Declaring War Against Easy Prayerism
Today one of the most common tactics and deception is not only a seeker-friendly message but also the doctrine of easy prayerism. People can always say they received Jesus Christ into their hearts but have they really done so? There's the problem of, "Well I can pray the sinner's prayer then I can go out there and sin all I want... and still be saved." That is a crooked doctrine because Christians are not saved in their sins, they are saved FROM their sins. That is why I am declaring war on the heresy of easy prayerism. Today what is sending more people to a false conversion is easy prayerism. Today we have church buildings that are social halls instead of places for sinners to be converted. A church is a hospital for sinners, not a haven for sinners. Pastors who refuse to tell people of their sins are like doctors who refuse to tell patients of their sickness.
The Scripture always demands repentance as part of saving faith. Matthew 21:32 warns about the need for repentance in order to believe. Mark 1:15 says, "Repent ye and believe the Gospel." Unless a person repents or changes their mind about their sins, they cannot truly believe. A heart hardened with sin cannot savingly believe because it is in rebellion against God. Remember the rich young ruler? He was hardened with sin and he did not know it. He thought he was right with God. The problem also today is that many people think they are right with God even if their life proves otherwise. Even if the word repent does not appear in the Gospel of John, it does not mean that repentance did not occur there!
Whenever Jesus preached the Gospel, He always demanded the impossible to show man that they cannot be saved on their own. The rich young ruler was demanded to sell everything and give it to the poor, as "one more thing he lacked to salvation". This showed that he could not keep the whole Law. The rich young ruler's obsession with his self-righteousness and his wealth caused him to reject Jesus. Many times a person could have gotten saved but because of the love for the world, they refuse to get saved.
The dirty trick of most modernistic preachers is to dilute the Gospel. They have the no repentance salvation. They omit repentance or merely change it to just a change of mind. My problem there is that, can a person repent of unbelief if they have not repented of sin? That is, repent or change of mind about one's sin? The Pharisees though they appeared to be morally upright loved their sin of hypocrisy, self-righteousness, arrogance and oppressing their pulpits. Then they have decided to create easy prayerism which actually dilutes the Gospel. What they ignore is that the ground must be ploughed properly before the seed can properly grow. The parable of the sower shows the need for the soil to be conditioned before the seeds can grow. A bedrock underneath prevents more roots from being deeper, thorns of worldiness choke the growth, the hard soil provides no root at all... these must be cut off before the Word of God can grow in the life of the believer.
They use the tax collector and the publican. But what they ignore is the publican's repentance. The publican could not see himself as anything but a sinner and those words, "God be merciful to me a sinner." was not a repeat after me evangelism. Rather, that was true, genuine repentance. When the thief on the cross asked Jesus to save him, he had repented of his mocking and saw that he did get what his deeds deserved. But there is a question there... is the person's heart softened to the Gospel or not? Many times we already see this, "Repeat after me..." and how many times has a person prayed a prayer to supposedly ask Jesus into their heart but their heart is hardened with rebellion? It's not enough to have the you are a sinner, Christ died for you and receive Him evangelism. The reason has to be this... people must be convinced that they are sinners. When there is still that bedrock in the soil, when there are thorns which are the concerns of the world, when there is the hard ground... the Word of God refuses to grow in these grounds. Man must be broken and convinced of their sins. A homosexual or a womanizer can both repeat after me, claim to be Christians but when their lives show that they have not changed one bit, it's automatically an alarm towards false conversion. Antinomianism is just as evil as Arminianism (the teaching of conditional security)... both rooted against the Bible.
How does a person get convinced they are sinners? It's easy... preaching with the Law to show people that they are not saved. Romans 3:19 declares that by the Law of God, everyone is declared sinners and unrighteous before God. It's not just enough to tell a person that they are sinners, they must be told why they are sinners. James 2:10-11 won't make sense unless the person has known of his or her sins. Galatians 3:24 declares that the Law was is the schoolmaster, that shows right from wrong. The Law is what shows people they have cut short of the glory of God. Psalm 19:7 declares that the Law is perfect for the converting of the soul. Showing the person their sins through the Law is the only way to effectively tell them they are sinners. Charles H. Spurgeon was certainly a pioneer to using the Law in showing people their sins. Today, we have Ray Comfort's Roman Road plus Ten Commandments evangelism. What I like about Ray Comfort's method of evangelism is that it not only tells people that they are sinners but why they are sinners.
Can a convert of easy prayerism be eternally secure? Most likely not due to the fact that eternal security is not just merely once saved, always saved. Today it's disgusting how eternal security or OSAS has been misquoted and misused. The Christian is saved not in their sins but from their sins. How many times do I need to utter it that a Christian is saved from sin, not in their sin? A Christian may still sin but such a person cannot sin without guilt, conviction, feeling bad because they are displeasing God when they fall down... such is the different case of the easy convert.
The proof they are not eternally secure or saved is this. Remember along with salvation comes the fruits of good works. Ephesians 2:10 and Titus 2:6-11 shows that the grace of God results to good works. Works done to please God is not a good work but a dead work. It may certainly be a good work to sinful man but not to God. Being indifferent to good works, living like the rest of the world, forsaking the faith... these happen to converts of easy prayerism. They attend the services today but in the end, they depart from the faith. 1 John 2:19 shows the impossibility of forsaking one's faith which shows that those who left, were never saved to start with. I have no reason to buy the garbage of people who claim to be Christians just because they prayed a prayer but are living a life that's contrary like self-righteousness, loving sin and a continued rebellion against God... or even converting to a false religion. I have no reason to believe that anybody who once attended a Bible believing church but has become a Satanist, Mormon, Roman Catholic, Muslim, etc. was ever saved to start with.
Churches NEED to dispose of the doctrine of easy prayerism.