Posted on 09/28/2006 10:06:43 AM PDT by cowboyfan88
Many unclear and unscriptural terms are being used today in presenting the gospel. God's Word says, "Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech (II Corinthians 3:12)."
I believe our effectiveness in presenting the gospel is directly related to our clarity. If we are not clear, then how will anyone understand what we are saying? The Scripture says, "For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle? So likewise you, except you utter by the tongue words easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken? For you speak into the air (I Corinthians 14:8-9)." There are many uncertain and unclear sounds being spoken today in the name of Jesus Christ, and the result of ten times is confusion. We need to recognize that "God is not the author of confusion, but of peace (I Corinthians 14:33)." Satan therefore is getting the victory and Satan is the author of confusion.
One such term or expression is "Ask Jesus into your heart". The same expression is sometimes phrased, "Ask Jesus into your life", or "Invite Jesus into your heart". Nowhere does one find anything like this in the Bible. The Bible says, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved (Acts 16:31)." Why don't we use Bible terms? Why not drop the unclear ones?
I was raised on the phrase "Ask Jesus into your heart", and yet I was never saved. Every Sunday morning in the church that I was raised we sang a song called "Come Into My Heart, Lord Jesus". The words were as follows: "Into my heart, into my heart; Come into my heart, Lord Jesus." We sang this song every Sunday morning and were given the opportunity to "Invite Jesus into our hearts". Well, I sincerely invited Jesus into my heart each Sunday and yet I was not saved.
My theology was totally based on the words of the song. I would pray something like, "Lord, please come into my heart. If you came into my heart before and left, please come into my heart again. If you never came into my heart before, please come in for the first time. If you came in and left, please come back and stay." The song taught that Christ could come and go at will. I was confused and frustrated.
I invited Jesus into my heart at least 600 times, yet I was not saved because that message is not the gospel. I hardly missed a Sunday at church from the time I was six years old until I was eighteen years of age. To be fair, let's say that from the time I was six years old until I was eighteen on at least 50 Sundays a year I invited Jesus into my heart. Eighteen minus six is twelve years times fifty times a year equals 600 (six hundred) times that I invited Jesus into my heart. On at least 600 occasions I invited Jesus into my heart.
Not until after I had turned eighteen years of age did I understand that I had to believe the gospel message of the death, burial and resurrection in order to be saved. "For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek (Romans 1:16)." I had never understood John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
In other words, "asking" is not what saves. A person must "believe", or trust that Jesus paid for his sins on the cross, was buried and rose again from the dead. In fact, a person can ask to be saved and not be saved.
Both thieves on the cross "asked" to be saved and yet only one was saved. The dying thief that was saved was saved because he trusted Christ as the one who was dying in his place on the cross and would rise again from the dead and head up a kingdom. No one has ever been saved any differently than that dying thief who simply trusted Christ as his Saviour.
"Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, you that work iniquity (Matthew 7:22,23)." Many who were counting on being saved are lost according to the above verses. How tragic! They were lost because they were trusting in works and not trusting in Jesus Christ as their only hope for heaven. What about Revelation 3:20? "Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me." First of all, the verse (Revelation 3:20) is not talking about salvation but about having supper or fellowship with the Lord. Second, the door mentioned is the door (read the context of Revelation 3:14-22) of the church of Laodicea. This is not a reference to the door of the heart or the door of your life, etc.
We are often told (and wrongly so) that we have a door to our heart. We hear that the door has a latch on the inside but not on the outside. Christ is knocking on the outside but can not come in unless we unlatch the lock from the inside of the heart. The Scripture teaches no such thing. This is untrue. This is nonsense.
It is sad because children are very literal in their approach to things. They are left confused. They see a contradiction between what they learn in biology and what they hear in church. In biology they learn nothing about a door or latches on the heart.
The devil will do all he can to confuse the lost (II Corinthians 4:4). He will often use our unclear terminology to accomplish this. Why not go back to the Bible terms? "For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son that WHOSOEVER BELIEVETH in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3:16).
Some will say, "I was saved by asking Jesus into my heart". Actually, they were saved in spite of asking Jesus into their heart, because they trusted Christ to save them. It is either that or they are not saved. In my case, I asked Jesus into my heart on at least 600 different occasions and was not saved, because I had never understood the gospel and had never TRUSTED Christ as my Saviour. I am pleading for the many who are confused and unsaved but thinking they are saved because of the use of this unscriptural expression: "Invite Jesus into your heart". Let's use "great plainness of speech". Let's go back to the Bible.
This is not so much a comment on the post, but the Christian life needs to be more than simply holding correct doctrine in our heads and using the phrases used in the Bible. There needs to be a genuine display of the spiritual reality of Jesus Christ within the life of the individual Christian, and within the life of the church. Genuine Christianity is sadly missing in the American church. We've opted for "doctrine," or programs, or "seeker-friendliness," or being "purpose-driven," or a combination of all. Where is the person who can say, "My life is hidden in Christ. It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me"?
I agree, the Gospel is about the death, burial and ressurection....as stated in Romans 6
1What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
5If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. 6For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with,that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.
8Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
Great post and sentiments. I've often felt the exact same way.
Over the years, however, I began to notice that my behavior had changed towards other, my friends, my church brethren, and my community of Christians. I began to question THEIR faith and their DEVOTION based on what I saw in their actions and/or attitudes. I felt that my feelings of how to live should be the yardstick that others should be measured.
After a passage of time, God opened my heart again and showed me that it's NOT my place to judge other people around me, but He is the master who accepts or rejects the hearts of other. He led me back to where I work for Him through Him and I pray that others will be led to the same work.
