EASY PRAYERISM

THE EXPECTATION IS DIFFERENT

"Easy prayerism" seems to expect only some sort of interest and willingness to pray a prayer on the part of the sinner. But interest isn't salvation, and neither is the willingness to pray a prayer. Bible evangelism, on the other hand, looks for and expects conviction of sin which has been wrought by God. Here we want to quote from "Seven Certain Signs: A Christian Worker's Guide to the Marks of True Conversion"

"The first mark of grace in the passage is the experience of conviction of sin which leads to true repentance (Acts 2:37-39). Baptism could only be performed when the people had shown that they were pricked in their heart, thus showing real shame and concern for sinful lives, and genuine longing for forgiveness.

"In discerning a person's spiritual progress we therefore look for the broken and contrite heart that the Lord will not despise (Psalm 51). If we feel that there has been only a cool, intellectual acknowledgment of sin (or a momentary squall of emotion) coupled with a very formal or limited repentance, we will have to be very doubtful that conversion has really occurred.

"`Testimonies' which make no mention of repentance are suspect in the extreme. All those pop-star conversion stories (often given in glib, joking language) which make conversion sound so painless, lack this essential mark of grace. We hear people say that they `could not cope' with life, and so they asked Jesus to take over, with the result that He now stands by them (even on stage), and makes them much more successful in their (unchanged worldly) lives!

"The Lord Jesus Christ must be a Saviour from sin before He is anything else to a person. The idea that a person can `receive Christ' in a moment merely because he feels mildly hollow inside is a tragic delusion and bears no resemblance to the conversion of the Bible. We must look for some sign that a person has come under real conviction and has bowed in sorrow before God with a deep and earnest desire to receive pardon and new life.

"We do not expect all seekers to feel quite the depths of shame and soul- stirring grief that we read about in some Christian biographies or in revival histories, but ... they must exhibit in some way the broken, contrite heart that trusts the Christ of Calvary alone for pardon."

This is important, and we believe it hits the nail on the head in regard to something which is lacking in much of today's evangelism. I have been soul winning with many men who have encouraged people to pray a sinner's prayer when it was obvious, to me at least, that the people were not under any conviction of sin. I do not find it surprising when these people will not even so much as visit the church.

Years ago, my wife and I were responsible to follow up on the ladies' soul winning visitation program in a certain church. This program was patterned after a popular plan which focuses on "getting decisions," and involves clever ways of manipulating people to say a salvation prayer. It was not uncommon for the ladies to return from these visitations and rejoice that three, or five, or ten "souls were saved." The problem is that these "saved souls" usually had no interest whatsoever in coming to church, in baptism, or anything spiritual.

Why is it so often a real tug of war to get people discipled who have prayed a sinner's prayer? Because so often they are not saved; they have never been under the conviction of the Holy Spirit; they do not yet even understand the Gospel; they have never repented of their sin. Too often they should never have been encouraged to pray a prayer. The personal worker looked for the wrong thing. He looked for some interest on the part of the sinner, when he should have looked for something Holy Spirit-wrought, something real and deep.

And I am not talking about putting people through some sort of long, drawn out agony over their sin. When it is evident that God is convicting them, it is time to point them to Christ as their sin-bearer. They don't necessarily have to go through days or weeks of mourning. They don't have to follow someone's formula for properly mourning over their sin. People are different and they are going to react differently to Holy Spirit conviction. But they DO have to be convinced of their wickedness before God, and they DO have to be clearly repentant. Anything short of this is not Bible salvation.

The old-timers had what they called the "anxious room" and the "mourners bench." The anxious room was a place where the unsaved could go when they were under conviction. That is why they used the term "anxious." Folk were clearly anxious about their sin and their lost condition. And the mourner's bench was something similar. The term "mourner" referred to the sinner under Holy Spirit conviction for sin. Where is the anxious room today? Where is the mourner's bench? Most churches don't have anything like this anymore, because a new positive methodology has taken over and anxiety and mourning over sin is not something we expect anymore.

We fundamentalists criticize the shallow Hollywood and sports star conversions which so obviously lack Holy Spirit conviction and repentance. But I am afraid we are promoting the same type of problem when we say people are saved who have done nothing more than say a prayer and who do not evidence true repentance. It is often the same type of shallow, positive approach that is used, and I believe this is one of the culprit's in the matter.

A weak gospel produces weak converts. Is it any wonder that the Four Spiritual Laws produces converts who do not see anything wrong with rock music, or with Hollywood's cesspool productions, or with dancing and drinking, or with mixing together with Romanism and Modernism and Pentecostalism? The new-evangelical crowd sees little or nothing wrong with any of this wickedness. It should be no wonder. A weak gospel produces weak converts.

But what about the gospel popularly presented in fundamental circles? What kind of converts are we producing in our fundamental churches today? Yes, praise God, there are some wonderful saints of God in our midst. But there is also a crop of strangely weak converts in fundamental churches. Converts who have no zeal for truth. Converts which have no real love for the Bible. Converts which don't care enough about the church even to attend Sunday evening or mid-week services. Converts who never try to win anyone else to Christ. Converts who have no discernment between truth and error, who will watch some Pentecostal preacher on the television and be impressed that he must be a real man of God, and can't understand why the pastor thinks the Pentecostals are so wrong. Converts which seem as at home in the world as lost people are. They watch the same wicked Hollywood movies and have the same vile television programs on every evening; they laugh at the same dirty comedians; they go naked at the same beaches; they listen to the same worldly music.

