“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne, and all the nations will be assembled before him. And he will separate the people one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.” Matthew 25:31-33
How could vast numbers of people have been led to believe that they are Christians when they are in fact not? It doesn’t matter what you think you are and what you call yourself... only God determines if you are in fact living a life worthy of the name “Christ follower” a true Christian.
If you have struggled to understand why a loved one who made a “decision for Christ” has no desire for the things of God, to live according to the commands and disciplines of God, or why so many church members of today show little to no evidence for their faith, there is an explanation.
The idea of false or hollow conversions may be repugnant to us, but the problem of false converts has existed since the beginning of the Church and it is actually a topic Jesus spoke often about. For example, in Mark 4:3–8, Jesus taught the crowd the well-known parable of the sower:
“Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow. And it happened, as he sowed, that some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds of the air came and devoured it. Some fell on stony ground, where it did not have much earth; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up it was scorched, and because it had no root it withered away. And some seed fell among thorns; and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no crop. But other seed fell on good ground and yielded a crop that sprang up, increased and produced: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.”
When Jesus told His disciples the parable of the sower, they did not understand what it meant. When they asked Him about it later, He said, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables?” (Mark 4:13). In other words, if they could comprehend the parable of the sower, they would hold the key to unlocking the mysteries of all the other parables. If there is one message that comes from the parable about the stony ground, the thorny ground, and the good ground, it is this: When the gospel is preached, there will be true and false conversions.
Judas Iscariot, for example, was a false convert. He was a hypocrite—a pretender—whose desire (it seems) for riches and power choked out his affection for Christ. He himself probably did not think that about himself. He likely thought he was a devoted and faithful follower. In terms of the parable, we would say that he was a thorny-ground hearer, in whom “the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering into his mind and heart choke out the word, and it becomes unfruitful” (Mark 4:19).
Judas had no idea who Jesus really was. However, he would not have thought that if challenged by any of his contemporaries. When a woman anointed Jesus with an expensive ointment in an act of sacrificial worship, Judas complained that the ointment should have been sold and the money given to the poor (see John 12:3–6). His focus was on being efficient with the money available to the immediate needs of the disciples [mostly himself] in close daily association with Jesus. In reality, Judas did not think Jesus of Nazareth was worth such extravagance. Eventually, Judas agreed that Jesus was worth only about thirty pieces of silver.
Moreover, the Bible tells us that Judas was lying when he said that he cared for the poor. He was actually a thief who so lacked a healthy fear of God that he was stealing money from the collection bag (see John 12:6). Nevertheless, to all outward appearances, Judas was a devoted follower and disciple of Christ. If one grasps the principle that true and false converts will be alongside each other in the Church, then the other parables about the kingdom of God also make sense: the wheat and tares (Matthew 13:24–30), the good fish and the bad fish (Matthew 13:47–50), the wise virgins and the foolish virgins (Matthew 25:1–13), and the sheep and goats (Matthew 25:31–46). Take, for example, the parable of the dragnet:
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet that was cast into the sea and gathered some of every kind, which, when it was full, they drew to shore; and they sat down and gathered the good into vessels, but threw the bad away. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come forth, separate the wicked from among the just, and cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.” (Matthew 13:47–50)
Notice that the good fish and the bad fish were in the net together. Notice also that unbelievers are not caught in the dragnet of the kingdom of Heaven; they remain in the open sea or the world. The “fish” that are caught are those who hear and respond to the gospel—the evangelistic “catch.” They remain together, the true and the false, until the Day of Judgment.
In Matthew 7:21–23, possibly the most frightening passage in Scripture, Jesus spoke of many who would consider themselves Christians and yet not worthy of being saved. Jesus warned, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven. . . Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’”
Look at how seemingly spiritual people can be and still not make it to Heaven:
■ They called Jesus “Lord.”
■ They prophesied in His name.
■ They cast out demons.
■ They did many “wonders” in His name.
Many people certainly look spiritual and do things that would suggest they are on track with God, and yet they will be rejected by the One they have called “Lord.” False converts do have a measure of spirituality. Judas certainly did. He had apparently convinced the other disciples that he truly cared for the poor. And he seemed so trustworthy that he was the one who looked after the finances. When Jesus said, “One of you will betray Me,” the disciples didn’t point the finger at Judas; instead, they suspected themselves, saying, “Lord, is it I?” That’s why it’s not surprising that so few within the Church today would suspect that we are surrounded by those who fall into the “Judas” category.
I would like to caution you at this point: In case you think the problem of false converts affects only those “other churches,” let me say that statistics show otherwise. Current reality says, 80 to 90 percent of those who have made a decision for Christ will fall away. Here is one example from the past twenty plus years:
In the March/April 1993 issue of American Horizon, a major U.S. denomination disclosed that in 1991, 11,500 churches had obtained 294,784 decisions for Christ. Unfortunately, they could find only 14,337 in fellowship. This means that, despite the usual intense follow-up, they could not account for approximately 280,000 (95 percent) of their “converts.”
With the vast majority of “converts” falling away, could some of those whom you have led to the Lord be among the “many” who will hear Jesus say, “Depart from Me”?
As much as any of us would be horrified to think we are creating “Judases,” it is likely that you too may be leading people into false conversions through your evangelism efforts. The Body of Christ is not as healthy as we might like to believe—and the problem is systemic.
I hope you agree... something is radically wrong. In the next few posts, we will consider the cause and look at the remedy. For the sake of the lost among us... please keep this matter in prayer.