The Community cannot separate itself based on how we perceive other denominations, religions, or even our church family members. We are all workers of God's will when we accept Him. He will be the judge and the jury on that final day. It's not by good works by which we are saved, but through the grace of God.
I pray each and every day to have God's grace in all my actions, humanity, and thoughts. I also pray that He extends that grace to all I know and love.
I hope that I didn't misread your post in that since you have a strict interpretation of what salvation is, that you do not make the same mistakes I did.
May God's blessings and grace alway surround you!
I gather by your post that you seem to be a rather sincere Evangelical Christian. I don't know if you read the magazine "Christianity Today". Even though I am not an Evangelical Christian, I find many articles in it very interesting. Recently, one article caught my eye--in the current issue. There seems to be a whole upsurge in Calvinistic theology sweeping through some sectors of the Evangelical world. Not that I have any particular sympathy for Calvinist theology, but one of the reasons for this phenomenon is that many Evangelicals are searching for a faith with a more substantitive theology. Many are looking for something more intellectually based than what they are finding in their congregations. If you come across the article I think you will find it a good read. It doesn't mean you have to go the route of Calvinist theology to have a decent intellectual basis for your faith.
Being raised a Roman Catholic, which at one time prided itself on its intellectual heritage (I don't want to segue into a diatribe on the sin of pride) I feel much of that has been lost as far as the people sitting in the pews. The emphasis in RC churches is primarily on social justice. It kind of goes like this; "Well, if I volunteer once a week at a soup kitchen, I am doing something good for someone else, I FEEL GOOD ABOUT MYSELF (the self esteem angle is always there--watch out for the warm & fuzzy syndrome)----therefore I must be a good person."
I am not saying folks shouldn't be concerned about social justice, and I belive more folks should get involved in soup kitchens and shelters etc. But there is no intellectual substance for their faith. For all the information available in this day and age, I really believe there is an anti-intellectualism out there--even among the college educated middle class. It's not so much a liberal-conservative thing--it's an all across phenomena and it definitely affects religion & faith as well.
Well said. We're seeing this more & more lately. A lot of things are being called "Christian" these days. And I think there are a lot of people who think they're a Christian because they recited a prayer or go to church, know 1,000 memory verses, etc. Ray Comfort has an excellent message called "True & False Conversion". I think he really hits the mark.
http://www.livingwaters.com/start.shtml
Here is an interesting quiz from their site: Am I Going To Heaven?
Good afternoon, FRiends.
A (slightly) tongue-in-cheek question:
Can I believe on the Lord Jesus Christ AND ask him into my heart?
You know, kind of like a "salvation hedge fund." :-)
Wherefore, my dearly beloved, (as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but much more now in my absence,) with fear and trembling work out your salvation
But I chastise my body, and bring it into subjection: lest perhaps, when I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway
Now all these things happened to them in figure: and they are written for our correction, upon whom the ends of the world are come. 12 Wherefore he that thinketh himself to stand, let him take heed lest he fall
A faithful saying: for if we be dead with him, we shall live also with him. 12 If we suffer, we shall also reign with him. If we deny him, he will also deny us. 13 If we believe not, he continueth faithful, he can not deny himself.
For it is impossible for those who were once illuminated, have tasted also the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, 5 Have moreover tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come6 And are fallen away: to be renewed again to penance, crucifying again to themselves the Son of God, and making him a mockery
For if we sin wilfully after having the knowledge of the truth, there is now left no sacrifice for sins, 27 But a certain dreadful expectation of judgment, and the rage of a fire which shall consume the adversaries
I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever; and the bread that I will give, is my flesh, for the life of the world. The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying: How can this man give us his flesh to eat? Then Jesus said to them: Amen, amen I say unto you: Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath everlasting life: and I will raise him up in the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed: and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, abideth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father; so he that eateth me, the same also shall live by me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead. He that eateth this bread, shall live for ever.
Everybody's a Christian now a days...And how does one know he/she's a Christian???
I'm convinced there has to be a defining moment in a Christians life...If you're a Christian, one day, or one night, you asked Jesus to be your savior...
And unless you write down the date, you may over time forget the date, but you won't forget the event...I didn't write it down...I remember it was on a Thursday in June of 1983 that I asked the Lord to save me...I was driving my car and can pick the spot on the road give or take a quarter mile...But the date of the day escapes me...
When you get that personal with the Lord, it'll leave a mark on your memory, in my opinion...
btt
Excellent!
***Jesus is the way. If you follow him and walk in the light as he is in the light there is know need to ask he will be in your heart.***
If you really mean it then you should sell all you have, give it to the poor, and THEN follow Jesus.
After all, if you want to do something to gain eternal life, this is what he said to do.
I passed.
"It is sad because children are very literal in their approach to things. They are left confused. They see a contradiction between what they learn in biology and what they hear in church. In biology they learn nothing about a door or latches on the heart."
Great! That's two of us...
Seriously, I had to read it a couple of times to make sure I really read what I thought I read.
Jesus told that to the rich young ruler, who was still under the Old Law. There is a new covenant in place, and with the new covenant there are new obligations for one who wishes to become a child of God.
***There is a new covenant in place, and with the new covenant there are new obligations for one who wishes to become a child of God.***
Mat 11:12 And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.
Mat 11:13 For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John.
Luk 16:16 The law and the prophets [were] until John: since that time the KINGDOM OF GOD is preached, and every man presseth into it.
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