False Believers

by Matthew

I am sure that Antonio gets tired of explaining that those of us who are Free Grace do recognise the existence of false believers. Some critics seem to think that Free Gracers recognise as a Christian anybody who calls herself that.

There are just two kinds of false believers:

1) Those who believe a different gospel.

You cannot get saved believing a different gospel. There is only one message of good news that can save.

It is not just those in liberal or sacramental churches who may be believers in a different gospel; no doubt there are many in Evangelical churches who are believing a lie. In so many Bible-believing churches there is only weak teaching and the great truths of Scripture are never really brought out. Then there are the Arminians who deny that Christ has given them a genuine gift of eternal life. And there may be many Calvinists who have never been assured of posessing eternal life. These do not believe the Gospel.

2) Those who pretend to be believers for their own reasons.

We might think that these would be rare in the West. In far away countries it is easy to imagine secret policemen posing as believers. However, here in western churches there are no doubt people who profess to be believers, but who are not.

Many children of Christian parents may well make professions of faith. It is natural to want to please one's parents. Or to please one's peers. I have known many young people who have made temporary professions of faith in order to fit into a crowd of Christian teenagers, either in a Christian school or a church youth club. For some teenagers, being part of the incrowd.

Or older people may come into this category. It is easy to attack seeker-friendly methods, but they do have their problems. In the UK, many Evangelical churches use the Alpha course. Non-Christians attend a series of meetings over dinner where they are taught (not necessarilly in sound terms) the basics of Christianity. Part of the attraction of this method is the fellowship element. The would-be converts are exposed to such wondeful, loving,caring people. They want to join because they see such lovely kind Christians. The problem is that they have never come to the point of trusting in Christ for eternal life.

These people may want to believe. They think that it is very likely that Christ is the saviour of the world. They may think that Christianity is probable. They may hope that salvation is found in Christ. But this is not true faith.

What Free Gracers do not accept as a spurious non-saving faith is a faith that acknowledges Christ as one's personal guarantor of eternal life, but which is supposedly deficent because- 1) it is only an intellectual faith and/ or 2) it is only a temporary faith. The Bible places no qualifications on the nature of a faith that looks to Jesus Christ for eternal life.