A Pastor stands in front of the church after preaching a compelling sermon, the music is almost hypnotic pulling at the heart strings as the words ‘Jesus paid it all’ echo in your mind. The preacher calls the unsaved to ‘come to the front and kneel at the altar’ the urge to move forward courses through your veins as you feel the tug to go. Then he says it “You can feel the spirit urging you to come to the front and be saved”. Oh, so that is what it is, God’s Spirit calling to the sinner? Or is it?
You are 12 years old and at summer camp, each morning begins with daily devotions and singing followed by an invitation to come forward and be saved and then on to the games and fun planned for the day. You’ve seen a few other kids go forward though and it’s the last night. The camp leader calls all of you, into the big room where you meet in the morning, for the final devotion. And it’s a powerful one, he makes you laugh, he makes you think and finally as the music begins and the climax of his talk nears you can’t hold back the tears anymore. As the final invitation comes and you answer the call rising from your seat and walking down the aisle with a good portion of the group you feel deep down inside you’ve done the right thing. Or did you?
“He is coming to your town!” Your friend who is a Jesus freak is super excited and she convinces you to go with her to a local ‘Revival’ meeting where her favorite evangelist is preaching. You arrive at the large tent which is about the size of one of those big circus tents. You make your way inside and take a seat. Then the preaching begins, and it is more dignified, more illustrious, and more powerful than those Sunday sermons or well rehearsed summer camp talks. This preacher has a way of knowing exactly what you are thinking and reaching deep into your heart to tap into something, something that makes you feel… well good, fulfilled. So when the invitation comes you don’t hesitate and with the rest of the crowd you rush forward.
If any of those examples sound familiar to your ‘salvation experiences’ I have a tough question for you… How is that feeling treating you now?
You see I am about to make a bold contention, one which you may be offended by, and that is this: If that is how you ‘found Jesus’ I don’t think you are truly saved. If your salvation experience is aglow with what you felt I question you true standing before the Lord. If you accepted an ‘invitation’ I think you are going to the wrong party, only when you get there it is too late to go back. Forgive me for being so bold, I certainly don’t know the state of your soul for sure, but I think I can make a pretty good guess.
Not only is the modern ‘mode of salvation’ ineffective it is also the Devil’s greatest victory in his efforts to thwart the Great commission. You see Jesus doesn’t care how you feel if your feelings are not grounded in him. God could care less if you walked down an aisle and knelt at an ‘altar’ if you haven’t put your trust in his True Lamb who died on the ultimate altar that is the cross. If we are going to save souls the Church needs to stop pitching a feeling. We need to stop selling an experience and start spreading the truth. Sometimes the truth doesn’t sound good or make you feel warm and fuzzy but it will as Jesus promised set you free.
I was recently reading a study done on Mormons (I as many of you know lived in Utah for several years) this study found that when Mormons did certain religious exercises, such as praying and reading the scripture, the rewards centers of their brains were activated so that the experience could be compared to that of taking weak street drugs. In other words religion was like a drug. If I were a betting man I would guess the same thing is true of many ‘Christians’, I would contend that it is certainly true of those who rush to the front at the local ‘revival’. They have a feeling, the preacher tells them it’s the ‘Spirit’ when in reality it’s little more than the practice of drugging his audience.
A local Pastor may have a knack for practicing his hypnotic sessions with his congregation. All he has to do is convince them that there is something at the front of the building that will save them, that somehow overcoming their embarrassment and getting up in front of people is the key to finding true hope. He doesn’t just persuade them of this using logic and reason; instead he uses the drugs of their own body to deceive them into playing along with his circus. After the feeling is gone these poor people walk around searching for their next ‘spiritual high’.
This is certainly not the way of preaching that Jesus employed, in fact Matthew 7:28b-29 tells us that “the people were astonished at his doctrine: For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.” Which lends the question how did the scribes teach? An examination of scripture tells us that the religious leaders of the time such as the scribes employed acts of religious performance like fasting and making a point to show that they did, or praying loudly on the street corner. Jesus condemned these false teachers and said that there reward was on this earth and not in Heaven.
