"That is the reason we have so many 'mushroom' converts, because
their stony ground is not plowed up; they have not got a conviction of
the Law; they are stony-ground hearers."
GEORGE WHITEFIELD

Kirk's comment I thought "backsliding" was a common, normal
occurrence in Christianity until I understood the reality of false
conversions and their prevalence in our churches today. This lesson is
a real eye-opener.

Q U E S T I O N S & O B J E C T I O N S
"I was once a born-again Christian. Now I believe it's all
rubbish!" When a person maintains that he was once a Christian, but
came to his senses, he is saying that he once knew the Lord (see John
17:3). Ask him,
"Did you know the Lord?" If he answers yes, gently say, "So you
admit that He is real and that you are in rebellion to His will." If
he says, "I thought I did!" this gives you license to gently say,
"If you don't know so,
then you probably didn't." If he didn't know the Lord, he was
therefore never a Christian (1 John 5:11-13,20). Explain to him that
the Bible speaks
of false conversion, in which a "stony ground" hearer receives the
Word with joy and gladness. Then, in a time of tribulation, temptation,
and per-secution, falls away. If he is open to reason, take him through
the Ten
Commandments, into the message of the cross, and the necessity of
repentance and faith in the Savior.

Perhaps one of the most neglected concepts in the contemporary Body of
Christ is that of true and false conversion.Why it is neglected is a
mystery because the New Testament is filled with teachings about the
subject and gives many examples of false converts. The Scriptures speak
of false prophets, false teachers, false apostles, and false brethren.
A clear understanding of the subject will help ensure that we are not
guilty of preaching a gospel that reaps false converts.

When Jesus gave His disciples the Parable of the Sower, it seems that
they lacked understanding of its meaning: "He said to them, 'Do you
not know [understand] this parable? and how then will you know
[understand] all parables?'" (Mark 4:13). In other words, the
Parable of the Sower is the key to unlocking the mysteries of all the
other parables. If any message comes from the parable, it is the fact
that when the gospel is preached, there are true and false conversions.
This parable speaks of the thorny ground, the stony ground, and the
good-soil hearers-the false and the genuine converts.

Once that premise has been established, the light of perception begins
to dawn on Jesus' other parables about the kingdom of God. If one
grasps the principle of the true and false being alongside each other,
then the other parabolic teachings make sense: the Wheat and Tares
(true and false), the Good Fish and Bad Fish (true and false), the Wise
Virgins and the Foolish (true and false), and the Sheep and Goats (true
and false). After telling about the Wheat and Tares, Jesus gave the
Parable of the Dragnet:

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like to a net, that was cast into the
sea, and gathered of every kind: which, when it was full, they drew to
shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the
bad away. So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come
forth, and sever the wicked from among the just, and shall cast them
into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Jesus said to them, Have you understood all these things?
They said to Him, Yes, Lord (Matthew 13:47-51).

Notice that the good fish and the bad fish were in the net together.
The world is not caught in the dragnet of the kingdom of heaven; they
remain in the world. The "fish" that are caught are those who
respond to the gospel-the evangelistic "catch." They remain
together until the Day of Judgment.

False converts lack genuine contrition for sin. They make a profession
of faith but are deficient in biblical repentance-"They profess
that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and
disobedient, and to every good work reprobate" (Titus 1:16). A true
convert, however, has a knowledge of sin and has godly sorrow, truly
repents, and produces the "things that accompany salvation"
(Hebrews 6:9). This is evident by the fruit of the Spirit, the fruit of
righteousness, etc. Judas was a false convert. It would seem that he
was an example of the thorny ground. The Bible says of the
thorny-ground hearer: "The cares of this world, and the deceitfulness
of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word,
and it becomes unfruitful" (Mark 4:19).

Some of these professing Christians stay within the church, and they
are the ones who often discredit the name of Jesus Christ. Although
false converts fail to repent of their sins, they do have a measure of
spirituality. Judas did. He convinced some of the disciples that he did
truly care for the poor. 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 the faithful
treasurer, but instead suspected themselves, saying, "Is it I,
Lord?" So it's not surprising that few within the Body of Christ
would ever suspect that we are surrounded by those who fall into the
"Judas" category.

However, alarm bells should go off when the church, which ought to have
massive clout in society, sadly lacks it when push comes to shove.With
our 142 million professed believers, we can't even outlaw the killing
of unborn children. As William Iverson wrote in Christianity Today,
"A pound of meat would surely be affected by a quarter pound of salt.
If this is real Christianity, the 'salt of the earth,' where is the
effect of which Jesus spoke?"

God knows the genuine from the false, and He will separate them on the
Day of Judgment.

F E A T H E R S F O R A R R O W S
The Bible tells us in Luke 22:47 that Judas led a "multitude" to
Jesus. His motive, however, wasn't to bring them to the Savior for
salvation. Modern
evangelism is also bringing "multitudes" to Jesus. Their motive may
be different from Judas's, but the end result is the same. Just as
the multitudes that Judas directed to Christ fell back from the Son of
God, statistics
show that up to 90 percent of those coming to Christ under the methods
of modern evangelism fall away from the faith. Their latter end becomes
worse than the first. They openly crucify the Son of God afresh.
In their zeal without knowledge, those who prefer the ease of modern
evangelism to biblical evangelism betray the cause of the gospel with a
kiss.What may look like love for the sinner's welfare is in truth
eternally
detrimental to him.

Like Peter (Luke 22:51), our zeal without knowledge is actually cutting
off the ears of sinners. Those we erroneously call "backsliders"
won't listen to our reasonings. As far as they are concerned, they
have tried it once, and it didn't work. What a victory for the prince
of darkness, and what an unspeakable tragedy for the church!

Taken from The School Of Biblical Evangelism
http://reddingloavesandfishes.com/