The Truth About Right Living - A Personal Observation

While at church number two, I made a second interesting observation, and this observation took me nearly fifteen years to figure out. As was stated in the previous chapter, the pastor at that second church had preached a "once saved, always saved" theme in almost every service. On one occasion, he even said that a Christian, if losing one's salvation really were a possibility, would be better off to die or be killed immediately after receiving Christ, rather than to live a full life and probably end up losing his or her salvation.

This pastor was very charismatic, and he usually made his point in a very convincing fashion. On one Sunday morning, after he had preached his typical message, I noticed during the invitation at the end of the service that the head deacon was making his way to the front of the church. At first, I did not think anything of his gesture, but then, the pastor made the startling announcement that that deacon had just accepted the Lord as his Saviour. To say the least, I was surprised!

The office of deacon is supposed to be held by a mature Christian, one who is sound in the doctrines of the Faith and also capable of leading others. My assessment of this particular individual had always been that he was qualified, yet there he was at the front of the church trying to become a Christian. Something did not add up, but at the time, I did not fully comprehend the problem. Over the next few weeks and months, I observed others within that church, whom I had also believed to be Christians, do essentially the same thing. In fact, some went forward and got "saved again" two or three different times, and I thought to myself how strange this practice of getting saved over and over again was for a church which preached that you cannot lose your salvation!

In our third church, I saw another equally strange phenomenon. At this church, the position on the "once saved, always saved" issue was just the opposite. This time, the belief was that a person could lose his or her salvation. Linda and I had both taught Sunday School for six years at that church, while in that environment. I had taught at the adult level, and she had instructed the children.

One of my challenges as a teacher had been to minister in such a way that my class members would feel encouraged to become involved in church activities. I tried to get people in my class to join the choir, to go on church visitation, to become involved in the bus ministry, to be regular in their church attendance, or to perhaps even teach a class of their own. I also tried to encourage regular Bible reading and class discussion. In six years, I tried many things, but nothing had ever seemed to work! We had other adult classes, and I saw that nothing had worked in those classes, either.

At one point, I came to the conclusion that either most of the adult congregation at our church really did not know the Lord as Saviour or that they were not growing and maturing as Christians. Then, I thought to myself how strange that lack of involvement was for a church which preached that you can lose your salvation!

For me, the conflict was obvious! Why would people keep getting saved over and over in a church which taught that salvation could not be lost, and why would people not take a more active part in the ministry of a church which taught that salvation could be lost? Neither behavior made sense. Perhaps, if the practice of getting saved over and over had only occurred once or twice in church number two, then the matter would not have been so noteworthy. Similarly, if perhaps the practice of nonparticipation had not been so widespread in church number three, then that matter, too, would not have been so obvious. But those respective conditions in both churches were the norm, so I could not just accept either as mere coincidence or casual happenstance. Instead, I pondered both of those illogical behaviors until I eventually came up with what I believe is the most reasonable answer.

My answer came in the form of my own experience at church number two. After seeing many of my friends and fellow worshippers exhibit their own doubts about their salvation, I, too, began to feel similar emotions concerning myself. Over the course of several weeks, I felt myself asking those same disconcerting questions. What if I were not really saved? What if I had been tricked into thinking that my sin gap with the Lord had been closed, when it really had not? From those provoking, troubling self-inquiries, I learned an important spiritual truth. It is that when we give the devil even a tiny window of opportunity, through something as simple and basic as self-doubt, then he will quickly move in for the kill. At those moments when I had begun questioning my own conversion experience, he was, as it were, on my right shoulder whispering into my good ear!

During that time, while still in church number two, I had experienced exactly what the others in that church were experiencing, only I had not rushed to the altar to try to redo something which I knew I had already gotten right the first time. Instead, I prayed and asked the Lord to give me a verse or a few verses from the Bible which would help me know for sure that all was well between Him and me and also to let me know that the sin gap in my life really had been closed. And as He has done on so many occasions, He answered my simple, sincere prayer, in that particular instance by pointing me to the first five verses of I John, Chapter Five.

