“HOW TO BECOME A CHRISTIAN”
Gary
W. Summers
For those who already believe that God
exists and that Jesus is His Son, Who died on the cross for our sins, no
greater topic could be discussed than how to become a Christian. In fact, people became intensely interested
in an explanation on the Day of Pentecost, and many have been since that
landmark occasion.
The first thing
one might notice is that individuals have one or more things to do in
the process of becoming a Christian. Salvation
is not universal. The popular notion of
the day is that God loves, saves, and forgives everybody regardless of their
response to Him. Satan undoubtedly
rejoices in this deception, but God expects a proper response to the love,
grace, and mercy that He has shown—both in the way people become Christians and
in the way they remain one.
The Bible
presents the truth on this, and every other, crucial matter. Unfortunately, the devil thinks he ought to
contradict everything God says; therefore, many set forth ideas that do not come
from the Bible to try to convince mankind of error regarding salvation. Some of those preaching a false gospel may be
well respected by many, but popularity in the religious world does not
translate into favor with God.
At the time of
Christ, the Pharisees were held in high regard by the people. They were very strict in their beliefs and
generally thought to be among the most pious worshippers of their day. Some may have been genuinely sincere, but
Jesus exposed others as hypocrites (Matt. 23).
Many of them sought (and received) the praise of men
(Matt. 6). They did not deserve
the reputation they commanded. When
Jesus pointed these things out, He became instantly and immensely unpopular
with the Pharisees. The Lord, how-ever,
did not just sling mud at them. He
explained their deficiencies and demonstrated their hypocrisy. Jesus came to reveal truth, which means in
part to set forth truth, but it also requires exposing error.
Billy Graham
Probably, no one
is more respected today than Billy Graham.
The mere mention of his name, in the minds of some, is to invoke someone
almost on a par with the apostles. Yet,
in all of his years of preaching, he has never told people the truth concerning
what they ought to do to be saved. This
is not a vicious assessment offered by some jealous or frustrated rival. Most of us will never have the opportunities
to address the millions that Graham has.
No, this is a matter of truth and error.
The following
tract came into this writer’s possession: “How to Become a Christian” by Billy
Graham. If it told the truth, we would
be happy to distribute them, but it misleads people and does not honestly look
at the Scriptures. The reader may or may
not like Billy Graham; such is irrelevant: the question must be, “What saith the Scriptures?”
Does the tract
not cite the Scriptures? Yes, it
does. It correctly speaks of God’s love
(John
Certainly it is
appropriate to cite God’s love for mankind, which makes salvation available for
us all (Rom. 5:8). To cite God’s grace
and man’s faith is also appropriate (Eph. 2:8-9). Saying that we cannot work for salvation is
also true, as is affirming that we must receive Christ (John
Is that what John
He came unto His own, and His own
did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to
become the children of God, even to those who believe on His name (John
Those who
“received” Him did not reject Him without even giving Him a fair hearing. They received Him in that they were willing
to listen to Him. They had the right,
the power, the authority to go on and become children of God. This passage was not written to explain how
God wants Jesus to be received—only that He expects Jesus to be
received. No one ever “became a child of
God” by simply believing and understanding that Jesus died for our sins. John never intended to convey this thought,
as evidenced by what he recorded in 3:1-7, which actually does discuss the new
birth.
Graham goes on to
say that the sinner should picture Christ standing at the door of his
life. “Invite Him in. He is waiting to
be received into your life.” No Scripture
is mentioned here, but Revelation
All throughout
this tract a Scripture has been given for each point. How strange it is that when Graham gets to
the very purpose of the tract (“How to Become a Christian”}, he suddenly cannot
find one that applies. If someone were
reading this tract and wondering, “How do I receive Christ?” he would be
greatly disappointed. Below is what
follows the urgent message, “Receive Christ Now!”
You can invite Jesus Christ into
your life right now by praying to God something like the following: Dear Lord, I know that I am a sinner and
that I need your forgiveness. I believe that Christ died in my place to pay the
penalty for my sin and that he rose from the dead. I now invite Jesus Christ to
come into my life as Savior. Thank you for making me Your
child. Help me learn to please you in every part of my life.
Again, where is
the Scripture that teaches that anyone should pray something like this
prayer? When someone has provided a
Scripture for everything he says and suddenly quits, there is a reason, and
that reason is that the Bible does not teach what this paragraph says. One may (and should) read the entire New Testament,
but he will never find these words.
In this man-concocted
prayer, not one word is spoken about repentance—an absolute essential to salvation. Jesus taught, “…unless you repent you will
all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3, 5).
What happened to Billy Graham?
When he was younger, he could preach outstanding sermons on the need for
repentance. Now he cannot even mention
it in a tract concerned with salvation.
Could it be that repenting of sin is not popular any more? People want salvation while they continue in
sin. The Bible does not teach such a
doctrine.
Recognizing that we need a Savior does not
get us anywhere near salvation. It is a
step in the journey, but to stop there is like running out of gas before
getting to the outskirts of town on vacation.
