Easy Conversion

A 20 Foot Gutter Sundae, with all the toppings! As much as you could eat in one sitting.


That's all it took to entice people to come to the event, no matter where it was. And this particular event was called a Jalopy raid. We had a list of unsaved friends that we gave our Youth Group Leader and then call them up and see if the Sundae would inspire them enough to come out! This is how every event at Youth Group went. Bring friends out for food and games and then a quick message from the pastor.


A strange mix of teenage hormones, sweat and religion. Once we had eaten our fill of the ice cream and settled down from Capture the Flag or Mafia, we would sit and listen to the Pastor give us a message.


It usually went a few different ways:
"If you went out that door tonight and were hit by a car and were at the gates of heaven, what would you say to God? Why should he let you into his heaven?"


"The bible says that Adam and Eve sinned against God and were separated from Him. That's what Hell is, friend, eternal separation from his presence."


"Think of all the things people do to get to God. Good works, charity, follow the ten commandments, try to love each other, study the bible... It won't be enough in the end."


The entire summation of the bible and God's plan for salvation, dumbed down to simple steps. Anyone could make a split decision to go to heaven! And we could settle that tonight!


"It's as simple as ABC friend.
A: admit that you're a sinner in need of God's forgiveness. Romans 3:23 says For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
B: Believe in what Jesus did on the cross. That he lived a perfect life, was persecuted and crucified for our sin and paid the penalty that should have been ours!
C: Confess with your mouth and ask Christ into your hearts!"


There are 66 books in the Protestant Bible, 27 books of the New Testament. There is some 1000 years of histories, poetry, prophecy, law, genealogy and stories. