Posted on 04/16/2010 10:29:19 AM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
"Easy Believism" is the idea that having a mental belief in Jesus Christ is the same as obtaining salvation. In other words, this false doctrine teaches that people only need to believe correct doctrines about Jesus and salvation, rather than to actually trust Jesus Christ Himself for salvation. The Bible refutes this heretical false teaching, noting that the "devils also believe and tremble". (James 2:19)
Easy-Believism is related to such terms as “Decisionism", "Quick Prayerism" and “Salvation by Works”. The heresy of Easy Believism has been popularized today by such men as Billy Graham, the late Jerry Falwell and Rick Warren.
Some so-called "evangelists" like to propagate this heresy, since it is easier to get people to believe some basic Bible facts, than it is to get them to actually trust the real Jesus for their salvation.
Such evangelists can then "count lots of numbers" of those sheep (actually goats) who have assented to certain mental beliefs. This helps such "hirelings" to "prop up" "the numbers" of people who were "saved" during their evangelistic meetings.
Many pastors also like to promote this heresy as well, since it helps them to avoid having to think about the need to actually get their people converted. With Easy-Believism, such preachers only need to get their people to give their mental assent to a few Bible facts.
Very often, pastors who promote this false doctrine are lost men themselves, which helps to explain why they would be willing to promote such a soul-damming false doctrine.
Of course, it is both right and indeed quite easy to trust Jesus. Nevertheless, only having a mental belief in Jesus is not the same as actually trusting Jesus. When men and women "believe and tremble" but do not actually trust Jesus Christ Himself alone for their salvation, they remain lost in their sins.
They remain Satan's "goats" instead of Christ's "sheep", on the road to Hell and not on the way to Heaven. Too many people have had such a mental belief in certain Bible facts, but have never actually trusted Jesus. Jesus is up in Heaven right now desiring that men and women should trust Him for their salvation.
The wide-spread teaching of this false doctrine of "Easy Believism" is a major cause for a great deal of the "lukewarmness" we see in so many churches during this current End-time Laodicean Church Age.
Most church members in today's typical churches have only had a mental belief in Jesus and/or Bible doctrines. As a result, they are still lost men and women on the road down to an eternity in Hell. Lost men and women do not love Jesus. Churches filled with such "goats" are therefore generally "lukewarm" and not "hot" for Jesus and the Bible.
“Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able. ~ Luke 13:24
The Greek word for "strive" is agonizomai, implying an agonizing, intense, purposeful struggle. It is the same word used in 1 Corinthians 9:25 of an athlete battling to win a victory. It is also used in Colossians 4:12 of Epaphras laboring fervently, and in 1 Timothy 6:12, of the Christian who "fights the good fight of faith." It is a struggle, a battle, an extreme effort. There is almost a violence implied. And appropriately so, because entering the kingdom is like going into warfare. . . . How does this fit the modern notion that salvation is easy? . . . .
Salvation is not easy. "For the gate is small . . . and few are those who find it" (Matthew 7:14). That implies that unless a person is looking diligently for the gate, he is not likely to know that it is there. . . .
The message of Jesus cannot be made to accommodate any kind of cheap grace or easy-believism. The kingdom is not for people who want Jesus without any change in their living. It is only for those who seek it with all their hearts, those who agonize to enter. Many who approach the gate turn away upon finding out the cost.
(John F. MacArthur, Jr., The Gospel According to Jesus, 182-83)
This one has always confused me, especially when people quote John 3:16. “Believing” actually means to “obey”. Heck, even Satan believes in Jesus.
It’s another name for “once saved always saved.” I.e., no such thing as apostasy, the idea that someone can totally repudiate Christ but still have their salvation ticket punched forever because of something they believed years ago and no longer do. The biggest threat to Christianity today.
Gee thanks for the info. I had no idea that Billy Graham was just a tool.
It has nothing to do with once saved always saved (ie. perserverance of the the saints). It face cheap grace is as far from that doctrine as one can get.
The two doctrines are twin sisters. The OSAS doctrine of “faith” is mental; no need for transformation, that’s extra. And no need to continue in faith, either. See how easy?
What a rancid little screed.
From http://www.liberalslikechrist.org/about/cheapgrace.html
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Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a very exceptional person, a Christian clergyman who challenged Hitler publicly (even returning to Germany after having escaped for a time first to England and then to America). The Nazis arrested him in 1943 and Himmler himself ordered him hanged in April, 1945, just a few weeks before the allied liberation of his concentration camp. Thank God, however, his insightful book, “The Cost of Discipleship”, survived the Nazi book burnings. I believe that his idea of “cheap grace” explains not only the hollowness of German Christianity, but that of American Christianity as well.
