I think probably the greatest tool that Satan has is to get people's eyes off of what's happening and getting people's eyes on one another.
As I watch American Politics, I see this is exactly what's happening today with the whole "debt" issue. Democrats are against Republicans and will not pass or sign anything they put out. Republicans are the same way. Thus, they only do what's best for their party. They focus on EACH OTHER instead of on the important ISSUE. They are not interested in what's right and what's best for the country. They are only intersested in themselves and furthering their political careers. Because of this, they are at a standstill, a deadlock, neither one wanting to give an inch, and neither one wanting to compromise with the other. Thus, Satan has won, as nothing can be done.
And who suffers for it? The American People.
Sadly, there is politics in the Church as well. And, all too often this politics mirrors the national politics in Washington. Just as politicians focus on one another rather than on the issue, so too Pastors, Missionaries, Evangelists, etc. focus on one another. And often, they are only interested in making themselves or their "camp" or "Bible College affiliation" look good, while lamblasting and putting down others. This is why there is so much bitter infighting among "Independent Baptist" Preachers. They don't get along, and it's because they focus on EACH OTHER rather than on the differences that supposedly divide them.
Instead of having Bible Studies and looking at truth, and discussing it, most Indies (what I call Independent Baptists) will not even crack open their Bibles and look at it with other ministers. They claim to be Bible Believers, but they refuse to have Bible Studies with others.
Instead they focus on the man himself. Once they find something they can use as an excuse to make someone they don't like look bad, or find a way to make them look not as spiritual as themselves, or somehow make them look stupid, then they can write that person off, and not even look at what that person is teaching. But what if that person has a good point?
The Independent Baptist's answer is: "So what! Who Cares!" And the person is blackballed and his doctrine, ideas, and words are not even looked at.
This is sad, but this is rampant in our churches today. Instead of unity in Christ and uniting around what the Scriptures teach, there is much dissention and division in Christian circles, and very little charity.
I speak from experience. This is what happened to me. I was part of a big Independent Baptist movement. But someone lied about me, and told people I was crazy and such. They said, "Bro. Breaker is against PRAYER all together!"
But that is simply not so. However, because they said it, and they focused on ME instead of on my teaching (which is nothing more than sound Bible Doctrine), I was blackballed and they told those within their group not to even listen to me at all. The focus was on ME, not on the scriptures.
Next, they told people things like, "Breaker has gone off the deep end!"
And finally, they LIED by saying that I called my old Pastor a "heretic." But I never said such a thing. Those were words that a person tried to put in my mouth that I never uttered.
Thus, the focus was on me, not on my teaching. I was a "crazy person" teaching false doctrine in their eyes, and I was ridiculed, mocked, and made fun of. But never once was what I was teaching looked at by any of them.
However, what I was teaching was nothing more than what I was taught from the Bible by the very man who turned against me! I went back and read his commentaries, his tracts, even a letter of his to my own father, and they all confirmed that what he once taught is what I'm teaching, and that I was not the one who changed.
The problem was that he and his croonies had changed and I had not. But I could not turn the focus on them. They would not allow it. If I tried to say, "You have changed your position," then I was labeled the crazy person who was speaking foolishly and the heretic that no one should listen to. They even attacked my credibility, and claimed I wasn't a Pastor, I never led anyone to the Lord, and I never started any Churches in Honduras.
That was fine with me. If they wanted to lie about me and discredit me, not problem. I know it's a lie and so does Jesus. But it does hurt some, especially since they were drawing a line and pushing me across it and telling others not to go along with me in anything.
Truly, I can't wait till the Judgment Seat of Christ, so that God will show them they were wrong.
But that's not important now. What is important is the issue itself.
The Issue once more is this, "Can a person be saved by prayer, and is it possible for a person to be tricked into trusting in their Prayer rather than trusting in Jesus Christ's shed blood alone for salvation?"
The answer is: "No on is saved by their prayer, and YES A PERSON CAN BE DECEIVED INTO THINKING THEIR PRAYER SAVES THEM!" This is exactly what happened to me. It also happened to my wife, and it's happened to many others.
In our day and age of "shallow soulwinning" in which a "soul winner" gives a person a presentation of only three or four verses from the Roman's road and then quickly pressures them to "Repeat a Prayer," it is common to see people tricked or deceived into thinking they are saved BY their prayer. That is they think the prayer itself is the SAVING MEDIUM.
