Drinking the Kool-Aid: A term used to describe the blind acceptance of something.
Okay, first off I just want to state that I already know I'm going to get some serious flack for this post. And I'm prepared for that. But this is something God has put on my heart and it desperately needs to be heard.
There is a very dangerous phenomenon in Christianity today. It's used verbally by many Christians and it's printed into millions of Christian publications. This phenomenon is none other than the sinner's prayer.
What the Gospel is to many people today is that you pray this little prayer, accept Jesus into your heart, and invite Him into your life. On occasion, I notice something rather alarming. When I ask if a particular person is a Christian, a common response I hear is, “Well, I prayed the prayer.” It’s as if the words were magic; if someone just recites them, they’re in. That's not the Gospel. As David Platt puts it: "It's modern evangelism built on sinking sand and it runs the risk of disillusioning millions of souls."
Here's one example of the sinner's prayer:
“Heavenly Father, I know that I am a sinner and that I deserve to go to hell. I believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross for my sins. I do now receive him as my Lord and personal Savior. I promise to serve you to the best of my ability. Please save me. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”
And I'm sure that we all have experienced something like this:
"With every head bowed and every eye closed, is there anyone here that would like to come to Christ? If so, raise your hand; just slip it up real quick. There, thank you, thank you, and over there in the back, thank you."
And the interesting thing is, this prayer is nowhere to be found in the New Testament. Nowhere in Scripture does it say that praying a simple prayer is what's required to be saved. We don’t find Jesus nor His apostles in the book of Acts giving altar calls. We never find Jesus wanting people to secretly follow Him by raising that hand. We find no references to Paul appealing for that song to be played one more time to give sinners the chance to come down front to be saved. In Acts before he was Paul, Saul of Tarsus prayed for three days after arriving in the city of Damascus. Yet his sins were not "washed away" until he was immersed in water in obedience to the divine command (Acts 9:11, 22:16). If there was ever a case of the "sinner's prayer" being exercised, surely this was it; yet it wasn't.
Friends, saying "Lord, Lord" is not enough. As you go through the Bible, you can notice that Scripture makes it very clear that the mere act of "calling" out in the Lord's name, in the absence of obedience, is futile.
“Not everyone who says unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 7:21)
And Jesus also says:
“And why do you call me, Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say?” (Luke 6:46)
Friends, do you know how risky it is to lead people to think that they are Christians when they have not actually biblically responded to the Gospel?
The scary thing is that there are countless people out there that have no fellowship with Christ, no desire for godliness, but they believe that they're saved because one time they prayed the prayer and asked Jesus to come into their hearts. These people have drank the Kool-Aid. To believe that somebody may be justified from sin by simply praying that prayer as a substitute for obedience to the plan of salvation, obedience to Christ, is delusional.
It's dangerous.
The Christian faith is not a once-and-for all flu shot. Many people are being led into a decision with very little knowledge of the Gospel. Trusting in a decision rather than looking onto Christ. Living in ungodliness and believing that they are saved because some religious authority told them they were. The thought of that is just scary and it needs to stop.
We need to give people the FULL picture of the Gospel.
So friends, my question for you is: Have you been drinking the Kool-Aid?
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