So I have heard the giant debate about Calvinism, how it’s the issue in the SBC and how wrong Calvinists are. Blah blah blah. I don’t want to re-hash all of it, because I really think it’s not the issue. I think the number one issue facing us today is the number of members we have in our church that are not saved, because we have made it too easy.
We as Southern Baptists have been so concerned about saying a prayer and getting Baptized that we have created a whole group of pew sitters that have no life change. They have nothing in their lives that even begins to look like faith in Christ, apart from attending a service on Sunday morning. I can’t judge the heart, but I spot a dead tree. It’s one thing to judge fruit (which we should be doing anyway), but it’s another thing to pretend like there is fruit on a tree, when the tree is clearly dead.
We have pleaded with people to come forward, coerced them, guilted them and persuaded them, said a prayer with them and then rejoiced. Days, months and years later, there is no life change, no real commitment to Christ and no evidence in the person’s life. We say things like “we can’t judge a person’s heart” when it’s pretty clear that we can. Bible teaches that we will know a tree by it’s fruit. No fruit? Dead tree.
Jesus laid out the expectations very clearly, take up our cross, follow Him. We are to die to self and live for Christ. It never says that pew sitting is the requirement. In our need for salvation and our lack of solid theology, we have just let anyone join the church without showing any fruit in their lives. These people teach Sunday School, serve in leadership capacities, vote in business meetings and yet lack the one piece of evidence that the Bible teaches we should have.
Wide the road that leads to destruction and many will find it. Narrow is the road that leads to Salvation and few find it. We live in the richest country in the world, and it’s easier for the camel to pass through the eye of needle than a rich man to enter the kingdom of Heaven. Many will say to Jesus “Lord, Lord” but will not enter the Heaven. Maybe we are far too concerned about ‘predestination’ or ‘election’ and not worried about the people who “made a choice” yet will spend eternity weeping.