I read as much as I can. I do not read as much as I would like and I do not read much other than the Bible and literature that is related to the Bible and Christian principles. Three recent articles that I read brought forth information collected by Gallup Polls and the Barna Research Group. One related that 74% of the American people profess that they have made a commitment to Jesus Christ. A second article related the following: 51% could not name the first book in the Bible, 60% could not identify the three members if the Trinity, and 66% did not know who delivered the Sermon on the Mount. The third article showed that a recent survey indicated that 41% of American adults profess to be born again.

Now, if three out of four people in America had made "a commitment Jesus Christ," and 41% claim to be born again, we would have almost as many saved people as when Noah and his family got off the ark. But this is not the case and if any one thinks we live in a Christian America he is sadly mistaken. One would think that if so many people in America were saved not only would they know the name of the first book in the Bible; but crime, violence and pornography would be all but unknown in our nation. Who would the drug pushers and the porno pushers sell their garbage too? Those guys would starve to death, or have to find an honest way to make a living.

I have worked in prison ministry since 1984. While I do not know all there is to know about it, I do know a considerable amount. It is my passion. I have dealt with hundreds of drug dealers and murderers and rapists who could look me in the eye and tell me they were saved years before they committed their crimes or during their childhood. That is how we come up with 74% of Americans believing they have made some sort of commitment to Jesus Christ. With a divorce rate of about 50% we can understand that we do not understand what a commitment is. Does anybody say "Till death do us part" anymore? Does anybody mean it? And just think what the divorce rate would be if so many people in America didn’t live in outright fornication? (I readily admit that it is not always both parties that are cause the of the divorce. Sadly, the innocent party is often forced into divorce by the guilty party).

In the apartment management business my wife and I have seen one or both parents help their fornicating children find an apartment and don’t think a thing of them producing bastard offspring. In one case I believe a girl conceived her daughter with her boyfriend while her mom and dad slept in the neighboring bedroom. (I do not know that for a fact, but I believe it to be true). Some of them have let their child and their ‘mate’ live in their home for a lengthy period and now the time has come for them to get out on their own. And these are the nice people in Christian America.

I think we real, honest to goodness, washed in the blood, born again believers are as much the cause of the problem as anyone. Do we live a life that is different from the world? While I am not an advocate of life style evangelism, can anyone tell by your life style that you are a believer? If you told them you were a Christian, would they believe you? Or, would they laugh at you? If the best a real Christian can do is live a half step better than the devil’s crowd then why shouldn’t 74% of America think they have made some sort of commitment to the Lord Jesus? Why shouldn’t 41% think they are born again? By the way, if someone were to ask me how many people in America are saved I would guess at about 4%. There are good, godly evangelists who preach across this nation and study the people they preach too. Some of these faithful men of God who preach in good fundamental Bible preaching churches believe that as many as 25%, 50%, and some as high as 75% of the church members are not saved people.

I wish to relate a small portion of a much longer article from a good Christian paper I receive. I will not mention the paper by name, as I am not in agreement with this article. They seemed to believe this fellow is saved though it is extremely unlikely. I have a life time subscription to this paper and use many of their better articles in The Liberator, so overall I am very favorable to this paper.

In the article, written by a man on death row in a southern state, the writer tells of his profession of faith and his apparent godly behavior for a season. Then: "I stopped going to church, started back to breaking the law, dealing dope, stealing, shooting at people, robbing people—in other words, SINNING." This fellow now sits on death row for "the shooting death of a man during a robbery attempt." Now, does this sound like a Christian man to you? Oh! but in his testimony he said, "I gave my heart to Christ; I joined the church, got baptized and was even an usher in the church." None of that proves a thing, nor means a thing.

Look at what this man is telling us:

He was a dope dealer. A dope dealer’s business is making slaves and damning the souls of men. See Revelation 18:11-13.He was a thief. See Exodus 20:15 and James 2:10.He was a robber, an act of violence which is a half step away from murder. He was shooting at people. They call that attempted murder don’t they? He is now a convicted murderer on death row. In his article he admits his guilt. Do I have any reason to believe this man is a born again believer in Jesus Christ? Do you? Does he? Joining the church, being baptized, and being an usher is no promise of Heaven. This man openly admits to fulfilling at least half of Revelation 21:8: "But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death." Some would call this fellow a "backslider," but it sounds to me more like he fell of the cliff!

Do you remember a man named Jim Jones back in the late Seventies and early Eighties? He was a highly respected pastor and preacher. His people were deeply devoted to him. His church was big enough for politicians to come around to have their picture taken with him. Then one day Jim Jones and about 900 of his faithful followers committed suicide under Jones’ orders. Does anyone really believe this was a saved man? We have no more reason to believe he was saved than the man I am talking about that now sits on death row.