An act of religious expression may make you feel good but so will cocaine. It may make others tell you that you’re saved but Jesus will say “I never knew you”. The answer to finding hope is surrendering to Christ, accepting his free gift on the cross and realizing that no matter how many aisles you walk it won’t save you because the only walk that will save you is the road to Calvary. And the only one who can walk that road is the one who did so 2000 years ago: Jesus Christ.
You are 12 years old and at summer camp, each morning begins with daily devotions and singing followed by an invitation to come forward and be saved and then on to the games and fun planned for the day. You’ve seen a few other kids go forward though and it’s the last night. The camp leader calls all of you, into the big room where you meet in the morning, for the final devotion. And it’s a powerful one, he makes you laugh, he makes you think and finally as the music begins and the climax of his talk nears you can’t hold back the tears anymore. As the final invitation comes and you answer the call rising from your seat and walking down the aisle with a good portion of the group you feel deep down inside you’ve done the right thing. Or did you?
“He is coming to your town!” Your friend who is a Jesus freak is super excited and she convinces you to go with her to a local ‘Revival’ meeting where her favorite evangelist is preaching. You arrive at the large tent which is about the size of one of those big circus tents. You make your way inside and take a seat. Then the preaching begins, and it is more dignified, more illustrious, and more powerful than those Sunday sermons or well rehearsed summer camp talks. This preacher has a way of knowing exactly what you are thinking and reaching deep into your heart to tap into something, something that makes you feel… well good, fulfilled. So when the invitation comes you don’t hesitate and with the rest of the crowd you rush forward.
If any of those examples sound familiar to your ‘salvation experiences’ I have a tough question for you… How is that feeling treating you now?
You see I am about to make a bold contention, one which you may be offended by, and that is this: If that is how you ‘found Jesus’ I don’t think you are truly saved. If your salvation experience is aglow with what you felt I question you true standing before the Lord. If you accepted an ‘invitation’ I think you are going to the wrong party, only when you get there it is too late to go back. Forgive me for being so bold, I certainly don’t know the state of your soul for sure, but I think I can make a pretty good guess.
Not only is the modern ‘mode of salvation’ ineffective it is also the Devil’s greatest victory in his efforts to thwart the Great commission. You see Jesus doesn’t care how you feel if your feelings are not grounded in him. God could care less if you walked down an aisle and knelt at an ‘altar’ if you haven’t put your trust in his True Lamb who died on the ultimate altar that is the cross. If we are going to save souls the Church needs to stop pitching a feeling. We need to stop selling an experience and start spreading the truth. Sometimes the truth doesn’t sound good or make you feel warm and fuzzy but it will as Jesus promised set you free.
I was recently reading a study done on Mormons (I as many of you know lived in Utah for several years) this study found that when Mormons did certain religious exercises, such as praying and reading the scripture, the rewards centers of their brains were activated so that the experience could be compared to that of taking weak street drugs. In other words religion was like a drug. If I were a betting man I would guess the same thing is true of many ‘Christians’, I would contend that it is certainly true of those who rush to the front at the local ‘revival’. They have a feeling, the preacher tells them it’s the ‘Spirit’ when in reality it’s little more than the practice of drugging his audience.
A local Pastor may have a knack for practicing his hypnotic sessions with his congregation. All he has to do is convince them that there is something at the front of the building that will save them, that somehow overcoming their embarrassment and getting up in front of people is the key to finding true hope. He doesn’t just persuade them of this using logic and reason; instead he uses the drugs of their own body to deceive them into playing along with his circus. After the feeling is gone these poor people walk around searching for their next ‘spiritual high’.
This is certainly not the way of preaching that Jesus employed, in fact Matthew 7:28b-29 tells us that “the people were astonished at his doctrine: For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.” Which lends the question how did the scribes teach? An examination of scripture tells us that the religious leaders of the time such as the scribes employed acts of religious performance like fasting and making a point to show that they did, or praying loudly on the street corner. Jesus condemned these false teachers and said that there reward was on this earth and not in Heaven.
An act of religious expression may make you feel good but so will cocaine. It may make others tell you that you’re saved but Jesus will say “I never knew you”. The answer to finding hope is surrendering to Christ, accepting his free gift on the cross and realizing that no matter how many aisles you walk it won’t save you because the only walk that will save you is the road to Calvary. And the only one who can walk that road is the one who did so 2000 years ago: Jesus Christ.