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The Danger of the Quick, Easy “leading someone to Jesus”!

We all know Billy Graham the famous evangelist who inspired many (including me) with his wide reaching crusades. Yet this is the same man who apparently said that he believes that a great majority of people who came forward in his alter calls were lost. In fact, he would be glad if only 5% of them were truly saved. Which means he believed that the rest (95%) never continued on in their faith but quickly fell away. I believe this problem is not only true with Evangelist Billy, but it is the reality of the whole Christendom. I have been in this churchworld for all these years and I have also noted with concern that not many people really exhibit the true fruits of saving faith in their day-to-day lives, regardless of being part of large crowds that “make decisions for Jesus.” What then shall we say is the problem, why is the backsliding rate way bigger than those good soil seeds that grow and bear fruit for the kingdom? According to Ray Comfort, another famous evangelist, the real problem is that the evangelism method of the modern Church is wrong entirely. What you often hear is a life-enhancement reason for coming to Jesus, that is, come to Jesus and you will have peace, joy, happiness, and abundant blessings. Therefore, people come to Jesus lacking repentance, instead, to experiment if these life enhancement promises are true. When they start to suffer tribulation, persecution and temptation (what true Christianity promises) they quickly fall away because there was no saving faith to begin with.
 
You can disagree with Mr. Comfort all you want, yet if I am to compare his statement with what I have observed, I am bound to agree with him. Our method of evangelism is wrong to begin with. What is commonly known as “leading someone to Jesus,” is something like, “Did you accept Jesus as your Lord and personal Saviour? Well, repeat this prayer after me….Congratulations, you are born again!” It is my opinion that this quick-fix formula is entirely unbiblical and is responsible for producing many false converts; people who “accepted Jesus” but were never really saved. Here are the reasons below…

Salvation is of the Lord!
The reason we fervently pray for the salvation of our loved ones is that we know deep down that we have no power to convert anyone, regardless of any formula we use. It is God who saves/regenerates souls into new creatures; raising them from spiritual death to the marvelous light of the Gospel. Therefore, our duty is to preach the Gospel, and God draws people and saves them in His own way, in His own time. Do I need to use the example of Lydia? That woman whom "the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul" (Act 16:14). Hence you have no right, dear evangelist, to pronounce someone as born again because they repeated your prayer. Anyone can repeat a prayer but it takes the power of the Holy Spirit for someone to exercise saving faith in the Lord Jesus. The only way we are allowed to confirm that someone is born again, is not by the prayer they repeated but by the genuine fruit of their lifestyle; which accompanies all who are saved. Therefore, it is dangerous, I mean it is reckless to assure someone that he is saved because he repeated a prayer. For this reason, many today believe themselves to be saved because they were told by Mr. Evangelist, not because there is genuine evidence of that salvation. Rather, let the Holy Spirit give that assurance to the person. Your job is to just preach the word and let God do the saving and the confirmation of that salvation.

No one in Scripture evangelized that way!
Everything we do as believers must have a Biblical foundation, especially when it comes to the eternal wellbeing of souls. I challenge you to open your Bible and show me where people were told to repeat the prayer of salvation after the preacher.  As Brother Paul Washer always lamented, “Jesus never came to the people of Israel and declared, “The time has been fulfilled, the kingdom of God has come, now accept Me into your heart; repeat this prayer after Me.” Therefore, I ask you, dear reader, why do we not see anyone in Scripture encouraging people to raise their hands and to come to the front to “receive Jesus”? Yet people were saved, were they not? Take for example, in Acts 2:14-41 when 3 thousand souls were added to the Church, how did it happen? I tell you how it happened: the Preacher only preached the Gospel, the Holy Spirit used that to prick their hearts and they were the ones who interrupted Peter’s sermon as they began to ask, “What shall we do?” (Act 2:37). We need to get back to the Biblical method of calling sinners to salvation, and that is through the simple preaching of the Biblical Gospel; calling them to repent and believe.  And that is another problem, is it not? That is, we have watered the Biblical Gospel itself, which is why people are not coming to salvation. Then we attempt to solve this by using canal means, and man-pleasing methods to coerce them to come to faith in Christ. This gets us back to Ray Comfort’s point that modern evangelism uses life enhancement appeal as the bait (come to Jesus you have health and success), yet the reality is that we are destroying men’s eternal destinies because such methods don’t only obscure the saving Gospel, but they also create hard hearts all the more; further alienating them from truth. To quote Pastor Washer again, “If you are using carnal means to bring carnal men to Christ, you will have to continue using those carnal means to keep them coming.” 

To Conclude: Whatever you do in your ministry, please, do not be found guilty of creating false converts; twofold sons of hell, because of your unbiblical method of evangelism. In fact, never engage in any “evangelism” with the motive of boasting to others about the people who “gave their hearts to Jesus” because the reality is, salvation is not dependent on some religious formulas but on the power of God; in His own time. Salvation is not a quick fix repeat after me, but it is a profound work that is dependent solely on the sovereignty of the Almighty. As a matter of fact, for some people, it takes years and years of preaching and prayer for them to eventually come to saving faith. Let us, therefore, take heed and preach the Biblical Gospel to men; we explain, we call, we invite, we warn, we beg, but we never coerce anyone through any easy fix “salvation prayer.” We must allow the King to stir their hearts and in time, they will come to faith. Those who do come to that faith, we can guide, disciple and teach them into their new life, without any gimmicks and man-pleasing methodologies. Catch that fish and take it home!

Sinothi Ncube 

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