time, though he was married and had grown children. After we
went through the gospel a few times, he told me he felt that he understood what
I was teaching and that he was interested in receiving Christ, but he wanted to
know what he would have to do about two specific things in his life--his shady
business practices and his illicit relationship with the concubine. I could
have said, “Don’t worry about those things. Just pray to receive Christ and
those things will work themselves out later”; but I don’t believe that would
have been scriptural counsel. I don’t believe he could receive Christ and be
saved unless he repented of his immorality and his dishonesty. Salvation
requires surrendering. I explained to him that if he would turn to Christ, God
would change his life and he would have different desires, but he didn’t want
that. The power to change one’s life is from God but the sinner must surrender
to God’s working.
Dealing with sinners according to repentance is often neglected today. There
was an Independent Baptist church campaign in Maine a few years ago in which the people
were taught to go house to house and say, “If I were to tell you today that you
can be saved and go to heaven and you won’t have to change anything, would you
be interested?”
That is not biblical soul winning or biblical gospel preaching. That is cheap
religious salesmanship.
Consider Christ’s dealings with the woman at the well in John 4. He faced her
squarely with the immorality that had controlled her life. He also faced the
Rich Young Ruler with his sin of self-righteousness and covetousness (Luke 18).
This is the way God always deals with people, and this is the way we must deal
with them, too, if we want to follow the Bible in our gospel work. To preach
repentance means to deal with glaring sins that people are holding onto and to
tell them plainly that they must repent of sinning against God; they must yield
their lives to Him; they must change directions; they must surrender. God will
do a new work in their lives but they must be ready for that to happen. They
must have a change of mind about God and sin that will result in a change of
life.
It appears that many soul-winning programs try to “slip the gospel by the
sinner” and get him saved before he really knows what is happening! That is not
possible. The Lord Jesus Christ said, “I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent,
ye shall all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3, 5). There is no salvation without
repentance, and it is a Holy Spirit-wrought change of mind that results in a
change of life.
To tell sinners that God demands that they repent might cut down on the
“decision” statistics, but it is the only honest and scriptural path. God has
commanded that they repent and Jesus said they can’t be saved without it, so
how can we fail to tell them this?
One afternoon I accompanied a pastor to knock doors in a part of a city that
was populated with university students. A few times in one afternoon he shared
a five-minute Romans Road plan (i.e., all have sinned against God, the wages of
sin is death, and Jesus died for our sin and those who believe can be saved)
and then immediately asked the people three questions: “Does that make sense to
you?” (All of them said it made sense.) “Do you have any questions?” (None of
them did.) And “Would you pray to receive Christ right now?” (None of them
did.) The pastor didn’t even hint to the people that there would need to be a
change in the direction of their life, a turning, a surrender.
This is not a pastor who is into the numbers racket or who is trying to impress
some preacher’s fellowship or perhaps get his name in a national magazine. He
is a man that I respect, a mature Christian leader who has been in the ministry
for many years and who has taken a bold scriptural stand on some unpopular
issues. I believe the problem is that he is simply following a program of
soul-winning that he has been taught and that is standard fare for a large
percentage of fundamental Baptists. The program simply isn’t questioned.
Second, it is not necessarily the word “repentance” that always has to be used;
it is the concept and meaning that the soul winner must get across. We must
make the individual understand that God requires surrender.
Third, we need to deal with each case individually. Paul preached repentance
directly and forcefully to the Athenians because they needed to be confronted
with God’s requirement (Acts 17:30). On the other hand, he didn’t have to
preach repentance to the Philippian jailer, because the Spirit of God had
already done a great work in his heart and he was ready to be saved (Acts
16:30-31).
2. The typical soul-winning program doesn’t emphasize the importance of
patience and thoroughness.
The typical soul-winning plan is far too hasty and shallow. We need to deal
with people more carefully, more thoroughly, and more patiently so that they
understand the gospel and are able to make a proper Spirit-led decision.
Consider the previous example of giving a quick Romans Road presentation to a stranger at
the door and then actually expecting him to be ready to be saved and
encouraging him to pray a sinner’s prayer.
