Tag: John MacArthur

This episode spells out the potentially devastating consequences of a sinner's profession of faith, devoid of repentance. Unfortunately many Americans claim to be Christians based on an incomplete grasp of the gospel. They may have recited a sinner's prayer, assenting to their need for Christ's sacrifice to cover their sin-debt. But accessing the benefits of Christ's sacrifice was based on believing, apart from any repudiation of their sinful lives. John MacArthur illustrates an encounter with "easy-believism" in which a strip club owner made a profession of faith in Christ at a church, but nevertheless continued to promote sin with his business. Churches and evangelists are at fault when they incompletely explain access to salvation, dumbing down or leaving out entirely the need for repentance. The results are spurious "decisions for Christ" that amount to fire insurance policies designed to secure heaven, without any corresponding change in heart or behavior. The result is that many have false assurances of salvation based on an incomplete gospel presentation. Sadly, the self-delusion, reinforced by the Church, now acts to inoculate the Hell-destined nominal believer from the true gospel based on self-renunciation and repentance. If they don't repent eventually, they will hear Christ's terrifying words, "depart from me, you workers of iniquity, I never knew you." (Matthew 7:22) The evangelist then is obligated to preach repentance and faith in Christ as the means of accessing salvation. Anything less makes the evangelist complicit in providing false hope for unbelievers. I wonder how many churches have so diluted the gospel, that they are actually stumbling blocks for the Kingdom..