BIBLE DOCTRINE III
LECTURE 17
SOTERIOLOGY – EASY BELIEVISM
The following is from David Cloud:
Campus Crusade’s “Four Spiritual Laws” illustrates [well the ‘easy believism’ approach to soulwinning]. It approaches the unsaved thusly: “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.”
Bill Bright, the author of the Four Spiritual Laws, admitted that he wrestled with his conscience when he changed his approach to a positive one, and even one of his own daughters at that time told him she felt he was on the wrong track. When Bright first wrote his gospel pamphlet in 1958, it began with man’s sin and separation from God, which is exactly where the Bible begins. But when the pamphlet was revised a few of years later, in the early ‘60s, Bright changed this so it would be more positive. He tells this in his own words as follows:
“Originally our first law emphasized man’s sin, but the Lord impressed me to emphasize God’s love. This change was made just before we went to press. I had done my final editing and had left Vonette and the girls to finish the typing. As I had been traveling a great deal and it was quite late, I had gone upstairs to bed. In fact, I was in bed just at the point of going to sleep, when suddenly there came clear as a bell to my conscious mind the fact that there was something wrong about starting the Four Laws on the negative note of man’s sinfulness. ... I felt that few people would say `No’ to Christ if they truly understood how much He loves them and how great is His concern for them.
“So I got out of bed, went to the head of the stairs and called down to Vonette and the girls to revise the presentation so that the first law would be, `God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life,’ instead of `You are a sinner and separated from God.’ ... Thus the Four Spiritual Laws started with the positive note of God’s love and plan.
“Some time later, one of the girls said to me, `I was so distressed over your change in the presentation that I wept that night. I was afraid that you were beginning to dilute the gospel and that you were no longer faithful to the Lord, because you placed such a strong emphasis on the love of God rather than on man’s sin. Now in retrospect, I realize of course that this is one of the greatest things that has ever happened to the Campus Crusade ministry’“ (Bill Bright, Come Help Change the World, Here’s Life Publishers, 1985, pp. 28,29).
Why the “negative” approach? Why not just focus on God’s love and on Heaven and let sin take care of itself? Because unsaved man does not understand nor appreciate the love of God until he understands the holiness and justice of God. When Paul preached the gospel in the book of Romans, he did not even mention the love of God until chapter 5. He spent almost three chapters describing God’s holiness and wrath toward sin and man’s wretched spiritual and moral condition before he got to God’s free gift of salvation in Christ. God uses the Law to create in man the understanding that he needs salvation. The Law is the schoolmaster to bring sinners to Christ (Gal. 3:24).
FALSE ASSURANCE
What could be the worst scenario ever imagined? Some horror show becoming reality in your life?...
How about thinking that you are a Christian…going to church every Sunday…praying…studying the Bible…and then, once you die, opening your eyes in Hell and forever without hope in eternal torment! Yet, this happens as a reality probably every minute to someone!
2 Co 13:5a Examine yourselves whether ye be in the faith ...
In churches like ours around this world today, there are church-going, hymn-singing Baptist teens and adults that are finally getting truly saved; oh, they thought they were saved before, but, finally came to the realization that they were not. What happened? Many, if not most, followed the neo-evangelical philosophy of ‘easy believism’… all you have to do is ‘love Jesus’, or the vague ‘receive Jesus’, or ‘ask Jesus into your heart’. No in-depth examination one on one with the lost sinner; no discussion of Hell; no discussion of repentance; no analyzing of what errors the lost sinner may be still clinging to. They ‘said some prayer’ and have now gotten their ‘fire insurance’…glory!
Reasons for False Assurance
- Quick-prayerism (thought that repeating the sinner’s prayer saved them)
- Not being real serious about it (easy going attitude)
- Addition errors (added being good, sacramental graces)
- Subtraction errors (no repentance, no blood, no eternal security, no Hell)
- Self-righteousness (I’m not that bad)
- Childhood profession (can’t remember; told that you were saved)
- Childhood pressures (got saved because of parental pressure, peer pressure, prestige pressure)
- Overzealous soulwinners (almost ‘forcing’ you into a decision)
- Experience based (based on some so-called spiritual encounter; healing; voice)
- “Went forward” ritualism (a customary practice after a sermon; what does it mean?!)