On one visitation outing in Oklahoma City, my
soul-winning partner knocked on a door and it was answered by a woman from South America who could only speak a few words of
English. She invited us into the house (her teenage children were there) and
told us that she was Roman Catholic. Though it was obvious that she couldn’t
understand English, my partner went quickly through the Roman’s Road and then
asked her if she wanted to pray. At that point I intervened and suggested that
we find someone from the church who spoke her language and send them by to
visit with her and also that we try to get her a Bible in her own language. How
could an individual possibly understand the gospel and be saved when they are
being dealt with in a language they don’t understand? Further, as a Roman
Catholic, it appeared to me that what little she did understand she was
re-interpreting in light of her false religion.
This is a gross example of failing to deal with an individual properly.
My partner that day was a humble, sincere man of God. He was not trying to make
a name for himself or have some cause for bragging; he simply wanted to win
people to Christ, but he had been influenced by the standard soul-winning
program and had not thought beyond it.
Many people in America today
are as Bible ignorant as the Hindus in South Asia.
Many believe in evolution, and evolution is as far-fetched as any Hindu myth.
If we tried to use the aforementioned soul-winning technique in South Asia, we could get half the people to pray a
sinner’s prayer “so they could go to Heaven one day.” But in the vast majority
of cases, what they would be doing would be adding Jesus to their other gods,
which, typically, is the first thing a Hindu tries to do. It is quite another
thing for the Hindu to turn to Jesus Christ ALONE as Lord and Savior and to
turn FROM all of his other gods, as we see in 1 Thessalonians 1:9: “For they
themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye
turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God.” But this, and this
alone, is biblical salvation.
I have never met a Hindu who understood the gospel the first time he heard it.
There probably has been some, but in the 20 years I have been a missionary
among them I have not heard of it.
We have found that in the vast majority of cases, the Hindu has to hear the
gospel over a period of time. He must be dealt with very carefully and very
patiently.
Someone might argue that people in the Bible got saved the first time they
heard. Yes, some did. The Philippian jailer is an example, but he had also been
listening to Paul and Barnabas’ preaching and we don’t know what other
preparation he had received before that night.
Some Important Scriptures about Being Careful in Gospel Presentation
In light of dealing with sinners in a patient and thorough manner, consider the
following Scriptures:
“And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves
from this untoward generation” (Acts 2:40).
Though we know that 3,000 were saved on the day of Pentecost, it is also
important to observe that they weren’t saved on the basis of a five-minute
gospel presentation. Further, these were Jews that were already steeped in
Scripture and had a foundation of spiritual and religious knowledge that most
people don’t have today. They knew about the true God. They understood the
concept of the fall of man and sin. They had the testimony of the sacrificial
system. They had the Messianic prophecies. And many of them had heard the
preaching of Christ Himself.
Consider another passage:
“These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the
word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether
those things were so. Therefore many of them believed; also of honourable women
which were Greeks, and of men, not a few” (Acts 17:11-12).
The conversion of the Bereans did not involve a five-minute Romans Road presentation. It occurred
over a period of time during which they heard Paul’s teaching and searched the
Scriptures.
Consider two more Scriptures:
“For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have
all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy
2:3-4).
“But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from
the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you” (Romans 6:17).
In these passages Paul describes salvation as coming to the knowledge of the
truth and as believing a form of doctrine. Salvation requires knowledge. This
does not mean that the sinner must learn systematic theology. It means that he must
know and understand the content of the gospel. He must know what it means when
the Bible says that Jesus died for our sins according to the Scripture, that he
died, and that he rose again the third day according to the Scripture (1 Cor.
15:1-4). He must know what sin is and recognize himself as the type of sinner
that the Bible says he is. He must understand who Jesus is and the significance
of His death. He must understand what saving faith is.
In light of this, it is obvious that the soul winner must patiently teach
sinners these things and try to make sure that they understand.
Don’t Forget the Law of Sowing and Reaping
Consider the fact that soul-winning is likened to sowing and reaping.
Typically, these two aspects of farming don’t happen at the same time. There is
sowing, following by watering, fertilizing, weeding, etc., then there is
reaping.
