People who are born of Christian parents as well as those who have been nurtured from their youth in Christian homes are by reason of long association very familiar with all fine points of Christian doctrines and practice. They are “conditioned” to
living the expected “Christian” life - performing all necessary ceremonies and abiding by ethical expectations. The problem usually is that from youth they “accepted” the teaching about Jesus Christ being the Messiah and Son of God. It is just part of their general education! It is much like accepting from their school teachers that 2+2=4 or that the earth is spherical or that melanin is responsible for skin pigmentation. They are all mere facts to be accepted (and if in doubt, one may even attempt an independent verification). The level is primarily intellectual and maybe, moral – but not in the least spiritual. They know everything about Christ without knowing Christ.
The doctrinal truths become very familiar but there was never a time as they were growing up when they “came to themselves” and were convicted of their personal utter unworthiness before a most holy God. Even when some of such people “confess” Christ, it is often with a mind of concordance with the correctness of doctrine and not with any personal revelation of Christ. Meanwhile everybody around assumes that all these young people are saved.
I remember the testimony a lady minister gave sometimes ago about the happy “embarrassment” she experienced when her teenage son announced one day that he had, that day, accepted Christ as his Lord and Saviour. The embarrassment
was because the boy was already a leader of the youth Christian group in both school and local Church (Pentecostal for that matter) with all the usual paraphernalia such as ability to pray, expound scriptures and manifest spiritual gifts. How many more people are still in such a position? Only God knows. The problem is further compounded by the fact that when these people are still little kids, their parents tend to be emotionally defensive on spiritual issues concerning them. You know, the natural tendency for a Christian parent is to presume that his/her child is already saved. But we all know that salvation of the parent is not inheritable by the children. Each child must come to Christ individually – just as the parents too got saved. Incidentally, this was one of the problems that introduced nominalism to the early Church. (i.e. the presumed salvation of offspring).
Another compounding factor is that by the time these children grow up, their level of entrenchment in the Christian religion makes it very difficult for them to have the grace to accept that they need to be spiritually converted. This is not always a
simple matter of pride or arrogance: many of them sincerely equate Christian religion with salvation and wonder what more they were expected to do. It is a serious problem indeed.
The situation may even be said to be more serious in non-Pentecostal denominations because of social traditions and doctrines of men. Starting with the Roman Catholic Church and filtering down to most of the traditional protestant
denominations, the practices of infant baptism and “confirmation” have, together, watered down the need for spiritual conversion. They have resulted in many generations of those that claim to have been born into Christianity, sealed with the
infant water baptism and ‘confirmed’ in the faith by affirmation during the ceremony called Confirmation. The consequence is that except in a few cases where the persons have, through grace, yielded to the Holy Spirit, these persons’ claim to
salvation is based on wrong (unscriptural) premises. They rely on their membership (or their parents’ membership) of the local assembly; they rely on the fact that they have been sprinkled with water at infancy; they rely on their regular
attendance of church service; and finally, they rely on the fact that they have recited the Nicene Creed or some modification of it. Incidentally, the Creed is doctrinal rather than penitent in content and purpose. Even though a few denominations insert the admission of being a ‘miserable sinner’ in their Confession of Faith, the act and the ceremony remain purely intellectual and emotional rather than spiritual. The needful essence of repentance and spiritual U-turn is loudly absent. Christ is verbally professed but not revealed. Hence the human spirit is not regenerated and the Holy Spirit is not received.
Nonetheless, the Church is blessed today by the move of the Spirit across every denomination. So, in every congregation now are believers who have had the revelation of Christ and truly experienced the new birth. No single denomination has the monopoly of salvation. In the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Church, the Baptist Convention, the Pentecostal / Charismatic movement, the Seventh Day Adventist Church, etc, as many as have yielded to the Spirit have been saved. Unfortunately, there is the majority of persons in all these denominations who are not yet saved. Oh! How glorious it would be for all the people that are already attending church and are ignorantly supposing themselves to be genuine Christians, to receive the grace of God to be born from above by faith and cease to depend on their inheritance in flesh. What is born of flesh is flesh.
So, I speak to you, dear believer, "Is your child saved?" Did the members of your household actually come to Christ through the gospel, personally believing in the heart and confessing with the mouth the Lord Jesus? It will be a monumental disaster to assume that our kids are saved when they actually never had the conversion experience.
Please, make sure.
