As a fifteen year old in a Baptist Church in Independence, Mo I came face to face with the decision of a lifetime. The evangelist asked the crowd, "If you were to die tonight do you know with 100% assurance that you would go to Heaven. If you don't know then please come to the altar now." Immediately I saw a swarm of teenagers rush to the front to "receive Jesus", yet there I stood debating with myself about how good I was or wasn't. Finally, after realizing that I wasn't that good at all I wen't forward to "ask Jesus into my heart." I was the last person to come forward that night.
I was led by a man known as the "mail man" into an office to pray the "sinner's prayer." You know, that prayer where you ask for forgiveness and ask Jesus to come into your heart. All I knew was that if I repeated those words the guy was saying I was gonna get saved. Yeehaw. However, I had no idea what I was praying that night. I had no idea what repentance was. I was told that my life was going to be dramatically different from that night on. Hmm, funny, my life was no more different that next day at the revival then it was before. I was still cussing like a sailor. I was still lusting after every busty girl in the crowd. I thought the guy said my life was gonna change after repeating his prayer. As a famous woman once said, 'Where's the beef?"
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After 8 years of camps, retreats, conferences, and 4 years of doing ministry as a former youth pastor/ now evangelist I have heard and spoke the words, "Ask Jesus into your heart and accept him as Lord and Savior." I've often wondered what it meant for Jesus to come in your heart, but dismissed my questions because practically every pastor and evangelist I had ever heard used those words. However, over these past couple months as I have questioned every thing I have known about evangelical Christianity I find myself wondering where in the world we got this notion that all one has to do is ask Jesus into their hearts or accept him as Lord and Savior through some mechanically grounded prayer and they are a Christian. Alakazam! As I have read books like The Purpose Driven Life I find this notion scattered around the place that you pray a pat prayer and you're saved. I listen to youth driven sermons and teens are promised Heaven for accepting Jesus as if he is a lost dog. Just recently, at a funeral I attended, the pastor promised eternal life for the crowd if they repeated his prayer.
I have searched the scriptures to find Jesus or the apostles teaching this but I can't find it. In fact you won't find it. I can't find any instance of Jesus teaching the crowds, "Accept me in your heart and you'll be saved." I don't see Peter telling the crowds at Pentecost, "Repeat this prayer after me and you'll be a Christian." As I look at the readings of the church fathers, heck even the reformers, I still can't find this simplistic notion of transformation. As far as I can tell, this idea of accepting Jesus into your heart sprung somewhere out of the pulpits of 20th century America. Now more then ever it seems as if the church in America has become the lukewarm church of Laodicea where we are so blinded by our own view of accomplishments that we can't see ourselves as God looks at us.
Perhaps this is a consequence of false conversions resulting from pastors and preachers assuring people of salvation if they simply recite a prayer no longer then McDonald's newest slogan. Perhaps this results from too many people having Jesus in their heart but not on their tongue and on their mind. Or perhaps, sorry if this shakes up your theology, too many people believe that their actions have nothing to do with their faith. Hello!!!!! James told us in James 2 that we are not saved by faith alone! Our works accompanied by our faith show if what we claim is true or not.
It seems the older I get in my faith the less and less I see repentance stressed in the believer's life. From what I gather, it's your willingness to repent, follow after Christ, and live out his commands that make you a real Christian, not praying a prayer where you confess your belief in him. Even the demons believe in him, and they shudder.
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