Easy Believism or Lordship salvation?

11/15/2013

In light of the recent awakening to the errors of Easy Believism, many Evangelical Christians are viewing   Lordship Salvation as a more biblical alternative; but is this really an answer to the problem or just a knee jerk response? Does Lordship salvation come any closer to hitting the mark, or have we simply traded one error for
another?

Now more than in any time before, we are witnessing the results of an Easy Believism gospel. We see the grown-up children of the Awana generation who claim to have “said a prayer” or “asked
Jesus into their hearts” and been saved as a child and yet have had no change in their lives. They live as Practical Atheists, denying Christ in their daily lives and yet claim His name as Christians. They drink, smoke, take the name of the Lord in vain never darken the doors of a Church and yet say that they are saved and on their way to heaven.

Many sincere Christians are asking why? How can this be? The evidence of true salvation is shown by our surrender to Christ’s authority and in a changed life. “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.“ 2 Corinthians 5:17

Easy Believism removes the message of “repentance toward God” and offers simply “faith in Christ” through a simple prayer,
without any recognition of our sinfulness or guilt before our holy God. Lordship salvation adds surrender and a commitment to make Jesus Lord, as a requirement for salvation.

While it is good that many have recognized that Easy Believism has oversimplified the gospel message to the point of making it
basically a magic prayer, they have also erred themselves in attempting instead, to de-simplify it by adding extra demands. This has resulted in the trend toward Lordship Salvation. The reasoning is this: “If we make sure these people really, really mean
the prayer that they say, or make a REAL commitment to Christ, surrendering to His authority, then surely they will be truly saved.

Paul preached “…repentance toward God, and faith
toward our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Acts 20:21) When asked, “What must I do to be saved?”, his answer was not, “Make Jesus Lord of your life.”; it was simply, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved,” (Acts 16:31)

We must not confuse Justification with sanctification. Making Jesus Lord is not a condition of salvation, but a result. When we recognize our sinful condition and condemnation before God and turn to Christ our Savior for rescue, we believe in him and are saved. The one who redeems our soul becomes our Lord. We are saved because we believe in what he has done already on our behalf, dying on the cross to pay for our sins and rising again to bring us newness of life. We are not saved because we decide to commit to him and make him Lord. Salvation is all in what He has done, not in
what we do. We cannot decide, or will or surrender ourselves to be saved. We can only believe in what he has done. “Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” John 1:13

“But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be
accursed.“ Galatians 1:8 The answer is not to “add to or change the
gospel of Christ”, but to simply preach the true gospel of Christ in Biblical terms.

“And they went out, and preached that men should repent.” Mark 6:12

“He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the
name of the only begotten Son of God.“ John 3:18

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:Not of works, lest
any man should boast.” Ephesians 2:8&9

2 Comments

Hunter link

4/1/2021 12:20:04 pm

Hi Sandra,

I've been reading through your blog posts and the sample of your books and am encouraged how well balanced your presentation of the gospel is. I laughed out loud when I read this in one of your books "Most often, these unrepentant sinners are offered a place in Heaven with God if they will merely pray a prayer to invite Jesus into their sinful hearts, as though they are doing Christ a favor." I have been doing my best to illuminate this same issue for years.

The above post caught my attention because although I agree the focus of Lordship Salvation is mistakenly on the act of "claiming" Jesus as Lord or on "making" Jesus Lord by some external act, I wanted to share what I've learned about the meaning of the word "belief" as it is often translated.

I have found that the clearest way to translate the Greek word pisteuo and all of its forms is actually either "commit" or "commitment.” This is how many versions translate the word in 2 Corinthians 5:19, for example, where we see God actually "pisteuo"ed something into Paul and his companions. So in some places they translate it "believe" and then other places they translate it "commit." At least in modern day English, however, the difference between "commit" and "believe" are drastic. The modern definition of believe would be "to think to be true; to be persuaded of; to credit, place confidence in;" whereas the definition of commit would be "to give something over to someone you trust."

When figuring out which word to use to represent pisteuo we have to choose the option that fits all the contexts the best. Since it wouldn’t make any sense to say God was convinced of Paul and his companions in 2 Corinthians 5:19, that means the best translation for pisteuo in every place would be “commit” instead of “believe.” Another way to think of the difference is that “believe” indicates taking something into yourself, whereas “commit” indicates moving yourself into something else.

Another good way to translate pisteuo is "entrust" as nearly every translation does at some point, but I find that in modern English that denotes the giving of something that you expect to be returned which makes it a bad fit. To say "whosoever entrusts in Him shall not perish" makes it sound as though you entrust something into Jesus that you expect back. On the other hand "whosoever commits into Him shall not perish" sounds as though you are giving over something you trust He can take care of better than you can. And of course, the big question, is "what" is being yielded/transferred/given/committed/surrendered/entrusted etc. I find that Jesus teaching that we must lose our life and forsake all that we have sounds just like repentance and pisteuo (changing your mind and giving over to a new direction).

With this in mind, I’m trying to understand what you wrote about Lordship evangelism adding “surrender and a commitment” to the equation, since that is what pisteuo means in general. I disregard Lordship evangelism because it does seem to focus on “making” Jesus Lord through what seems to be mental effort, almost like the Lord’s prayer for the mind, but I can’t disagree that with the idea that we are commanded to commit into the Son for everlasting life. When criticizing the idea that we need to “commit” for salvation are you referring to the way the word changes meaning when it is used with an action? It seems you are referring to the slightly different meaning of “commit” as it has in the phrase "to commit to do something" where it means "to be extremely dedicated towards doing something," as in placing your confidence in your future ability. Please correct me if I'm wrong about that.

Your comments about “decision” and “will” are honestly fascinating. I had never thought to attempt to disconnect the act of pisteuo, no matter how it is translated, from the act of “deciding” to pisteuo. You say it with such simple confidence, but it really is a quite paradigm-shifting idea. Do I understand correctly you are saying that instead of expecting people to hear the good news and then mull over it and then decide to change their mind and pisteuo into Jesus, you are saying that if they hear the good news and it is unto salvation for them then they simply will immediately experience a change of mind and will pisteuo into Jesus, no mulling or decision necessary? If that is the case, it seems to shift the idea of needing to “decide” back to something deeper, such as needing to desire or needing to be responsive. It reminds me of Jesus asking “what do you want me to do for you?”

Bringing in the definition of pisteuo, though, I have to wonder if “committing into Jesus” is different than “deciding to commit into Jesus.” Saying “deciding” definitely gives the impression of c

4/1/2021 12:23:21 pm

(continued)...gives the impression of calculation that we don’t see in the conversion examples, but it is something we do see in the description of counting the cost. Nevertheless I would definitely agree that we shouldn’t feel the need to insert “deciding” where it doesn’t appear in scripture, and it also makes sense to me to remove the decision part as a point of fostering the right kind of confidence; I suspect someone who didn’t “decide” to commit is actually in less danger of doubts because it came from a deep need and resounding with the Spirit’s message as opposed to a mental framework of decision that is prone to being deconstructed.

Easy Believism or Lordship salvation?

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i invite your sincere questions and comments, and will do my best to answer according to God's word. While i do not claim to be without error; I will try to be as true to His word as I know.

Sandra Platt

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