- Mental assent only (missed by 18 inches)
Are you a church-going Baptist? Might it be so that you are not actually saved from the flames of Hell?!
Was your salvation ‘experience’ reminiscint of one of these?...
Have you been giving yourself ‘false assurance’ all of these years?....
1 Jn 2:4 He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
There are oh so ‘many’
Charles Spurgeon once said that the devil is such a master of deception that he can make men dance upon the brink of Hell as though they were on the verge of Heaven. So it is. Jesus utters a most sobering statement in Matthew 7 about a large group of religious people who express a great deal of surprise at being judged and damned to Hell. Why? How could a person not know they were not saved? Notice the passage:
Matt 7:22-23 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, ye that work iniquity.
Who are these many?
This passage shows that this will indeed be a reality; there will be this ‘many’ saying exactly these things!
These ‘many’ are not your murderers, thieves, gang members, druggies, etc..
They will undoubtedly be folks that are professing Christians: they go to church, read their Bible, pray, talk the talk. Here, they even called Jesus Christ “Lord”, “prophesied in His name”, “cast out devils”, and even performed some miracles. Many of these ‘many’ will be those who were ‘led to the Lord’ through some ‘easy believism’ tactic involving praying the sinner’s prayer, ‘receiving Jesus’, ‘asking Jesus into one’s heart’, having some religious experience, ‘making a decision’, ‘going forward’, etc..
A ‘few’ would be more palatable; but the text says ‘many’. ‘Many’ means ‘numerous’, ‘a great multitude’ (Webster’s 1828). There will be millions who ‘prayed the prayer’, who ‘went to church’, who ‘professed Jesus as Lord’, but will be cast into Hell! There is probably at least one out there now hearing this message that would be one of these ‘many’…
A.W. Pink stated it well about what ‘easy believism’ produces: “The writer has met many people who profess to be Christians, but whose daily lives differ in nothing from thousands of non-professors all around them. They are rarely, if ever, found at the prayer-meeting, they have no Family Worship, they seldom read the Scriptures, they will not talk with you about the things of God, their walk is thoroughly worldly; and yet they are quite sure they are bound for heaven! Inquire into the ground of their confidence, and they will tell you that so many years ago they accepted Christ as their Savior, and "once saved always saved" is now their comfort. There are thousands of such people on earth today, who are nevertheless, on the Broad Road, that leadeth to destruction, treading it with a false peace in their hearts and a vain profession on their lips.”
Gal 1:6 I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: 7 Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. 8 But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. 9 As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.
We need to beware of this ‘other gospel’… the gospel of ‘easy believism’.
123- repeat after me. The main proponents of this error are ‘soulwinners’, ‘evangelists’, and ‘preachers’. Their desire for numbers has caused them to be oh so careless with the potential converts and water everything down to where a person just simply has to say a prayer and they are magically saved. They will go out ‘doorknocking’ for 2 hours and each group will have 5 or 10 folks saved! Others will carry the same gospel message but will come back with 0, or at best 1, saved. Why the huge difference? Is the other group incompetent? Is the former group just that much better at it?
In Independent Baptisdom it is interesting to note that (in my opinion)most of the churches that practice ‘aggressive confrontational soulwinning’ are guilty of this ‘easy believism’. They aggressively get them to agree with them and say a prayer in 5 minutes or less… and then on to the next house to ‘aggressively’ manipulate the unsuspecting lost soul into saying ‘the prayer’.
"Easy Believism" [involves] 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 –
James 2:19 Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.
(FundamentalistBaptistChurch.org)
Easy-Believism is related to such terms as “Decisionism" and "Quick Prayerism". 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. (FundamentalistBaptistChurch.org)
There are some ‘pro-easy-believism’ folks out there:
Acts 16:30 And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? 31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.
Isn’t it as simple as just believing on Jesus?... Yes and no. One must believe correctly on Jesus. One’s heart must be humble, contrite, sorrowful, repentant. One must know that if they were to die at that moment, they would go to an eternal Hell.