I have another article before me from a paper "written by inmates, for inmates." I am not the least bit against saved, godly inmates writing articles as long as they are spiritually sound. But, here we go again with a woman inmate who claims to have received Jesus Christ as her Lord and Saviour at age 19 in 1977 and "went to church every Sunday." In the same paragraph she tells her readers that because she smoked weed and partied the rest of the week because her "soul was not anchored." During her ‘church years’ she produced an illegitimate son. She says a serious health problem struck her mother in 1980 and this lead to her backsliding. But, again, what indication do we have that she ever really stepped forward enough to backslide?

By her own admission, heroin became her best friend. She has been in and out of trouble with the law and jail since 1985. When a woman gets hooked on drugs she ends up doing at least one of the following: stealing and selling stolen goods; selling drugs; or selling her body–or a possible combination of all three. We have not one reason to believe for one moment that this lady was saved in 1977. By her definition she has been a backslider since 1985. By the Bible’s definition we have no reason to believe she ever received Christ as Saviour. She says, "I’m holding on to God’s unchanging hand and I’m standing on His Word and His promises." I would to God she was.

This woman’s sins took her to where she is. The last thing her church needed was a member who used dope and partied all of the time. This is the last thing her illegitimate son needed, who is now an adult and whose whereabouts are unknown. Nor did her dying mother need a junkie for a daughter. I readily admit that drug addiction is difficult to overcome, so to a degree I am very sympathetic to dope fiends. Both my father and father-in-law were drunkards. So were other relatives. So was I. Some of my relatives have done (or are doing) jail and prison time because of booze and drugs. I have seen these tools of Satan ruin families and marriages and children of people I know and love. The "I love Jesus and I love my drugs" theme song so often sung in our day has never been, is not know and never will be something I accept as acceptable Christian living. There was a day when no one—not even the drunkards and dope fiends themselves—would consider such a person who lived in such a way to be any kind of a Christian.

It amazes me that in a nation that claims three out of four people have some kind of relationship with Jesus Christ, one of the most powerful conservative religious persons in America is Dr. Laura Schlessinger, a Orthodox Jewish psychologist. She hosts the ‘Dr. Laura’ radio talk show. I listen to parts of the program from time to time and find it generally interesting and sometimes helpful. Dr. Laura is worldly, sometimes vulgar and her knowledge of the Bible is almost entirely limited to the Ten Commandments. But she has a huge following because she believes adamantly what she believes and tells her callers with their various moral dilemmas to "do right," "take charge," "admit when you are wrong," "bear the burden," "act your age," "don’t be so foolish as to marry that kind of a man," "you are the adult in you home so the decisions are yours to make," and so on. Most Baptist preachers could learn more from her than they did sitting in that ‘preacher boy’ class at Bible school.

Dr. Laura treats every callers religious views equally. This is interesting, as no Orthodox Jew that takes his or her beliefs seriously thinks a Christian has a chance come the Day of Judgment. (And neither do fundamental Christians think Jews, Moslems, etc. have a chance either, and vice versa— though we fundamentalists have a Book from God to prove us right).Yet this is why there is so much religious confusion in America. Everybody is okay with God, or least each individual claims that they themselves are and hope for the best for everyone else, but don’t really care. If they thought differently they would have to change and religious America would rather do anything than change. Why if people took their religion seriously enough to go to a Bible preaching church they would have to let Sunday be the Lord’s Day, and, "Well, you know, I really do believe, but Sunday is the only day that I have to..." They would have to start tithing, and, "Well, if we did tithe then we wouldn’t be able to afford..." "Certainly God doesn’t except us to allow Him to have any say in our lives! He knows we would if we could but...and after all this is the 21^st Century!"

Heathen America will bend their knees to Dr. Laura’s moral advice because once they hangup the phone, or turn off the radio they can continue on in their sins if they like, or they can listen to the advice they received if they so choose. There is no commitment to make to an invisible talk show host—and the good doctor doesn’t care if you are as worldly as the day is long, or drink alcohol as long as you don’t over do it. God too is invisible. He planned it that way. He wants us to serve Him by choice; worship Him by choice; obey Him by choice. Somehow the Bible’s "Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen."—1 Timothy 1:17 is a whole lot more challenging than Dr. Laura’s, "Now go take on the day!"

Let me relate two brief accounts for you (both are slightly edited):

Sex, violence and foul language on television have increased threefold since 1989, according to a recent Parents Television Council study. Since 1989 references to sex organs have increased sevenfold, foul language has increased five and a half times, and references to homosexuality are 24 times more common. —Religion Today 3/00.

Never has there been a more destructive attack on our young men than we face today. The eroding of marriage, the feminizing of men and the degrading of women have all contributed to the destruction of our society. —Roloff Homes Report 6/00.

The Roloff Homes have dealt with hundreds of teens and adults (many of them former prisoners) with the roughest of backgrounds. They have helped a multitude, so they know what they are talking about. Do either of these reports give any indication that America is very Christian at all?

A home that helps very troubled, very rebellious girls reports that their girls are becoming more and more difficult to reach—and everyone of these girls come from a fundamental Christian home. Almost every teen girl who gets straightened out while at this home will tell you that she was saved during her stay at the home. Being raised in a Christian home and being in church for every service is not a guarantee of salvation or of Heaven.

