There are millions of people attending churches every week who believe they are Christians and that God is waiting to receive them into His eternity. They believe they are saved because their Pastors and the denominations they serve have created and presented a lukewarm gospel of Jesus that omits the clear requirements of deep repentance and acceptance of the Lordship of Christ. These Pastors and teachers have taken the absolute requirement for brokenness out of the Gospel of Christ. This theological cancer is present in the great liberal denominations of today but has also crept into churches that drape themselves with an evangelical cloak.
I once attended a Christmas pageant at a large, Bible believing Church. It was a production that would have rivaled anything you might see on Broadway. It was beautiful and entertaining with over a thousand people performing. At the end of the pageant, the Pastor gave a brief message about salvation, and asked anyone who wanted to accept Christ to pray along with him in some version of the ‘sinners prayer’. Then, anyone who actually prayed the prayer was asked to look in their printed program and find a card where they could place a checkmark in a box indicating their acceptance of Christ. The cards were collected, the checkmarks were counted and the Church later publicized how many people had ‘made decisions for Christ’ at the Christmas pageant. People who believe they have become a Christian on the basis of praying a group prayer and checking a box are probably deceived. I can almost hear them shouting outside the locked gates of heaven saying, “Hey, let me in – I checked the box!”
Personally, I’ve prayed some version of the ‘sinner’s prayer’ so many times I can’t remember them all. Christians don’t make a habit of admitting this, but I’ve met scores of believers who have prayed the ‘sinners prayer’ so many times they are embarrassed to talk about it. You see these people at altar calls each week coming forward to ‘rededicate’ their lives. How many times in your life have you invited Christ to live within you? When salvation is authentic it only happens once. The authenticity of the experience requires honest repentance and brokenness before the Lord. It requires complete, unconditional surrender!
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