"Easy Believism" is a way of saying that salvation by faith in Jesus Christ alone is just too easy."It is too simple," they say.Those who use the phrase "easy believism" are saying that there must be more to salvation than just faith in Jesus Christ.” (Bibleline Ministries)
“Like it or Not, Salvation is Easy –
I simply don’t buy this criticism of “easy believism.” Why not? Because it is EASY to get saved. God only requires faith as a small grain of mustard seed for us to be saved.I’m tired of dead-beat Believers attacking dedicated Christians Who are getting the job done. Praise God for the soul-winners!!! “High-pressure, button-hole evangelism” some call it. So be it!!! Of course it’s high-pressure when a Bible-toting soul-winner walks up to a child of the devil and presents the Gospel. Of course your going to offend wicked sinners when you tell them they deserve to go burn in hell. I could introduce you to multitudes of Believers Who would thank God that some soul-winner cared enough and was willing to offend them one day.” (Jesus-is-savior.com)
“ ‘Our’ converts are worth nothing. If they are converted by man they can be unconverted by man.” C.H. Spurgeon
“The opposite of ‘easy believism’ would be (the impossible) ‘Lordship Salvation’ heresy.
John F. MacArthur Jr. and his "Lordship Salvationists" teach that in order for a person to be saved he or she must make Jesus Christ absolute Lord of every area of his life before being saved.” (Jesus-is-savior.com)
Super Salesmen
The doctrine of ‘easy believism’ has essentially overtaken our ranks in the Independent, Fundamental Baptist Churches. Thousands are being led down a primrose path but remain lost without Christ because so many preachers have fallen for the shallow, lifeless approach to seeking "conversions" without any Bible foundation.
We are overcome by the super salesmen "soulwinners" who pull professions out of lost souls with a promise that they will go to heaven on the basis of a little prayer and a profession of faith in Jesus. They follow the Hyles, Hutson, Gray, Vinyard, statement of faith and never know the reality of passing from death to life. The followers of these preachers of corruption are promising lost souls liberty where there is no liberty. (Lostinchurch.com)
‘Easy believism’ is the meaningless professions gathered by the "Super-Salesman" soul winners that lead poor sinners down the road to a hollow, worthless, repeat after me, statements which fools the sinner into thinking he or she is saved. Most of the time they cannot be found after their "profession" and never follow the Lord in baptism or church attendance.
I have heard the reasoning of some that, "Well, maybe all of them that make professions do not really get saved but we can rejoice that some do, and at least they will go to heaven." At first glance this kind of reasoning may sound good, but to the rest, who are led into thinking they are saved and end up in hell by being given a false hope by the "Salesman" will have nothing to rejoice over. (Lostinchurch.com)
2 Cor 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
Side-step the negatives
There is a conscious (or even subconscious) effort often made to side step the negatives:
a) Typically a quick statement is made on ‘being a sinner’: “Now the Bible says that you are a sinner (quote Rom 3:23);
do you believe you are a sinner?” “Yes.” “Great. Let’s go to the next point.”
b) Next, Hell is glossed over as fast as possible (some don’t even mention it; especially those outside of independent
Baptist ranks): “The Bible says that all sinners will go to Hell (Rom 6:23, etc.); do you believe the Bible here?”
“Sure.” “Great; and now, the good news.”
c) And then, the smooth talking soulwinner spends a few minutes talking about what Jesus Christ did for them on the
cross (they often will spend a lot more time on this point, for it is a very positive, happy point).
d) Lastly, they will ask the person (now, having spent about 3-5 minutes talking to them) if they want to be saved. And,
even if the poor soul doesn’t respond with an ‘afirmative’, they will say: “why don’t you follow me in this prayer?
God is ready to save you now…just, simply, repeat after me – ‘Dear Jesus’…..”
“Beware, beloved, of all dry-eyed reformations.” C.H. Spurgeon
The huge errors that are typically made in these ‘easy believism’ encounters on doorsteps every Saturday morning across America are the following:
1) Not carefully asking questions to see if the lost soul truly understands what you have told them.
2) Not focusing on the horrible truth that that lost soul is indeed a wicked, wicked sinner on their way to Hell. They
need to get lost before they can get saved…
3) Repentance is often totally avoided; if it is brought up, it usually is mentioned simply as ‘being sorry for your sins’
4) Unless the lost soul was on the brink of getting saved when the soulwinner first started talking to them, any encounter
lasting less than 10 minutes is probably all in vain.