Easy Beleivism, What is it?

The Scriptures say three times,"whosoever shall call upon the name of Lord Shall be saved"!! So in way of a definition I offer you this statement. I have called on the name of the Lord for my salvation and having done so I had fulfilled the requirement to be saved.(To enter heaven)

 

Believe on the Lord Jesus and you shall be saved. It's what those who believe that you have to have works to be saved deny. It's believing that all the work was done by Jesus on the cross.

 

People like to accuse 'easy believists' of thinking that a person can say a prayer and be saved. This is untrue. I don't think a person even has to say the prayer.

 

Pretty easy, huh?

 

Its really quite easy to recognize "easy believism," - that's the method taught in the Bible - believe (put 100% of your trust) in what Jesus did on the cross for the forgiveness of your sins and you WILL be saved.

...whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Bro James_Newman hit it right on the head, its easier than sayin' a prayer.

 

Here's an example of what easy believism is not:

Dr. Joseph Tsan, the patriarch of Romanian Baptists, preaching in our church several years ago, related that when Romania was under Communism, when someone came to them wishing to confess Christ as Lord, they tried to talk him out of it!

I wondered why, when we American Baptists are spending untold amounts of money trying to talk people into being Christians, Dr. Tsan was trying to discourage it.

He explained: One needs to count the cost. A public declaration of faith in Christ could get him killed, put in jail, beaten up; he could lose his job and his family. After explaining the downside of being a Christian (Romanians call them Repenters) under communism, if they still wanted to do it, Dr. Tsan said, we figured their conversion was real.

I'm afraid some of our American evangelistic practices just wouldn't cut it in many countries today Anybody want to try "pray this prayer" in Ethiopia? In a Muslim-dominated country?

Tom B.

 

Confessing your faith in the face of persecution is a perfect example of suffering for Christ, but it is not how you obtain forgiveness of your sins. Jesus never said whosoever suffers for my name sake will I raise up on the last day. Anyway, conversion is not the same thing as being born again.

 

I think we need to define what it means to "believe".

In James 2:19 the Bible says:
19 You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble!

Also, the demons that Jesus cast out of people knew who He was.

Matthew 8:29
29And they cried out, saying, "What business do we have with each other, Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before the time?"

They clearly believed He was the Son of God, but no one is going to argue salvation for demons (I hope).

So we have do define what it means to believe in Jesus. Even Muslims believe in Jesus, but they deny the resurrection. And I think that perhaps that is the key difference. Because in Romans 10:8-10 it says:

8But what does it say? "THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART"--that is, the word of faith which we are preaching,

9that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;

10for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.


So is easy believism when people say "Just believe in Jesus and you will be saved"?

 

I think thats where the negativity comes from....is people saying only that. Some walk around with these trite little phrases, and they never explain them or put them into Biblical context or try to expound on them to the person asking about Jesus. But for the most part, the ones being accused of "easy-believism" are NOT the ones doing what I just described. There might be some untrained workers within those groups who need to be taught better....but its not an organizational practice. Does that make sense?

 

Matt 7:21 - Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

2 Pet 3:9 - ... not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

Acts 2:38 - Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

Easy believism is giving mental assent to the person of Jesus Christ but not being born again.

 

I think MikeinGhana brings up a good point...

Easy believism is giving mental assent to the person of Jesus Christ but not being born again.

When we witness to people and invite them to trust in Jesus as their only way to heaven, we need to make sure they understand that they are not just admiting that Jesus died for them but they are trusting in that fact. Its really pretty easy to expain.

I usually use an illustration that I heard Curtis Hutson give once....

When you get on an airplane chances are you've never met the pilot. You don't know where he went to school to get his license, you aren't even sure he has a license. But you are putting your life in the hands of a man you've never met and trusting him to get you to someplace you want to be. Trusting in Jesus is the same. God is asking you to put your life, you trust, in someone you've never met (Jesus) to get you someplace you want to be (heaven). It doesn't do any good to sit in the airport and "know" the plane can get you to your destination - you have to get on. It doesn't do any good to put one foot on the plane and one on the ramp - you have to get in all the way. You have to trust Jesus and Jesus alone as your only way to heaven.

