"Beware that your hearts are not deceived ..."
                                                               Deuteronomy 11:16

I know of no other place in the world I would rather live than the United States of America. It is a country with a strong Christian heritage, where most people profess to be Christian. However, in this day and time, it seems that the church has become powerless to affect change in our communities, let alone the world, while at the same time the world seems to be having a dramatic affect on the church.  How can this be?

I believe that it is because we are bearing in epidemic proportions the fruit (false converts) of a watered down, de-boned, gospel message known as easy believism.  It is a modern day message that misleads people into believing that salvation is more about what they have done than what God has done.  It is a message that I believe that at least on some level has infected even some the most conservative churches, resulting in literally millions of people sitting comfortably on padded pews Sunday after Sunday who are deceived into believing that they are safely on their way to heaven, who in reality are just one missed heartbeat away from spending eternity with Satan and his demons.  Yet they sit unalarmed, unconcerned and confident that all is well, completely unaware of the danger they are in.

This did not happen overnight, it happened over years. What once would have been met with contempt, is now embraced with open arms.  The modern day church has become a safe haven for the false convert.  A place where he is able to sit year after year and never be confronted with his lostness.

In many areas of our lives we often have to compromise to achieve the greater good; however, God's Word should never be a place of compromise. Unfortunately, I believe this is where the "modern day gospel" has sunk in its roots. In an effort to make the gospel more appealing to the masses - it has been compromised to the point that the true gospel is hardly recognizable to the average pew sitter let alone to the world.  The message being preached has become more shallow and what passes for saving faith has become more broad.
The modern gospel has become so man-centered instead of Christ-centered that it has created a common misconception that there are two classes of believers:  Those who are simply saved, yet are uncommitted to Christ and those who live a committed and surrendered life to Jesus Christ as their Lord. This misconception has created the illusion that anything short of utter rejection of Christ is seen as saving faith, resulting in everyone being saved whether or not there is any evidence of being born again.

No where in the Bible will you find support for this way of thinking. The true Gospel has always been a call to follow Jesus - a call to discipleship. Simply knowing and accepting the facts about Jesus and continuing to live for yourself is not the true Gospel.

Jesus said in Matthew 11:29 "Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me ..."

To take His yoke is to submit to His authority, His right to rule and to be Lord of your life.  To learn from Him is a call to discipleship.
Before Jesus ascended into heaven, He said these words:

Matthew 28:19-20
"Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit: Teaching them to observe all that I commanded you ..."

Jesus is clear on what it means to be His disciple.

In Luke 9:23-24 He said,  "... If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.  For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it."

In Matthew 10:37-39 Jesus says, "He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And He who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.  He who has found his life will lose it and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it."

To lose your life for Jesus' sake means: giving up your life and embracing His.
Luke 14:25-27
Now great multitudes were going along with Him; and He turned and said to them, If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. 

Here, Jesus is not advocating hate but emphasizing contrast.  Not that you are to hate your father or mother, etc. but that in contrast or by comparison the love you should have for Jesus should be so much greater than the love you have for others that your love for them would almost seem as hate.  (true love for others only comes from loving Jesus the most)

Having said that - Jesus made hard demands, impossible demands, to say the least, of what it means to be a disciple/a Christian. There is no separating the two.  To be a Christian is to be a disciple and to be a disciple is to be a Christian.  They are one in the same.  (There is not two classes of believers)

The demands Jesus made to be a disciple are impossible to achieve without God and that is exactly why we cannot compromise the demands of the true gospel and change them to the point that a man can seemingly accomplish salvation in his own strength; thereby, resulting in a false assurance of salvation. For when we change the message, no matter how well meaning the intentions or how noble the cause, it ceases to be the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and can only create false converts. Let us not forget, salvation is only found in the true Gospel of Jesus Christ, not in the opinions of men.

In Mark 10:26 we find the disciples questioning who can be saved and in Mark 10:27 Jesus replies, "With people it (salvation) is impossible, but not with God; for all things are possible with God."

Salvation is totally a work of God; ultimately, only leaving you with the decision to surrender to Him as Lord and Savior, submitting your life to His authority, turning from your sins to Him and the finished work of the cross.



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