A few months back I attended a worship service at what would be categorized as a large Southern Baptist Church. I found myself, instead of delighting in the Lord and feasting upon His Word, becoming burdened for the congregation and frustrated at the shallow, kindergarten theology presented in the service and in the sermon. I was greatly disturbed at how baptism was presented and how the addition of so many extra activities left little to no time for the proclamation of the Word. However, the most disturbing element of all was the Gospel invitation throughout the message!
Several times throughout the brief sermon, the listeners were compelled to "Ask Jesus in your heart." That's it. That's all. No elaboration whatsoever. Just, "If you want Jesus, ask him in your heart."
I wanted to stand and shout! Here is an auditorium filled with people who are bombarded with sin, the flesh, and the world, perishing in their sin. If they have come to any spiritual awareness at all, they realize they are not right with God. What are they to do? According to this preacher, "Just ask Jesus in your heart."
Here are the reasons this troubles me so.
(1) "Ask Jesus in your heart" is not a NT command! Nowhere, let me repeat, NOWHERE in the NT are sinners compelled to be eternally saved by asking Jesus into their hearts! It is simply not a biblical model or mode. Why do we say such things then? Why do Southern Baptists (and I am one) who believe and stand for the inerrancy of Scripture, not use scriptural language when "leading people to Jesus?" So the startling question becomes are we truly leading them to Jesus if we are directing them to do something other than what the NT directs them to do? Is this why our churches are filled with unregenerate church members? Because we have made it so by the unscriptural way we have presented conversion?
(2) What of faith? The apostles of the NT exhorted their listeners to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ in order to be saved and forgiven. Jesus did the same with other terminology like "follow me," "come to me," "drink of me," etc. The NT does not compel us to "ask," it compels us to "believe." And "believe" must be unpacked as well. We know it does not simply mean to agree with scriptural facts (James 2:19). It seems that words like "embrace," "cherish," "surrender," "trust," and "treasure" are best at getting to what the NT means when it says to believe in Jesus. In other words, saving faith means that Jesus is your all, your life, your eternal hope, your joy, your salvation! Spurgeon said that to believe in Jesus for salvation means that you know he came to save sinners, you FEEL your sin, and you entirely trust Him as sufficient to cleanse you of your guilt and stain. ( see sermon "The Evil and Its Remedy")
(3) What of repentance? There are some in evangelical circles who try to divorce repentance from the call for salvation and insist that one simply believe. Yet, the NT clearly weds faith and repentance as the twins of genuine conversion. Note that Jesus came and preached a message of repentance! (Mat 4:17) Note that Peter preached a message of repentance! (Acts 2:38) And finally please note that repentance is completely missing in the appeal to "ask Jesus in your heart!"
(4) A misleading invitation can be another gospel! Some pitiful listener may understand the Christian new birth occurs if one will simply invite Jesus to live inside of them. So with all sincerity and genuineness, they repeat a prayer and vocalize their invitation to Jesus. Then they are assured with great fervency that since they prayed that prayer and meant it, they are now saved - and NOTHING can separate them from God. They are now eternally secure, for "once saved, always saved!" And everything within me screams, "But they are not saved!" They did not see themselves as ruined and worthy of God's wrath. They did not throw themselves at the cross of Christ for mercy and grace. They did not reject their sinful way of life. They did not repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. They just asked him in their heart. And now they will enter eternity sure of their salvation while never having known and followed and cherished the Lord!
I'm not saying no one has ever been saved this way. I do believe that the Lord moves upon hearts and grants faith and repentance even if the confessor does not adequately, verbally express those realities. This surely happens. What I am saying is this - I do believe we have misled thousands because they have entrusted to us the care of their souls and we have issued them a call that is unknown in the NT!
Dear friends, let us call the lost and unsaved to faith and repentance! Let us call them to Jesus Christ as Lord! We MUST be sound in our instruction and biblically accurate in our terminology, especially when calling people to salvation in Christ!
Perhaps defining terms would help. [URL=http://www.thefreedictionary.com/assent]]]TheFreeDictionary[/URL] has "assent" as "agreement, concurrence." Thus, one could say "I agree" or "concur" that some proposition is true. It may not sound very emphatic, but in essence, I think it's a synonym for "I believe," unless of course the speaker is lying. Now if colloquially, "assent" means "I hear what you said," we should never confuse it for belief, & it would not deserve further discussion. In any case, I know of no Biblical equivalent to this word; offhand, it seems that almost everywhere in the NT, we see "believe" & its tenses, whether from Jesus, Apostles, or hypothetical devils.
James 2:19 is not speaking of the quality of belief, but the object, which is monotheism. Certainly I agree that belief in this, no matter how fervent, is not salvific, which is why Unitarians, JWs, and Muslims are in trouble. But it does not distinguish between *species* of belief (if there are any). The verse is therefore unhelpful in answering this question.
And I do not see how exhortations in 1 Cor. 15 to "hold fast", "stand," etc tell me anything about different qualities of belief, either. Paul tells us there to persevere, not to believe more fervently. [Out of space...]
Hey Neil, I appreciate your input. It seems clear that you are influenced by the Hodges/Ryrie/Dallas school of thought on this issue. (I'm sure you can guess my influences as well.) If not directly influenced, you do follow their thinking. Do know that I have read their books, and I remain unconvinced and opposed to their exegetical explanations. Of course, the point in referring to James 2:19 is to establish that there are ways to believe that are not saving. As far as exegetical evidence that saving belief means more than assent, one simply has to look at the calls of Christ in the Gospel; "Come," "Drink," "Follow," etc. to see that saving faith encompasses more than mental agreement. Furthermore, as you know, the context of 1 Cor 15:3-4 argues against a simple assent position. In verses 1-2 Paul says his readers "received" the gospel (vv 3-4), "stand" in the gospel, and are being saved by the gospel IF THEY "HOLD FAST." So there is the exegetical evidence in the very passage you quoted. Paul includes things like "receive," "stand," and "hold fast" as included in what it means to be saved by belief in the gospel. Clearly those words mean more than to merely assent to some facts. They mean something like "stake your life on these facts - always!" Blessings Neil.
Jas. 2:19 uses the word "believe" twice, not "assent" (assuming there's a Gk. equivalent), so how does this verse clarify matters? Is there any exegetical evidence that "assent" differs from (or is inferior to) "belief?" Whence the "far more than?"
1 Cor 15:3-4 is a summation of the content of the Gospel not what one is to do with that content. In other words, it is what we proclaim, not how we are to respond to that proclamation. To say "assent" sounds like "agree." While we must "assent" to the message, we MUST do far more than that. We must believe (which has to mean more than mere assent, Ja 2:19) and repent because of the content of the Gospel.
I just wanted to thank you for this post Wil. I have struggled with this and it something that I have been challenged with when I consider how I am going to end my messages everytime I get to preach or teach. I posted a link to this on my blog and I am encouraging everyone I know to read your post. Thanks again.
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7/25/08 3:50 PM