Why has Christianity in America’s Bible Belt been so unable and/or unwilling to recognize the evils of slavery, segregation, black terrorism and white supremacy, if not because of its embrace of the very same concept of “Cheap Grace” ?
How could the unholy alliance of the wealthiest and most bigotted people in America, those who almost worship guns for personal use and can’t spend enough of our nation’s resources on weapons of mass destruction, those who despise the least fortunate among us, and the political party which best represents all those sentiments, get away with calling themselves a “Christian Coalition”, if not because of the prevalence of the notion of “cheap grace” here in America?
We may never know where the Nazis disposed of Bonhoeffer’s body, but this web page hereby erects a shrine to Bonhoeffer’s tremendous contribution to Christianity, the exposure of the heresy of “Cheap Grace”. See Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship (Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc., 866 Third Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10022, 1963 and reprinted in paper back by Simon Schuster in 1995. There was a video produced about him and featured on public television in 2001. If anyone knows of its availability anywhere, please notify us.
Cheap Grace
“Cheap grace means grace sold on the market like a cheapjack’s wares. The sacraments, the forgiveness of sin, and the consolations of religion are thrown away at cut-rate prices. Grace is represented as the Church’s inexhaustible treasury, from which she showers blessings with generous hands, without asking questions or fixing limits. Grace without price; grace without cost! And the essence of grace, we suppose, is that the account has been paid in advance; and, because it has been paid, everything can be had for nothing. Since the cost was infinite, the possibilities of using and spending it are infinite. What would grace be, if it were not cheap?
. . . In such a Church the world finds a cheap covering for its sins; no contrition is required, still less any real desire to be delivered from sin. . .
Cheap grace means the justification of sin without the justification of the sinner. Grace alone does everything, they say, and so everything can remain as it was before. { p. 42}
Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, (it is) baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.” { p. 43-4}
(True) Costly Grace
“Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will gladly go and sell all that he has. It is the pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods. It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake of one will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble; it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him.
Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock.
Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: “ye were bought at a price,” and and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. . .
. . . Grace is costly because it compels a man to submit to the yoke of Christ and follow him; it is grace because Jesus says: “my yoke is easy and my burden light.” { p. 45}
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I followed your link to this link: http://www.fundamentalistbaptistchurch.org/whatwebelieve.htm
I read over the beliefs of this group.
Too liberal for me.
Highly suspicious.
This guy’s website is excellent:
http://www.behindthebadge.net/osas/index.html
I disagree completely. OSAS is the outgrowth of predestination where one cannot ‘decide” to come to faith, rather, one is elected by God himself. Since God has predestined one for salvation, that is why they cannot lose it. It is basic reformed theology 101 as taught by Luther in “Bondage of the Will” and Calvin in his Christian Institutes. It is the total opposite of decisionism.
There is a major difference between salvation and discipleship.
You have merged them, and as a result reflect the teachings of the anti-Christ.
If what you say is true, then salvation is not possible for anyone.... because there is nobody who is worthy in God’s eyes except Jesus Himself.
It is simply not possible for anyone to “completely trust in Jesus” for salvation under your use of the word “trust”, because works would be required to illustrate that.
NO. Sorry, I should point out: just because the preaching of certain pastors has been imperfect, does not mean that they themselves were unsaved...In fact, I've been told by people of older generations that Billy Graham's preaching only got watered down toward the end of his ministry--during his later years of preaching. A lot of people DID come to true saving faith even under Graham I am sure. That being said, "Easy Believism" has unfortunately become a consequence of much of their methods of preaching and styles of evangelism propagated by many modern preachers.
I understand why you might be getting that, and so we have to be careful to make a strong distinction between "work" and "true repentance." Jesus said "REPENT and BELIEVE" not just "Agree to these three historical facts about me on this paper."
The strongest OSAS churches I have been in were also the ones that preached an easy, decision-based gospel. Part of the appeal was that all you have to do is decide to “get saved,” raise your hand, come forward, or whatever, and you’re set forever, no matter what you later do or believe. Anything to make it easy to start and easy to continue.
hmm...Well I don’t consider myself a “fundamentalist Baptist” but a Presbyterian in the Reformed tradition. I don’t agree with their section on “Calvinism” because I think they are mistaking it with “hyper-Calvinism.”
That being said, I read through their core doctrines, particularly regarding the Gospel. I don’t really see anything false or unbiblical?
The two ideas can be distinguished, but I have seen the two combined in the same person many times.
Then those Churchs had a flawed understanding of the nature of OSAS and the theological basis for it. It is a reformed doctrine that can only be justified in a reformed context. Decisionism cannot coexist with reformed theology and OSAS can only be justified within a reformed context. Don’t attend those Churches anymore, or at least don’t subscribe to their doctrine.
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