Reading the book "The gospel assurance and warnings" by Paul David Washer. I am up to page 50 and so far he has been speaking quite a bit about the false converts. We all know that every church has false converts but I think the majority are in certain types of church's. No doubt the liberal United Methodist, American Baptists, United Church of Christ are loaded with false converts. These churches preach a "progressive Christianity" and I know from a chat I had with a pastor whom disliked my tracts that I mailed him because he did not believe in preaching on Sin, Hell, nor repentance. That man a false convert leading many astray. Also many false converts in the Charismatic Movement.
So what say you where are the false converts located? Also I forgot to mention the Bible Belt. So many did I chat with on the streets that thought they were Christians because they went to church.
Evan, I am not sure that this is a proper question for us to ask but I’ll offer my two cents anyway.
First, who are the false converts? They are people who know the gospel of Jesus Christ and claim to be saved but in fact are not. Here I am taking your thread to be speaking of those who actually profess a true gospel faith (i.e., I’m excluding those who claim a false gospel….i.e., doctrines that deny the gospel of Jesus Christ). Picture this, brother. You are a farmhand working a field and one day you start noticing weeds appearing among the crop. You bring this to the attention of the landowner. He tells you that an enemy has sown these weeds alongside the good crop. You ask if you should clear them out, but he tells you to let them grow together until the harvest lest you uproot the good crop as well (see Matthew 13).
We do not have the information to determine the true from the false converts. Instead, we are called to judge by the spiritual fruit produced and to act in accordance with the fruit that we see. We are fruit inspectors, not botanists. If a brother acts lost, then we treat him as lost. Perhaps he is saved and God is working in his life towards repentance and he’ll return (1 Cor. 5:5). If he appears to be a brother, then we welcome him as such. But we can’t say if he is truly saved. On the Day of Judgment many will say to Jesus, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?” But still comes those dreadful words “I never knew you.” I interpret that these people truly believe that they are saved. In truth, however, they lean on their own understanding, their own theology and their own works for salvation (see Matthew 7). They have a belief, but not a saving faith. This should strike a holy fear into the minds and consciences of every believer; for since we call on God as a Father who judges impartially according to our works, we should conduct ourselves with fear during our time here on this Earth (1 Peter 1:17-18). But this is not a works based salvation. We are called out by God (we are made holy) and therefore we are to be holy (1 Peter 1:14). Our works do not make us holy; they exist because God has made us holy. My conclusion is that we cannot truly discern the salvation of another person, but we can judge by the fruit one produces.
Second, defining “false converts” as those who acknowledge the true gospel but appear to be false believers in that gospel, where do I believe most are located? This is a matter of speculation, brother, but I believe that most are located along side us. I think that perhaps there are fewer “false converts” in many Pentecostal churches than they are in evangelical Baptist churches. I've known several Pentecostals in whose presence I am humbled by their faith in Jesus Christ, although their doctrine is filled with error and inconsistency. I've also seen many theologically correct men who seek converts to their theology as a salesman or many other religions seek converts, but their lives do not exhibit faith. But this is speculation and opinion on my part.
There is a difference between discerning between correct doctrine and error and between discerning a believer’s faith. There is also a difference between espousing correct theology/doctrine and being saved. It is interesting to me that God, having chosen what is foolish in the world (1 Cor. 1:27) has confounded the wise who view the gospel itself as foolishness (1 Cor. 1:18). Sometimes I find it worrisome that often we appear to be striving to make the gospel message conform to the wisdom of this world, and perhaps like the Greeks seeking wisdom we are sometimes confounded by the plain and simple word of the cross (1 Cor. 1:18-31). I do not mean this to be derogatory towards studying theology and standing on firm doctrine. But sometimes I think that we may emphasize our understandings as preeminent in the eyes of God as we seek to make converts to our own theological views rather than to Christ. But what I see much too often in evangelical Christian churches is what Michael Horton referred to as “Christless Christianity.” I can deal with people who hold false gospels, who believe false doctrines, and even those who straight out deny Christianity. But those “false converts,” those weeds among the wheat, they can destroy a church that fails to guard against false teachings or lets slip their grasp on sound doctrine. And here is where we should, IMHO, concentrate our efforts. Not in seeking who those false converts are, but in making disciples of people. I think our focus should be on discipleship (here I mean the worship of believers in a local assembly and building up the saints) within our local churches and sharing the gospel of Jesus outside the local church.
Anyway, those are my two cents.....well, maybe two bucks but you can keep the change.