 

James Newman:

In fact, confessing one's faith is exactly how one obtains forgiveness of sins, whether in the face of persecution or not. Romans 10:9. The sinner confesses what he believes(his faith)--which is that Jesus is Lord and rose from the dead.

You are correct that conversion and being born again are not the same and I apologize for the error. Being born again (regeneration) precedes both salvation and conversion.

If someone comes to me and wishes to declare his faith in the Lord Jesus, and do it publicly knowing he could die as a result, I would say that's pretty credible evidence of regeneration, salvation and conversion.

 

I think to use the Romans Road is a great way to present the gospel. I think the Lordship salvation types would call it "easy believism."

I use the Romans Road several times every week to lead people to a saving knowledge of Christ. Does every one that tells me they honestly meant it when they asked Christ to come into their hearts, get saved? I have no idea - that's not my job. To I try to follow up and disciple them? You bet!

Should we take the atitude that, if there are no outward signs, then they might not be saved? Well, there's a whole can o' worms. On the one hand James did say that faith without works is dead. On the other hand Paul did say not to judge your brother. And we could go back and forth forever on that. I think God knows who is saved and who isn't. I think, if I met someone that I had led to the Lord, say several years ago, and they were not living right I might witness to them again. I'd rather get to heaven and find out I "made" them accept Christ twice rather than get there and find out I never led them to the Lord the first time.

One thing that I think we always need to keep in mind when we witness is that we are not alone. Jesus promises to be right there next to us (Matt 28), the Holy Spirit will be right there next to us (Acts 1:8) and the Bible is a living book that will convict the hearts of those that hear (Rom 10). So, really, we play a small part of what is going on inside the head and heart of the person we are talking to.

This next part is not an excuse to be sloppy, but... We just do our best and trust that God can filter into the person we are talking to the message that God wants them to get.

If we are not careful, we could very easily talk ourselves out of never witnessing. And I think that would not only be a sin but it would rob us of many blessings that God is just waiting to bestow on us.

 

My studies of the early (pre-RCC /Roman Catholic Church/, pre-Eastern
Orthodox) maybe mid (250-260) Third Century (201-2300) indicate
the descipling period was usually 2 years. I.E. (in other words)
from the Easy Believeism that saves until a person was offered
as a candidate for Baptistm - it was TWO YEARS.
How long now between a person saying they accept Jesus as savior
and the baptism? At least my pastor talks to the some 75 people
a year that he baptizes. BUt I suspect the average among all
groups of Baptists is like 2 weeks not TWO YEARS.

In that era, if a person was martyred before baptism, during the
2 year discipling period, they were considerd a STILL-BORN Christian.

 

Granted, I haven't studied that era all that much, but did the two-year discipling time necessarily mean they were not baptised until the end of that 2 yrs? Couldn't it have been that they were not issued into ministry until after two years?

And at Pentecost it certainly wasn't two years between the time they accepted Christ and the time they were baptised. And Philip wasn't in the Ethiopian eunuch's carriage for two years.

 

Sadly, baptism is often associated with salvation, and not with obedience. There is not a single instance in the Bible of a child being baptized, yet would any deny that a child can be saved? Jesus was not even baptized until he was 30 and ready to enter the ministry. (Also, to disassociate baptism with salvation: Did Jesus need to be saved?) What had Jesus been doing the previous 18 years? He was pleasing God by submitting himself to his parents.

 

Why the Question? Why even use terms not found in the Bible? All that will do is give rise to debate!

Just preach what Jesus preached, my Brother! Some he told all they did (woman @ well)-some he said simply "thy sins be forgiven thee-" Different strokes, same message.

It is our responsibility to take God at his word, nothing more, nothing less! Repentance is only necessary to be able to come to God. Salvation is Simple (remember, a child-like faith?), but not always Easy.

Analogy:
Stand on the top of a very tall building and leap headfirst over the edge. Hard to understand? On the Contrary! Hard to do? Quite possibly!

In any case, I try not to use words that weren't in God's Vocabulary, either! Ha! H!