Last week we dealt with a tract that is being used in Kansas (if not other places). This week we will deal with another tract that is being used by the same group(s). I have personally received this tract while walking in downtown Lawrence, but I will discuss that later.The tract starts off with this: “God wants you to be 100% certain that when you die you will go to heaven. That´s why the Bible says. ‘These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life.’ I Jn 5:13.” This verse, I John 5:13, is a famous verse that is used for the purpose of giving people assurance. What is shockingly obvious, however, is that there is not another verse from I John in this tract used to show what John wrote in order that people may know they have eternal life. This is what happened to me when I was approached by two groups of two people just minutes apart. Each time I asked the speaker what things John said that would tell me I had eternal life. Both times the speaker went to Romans 10:13. So I asked them if they thought I John 5:13 was referring to Romans when he said “I have written these things.” Both of them said that indeed that was what John had in mind.
This is hard to believe for those steeped in hermeneutics and who actually use the context of a verse, but this is also what the tract does. So, without a context from I John, the writer of the tract goes on: “What must you know from the Bible to be 100% sure?” The writer then lists eight things for people to know in order to obtain 100% certainty that they are going to heaven:
- You are a sinner and don´t deserve to go to heaven. Romans 3:23
- The only way you can pay for your sins is by spending eternity in hell. Romans 6:23; Rev 20:14
- We can´t do anything good enough on our own to merit heaven. Titus 3:5
- Jesus Christ paid the price for our sins. Romans 5:8
- Jesus not only died, but also rose from the dead! I Corinthians 15:3,4
- Jesus freely offers salvation to you with no strings attached. Romans 6:23b
- You accept the gift by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, and by confessing Him with your mouth. Romans 10:10
- You are 100% certain simply by believing the PROMISE of God. Romans 10:13
“Why not be 100% sure today? Would you just pray this prayer from your heart? Lord Jesus, I know I´m a sinner and that you died and rose from the dead for me. Please forgive me from my sin and take me to heaven when I die. Thank you! AMEN”
Many of the criticisms offered last week are certainly applicable to this tract. But this tract is much worse since it encourages people to have assurance of salvation based on false teaching. There is a massive danger for people if they arrive at assurance of salvation before actual conversion. In what follows I will give several quotes from a book on the subject, Self-Deception (International Outreach). “There is an awful probability that the deceived professor of religion will remain deceived until probation closes, and all opportunity of salvation ceases for ever” (Jacob Helffenstein). “I believe there is no instance recorded in the Bible of a sinner´s being rescued from a false hope unless it was founded in the belief of a false religion. In the short period which I have had to make my observations, I recollect very few instances of persons apparently renewed after they had settled down for years upon a false hope and with that hope had joined the church. Indeed, I remember but one. We read of tares, we read of foolish virgins, but we never read of their conversions” (Dr. Griffin). “Speaking of those who imagine themselves to be converted when they are not, President Edwards remarked that he had “scarcely known the instance of such an one in his life that had been undeceived.” The confident hope of the hypocrite, he says, is “in one sense much more immoveable than truly gracious assurance.” Without going into the issue, note that Edwards believed that true believers can be more shaken than those with false assurance.
If it is that dangerous to arrive at a false assurance, then evangelists and preachers of the Gospel need to be extremely careful in this regard. I John does set out excellent ways to arrive at assurance, but it requires close examination of the life and soul. That is not quick enough for “productive” street evangelism where numbers need to be counted quickly and all is in the power of the people being evangelized. In training people in evangelism, we must be aware of how dangerous false conversions are and evangelize accordingly. Now, let us look at some of the issues with this tract. I John 5:13 does not say that John wants the people to know 100% for sure that they are going to heaven. What he does say is that he wrote (the book of I John) for this purpose: “so that you may know that you have eternal life.” He did not use this in an evangelistic way, which is what the people who wrote this tract use it for. John wrote this for people who believed already. What does it mean to believe? John uses the term “believe” and its corresponding words eleven times. At no point in I John does he tell people that to say the words or to pray a prayer was what it meant to believe.
The content or object of their belief was “in the name of the Son of God.” What does it mean to believe in the name of the Son of God? John uses the term “Son of God” or refers to the Son in the context of God nine times and refers to the Son 22 times in the book of I John. If a person is to believe in the name of the Son of God, it would be helpful to determine what John meant by looking at the book. I John 5:20 tells us this: “we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.” To grapple with this is to realize that people must believe that Jesus is fully divine and that He is eternal life itself (or Himself). We can look at I John 4:8-16 and understand the concept of love. We can also look through I John and see the biblical context of the cross which is propitiation, not just a concept to get people to pray a prayer. Those who have the Son have true love and true life, but we don´t see that a prayer enables people to have 100% assurance of salvation.
The reason John wrote the book was so that people who believed in the name of the Son of God “may know that you have eternal life.” John does not refer to them going to heaven, he wants them to examine themselves and know that they had eternal life. There is a huge difference between the way the tract uses I John 5:13 and the way John uses the verse. The writer of the tract uses the verse so that people who pray a prayer in can be 100% certain that they are going to heaven. John wants people who believe in the name of the Son of God to know that they have eternal life if they examine themselves. The tract would have us to believe that a saving belief is exercised or seen in saying a prayer. That is patently false. Many people pray without saving faith in Christ. The demons prayed and their prayers were answered when He allowed them to go into a herd of pigs.
A person must not just have an intellectual belief or want to believe, but really have a deep faith in Christ. Many have a belief in Christ and believe they are going to heaven. However, John is asking if a person has eternal life. It is only when people have eternal life (the life of Christ) in them that they can have true assurance. The text (I John) does not even use the word “heaven” at all. In the book of I John “heaven” is not used in the NAS and only once in the KJV (I John 5:7) where it is referring to the three witnesses who bear record in heaven. The book of I John is all about people examining themselves to see if they have eternal life, not if they believe. A person can know if he has eternal life by the evidence of life, but he cannot know the distinction between a true belief and deception by looking for belief in himself. This tract does not address this vital issue at all.
This tract is useless in pointing out the glory and majesty of God. The Gospel is all about the glory of God in the face of Christ who lived a perfect life, went to the cross, and was raised again to the praise of the glory of God. Whenever a message that pretends to tell people the Gospel and the glory of God is not displayed, the Gospel has not been preached. There is nothing of the glory of God in this tract and nothing to show people what sin really is which is against God and His glory. There is nothing in this tract that talks about sharing in the life of God or of Christ living in the person. Again, there is no talk of the new birth. This type of tract is focused on making intellectual converts (give assent to information) rather than dealing with the souls of men.
So what can we conclude? This type of “tractateering” is built on a false theology and practice. It is sad that people do this, but it is even worse for the many that arrive at a false assurance based on evangelistic appeals like this. There is no real Gospel presented in this tract and no biblical way of arriving at assurance. It is a method that appeals to man´s fears and then gives man something to do that he can do when he wants to and under his own power. It is a tract that is very man-centered in focus and content and as such it makes God out to have less power than man. Let us flee from this type of theology and methodology. Let us try to undeceive people from this type of cheap evangelism which is to the destruction of their souls.
God Loves... Himself 
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