Soul-winning programs too often create the expectation that the sowing and
reaping will occur at the same time. But when this does seem to happen, it is
usually because the sowing had already been done, perhaps by godly parents,
perhaps by a co-worker or friend, perhaps by personal Bible reading.
The Preparatory Work of the Law
In light of dealing with sinners properly, consider the make up of the Bible.
The reason why such a large percentage of Scripture is devoted to presenting
the Law is to prepare the way for the gospel. The Law is the schoolmaster that
leads sinners to Christ (Gal. 3:24). The Law shows man how holy God is and how
sinful man is. Until a person understands his great guilt before God, he will
not flee to Christ in a scriptural sense (Heb. 6:18).
Preachers used to understand that the ground of the human heart must be plowed
up with the Law before it can bear the sweet fruit of the gospel. Some of the
old evangelists would hold meetings and not even preach the gospel for the
first few days, preparing the way by preaching hard on sin and judgment. In the
1960s Oliver B. Greene preached 25 radio messages in a row on the wrath of God.
I doubt he could even get away with that on any of the national Christian radio
stations today.
Everything is quick and shallow today, and we have all been affected by the
spirit of the times.
The Sinner Typically Reinterprets the Gospel according to His Religious
Background
Furthermore, it is important to be careful and thorough in presenting the
gospel because people tend to interpret it in light of their religious
background. When a Roman Catholic first hears about being born again, for
example, he naturally thinks about baptism. When he hears about “receiving
Christ,” he thinks that it is something that is done repeatedly through the
sacraments. When he hears about sin, he thinks that there are different
categories of sin and that only certain types of sin have eternal consequences.
He might tell the soul winner that he understands these things and he might say
that he has no questions about what has been presented, but in reality he
doesn’t understand at all because of his previous false training.
This is why ecumenical evangelistic crusades are so insufficient. When Billy
Graham or Luis Palau preach to Roman Catholics, they might preach a sound
gospel message, but that message is interpreted wrongly by their Catholic
hearers, and the ecumenical evangelists refuse to make things plain by
preaching AGAINST false doctrine. To be understood, the truth must often be
contrasted plainly with error.
A course that carefully presents the gospel is called SALVATION BIBLE BASICS by
Doug Hammett, Lehigh Valley Baptist
Church, Emmaus, Pennsylvania.
It consists of four lessons on salvation. A strong foundation is laid by
defining sin from God’s perspective and helping the sinner to see his lost
condition before God. In Lesson Four, Repentance and Faith are carefully
explained. It is very unusual for an evangelistic Bible study course to go into
repentance as thoroughly as this one does. A simple chart helps to illustrate
the Bible truths.
In no wise am I saying that confrontational evangelism is wrong or that we should
not seek to win people to Christ right where we find them, if possible. If God
is convicting the individual and if he understands the gospel and is ready to
repent and believe, then nothing else is necessary.
I am simply saying that one of the best ways to avoid false professions is to
avoid shallow, insufficient presentations of the gospel. Even the most careful
presentation of the gospel will not avoid all false professions, but it will
greatly cut down on them in contrast to a shallow presentation.
Someone might protest, “But time is short and you never know if you will see
that person again.” That is so very true, and oftentimes we only have one
opportunity to give the gospel to any certain individual. In such a case we
must do the best we can and leave them a gospel tract. But it is one thing to
give a quick word of testimony or even a quick Romans Road plan of salvation, while it
is quite another thing to use that hasty presentation as the basis for
manipulating someone into praying a sinner’s prayer.
Someone might protest that it is not possible to be thorough when people won’t
even open the door and let the soul winner in the house. That is true, but if a
person is not willing to listen to what God has to say, there is no hope for
him beyond praying that God will give him an interest. The gospel cannot be
forced upon the heart and it cannot be snuck in some side door.
We must ask God to lead us to people who will listen, who will let us into
their homes to have a series of gospel Bible studies, who will attend classes
at church, etc.
Whatever the problem might be and whatever protests might be offered, being too
hurried and plucking the fruit before it is ripe is not the solution!