As I read those words, I gave myself a quick mental test. Did I believe that Jesus is the Christ? Yes! Did I love God? Yes! Did I love others? Yes! Did I strive to keep the Lord's commandments? Yes! Was I absolutely sure about all of these things? Yes! Really? Yes, really! Once I had performed that self-examination and had given myself what I had felt were the correct answers, I put away my doubts and never again let the devil get my goat on that matter. After that, if I ever felt even a twinge of doubt, I would simply return to those same verses and repeat that same short test again.

The point of my observations at the above two churches and of my own experiences of doubt is simple. A person needs to understand that the devil seeks to deceive and distract, also that he has something to entice everyone! If each individual could only learn these simple truths, then the trials and tribulations of this life would be much easier to understand and handle. In Satan, we are not dealing with some wimpy, semi-helpless bad guy. To the contrary, he has awesome, incredible power and vast resources.

One should never underestimate his grip on humanity! He has fooled many of society's brightest minds, including the highly intelligent scientists and scholars who are caught up in the Big Bang theory and the Theory of Evolution. In church number two, he had been fooling those who had felt insecure about their relationship with the Lord. Because I had listened to the same sermons as the others and because I, too, had been feeling some of those same doubts, I understood what my friends and fellow-worshippers were experiencing. More than anything else, though, I could see that their anxieties were being caused by the one who seeks to deceive and distract all of us. The devil had gotten their collective numbers, and he was doing a real good job of stringing them along.

Based on my several years of studying both of the above predicaments, my conclusion is that the devil had been within both churches, both number two and number three, and he was controlling much of the action. He was deceiving and distracting many of those good Christian people who had earnestly and sincerely wanted to do right! How was he doing it? What technique did he use? The answer to this two-part question is somewhat simple, yet this is the part that took me so long to figure out.

After carefully considering each situation, I am convinced that Satan was working his satanic magic on the emotions of the people. Those people, probably not even realizing what was happening, had been hearing the same wrong line from the devil each week, week after week. Because they were not well-grounded in God's Word, they were being taken in by the devil's very clever deception. To avoid a similar fate among ourselves, each of us needs to be on guard and constantly aware of the fact that Satan is so crafty with his two devices of deception and distraction.

In church number two, the devil had been using the repeated sermons about "once saved, always saved" to wear down an unsuspecting congregation. To understand how, one must understand the psychology of the message. Most people have the perception that Christians are very, very, very, very good people, with the emphasis on very good. Even many young Christians have this same mistaken impression, that is that we are somehow real good people.

With that in mind, imagine a spiritually young, spiritually immature follower of Christ listening to a preacher week after week talk about not being able to lose his or her salvation, while at the same time, the devil is whispering words of conviction to that same person! For example, the preacher might say that once you get saved, you will always be saved. But then, the devil asks, "If you are really saved, why do you drive five miles over the speed limit"? The preacher says again that once you are saved, you will always be saved. But then, the devil asks, "If you are really saved, why did you have that fight with your spouse?"

From such a scenario, one should be able to see what was happening in that church, as the devil was literally beating up on the person in the pew. Most likely, that sort of internal battle with Satan was occurring within some people who were actually very good. Yet, after hearing the preacher's words and then being constantly questioned and challenged by the devil, those individuals finally began to break down and ask that fatal question. Am I really saved? If I am, then why do I do so many wrong things? For many, the fear that may have resulted from that internal struggle was enough to drive them forward to try to do again that which they thought may not have been done right the first time!

In this second church, the preaching about that single salvation issue had probably put too much of the wrong kind of pressure on the good people of that congregation. Satan was using that silly issue, called "once saved, always saved," to keep those Christians from maturing and really reaching their level of maximum effectiveness for the Lord. As I have stated before, this is exactly how our evil, demonic enemy operates, and we must be wise to it, or we will surely stumble because of it! Ironically, the devil was using the flip side of the same issue in church number three to again deceive those who earnestly wanted to do right.