This leads to a person eventually doubting whether they are saved or not, and the remedy for this by those same "soul winners" is for them to just "say the Prayer over again for ASSURANCE." Oftentimes, people pray the prayer over and over again night after night, HOPING they'll be saved because of it. But are they? Are they?
That's the issue, but nobody will touch it. Nobody wants to think that Churches are full of people like I was, who might have sincerely prayed a prayer, but have never been born again. It's because they are trusting in what they've DONE (their prayer), and not in what Jesus DID FOR THEM (in dying on the cross in their place for their sins.)
This "1-2-3, repeat after me" type of soulwinning often does more harm than good, as it does not give a clear presentation of the Gospel. Often, many are left thinking their prayer saves them. But where is this in the Bible? People like this are not saved. They cannot be. For if they trust their prayer, then they trust their own righteousness, and not Christ's alone.
But where are those faithful ministers of the Gospel who are pointing this out? They are few and far between. They don't want to "rock the boat." They just want to go along with what everyone else is doing, especially when it's easy to get a person to "repeat a prayer" and doing so makes it easier to "BRAG UPON YOURSELF and HOW GOOD OF A SOUL WINNER YOU ARE!" (Modern Christianity has become a "braggers club" and it's no longer about Jesus and what he's done for Sinners, rather it's about you and what you do for Jesus.)
So we see the focus is not on the Issue, rather on the man. People who talk like I do, are looked upon as "anti-soul winning." But that's not the case! I am very much for Soul Winning! I'm just against doing it in a shallow manner in which a person can end up deceived into thinking they are saved when they aren't!
But very few want to look at this issue. It's just easier to label someone a "Calvinist" who doesn't do things the same way you do. (I'm very much against Calvinism, by the way!).
So who gets hurt when the focus turns from the issue itself to attacking each other personally? Why lost Sinner's of course. They are the ones losing out. For they are left LOST and still going to Hell, but no one seems to care enough about them to make sure they are presenting them the Gospel clearly, and instructing them plainly to TRUST THE BLOOD OF JESUS ALONE for salvation.
But I care. I care a lot about lost souls. I truly want them to be saved. I also care about lost religious people who think they are saved, but aren't. I want to see them saved as well.
But once again, when I say something like that, the PHARISEES will bypass the issue and go straight to focusing on me, saying things like, "Oh, you just want to talk people out of their salvation! That's all you are interested in."
But that's not true at all! If a person is saved, I don't want to cause doubt. However, at the same time, as I read the scriptures, I see that a person who is saved will have assurance. So could it be that those who don't have assurance aren't saved to begin with, and they are the ones who truly need to be saved?
In closing, it's sad to see how focusing on each other instead of on the issue itself has led not only to the downfall of America and its economy, but also to the downfall of the Church as well. Because "politicians," both secular and religious, would rather play their silly games and exalt themselves in the eyes of others, people get hurt. In American politics, those who get hurt are the American taxpayers, who are asked to pay higher taxes for the stupid spending of those in power. But why should we have to pay for their mistakes and mismanagement funds?
In the religious world, the pride of ministers wanting to be looked upon as right while everyone else is wrong has led to a false gospel and a deceitful plan of salvation which gets a Sinner to DO something with their lips, without trusting only in what Jesus has DONE from the heart. And, even though this method makes the soul winner look good in the eyes of the "brethren" by counting how many people he's gotten to "repeat him in prayer," it doesn't really get a lot of folks truly saved. Instead, lost people suffer for it, as many of them get a false assurance of salvation, thinking they are going to heaven based upon their prayer, rather than on the Biblical means of faith from the heart.
Sadly, the issue is never dealt with. Politicians don't deal with the national debt, and get it paid off completely, and most Preachers don't deal with man's sin debt, pointing him to the shed blood of Christ that paid for it.
Instead, they are happy attacking on another, exalting themselves, and forgetting about the important issues.
Truly the Judgment will be terrifying for such men who only care about themselves rather than truly caring about others enough to deal with the issue so that they might be saved.
For more about THE REAL ISSUE of salvation and the sad deception of deceiving people into trusting their PRAYERS instead of in Christ Jesus' bloody PROPITIATION for man's sins, go to:
http://www.rrb3.com/mypub/books/hrsy_sin_pryr.htm
This deals with the ISSUE at hand.