3. The typical soul-winning program doesn’t emphasize the importance of
answering sincere questions
This could go under the previous point of taking the time to be thorough and to
deal with the sinner carefully, but I want to cover it under a separate point
because of its importance.
At Bible College I was taught NOT to answer most
questions during soul-winning situations. I was taught to stay with the verses
of the “Romans Road” plan and to say, “That is a good question and we will get
back to it later, but right now I would like to show you…”
I believe there is a time for that approach, if the question would truly
sidetrack the issue and if it is not necessary to answer it, but I also believe
that there are many questions that need to be answered before the person can
properly understand the gospel and before he is ready to be saved.
The man that led me to Jesus Christ spent three or four entire days with me,
patiently teaching me the Scriptures and answering the myriad of questions and
arguments that I had, such as whether reincarnation is true or why a man can’t
simply follow his heart or why God would send people to Hell who have never
heard the gospel or how Hinduism is different than the Bible way. If he had put
off my questions in the manner in which I was taught at Bible College,
he would not have gotten very far with me. My questions reflected what I
believed at the time, and they needed to be answered. The fact that he could
give me Bible answers for questions I considered unanswerable impressed me
greatly. And the fact that he could turn right to the relevant Bible passages
was doubly impressive. I realized that this was a man who took his religious
faith seriously and had made the effort to educate himself in it, and it was
one of the main reasons why I was willing to listen to him.
In this context, it is important to understand the difference between a
question that should be answered and a “foolish question” (2 Tim. 2:23; Titus
3:9-10). A foolish question is one that is asked insincerely with the objective
of confusing the truth rather than finding it. It is something that is
practiced by hardened rebels and heretics. Jehovah’s Witnesses, for example,
are often trained to ask foolish questions about such things as the Deity of
Christ, death, heaven, and the bodily resurrection. They aren’t interested in
your answer; they only want to push their own heresies, which are twisted out
of context.
4. The typical soul-winning program is too formulaic.
>From my experience with soul-winning courses, they are typically too
formulaic. The soul winner is taught a simple, pat plan that he uses in every
case.
While it is good to have a plan and to know how to present the gospel, there is
no soul-winning formula taught in Scripture.
Christ is the pre-eminent Soul Winner and His dealings with people followed no
set pattern. His dealing with the Woman at the Well (John 2) was dramatically
different from His dealings with Nicodemus (John 3) or the Rich Young Ruler
(Luke 19) or Zacchaeus (Luke 19) or the Pharisees (Matthew 23).
The same thing can be seen in Paul’s ministry. Consider his dealings with Lydia (Acts
16:14), the Philippian Jailer (Acts 16:25-32), and the philosophers on Mars
Hill (Acts 17).
The soul winner must be in fellowship with the Lord so that he has God’s wisdom
to discern people’s spiritual conditions and needs. Some questions should be
answered and some ignored. Sometimes we must deal tenderly and sometimes
sharply. Sometimes we must hammer the need to repent and sometimes this is
unnecessary, as in the case of the Philippian Jailer. Sometimes we must spend a
lot of time showing the person that he is a sinner and making him understand
what sin is and removing his self-righteousness, while sometimes God has
already shown him this.
5. The typical soul-winning program promotes the error of giving assurance.
I have often cringed as I have observed a soul winner giving assurance to
someone who has just prayed a sinner’s prayer, even when there was no evidence
that the person was truly saved or that he was more than vaguely interested in
what the soul winner was talking about.
What is wrong with assurance, you ask? Nothing is wrong with it, but it is only
for those who are saved.
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto
them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck
them out of my hand” (John 10:27, 28).
God promises eternal life to those who are born again, but He certainly does
not promise eternal life to those who merely pray a sinner’s prayer. Verses 27
and 28 in John 10 are connected. Verse 28 says Christ gives eternal life to His
sheep, but verse 27 says His sheep follow Him. Verse 27 is the evidence of
salvation, while verse 28 is the eternal blessing of salvation. You cannot take
the promise of verse 28 unless you display the evidence of verse 27.
Consider also the following passage:
“And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked
works, yet now hath he reconciled, In the body of his flesh through death, to
present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight: If ye continue
in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the
gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is
under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister” (Colossians 1:21-23).
