In the past several weeks we have gone through a portion of the book of Daniel to look at his heart in prayer and how it instructs us. If we think that we can just repeat the words of Daniel without having the heart of Daniel and that is enough in prayer, we have missed the whole point. True Christianity is an issue of the heart and not just the outward actions. If our hearts have not been changed and the very life of Christ is not our life, we have not been converted by and to Christ. We have also seen two testimonies of people who went along thinking for years that they were converted when in fact they were not. Could it be that the professing Church has many people in it that are saying the words of prayer and yet do not have hearts that mean the words? Could it be that many people are in conservative, orthodox congregations and are still lost? Could it be that the modern church is virtually set up in ways that make it easy for people to be deceived and to deceive themselves?
The reason that it sounds so plausible that so many people are deceived in the professing Church is because the professing Church is desperately weak and has no impact on the nation. Our theology has been greatly weakened and we have been turned over to pragmatic approaches. Evangelism appears to be the method of church growth and financial support rather than the means of displaying the glory of God. We can ask a simple question and ask what the devil would do if he wanted to deceive the most people possible. I believe the answer is that he would try to convince people of teachings and practices that were close to the truth but keep the life of it out. In this way he could deceive those who practiced it and yet to those on the outside it would appear false. In this way the professing Church could keep going and thinking it was making gains while it was in fact continuing a great deception. In this way the professing Church would not impact those around them in truth and it would be diluted with unbelievers itself. That would lead to a greatly weakened church (Mat 5:13-14).
A resolution was presented in the last year or so at the national convention of the SBC. It was a resolution that was intended to encourage local churches to only count those members who really attended and could be counted as true members. Another thing that we need to consider is how many of those who attend are really converted. A former president of the SBC was reported as saying several years ago that he thought that perhaps as many as 70% of members in the SBC were not converted. It is easy to smile at that and think that he was speaking to other churches and other people, or perhaps that he was simply having a bad day. But what if he was correct? What if that percentage is correct or perhaps even an understatement? One thing that would mean is that there are a whole lot of people who have prayed a prayer, been baptized, were accepted into membership, and yet are still lost.
If all that has been said is correct or even to a great degree correct, then what we must come face to face with is that the local church can be a place where many people are being deceived. In 1970 John Warwick Montgomery authored a book that was published under the name of Damned through the Church. It is a very provocative title, but not as provocative as the one he wanted. Could it be that the title of Montgomery’s book is in fact descriptive of much that is going on in our day? But again, it is so easy to think of it as always being the other guy. It is hard to think of it as being the place where I attend especially if it is conservative, orthodox, good programs, and perhaps even growing numerically. Why do people attend church in our day? Are many being lulled to sleep by the church as they attend for all the wrong reasons?
Montgomery quotes Stanley High who in 1937 wrote and article on why people go to church for the Saturday Evening Post. The Readers Digest condensed the article and ran it in their publication as well. He gives us five reasons to attend church: “(1) He likes the preacher; (2) He finds it convenient; (3) Habit impels him; (4) He “gets something out of it,” specifically, (a) historical perspective, (b) reverence for “a person that is bigger than we are,” and (c) morality; (5) He “gets along better” as a result of church going.” This list can be looked at for the things it says and for the things it does not say. How many people attend a church just because they like the preacher? Liking the preacher personally does not mean that Christ has saved these people. People attend a particular church because it is convenient rather than because it is a church that preaches Christ. People attend church out of habit rather than out of love for God. People attend church because they get something out of it rather than meet God. People attend church because things go better rather than going to hear the living God speak in His Word.
While it is true that High wrote his article over seventy years ago, human nature has not changed. Human beings will still find selfish and man-centered reasons to attend church and then rely on their attendance and some behavior modification to rest in for their salvation. Some might even have the name of Christ on their lips on occasion, but He is not in their hearts and they rarely think of Him at all. Others may speak of Christ a lot but not know the biblical Christ. In their case they have a god of their imagination and simply use the correct name. In cases like those attending church can contribute to being damned through the church.
If a church is going to seek the living God in spirit and truth, it must get beyond its man-centeredness and fear of men in order to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Each church must realize that there may be some deceived people in the congregation and perhaps many. For a church to repent of its man-centered ways and return to God will require a time of searching hearts. There is no way to God but through Jesus Christ (John 14:6). Going to church does not save and doing all the activities and programs will not save a soul either. A person must have Christ or that person will perish (John 3:36). If the church does not warn people of this, then no one will. When the church will not call people to examine themselves or warn people that they may not be converted, the church has stopped seeking God and has become a place that contributes to the deception of others. The natural heart will rest on many things but Christ alone and will go to great lengths not to truly repent. The natural heart hates God and is at enmity with Him. If we are nice and easy to get along with in all cases while we speak easy things to hear, people will not hear the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. They will just want to hear more easy or nice things.
One reason can be pointed at as a major flaw in many sections of the professing Church in our day. It is a misinterpretation of the Great Commission. In the latest SBC Life magazine the first article was a call for a Great Commission Resurgence. Here is one representative quote from that article: “When you win less people to Jesus, you are drifting from the Great Commission.” In this article the Great Commission was interpreted as going forth and evangelizing and winning people to Jesus. That is the typical interpretation of the Great Commission. But what the Great Commission actually commands is to go forth and make disciples. It does not command the Church to go out and get people to say a prayer and count them as converted, but instead it commands them to make disciples. It also does not command the Church to have a discipleship program, but instead it commands it to make disciples. Evangelism is always done in the context of discipleship or it is not grounded in Scripture.
Is this important? If we take it to mean evangelism only we ignore what it is really commanding. Another reason is that if we focus on evangelism apart from discipleship we will have a lot of false believers. In the Gospel of John many believed and followed Jesus until they heard His hard teachings. We see this in John 8:31: “So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine.” What is required to be a true believer is for one to continue in His word. If a person does not continue in the word, then that person is not a true believer as we see over and over in the Gospel of John. When the professing Church practices evangelism outside the biblical command to make disciples, it is not practicing what the Bible commands and becomes an instrument of deception. Going to church can hurt you if the Word of God is not preached in truth.
If you are thinking through this you will see a real problem in the professing Church of today. It practices evangelism apart from biblical discipleship. It takes people into its membership who have been “evangelized” according to a modern man-centered method rather than discipled in a biblical fashion. This essentially declares a person saved. It then teaches that person that s/he is eternally secure no matter how they live. It will not preach or teach things that would awaken a person to his or her lost condition because that is why people leave the church. What would the devil want us to do again? He does not care if people attend a church where they are not truly taught the Bible and evangelized in a biblical setting. In fact, he encourages that sort of thing. He would encourage those people to be taught that they cannot lose their salvation when in fact they are not saved to begin with. He would encourage preachers and teachers to water down the message to keep people comfortable in their unconverted state. In other words, what happens when the fox runs the henhouse? A church that wants to follow the Great Commission as it is given in the Bible will practice evangelism in the context of discipleship as the Great Commission states. The goal is not to get people to pray prayers; it is to make disciples of Jesus Christ. The goal is not to get great numbers in a building; it is to make disciples of Jesus Christ. Those that will not seek to make true disciples demonstrate that they are not disciples of Christ who commanded them to make disciples. Perhaps the false interpretation of the Great Commission reaches far and wide. It is far easier to go around and give a little message to people than it is to deal with their sin and urge them on to follow Christ in truth as true believers do. A church that does not practice the plain teaching of Scripture can contribute to the damnation of those who attend.
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