I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. Galatians 1:6-7
Truth concerning salvation is of the highest importance. If you miss this, anything and everything else you might believe or do in the religious realm is pointless. The Galatians had been led away from the central truth of the Gospel. False teachers had come in who were teaching that a person had to keep the Jewish ceremonial law (as well as the moral law) to be saved. Paul could not have been more severe in his renunciation of this false Gospel. Listen to him rebuke those who would teach such heresy.
"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. 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." KJV Galatians 1:8-9
Damnation on all who preach any other gospel? That is a hard saying and yet that is the very indication of the importance Paul (and the Holy Spirit) put on the purity of the Gospel message. But believe it or not, a false gospel as malignant as any Paul faced is being spread among Evangelicals today. It uses biblical language. It boasts extravagant success. It is so close to the truth that its insidious false teaching is hardly noticeable. It is advocated in schools of higher learning and practiced by many of the highest profile Christian leaders in our generation. It has been accepted by multitudes as orthodox Christian teaching, which means that it is being taught, practiced and defended with a burning passion. Yet, with serpentine ferocity, this teaching has turned to bite the very ones who are defending it. I am talking about the doctrine of easy-believism.
Easy-believism is a gospel that leaves man intact. He is never brought before the bar of God's righteous judgment. He never sees himself as an offense to God. He is required to do one little act...pray a simple prayer... and this one little act is said to save him forever.
Multitudes have made professions of faith in Christ by this method who show no evidence of genuine salvation. The number of those who fall away after professing Christ is phenomenally high. Though some may become involved in church activities, many who have professed Christ through this method never enter a church of any description. Others attend church only spasmodically.
Jim Ellif has documented this problem in the Southern Baptist denomination. Quoting from the Strategic Information and Planning department of the Sunday School Board (2004 statistics), he says that out of a little over sixteen million members of Southern Baptists churches, only about six million people, including guests and non-member children, attend the Sunday morning worship services on any given Sunday. That is about thirty seven percent of the total membership attending the main worship service of their church. The numbers are even worse when one considers the evening worship services. Eliff says, "In 1996, the last time the SBC kept these statistics, the number of Sunday evening attenders was equal to only 12.3% of the membership (in churches that had an evening meeting)." Eliff goes on to say:
"One might ask what makes us claim that the rest are Christians, if they involve themselves with God's people only on such a minimal, surface level? How are they any different from the people who attend the liberal church down the street-the "church" where the gospel is not even preached?" (http://www.ccwonline.org/sbc.html accessed April 24, 2006.)
In a diverse survey among many who professed faith in God, George Barna found a profound disconnect between what people thought about their own spiritual condition and their true priorities. He said:
"It is popular to claim to be part of a 'faith community' or to have a spiritual commitment. But what do Americans mean when they claim to be 'spiritual?' The recent Grammy awards were perhaps indicative of this breakdown between self-perception and reality. The members of the group that won the award for best song thanked God for the victory then immediately followed with profanities that had to be bleeped from the broadcast. It seems as if God is in, but living for God is not. Many Americans are living a dual life - one filled with good feelings about God and faith, corroborated by some simple religious practices, and another in which they believe they are in control of their own destiny and operate apart from Him." (http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=BarnaUpdate&BarnaUpdateID=226 accessed April 24,2006.)
As I write these words I am looking at the May 2, 2006 issue of the Western Recorder (the state news paper for Kentucky Southern Baptists). The lead article is entitled "Most people tell poll they don't need church for spiritual growth." Quoting George Barna the article states that ". . . fewer than 20 percent of American adults believe participation in a congregation is critical to spiritual growth. Barna goes on to say that 72 percent of Americans claim they personally have committed themselves to Jesus Christ, but less than 50 percent attend religious services regularly. (Western Recorder, May 2, 2006, ABP article on file.)
My question is, what would cause people to profess Christ and yet leave them with no desire to meet with their brethren? What would cause people to say with their lips that they love God but leave them living lives which show that they are fleshly minded and interested only in worldly things. What kind of doctrine is it that encourages people to pray the prayer and walk the aisle and calls them Christian, even though they live the exact same lifestyle they lived before their professed conversion? It is the doctrine of easy-believism. It is a method that inadvertently changes the very essence of the Gospel message to a false gospel of human works. It is gospel perversion at its worst.
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