A couple of times a year I am allowed to hold a Bible study in our local county jail for a six week period. Amazingly, it seems everyone who is arrested in Lake County Jail is a Christian, or thinks they are. Somewhere during the course of the study I ask everyone their opinion about telling lies. Of course everyone agrees that is an awful sin. Then I ask, "If you are guilty of the crime they have you here for, then you have confessed that you are guilty to the police or the district attorney or your judge right?" I loose a lot of Bible studies right there. It seems good Christian thieves, dope dealers and murderers cannot tell the truth at such times! While we should always be truthful and honest, it would seem to me the most important place to be honest would be in a courtroom. Everyone tells the truth when it to their advantage, but only a scant few would do so when it is to their disadvantage. It seems to me a real Christian would tell the truth regardless of how it would affect him. A dirty liar is a dirty liar whether he professes to be a Christian or not.

One fellow who did seem to have a great deal of Bible knowledge all during a recent Bible study and spoke at great length on how inspirational he was to the other inmates said, "They’ll hang me if I tell the truth." He confessed his guilt right then and there to me, but would not to the court, and threw his phoney testimony down the drain at the same time. I just checked my Bible; there is no footnote after "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor", that serves as ‘an exception clause.’ This is what we call Commandment #9 in the Ten Commandments. There is not a footnote, an asterisk or a lawyer’s loophole that gives us an avenue of escape. We are stuck with telling the truth. And yes that judge, district attorney and jury are just as much your neighbors as is the guy who lives next door.

An other Christian fellow during the same Bible study blamed the various prison ministries at the prison he was just released from for his return to jail and prison because, "They didn’t preach the love of Jesus enough." He was a real hothead so I let him blow off his steam and figured I would try to straighten him out the next week. The next week came and I found out that he was in disciplinary segregation for his violent Christian behavior. I so much wanted to ask him if I could be there when he told the judge the reason he was in jail again was because of a couple of prison ministries who "didn’t preach the love of Jesus enough." I assume he is in a down state prison by now.

A man I came to know over two or three years in a prison I preach at regularly was recently released. If I thought I ever met a Christian inmate it was him. He was a gentleman. He was articulate, polite—you name it. He seemed to be a real Christian gentleman. He got out of prison and got back into prison almost overnight. I found out this was his fourth time in, and for the same stupid crime. Unfortunately, he is a distant prison, so I cannot visit with him. I so much wish I could straightforwardly yet lovingly challenge him about his situation. He had what I thought to be a solid Christian testimony. Do folks realize what they do when they fall into sin? This man was in a position of influence to a number of other inmates. They all know he is back in again. How has this helped the cause of Christ?

If any of these people I have mentioned were saved I would think it would be this last fellow, but his actions cause me and any other Bible believer to have serious doubts. Certainly any of the people I have written about can be saved if they would repent and believe the Gospel, though I think none of them were saved during the incidents I have written about above.

Look at what John the Baptist had to say, "As it is written in the book of Esaias the prophet, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth; And all flesh shall see the salvation of God. Then said he to the multitude that came forth to bd baptized of him, O generations of vipers, who hath warned you to flee the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance..."—Luke 3:4-8. (Read Luke 3: 1-15). John the Baptist took the matter of salvation very seriously, preferring to baptize no one rather than false ones. Many a modern day Baptist preacher could learn from John’s example.

If you are crooked and haven’t been made straight you have no reason to believe you are a saved person. America is in the midst of great religious confusion. So you should not be overly surprised if you are confused over this matter of salvation. Our nation has not been as heathen as it is now since the day before the Pilgrims got off their ship. No one is going to Heaven because they give a positive answer to a Gallup Poll, or tell the Barna Research Group that they are born again. We go to Heaven because we come to realize we are poor, lost sinners, richly deserving eternal punishment in the fires of Hell. Your concern should not be whether or not you are going to Heaven or not, but what you are going to do with those awful sins you have to pay for? You cannot pay for them; but Jesus Christ, the Son of God has. Salvation and Christianity are the most serious matters in the world. Get right with God.

"If you are not saved nothing else matters."

"A saved man is not the same man."

Concerning the evidence of being born again the great black Baptist preacher John Jasper said,"If you is what you was you ain’t."

Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. –Acts 20:20.

...That they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance.–Acts 26:20.

Friend, my desire is not to make you doubt your salvation if you are already saved. But, I would rather you be truly saved and doubt it for the rest of you life than for you not to doubt your salvation and be lost for all eternity. I have two very helpful tracts I would like to send you at no cost. They are, ‘Are You Born Again?’ and ‘Barred From Heaven!’ It would be to your spiritual advantage to give them a careful and prayerful reading. Ask for them by name. I will gladly send them to you and pray for you. Write:

If you have a spiritual concern or a Bible question, please write us. lpm8998@core.com

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Revised: August 03, 2000