Unfortunately many evangelicals are suckers for conmen. With a Bible in their hand, and heavy reliance on out of context scripture, with the name of Jesus continually invoked you can rake in serious bucks.
And reassure your congregation that "works" don't count....all you have to do is mouth "I accept Jesus as my savior" and you're assured of your personal salvation.
There are a number on TV. When I see them, I change the channel. I do not send money to just anyone and that seems to be the only thing they are doing. I do not understand why people watch them.
You said -- "Unfortunately many evangelicals are suckers for conmen. With a Bible in their hand, and heavy reliance on out of context scripture, with the name of Jesus continually invoked you can rake in serious bucks."
The problem here, with many in the Evangelical world, is that they take the "terminology" that someone uses, at face value, without checking on what they *really* mean. So, someone can come in and use the right words (and they are the right words, all right) -- but either the meanings have been changed or they really don't apply them the way the Bible says.
So, they actually trust that these people (and others) are not lying to them. But, they are lying, in many instances. And even so, sometimes when they aren't lying, some of these leaders fall into sin.
And then you said -- "And reassure your congregation that "works" don't count....all you have to do is mouth "I accept Jesus as my savior" and you're assured of your personal salvation."
Well, "works" don't count, in terms of effecting or securing your salvation. That's pretty clear. I've already quoted the following verses several times -- but it bears repeating here, too.
In Romans 10:9-10 -- it says
9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
That's it, for salvation. That's not "it" for all that the Bible has to say about living the Christian life, but that's "it" for salvation.
There's a lot of "works" that one can do -- after -- becoming a Christian, and that's good. It's just that those things *after* becoming a Christian have nothing to be with it happening in the first place. These things are an *outgrowth* of becoming a Christian and *not* a "means" to becoming a Christian in the first place.
But becoming a Christian *is* as simple as those two verses -- and *no works* involved.
Regards,
Star Traveler
Works count, but are not either necessary, nor sufficient, for salvation