Those who are reconciled to Christ and who therefore have eternal life are
those who continue in the faith and are not moved from the gospel. Those who
merely pray a sinner’s prayer and do not continue in the faith demonstrate that
they have never been born again.
Consider Hebrews 6:9-11:
“But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany
salvation, though we thus speak. For God is not unrighteous to forget your work
and labour of love, which ye have showed toward his name, in that ye have
ministered to the saints, and do minister. And we desire that every one of you
do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end” (Hebrews
6:9-11).
Note that there are “things that accompany salvation.” An empty profession is
not biblical salvation, and those who have an empty profession, who do not care
about the things of God, do not have eternal life no matter how many prayers
they have prayed or how many times they have been baptized and no matter who
has given them assurance. True salvation is accompanied by works and labours of
love, which are the products of the indwelling Spirit. Hebrews 6:11 reminds us
that full assurance is only for those who give evidence that they have been
born again.
Consider 1 John 3:2-3:
“Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall
be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall
see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even
as he is pure” (1 John 3:2,3).
Verse 1 tells us that those who are born of God have eternal life and will be
like Christ in Glory. Verse 2 goes on to warn that those who are truly born of
God purify their lives. The purifying is not the means of their salvation; it
is the evidence of their salvation.
All of these passages teach that we must be careful about giving assurance of
salvation to those who have merely prayed a prayer.
We can tell them that IF they have repented toward God and exercised faith
toward Christ they have eternal life, but if they have merely prayed a prayer,
they are still lost in their sins. To tell a person dogmatically that he has
been saved and now has eternal life when we do not know if he has been saved is
unscriptural and harmful.
The Bible gives us many examples of those who were interested in the things of
God and were even zealous for God and who appeared to be saved but were not.
Judas is a prime example. Those in Matthew 7:21-23 who prayed “lord lord” and
who did many wonderful works were not saved. The Jews mentioned in Romans 10
had a great zeal for God but they were not saved. The false teachers of 2 Peter
chapter 2 professed Christ but were not saved. Those mentioned in Titus 1:16
professed that they knew God but they were not saved.
A sinner can have many false motives for calling upon the Lord other than for
salvation from his sin. He can call upon the Lord because He wants help with
some immediate problem in his life, or to get rid of the soul winner, or because
he wants a ticket to Heaven when he dies (though he has no intent to know or
serve God in this life), or because he thinks that the sinner’s prayer is
another of the many religious things he must accomplish in order to be saved
eventually, etc.
It is one thing to tell a person that he can have assurance from God and from
the Scriptures if he is truly saved; it is quite another thing for the soul
winner to give a stranger assurance and promise him a home in Heaven simply
because he has prayed a sinner’s prayer.
Yes, Romans 10:13 says, “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord
shall be saved,” but that verse cannot be isolated from the rest of the passage
and from the rest of the book of Romans and from the rest of the Bible. It must
be a certain kind of calling upon the Lord, a calling from the heart, a calling
that is based in sound repentance toward God and proper faith toward the Lord
Jesus Christ.
In the final analysis, giving assurance to a sinner is not the soul winner’s
job; it is the job of the Holy Spirit and He accomplishes this through God’s
Word. “For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye
have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit
itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God” (Rom.
8:15-16).
We conclude with the testimony of an evangelist about the danger of multiplying
false professions through faulty soul winning techniques:
“Many years ago, in order to answer the criticism of the mounting number of
false professions, I heard a brother say, ‘I would rather lead 100 souls to
Christ, knowing that 95 of them were false professions, and see five of them go
to heaven, than to not attempt to be a soul-winner.’ The first tragedy of that
statement is assuming that those are the only two options: either to rack up
false professions while winning a few, or to not witness at all. How about the
option of being a witness within the guidelines of scriptural teaching, which
produces very few false professions! The second tragedy is the flippant
attitude about the 95 people to whom you gave assurance of salvation that will
one day wake up in hell! Most of them will not allow a genuine witness to
approach them about their souls, because they’re banking on that false
assurance that you gave them.”
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