Is it possible there are multitudes of people living in this country who think they are Christians when, in reality, they are not? This is a frightening and serious question. It would take an overwhelming amount of delusion and false information for something like that to happen. But it certainly does.
First we have to ask if people can believe incorrect information on a large scale. How many Germans became Nazis? Communism was believed to be a utopian solution in Russia and China. Certainly people can be tricked into believing a lie. So, “Is it possible people have been deluded by false information about their relationship with God?”
Think about it this way. Imagine you saved your money for a ticket to the Super Bowl and your favorite team is in the big game. You buy your ticket but aren’t that picky about your vendor. The on-line ticket site advertised football. They seemed to be very passionate about the NFL. Why should you worry about whether the tickets were authentic? They really seemed to be having a good time and that made you feel good. But your ticket is a forgery.
The problem isn’t over. The entire time you wait for game day to get here, you are excited. You are sure you will get in to see your team play. You even tell all your friends how excited you are to be going to the Super Bowl. You are excited. You are sure. But you don’t have a real ticket. When you get to the gate for the big game you will be turned away.
If it is important we get true, authentic football tickets, how much more important is it when we talk about our ticket to heaven?!?! How many of our friends and neighbors have been sold a counterfeit bill of goods when it comes to salvation. How many are taught the simple words of Jesus? “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved,”-Mark 16:16.
Is it possible to be taught a false gospel and not be a Christian? It is, “If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.”-Galatians 1:9. So what about the man-made doctrines of sprinkling, infant baptism, or the sinner’s prayer? None of them can be found in the word of God. They are not authentic tickets to heaven. People that buy in to them may feel good about their salvation. They may be excited about God. But when the judgment day comes they will be in danger of hearing words from Jesus they will not want to hear.
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’”-Matthew 7:21-23
When would you want to know your Super Bowl ticket was a fake? I would want to know before I got to the gate on the big day. Brothers and sisters, “many deceivers have gone out into the world,”-II John 7. It breaks my heart to know so many think they are saved when they have not taught the truth of Jesus the Christ, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”-John 3:5. Don’t get me wrong. I hope the Lord lets them in with their counterfeit tickets. But Jesus says, “Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’”-John 3:7. I will not marvel. I will trust and obey.
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