I stated earlier my conclusion about the people at the third church. As their Sunday School teacher, I had tried every way imaginable to get those people involved in church activities, yet nothing seemed to work! Eventually, I concluded that either most of them did not actually know the Lord as Saviour or that they were not growing and maturing in Him. As it turned out, the latter was probably true in most cases. But because of this same issue, "once saved, always saved", the devil had been producing a totally different effect among that group of worshippers. Unfortunately, even with the different response, he was still accomplishing the same tragic result - a condition of minimum effectiveness among a group of Christians. Allow me to explain!

Once again, the psychology of the message had played a big part, but this time, it was the psychology of hearing the reverse side of the salvation issue. This time, people were being told that they could lose their salvation. Consequently, the preacher would say that trying to sneak that beer when no one was looking is a sin. However, the devil would quickly come back by saying to the listener, "But you did not do that, did you"? And the person, upon hearing Satan's satisfying words, would sit up a little straighter and take comfort in the fact of his or her innocence. Then, the preacher would say that going to a movie, even one rated "G", is a sin. However, like before, the devil would say to the listener, "But you did not do that, did you"? And once again, the person would find comfort in his or her innocence.

The devil knew and still knows what many may not. He knew that comfortable people rarely feel inclined to move, and by being drawn into that silly debate over the "once saved, always saved" issue, the preacher had actually played right into the devil's hand. The people at that church had been able to find comfort in the preacher's message because they knew that they were not guilty of any of the gross acts which were being preached against from the pulpit. Those people could be satisfied by the clear absence of worldliness in their life, so they did not feel motivated to become more involved in any of the church's ministries. Clearly, Satan had seized the opportunity to deceive and distract many of the very individuals who had actually wanted to do the right thing.

By his own design, Satan had fed the people at church number three the very lie which would most significantly contribute to their overall nonparticipation and ineffectiveness. An interesting note to this is the comment made in the previous chapter about the Lord's letting someone believe a lie, especially when one understands that the people of church number three were actually very good Christian people. Despite their general goodness, the Lord had let them believe the devil's lie, and He had allowed them to find a measure of comfort in their deceived state. Why?

My belief is that they had had the heart to believe that lie. Their heart had been content to hang onto a silly, insignificant issue, rather than to worship the true, living God. Therefore, He let them do so. For most of those years, even though I had not reacted exactly as those around me, I had still believed some of those lies, too!

While I was at the second church, I had been able to understand and go along with the "once saved, always saved" theme. Then, when I had switched churches, I had found that I could also switch my views on that issue and go the other way. Since those opinions are opposite sides of the same issue and mutually exclusive, they cannot both be correct! Therefore, I had obviously been wrong on at least one of those two occasions. Yet, the Lord had allowed me to remain in my ignorant, deceived state. Had it not been for the good training which Linda and I had gotten at our first church, we also would have probably been getting saved over and over at the one church and sitting on the sidelines at the other.

Christians need to be aware of a few simple facts about the devil. First, he is playing for keeps! Second, the battle is real, and he is giving it all he has. Therefore, we must be wise to all of his ways, or we will stumble as a result of his craftiness. Quite simply, a shallow Christianity in this system around us is not and will not get the job done!

Another observation about those four churches is worth mentioning, namely that neither church one nor four had dwelled on any of these so-called Christian issues. As a result, I saw in those two churches people who were eager to get involved. I saw many who were happy in their faith, and I also saw many who were making a significant contribution to the Lord's work. Was all of that coincidence, or is there really a negative aspect to being drawn into the debate over all of these issues of the day.

Based on my experience, I see many negatives in being caught up in any of these secondary theological issues. Personally, I do not care to ever hear about "once saved, always saved", "speaking in tongues", or "free will versus election" again. Those issues have no place in my intellect, in my heart, or in my service towards the Lord. My opinion is that different denominations within the same Christian Faith exist largely because of these ridiculous issues and others like them, and the devil is laughing at all of us because we have continued to stumble down this same path which leads to spiritual instability and ineffectiveness.