Jesus
Magic
There is an idea that a person can
pray a prayer once with the proper amount of sincerity and be eternally
guaranteed of salvation. It is perhaps
one of the more interesting phenomena that I have witnessed in American
Christianity (and has been exported abroad through missions). I remember when I was in junior high thinking
that this practice smelled wrong. As I
have reflected further upon it, I think that the idea of “eternal security”
(that once you are “saved” you are always “saved”) and its application to the
sinner’s prayer has become a form of magic.
But, not just any magic. It is
Jesus Magic.
The sinner’s prayer is one of the most
common expressions of Jesus Magic in our culture.[1] I call this Jesus Magic because the idea that
I can say words that somehow require God to maintain my salvation through the
uttering of a short prayer at one moment is magical. I am using magic here to refer to the idea
that we alter and shape reality through supernatural power that is invoked
through spoken words. Indeed, the
“sinners prayer” is at times treated as a supernatural invocation, the uttering
of which binds God to provide a certain flavor of the eternal state apart from
that person doing much or anything else.
Imagine the ability to control how God will judge you at the final
judgement through praying a prayer at one point in your life. It is rather preposterous and runs counter to
the things that Jesus and the Apostles actually wrote about the final
judgement.
This form of belief is practically evident
after things like mission trips, vacation Bible school, or other such
“outreach” events. After things like
this, the metrics used to measure the success is often based upon how many
people “got saved/ accepted Jesus” through praying the sinner’s prayer. Biblically speaking, this is an aberration
from the teaching of Jesus. Jesus had a
lot to say about what was required to follow Him. None of the things that Jesus said about
following Him or how to be saved ever involved saying a prayer. Jesus had a lot to say about following Him
involving self-denial (take up your cross and follow me) and doing things (such
as feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, taking care of the poor, etc...). It is a very interesting exercise to look
through the Gospels and see what Jesus set forth as the requirements to follow
Him. I actually did an exercise like
this during my time in Bible College and the study from writing that paper was
the final scoop of dirt that buried the once saved always saved view for
me. When I read the Gospels, I am rather
intimidated by what Jesus has to say about what is required for those who will
follow Him (self-denial and death Matthew 16:24, sell all your possession Luke
18:12, forsaking your employment Matthew 4:19 and 9:9, etc…).
There are theological systems which
prevent this tragedy. Classically
speaking, the liturgical practices of the early church preclude this notion of
salvation. This continues among both the
Roman Catholics and the Orthodox. More
recently speaking, both Calvinism and Arminianism, through different
approaches, preclude the idea that anything a person could choose once would
require God to offer eternal salvation.
Calvinists (classically speaking) would affirm that God chooses whom He
will save and those people will persevere in the faith. Arminians (again, classically speaking) would
hold those who continue to choose to follow God will be saved. Through an interesting blending of these two
systems divorced from both Scripture and tradition, this form of Jesus magic
has emerged. It is both dangerous and
deleterious to your mind and soul.
[1] I
am aware that some would posit that transubstantiation is also a form of
magic. I do not think that this is a
fair comparison for several reasons.
According to the actual liturgical practice, the Holy Spirit is the one
who does the work just as happened in the incarnation of Jesus and we would not
posit that the angel Gabriel was the one who brought about the incarnation in
his announcement.
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