How effective are our present-day evangelical methods when they create eighty backsliders for every one hundred “decisions for Jesus”? Some are even less effective than that—one recent campaign reported having a 92 percent backsliding rate!
The September 1977 issue of “Eternity Magazine” reported the results of an evangelistic crusade that involved 178 churches. Out of 4,106 decisions only 3 percent joined a local church. That series of meetings created 3,981 backsliders! (More up-to-date statistics are hard to come by. Understandably, they are not published with much enthusiasm.)
I did read that in 1987, however, a Luis Palau crusade reported 6,000 decisions. Yet, despite intense follow-up and counsel, within the first three months, 947 already had backslidden.
To those who have a burden for the lost, like Luis Palau, Billy Graham, and many gifted evangelists around the world, these statistics are not just bad news—they are heart rending! While evangelicals run around in ever-decreasing circles, 140,000 souls die every day.
When I taught evangelism there was one guy who wanted to use the law, and I didn't like it, I basically forbid him from using it, and he left the class. I had a hard time with it at first. I didn't like how the implications made people humble. I thought of it as embarrassing them, and that made me feel uncomfortable. But when we get saved, that should be the exact feeling we should have. Embarrassed for sin, humble before God. Not joyful and happy at conversion, but contrite. So I was wrong. The other thing I was wrong in, was free grace theology. Ray comfort teaches the correct gospel, same as john macarther, and greg laurie and raul ries. It's called Lordship salvation. Google it. But lets get back to the gospel technique.
many are told that God loves them and has a wonderful plan for their life, but they are not told they are sinners that are going to hell. They have no need to get saved because they believe God will already save them by grace, after all Jesus died didn't He? Aren't everyone saved by grace now? No. People know they are imperfect, but they still think they are going to heaven. That is the nonreligious. Catholics on the other hand, overwhelmingly lack assurance of salvation and have the opposite error. But how do we we tell people the good news, while making them realize the seriousness of sin, but at the same time not condemning them? Well the law comes into play perfectly here.
Without the Law there is no sin it says.
in vines expository dictionary it spells it out clearly:
"“transgressions” of the Law, Gal. 3:19, where the statement “it was added because of transgressions” is best understood according to Rom. 4:15; 5:13 and 5:20;
the Law does not make men sinners, but makes them “transgressors”; hence sin becomes “exceeding sinful,” Rom. 7:7, 13. Conscience thus had a standard external to itself; by the Law men are taught their inability to yield complete obedience to God, that thereby they may become convinced of their need of a Savior; in Rom. 2:23, RV, “transgression (of the Law),” KJV, “breaking (the Law)”; Heb. 2:2; 9:15.¶
above quote from:
Vine, W. E., Unger, M. F., & White, W., Jr. (1996). Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words (Vol. 2, p. 640). Nashville, TN: T. Nelson.
Jesus explains false conversion and apostacy perfectly:
“Therefore hear the parable of the sower:
“When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand
it, then the wicked
one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside.
“But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy;
(joy present at false conversion, not contrition over sin)
“yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles.
“Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful.
(people forget that those who are unfruitful, are not truly planted, hebrews 6, they forfeit salvation)
“But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands
it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.”
But lets talk about eternal security: where I disagree with ray comfort.
ray believes once saved always saved as spurgeon believed.
Ray Comfort actually teaches that tribulations, temptations, and persecutions are good for the true convert, as well as beneficial for the false convert. For the former, according to Ray Comfort,
tribulations, temptations, and persecutions will make him grow spiritually. For the latter, the same will reveal his unsaved condition so he will clearly know he is not saved and needs to genuinely repent and place his faith in Jesus for first-time salvation.
The sunlight and the spiritual, that which reveals that which we cannot see, is
tribulation, Mt. 13:21;
temptation, Luke 8 verse 13; and
persecution, Mark 4 verse 17. These three factors reveal what you and I cannot see, the heart condition of the professing convert. Now if you purchase an expensive house plant, one of the worst things you can do is take that plant home and say, "This plant cost me a lot of money.I'm going to keep it away from the sunlight. I'm going to put it in a closet and shut the door.
Now, that's the worst thing you can do. If you know what you're doing, you'll put the plant in the sunlight and you'll even rotate it to make sure it gets plenty of balanced light.
In the same way, the worst thing you and I can do with a new convert is shield him from the sunlight of tribulation, temptation and persecution. If he is genuine, the sunlight will cause him to grow. If he is false, the sunlight will cause him to wither and die.
If you are a true convert, after Ray Comfort is done with you, you will think you are standing firm and will always be standing firm through tribulations, temptations and persecutions. You can't fall away, ever backslide or even look back, according to the Ray Comfort myth:Again,
the true convert will never even look back according to Jesus, let alone depart from the faith.
The Bible gives a very hard hitting Scripture to repudiate such a false notion. In 1 Cor. 10 verse 12, Paul wrote to true converts with these words:
So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall!
Paul believed true Christians could spiritually fall just by thinking they were firmly standing, the very message of eternal security and Ray Comfort. Christians are also told to be afraid and not arrogant in Rom. 11:19-23.
Furthermore,
if Ray Comfort's theory and theology are correct about temptations and persecutions being good for the true convert, then we should see this being taught directly or indirectly in the Bible. Just the opposite is magnified in Scripture.
I posted this from various clips from across the internet.