Website owner:  James Miller

  THE EVANGELICAL MESSAGE --- DECEPTION         3/96
                                                           

 
   The evangelical will tell you, "just accept Christ as your 
   personal Savior and you will be saved", "just believe on Christ 
   and you will be saved", etc.  He will say, "Just accept God's 
   salvation, it is a free gift, all you have to do is just accept 
   it.  It is unbelievably simple.  You just say a simple prayer.  
   Here, I can help you, just repeat after me ....   There, your 
   salvation is assured.  You have God's promise on it -- and God 
   cannot lie.  You just have to have faith in his promise."  And 
   they back up their assertions with lots of scripture.  All this 
   is a dangerous, fraudulent deception --- self-deception.  The 
   true child of God, the person who will go to heaven, is the 
   person who loves God and is faithful to him by living an 
   upright, Godly life; it is not that person who is distinguished 
   by the fact that at one time or another in his life he has 
   publicly declared a faith in God or an intention to serve God.  
   At least such a person is not necessarily a child of God. 

   In this age of convenience, easy fixes for everything, magic 
   pills to solve every problem, evangelicalism could be called 
   the "magic pill" religion.  Just swallow this magic pill and 
   you will be saved.  It is the "easy recipe" religion, the "sure 
   and easy way" religion.  It is interesting that the style of 
   preaching of the evangelicals often closely resembles the high-
   pressure, "hard sell" styles of certain types of salesmen. 

   Note that many statements that Jesus made, especially in the 
   gospel of John, do appear to support evangelical beliefs, 
   teachings and doctrine.  If you ask me to explain these 
   statements I cannot.