A scenario to consider:
- A particular evangelical church is in the plateauing/declining stage.
- Said church hires young, handsome, dynamic new pastor.
- Said pastor preaches a sermon to his new flock on the assurance of salvation.
- Said sermon has as one point (among others) that to be assured of salvation, one must be able to point back to a particular moment in time when he “asked Jesus into his heart”.
- A woman who’s been a member and leader in the church for years is shaken by this point, as she can’t remember a definitive moment that she came to believe. She proceeds to pray the “Sinner’s Prayer” right there as the pastor preaches.
- She informs the pastor after the service that she had done this, and a few weeks later, she’s baptized.
- A few weeks after her baptism, the woman is informed by the church’s elders that, after meeting about the matter, they’ve decided that it would be best to remove her as Head Deaconess (and from the deaconesses altogether), because she’s a “new Christian”.
- She is more than a little put off by this decision and withdraws almost completely from the church.
This actually happened recently at a church around here (and before anyone starts wondering, no, not my church). This scenario probably plays out at least monthly in countless evangelical churches, honestly. I was bothered when I heard about it — horrified and disappointed, actually. It’s never made sense to me that so many otherwise solid churches teach that one’s salvation can be judged by whether or not one has prayed a particular prayer (and remembers it). Scripture teaches that faith in Christ is a gift given by God (“I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules” – Ezek. 36:26-27), without regard to whether someone has prayed a prayer, signed a card, raised a hand, or has responded to an “altar call”, and without regard to how “good” someone has been. Assurance doesn’t come from any of these things. A better question would be “do you believe at this moment? Do you trust and treasure Jesus now?”
Back to this (now former) deaconess at this church for a moment. Let’s entertain the notion that the elders are technically right in removing her from her position of leadership. Scripture does indeed warn again giving positions of office in the church to new converts. Let’s say that she really was a new convert who’d previously had no real faith in Christ. Fine. Why, then, has she been a member of your church for the past ten years? What did you miss in the membership interview process? The whole “credible profession of faith” thing, maybe? That’s kind of important. Or did she give a credible profession, and now you think that she was just full of crap (or “mistaken”)?
(I find it much more likely that she did indeed already have saving faith in Christ and that she just had no remembrance of exactly when that began. As it stands, the church has lost a valuable leader and her faith is shaken, probably unnecessarily.)
Now, don’t get me wrong; there can be great value in remembering a time and place that you first consciously trusted Christ. Great value. As a matter of fact, I remember my own “moment” like that . . . I was six years old. It was a hot summer night in Mobile, Alabama, and I was on my grandfather’s front porch with my Dad and my Aunt Lily. They talked to me about Jesus, about how everyone needs him and that being a “good boy” isn’t enough, and asked if I wanted to be “saved”. I said yes and we prayed together (actually, I think my Dad did all the praying). I was happy to be headed to Heaven, and spent the rest of the night trash-talking the Devil and shooting him with pretend Jesus Ice Beams from my newly justified fingertips. It’s a precious memory for me, and God used that time to draw me to him.
What I’m saying is that the occurrence of such a moment (or its remembrance) isn’t a ground for reconciliation to God. While it may encourage some believers if they can look back on such a moment (as it does me), binding someone’s conscience by making it a litmus test is wrong and baseless. Not only that, but I can’t even enumerate the number of people I’ve heard say “well, I know I’m going to Heaven because I prayed a prayer/went forward/signed a card when I was little!”
Pastors . . . teachers . . . Christians: stop believing this lie. Then, stop lying to others. You’re spooking many true believers and damaging their faith, and you may be giving false assurance to people who actually don’t believe anything. Just preach Christ and him crucified. He’ll draw those who he will, when he will, and he may not do it with a “Sinner’s Prayer” or an altar call. It’s okay. Really. Jesus isn’t a formula.
10 comments ↓
amen!
My God Son, you are wise beyond your years – certainly beyond your paternal parentage. I must read your writing again when I get home tonite. By the way, your writing style is absolutely Piperian! Write lots! Publish! Publish! Publish!
What is the name of that church – First Pharesaical? (I’m pretty sure I did not spell that corrrectly – but I never was spelling bee material.) The leadership should be very ashamed and the membership should consider reformation.
I have wondered about the roots of your incredibly God-centered faith – I just love the “…newly justified fingertips…” stuff – thats great imagery! – I love it! I did not remember all that you shared in your writing – my memory sucks – always has – your’s has always been crystal. I thank God everyday for you because of how all your life you have blessed me – I hope it seemed that way at least some of the time. It is now forever a blessing to me to know that I opened my mouth at least one time during your childhood and the right thing came out…I will certainly pass this on to Lily…she will be abslolutely thrilled to know. She is gonna treasure your web site as I certainly do – thank you so much!
Please tell Amy and the Baby I said Hey!!
Speak with and Comment to you soon!
Always praying for you.
Love Ya!,
Dad
I’m from the camp that Salvation is a process, not an event in ones life. I heard someone say just today that they “asked the Lord into their heart 30 years ago”. I’ve realized, I’ve never “asked the Lord into my heart”, but more made a decree to follow Christ.
Sanctification is a process. Salvation is pretty much an event…took place a couple o’ thousand years ago – on a cross (“It is finished.” – Jesus)…well – maybe 2 events…you have to accept Christ’s payment for your salvation/sin by asking “the Lord into (your) heart”.
DesiringGod.org (John Piper) – greatest Christian site on the web…you will Love It! – no – Really!
See, Dad, I see (and even agree with) what you and Piper say about sanctification as a process and salvation as an event . . . but I’m also on board with what Josh says about salvation as a “process”. I think that maybe the differences come down to what we refer to as “salvation”. Most evangelicals will refer to “salvation” as what happens when you “accept Christ into your heart” and your sin is forgiven, you’re counted as righteous for his sake, etc etc etc. Not incorrect, but that’s probably more precisely termed “justification”, where “salvation” can be termed as the whole process that consists of justification, adoption, sanctification, and glorification.
Check out 1 Corinthians 1:18. “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” Paul uses “us”, including himself in “those who are being saved”. I don’t think that anyone (anyone orthodox, anyway) would seriously argue that Paul hadn’t already had his sins forgiven by Christ at that point. He’s recognizing his continual need for (and the continual fact of) salvation by Christ. For instance, he saved me those years ago on Grandpa Whitlock’s front porch. He’s also saving me right now by keeping me from apostasizing and again becoming his enemy (perseverance/preservation of the saints). He’s saving me right now by continually conforming me to his image (sanctification). He’ll finally save me when he returns.
So yeah . . . both/and, I think. I don’t think that ol’ JP would disagree.
hmm…
Your arugument, though beautiful, seems to beg a denial of eternal security (once saved always saved).
Once saved, Jesus seems to declare “I will loose none.” and further “..none can pluck them out of My hands..”.
Read it again!
It’s an affirmation of eternal security! (Particularly when I say that Christ “is saving” us by continually keeping us.)
I’ll give you a call tonight. We’ll banter.
yyeessss…
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That is truly sad. I pray that God may send someone to comfort her.
I, as well, believe that the Scriptures do teach that salvation is eschatological, which does not downgrade the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints, but upholds it. Sometimes the Scriptures say, “we are being saved”, “we have been saved”, or “we will be saved.” In the Scriptures, we are encouraged to “make your calling and election sure” (2 Peter 1:10) as well as “work out your own salvation with fear and trempling” (Phil 2:12). The action spoken of in both of those verses is of an ongoing examination by the believer. For he that endures to the end will be saved.
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