There are two strands to ecumenism: “general” ecumenism and Evangelical ecumenism. No wonder, then, that people can profess Jesus Christ and yet never darken the door of any church building or actively grow in their belief system they do not have to! After all, if all you need to do is believe that Jesus is the Christ, why bother with anything else in Christianity? There is no real incentive toward growth and development as disciples of Christ because it is not made strictly necessary. This “cheap grace” is very enticing and seductive: all you need to do is believe! Accept the premise that Jesus is the Christ and Lord and you will be saved! That’s all you need to do! Many prove willing to do that, but nothing more. People get this message from friends and neighbors, past church experiences, or through television or other media. To make becoming Christlike an imperative would be adding “works” to Christ’s “finished work.” A suggested “sinner’s prayer” is often given that “converts” can pray and thus “accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior” and “accept Jesus into their hearts.” Sure, most of these preachers will suggest, perhaps even strongly, that believers need to live like Christ did, avoiding sin and clinging to the good, but they would never make it an imperative. These days people hear preachers from Protestant and Evangelical churches in churches and on television telling them that all they need to do to be saved is to believe that Jesus is the Christ. It is an understandable reaction against the excesses of Roman Catholicism but is a distortion of the Gospel message, and flatly contradicted by Acts 2:36-38, Romans 1:5, 6:1-23, 1 Peter 1:22, and a host of other passages. According to the doctrines of faith only, God is the only Actor: He provides the means of salvation in Christ, He provides believers with faith, He compels them toward righteousness through the Spirit, and so on and so forth. Nevertheless, Paul demonstrated that the proper response of faith in God in Christ demanded obedience to the truth (Romans 1:5, 2:5-11, 6:1-23) the Reformers distorted this into the doctrine of faith only, excluding any concept of works or obedience as necessary for salvation.

Paul did teach that since everyone has sinned (Romans 3:23), no man is able to be justified before God based on his works, merit, or attempts to keep law (Romans 1:18-3:21). “Faith only” comes about during the Reformation as a distortion of Paul’s doctrine of justification by faith. These doctrines are faith only, ecumenism, and “once saved, always saved.” Considering the message of God in Christ as revealed in Scripture, how can this be? What leads to so many people professing the faith without abiding by its substance?Īt least part of the reason can be found in what we will deem the “unholy trinity.” The unholy trinity represents the combination of three pernicious doctrines that have, at some level, led to the spiritual inertia and malaise that affects America today. But that still leaves plenty of people who believe and yet are not affiliated with any church and/or infrequently, if ever, attend any assemblies of churches. If over three-quarters of Americans believe in Jesus and even the resurrection, where are they? Many, no doubt, are active in denominations and their assemblies. Nevertheless, the statistics should give us pause. This is not the picture that is normally presented about America then again, we should remember that it is conflict and sensational claims that sell books and get promoted on television and in movies, and therefore we should not be surprised that the reality does not seem to be as dire as the promoted story. Slightly fewer (78%) agree with the premise that Jesus was raised from the dead. Statistics reveal that about 82% or so of Americans believe not only in God but also that Jesus is His Son. Yet such people are not that much more populous no more than 20% of the population. Others may believe in God but not in Christ or Christianity and have hard feelings against Christianity and/or Christians. While it is true that there are such people out there, their numbers are few around 2 to 9% of the population.

Warnings are sounded about the dangers that come from so many atheists and others in our society who seek to denigrate God and anyone who would believe in Him.

Even though our country continues to grow in population, church membership and attendance, on the whole, remains flat or in decline. For some time now we have heard dire warnings about the “faith crisis” in America.