There are perhaps more souls lost through a false confidence of salvation than by any other deceit the Devil makes use of. I do not mean those notorious sinners, but among the more decent formalists, who because they have never fallen into any foul, gross sins, or because their lives are somewhat reformed, and they practice some outward duties, make no doubt of the safety of their state. Yet they have no union with Christ by faith; the great renovating change has never been wrought in them; their natures are still unrenewed, their hearts unsanctified; they never saw and bewailed their own vileness; they never felt their real need of a Savior, in a way of renunciation of their own righteousness. They do not pant and labor after higher degrees of grace and holiness, like a true child of God, who can never rest contented with his present attainments [of grace]. They [the deceived] keep plodding on in the same beaten track, vainly thinking to divide their hearts between God and the world and content themselves with a formal, lifeless, luke-warm religion, which only tends to their greater delusion. Thus they go on dreaming of heaven till they awake in hell. Sir Richard Hill
In his day (in the 1600’s) Thomas Vincent wrote on how true conversion was rare. If those views of were correct in his day, then how much more so in our day? It is hard to express how far Christianity has fallen since the mid or perhaps early 1800’s. It is even harder to express how far Christianity has fallen since the late 1600’s and the 1700’s. The Gospel of grace alone is asserted as a doctrine and as part of a creed, but it appears to be rarely preached as a truth for the whole of life. The teaching and preaching of the day has been greatly influenced by psychology, humanism, and politics. It goes without saying that the liberal influence has been devastating. The morality of our nation is so far gone that it is almost useless to speak about it other than to state that it is still astonishing to behold. R.C. Sproul once said that if Luther came back to life and wrote a book today he would title it “The Pelagian Captivity of the Church.” Pelagianism has indeed taken over, though it may call itself Arminianism or various other things.
What is important to point out in this context is that the real problem is with the professing Church. One of the real problems with the professing Church of this day is that it works hard to get people to be confident that they are saved before they are saved and that in fact hardens them to the true Gospel. We have become so nice and politically correct that we want to comfort people and assure them that they are saved regardless of what condition they are in. We have reached the point where it is assumed that people who attend church (especially “my” church) are saved. We assume that a person that is moral or religious to some degree, especially if they believe like I do, must be converted. We will excuse almost anything except a person who will tell people that they are not converted. Yet, as Hill points out above, it is his belief that more souls are lost through a false confidence of salvation than perhaps any other method.
Several years ago a man by the name of John Montgomery wrote a book titled “Damned Through the Church.” If the paragraphs above even resemble something close to reality, his book is also descriptive of our day. While it was the case that years ago pastors trembled and warned their people against being deceived about being converted, pastors today tremble at the mere though that their congregants may not have perfect confidence that they are converted. Could it be that the older way was right? If so, there are many, many people being given confidence that they are converted by their ministers while they are on the way to eternal flames. In that case, they are being damned through the church.
The devil, while we must not give him more credit than he deserves, does have a diabolical plan of deceiving people regarding their conversion. When we add the fact that God turns people over to their sins, it leaves us with a very frightening view of the modern professing Church. True Christianity is rare, which is easy enough to say. But one of the implications of that is that the vast majority of professing Christianity are deceived by ministers who try to convince people that they are saved when in fact they are not. This is also to say that when ministers do not try to distinguish between those with a false confidence and those who are truly converted, God has withdrawn His hand from the professing Church and has given it over to unfaithful shepherds. It could also be that the professing Church has many, many false prophets as well. We are in need of a great Reformation once again.
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