We would all love travel more if we could say, “I am in need of arriving
at my destination,” and magically we are there!
The book of Acts
contains many accounts of people becoming Christians. Why did Graham ignore the book entirely? He quotes the letters of Romans and
Ephesians, which were letters written to Christians, but he never looks at a
single instance of a sinner becoming a Christian, which is supposed to be the
subject of this tract.
Acts 2 provides
the first account of the apostles preaching to the lost after Jesus had died,
been buried, arose again, and ascended into heaven. After Peter convinces the very ones who
crucified Jesus that He is both Lord and Christ, the men asked what they should
do (Acts 2:37). Peter did not tell those
people what is in Graham’s tract. He did
not tell them to pray a prayer something like this—that they were sinners but
now they received Jesus. Instead, he
told them the truth:
“Repent, and let every one of you be
baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins,
and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.”
How ironic is
that! The two things the inspired apostle
said for them to do (repent and be baptized) Graham left out of his tract
entirely. A sincere seeker of truth
should read the book of Acts. The eunuch
was baptized in Acts 8; Cornelius and his household were baptized in Acts 10;
Saul of Tarsus was baptized in Acts 9:18 and 22:16 (two accounts of the same
event), and others were also baptized. Not
once was anyone ever told to receive Christ and pray a prayer.
Next Graham cites
Romans 12:13 as proof that anyone praying his prayer is saved; “For whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” The Scripture is true; Graham’s application
is erroneous. Acts
Should you listen
to what a man—even a highly respected man—says?
Or should you listen to the Word of God?
“It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man” (Ps.
118:8).
“100% Absolutely Sure”
Another tract
(that does not specify an author, but is published by Mercy and Truth
Ministries in
They do cite 1
John 5:13, in which John says that Christians (not non-Christians) can know
that they have eternal life. It is true
that God wants Christians to be confident of their salvation. The opposite, however, is not true. Just because someone is confident of salvation
does not mean he is right. People are
confident when they believe a lie and are taught error, which is precisely what
this tract does.
It lists eight
points that theoretically build confidence.
The first is that all are sinners (Rom.
What, however,
shall we do with number six, in which it is affirmed that Jesus freely offers
salvation to all with no strings attached?
That eternal life is a gift the Scriptures say clearly (Rom.
For example, God gave
Likewise,
salvation is a gift; no one could work hard enough to ever merit
salvation. But God has specified certain
conditions which need to be met in order to receive that gift. The writer of the tract seems to understand
that idea because he lists conditions of acceptance (even though he said there
were no strings attached). Below is his
entire seventh assertion.
7. You accept the gift by believing
in the Lord Jesus Christ, and by confessing Him with your mouth. “For with the heart man believeth unto
righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Rom.
He added
something that Billy Graham left out—confessing Jesus’ Deity with the
mouth. Hmm. Jesus made this confession (Mark 14:61-62);
the eunuch also did (Acts
Are these two
“strings” attached to the free gift of salvation? The author of the tract does not clear that
up. He is right—as far as he goes. Unfortunately, he stops there. Below is his conclusion.
8. You are 100% certain by believing
the PROMISE of God. “For whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Rom.
Why not be 100% sure today? Would
you just pray this prayer from your heart?
Lord Jesus, I know I’m a sinner and
that you died and rose from the dead for me. Please forgive me from my sin and
take me to heaven when I die. Thank
you! AMEN.
One can just hear
some poor duped soul say: “Wow! Ain’t salvation grand?
All I gotta do is pray this little prayer, and
I get to go to heaven when I die. Fantastic!”
No wonder there are so many “saved”
people whose lives cannot be distinguished from those of sinners. Notice what this tract did NOT mention.
It included not one word about repentance. It ignored baptism for the forgiveness of
sins. It failed to mention even one
person that became a Christian in the book of Acts, the book of conversions.
What motivates
people to offer salvation in such a cheap fashion, as though it was theirs to
dispense? They try to make these tracts
sound Biblical, but when they get to the point of, “What must I do to be
saved?” they depart from the Scriptures and substitute some little sinner’s
prayer (written by uninspired men), which is never found in the
Divinely-inspired Word.
Salvation is not
something obtained in two minutes as the result of reading some tract. Why did God write such a large book if
salvation were that simple? He could
have commanded His followers to pepper the world with leaflets so that folks would
be “receiving Christ” day and night, had He so desired.
The fact is that,
first, we need to know who Jesus is; for that reason He provided Matthew, Mark,
Luke, and John. Once we are convinced
that He is truly the Son of God, based on the evidence that God provided, and
that He died for our sins, then we should be moved to repent of our sins. The Bible defines sin; we need to read it to
understand what we are guilty of. Confessing
the name of Christ verbally is excellent; so is confessing Him with our life
(Matt.
But how is sin
removed—through a verbal confession? Sins
can only be cleansed through the blood Jesus shed on the cross (John
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