I'm not trying to be unkind. I'm trying to point out a tremendous problem. I think a lot of these "converts" are not saved. Could it not be that this harvest of weak converts is being produced by a weak gospel approach, an approach which we have unconsciously adopted from the worldly ecumenical Christian crowd? Too often we are trying to disciple people who have never experienced true conviction or repentance or regeneration.

I realize that some of the biggest-name fundamental leaders in recent decades have popularized this type of thing, emphasizing numbers of decisions or prayers rather than repentance and Bible salvation. But we should not follow them in this. They are leading us away from the Bible.

We must look for one thing in our Gospel work, and that is true Holy Spirit-wrought conviction and repentance.

THE COUNTING IS DIFFERENT

"Easy prayerism" counts prayers, decisions, professions. Bible evangelism counts genuine heart-felt, Holy Spirit-wrought faith and repentance which results in a new way of life. Bible evangelism counts genuine Bible regeneration, and is not interested in anything less.

Contrast many of the reports we hear of "souls saved." A missionary to an eastern European country wrote recently and said that 250 were saved during the past year. Yet only eleven were baptized, and there were only ten or so in their church services. Does it look like 250 people really repented of their sins and received Christ as their Savior? No, it looks like perhaps eleven did. The others were the result of "easy prayerism." Why not say that 250 prayed a prayer, or 250 made some sort of decision, or 250 showed an interest in the Gospel. That is the truth of the matter. Why confuse things and say 250 were saved, when there is no Bible evidence whatsoever that they were? Why say that the angels in heaven are rejoicing over these salvations, when there is no evidence that salvation has happened? I don't quite understand the motivation in all of this.

We don't believe it is wrong to count converts. The Bible counts converts in several cases. But this is just the point. It only counts true converts, not people who prayed a prayer or something of this sort. It counts those who were clearly born again. Those saved on the day of Pentecost were counted. But we have already noted how that they made clear evidence of repentance.

This is what we see in Acts 17. The Bible tells us about those who responded to Paul's message. There were three groups. Some mocked. Others put the matter off, saying, "We will hear thee again of this matter." But a third group is mentioned. "Howbeit certain men clave unto him, and believed..." (v. 34).

The Bible focuses on those who showed genuine evidence of having been born again. They believed. That was what brought them salvation. But their believing resulted in cleaving! They clave to Paul. They stayed right with him. When he left the meeting, they went with him. They went home with him; they went to church with him. They joined themselves with the Christians! Their believing resulted in a dramatic change. It always does. Some evidence change more rapidly and dramatically than others, but there is always a clear change.

This is real Bible salvation. When you see people being baptized and cleaving to the house of God, you have good cause to rejoice and to say that some folk have gotten saved, that the bells of heaven are ringing. On the other hand, when people pray salvation prayers and make public "decisions" for Christ, but aren't interested in getting baptized, and coming faithfully to church, and learning the Word of God, and being with God's people--they didn't get saved and we should not count them as such.

To get people to pray to "receive Christ" when they are not under conviction of sin and are not ready to repent, and to say that people are saved when they do not have evidence of Bible salvation is to confuse the gospel in a most fantastic way. It fills the land with people who are almost inoculated to the gospel. When you try to deal with these people about their need for Christ, they tell you they "have already done that." Done what? Well, they have prayed that prayer, they have gone through those motions. And just where did they get the idea that salvation is merely a prayer without a life change? They got that idea from those who are promoting this type of thing. The fruit, my friends, has been fearful. The charismatics are tremendously guilty of this, but, as we have noted, so are great numbers of fundamental Baptists.

I preach in a county jail and it is common for those who come to the Bible studies to claim that they are saved. When we ask them why they think they are saved, they often point to a time when they prayed a sinner's prayer, or walked the aisle of a church, or were baptized. When we ask them if their life changed after they prayed the sinner's prayer, they usually acknowledge that it did not. They associate salvation with some sort of religious ritual, such as praying a prayer or walking an aisle. They usually show very little or no remorse over their sin and even over the crimes that put them into jail. They don't seem to understand what a wretched testimony and how tremendously incongruous it is for a Christian to be in jail. All too often they are full of the same self-justification and deception that the unsaved display in prison.

It is so rare that they point to a real relationship with Jesus Christ. So rarely do they say, "I know I am saved because I remember when I came to Jesus Christ and received Him as my Lord and Savior; I walked and talked with Him; I served Him; what a joy that was; but then I was foolish and backslid." When they do give a testimony like this, we can have good reason to think they might indeed be saved, particularly if they show genuine remorse over their sin and over their backsliding against God.

We need to do everything in our power to make people understand that an unrepentant prayer is not salvation, any more than any other religious ritual is salvation. These people don't need to be counseled to grow in Christ, they need to be counseled to be saved! If a repentant sinner under conviction of sin prays to be saved, Christ will receive Him and he will be saved--and his life will change. But if an unrepentant person prays, nothing spiritual, nothing eternal whatsoever happens. Let's not be guilty of causing any sinner to think differently.

[The previous is part two of a two-part article entitled EASY PRAYERISM OR BIBLE EVANGELISM by David W. Cloud, Way of Life Literature, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org]

Click here for Part 1 of Easy Prayerism or Bible Evangelism.