What Do We Mean When We Say Someone Is “a False Convert” ?

What Do We Mean When We Say Someone Is “a False Convert” ?

By:  George Nielsen – August 8, 2012

My brother in the Lord, Bernie Lutchman Jr. of Chatham IL, minister and President of Businessmen in Christ of Springfield, writes and publishes online as part of his ministry.  He has a Ministry Blog (a link to it is given below), and today he re-published a posting from a few years ago that featured teaching by Rev. Paul Washer.   If you are not already following Bernie’s Blog, I recommend that you do so.    For a link to Bernie's Blog, click HERE.

The main point of Paul Washer’s teaching is that ‘Soft Preaching is Weakening American Christianity’ and that part of that soft preaching is what is known as “easy believe-ism”.   People who are “False Converts” are those who say what is called “the Sinner’s Prayer” after hearing and giving their assent to the message of grace and forgiveness – but have no other requirements as a believer, except that they may agree to be baptized in water – and then they live an indifferent, casual, so-called Christian life. 

What is missing, and what makes these people “false”?

Jesus preached the Gospel of the Kingdom.    My primary teaching ministry in the Church is teaching 5^th grade Sunday School.  I teach the 5^th graders the Gospel of the Kingdom, but my experience has shown that not that many adults know this, so I have to put in quite a bit of effort, trying to bring my students’ parents up-to-speed with what I teach their kids.  

There are two primary messages in the Gospel of the Kingdom – Salvation and the Kingdom.  

¨      The Salvation message is that people need to Come to Jesus.   He paid the price for their sins, and they can be saved, by grace, through faith in Him.  The Scripture teaches that he who believes and is baptized (in water) shall be saved.

¨      The Kingdom message is that Jesus, our Risen Savior, is the King of the Kingdom of God (Matthew 28:18).   People who Come to Jesus enter the Kingdom of God by their commitment to be His disciples.   Everyone needs to examine themselves regarding their own level of commitment to discipleship.   Jesus said “if you love Me, keep My commandments.”    To keep this brief, I would simply say that there are two times that Jesus uses the word “Go” to command His disciples. 

o       In Matthew 28, Jesus said to go, and BE something, be witnesses for Him in the world who will make new disciples.  

o       In Luke 10, Jesus told the lawyer who had questioned Him to go, and DO something, do just like the Good Samaritan did, meeting other people’s needs, serving them as a demonstration of the love of God.

Jesus taught the disciples to pray and included this petition as part of the prayer He taught: “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”   His disciples come to Him in worship, giving honor to Him as their Lord.  Then His disciples go, doing works that they are called to do, to extend the Kingdom of God to more and more people, throughout the world.

False converts are people who may say that they love Jesus, but they don’t serve Him – they serve themselves.    Christianity and any Christian behavior you may see in their lives is just a veneer, covering the outside.    On the inside – they are the king, not Jesus.

False converts say “I believe in Jesus”.   You need to understand that even demons from hell can say that they believe in Jesus.    The Scripture teaches that if we “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ” we shall be saved (Acts 16:31).    Referring to saving faith as “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ” means not only have you assented to Jesus’ message of salvation, but that you also believe these things:

¨    Jesus is the eternal Son of God,

¨    Jesus is the Christ, the anointed one who is the Messiah, our Savior; He fulfilled His ministry of salvation through His death, atoning for our sins, and His resurrection from the dead, in victory over death, hell, and the grave.

¨    Jesus has instituted a New Covenant; believing on the Lord Jesus includes your agreement to this New Covenant.   You give your allegiance to Him as King.

¨    Jesus gives new life to those who receive it, by faith, and enter in to this new life, which is called being born again.   A key characteristic of this new life is that you are led by the Holy Spirit and desire to be faithful as Jesus’ disciple.   If you fall short in being faithful, you repent and seek to be restored.   Your faith is not stagnant – it is growing.

The danger of “Soft Preaching” is that a truncated message, not preaching the entire Gospel of the Kingdom, is actually a deceptive message.   People can be deceived concerning their eternal destiny, and then grow cold to living the new life in Christ, because they think they don’t have to live any differently.   “Being led by the Holy Spirit” will actually occur only if a person listens and is willing to obey.

Soft preachers may be afraid to “get in your face” and as a result they stick with an easy Gospel message.    Just because the price for your salvation was paid-in-full by Jesus, don’t think there is nothing for you to do.   Instead, commit to being faithful, growing disciples of Jesus.   Be people whose Christian lives are characterized by taking action to fulfill your calling from God, being people of integrity, and growing faith.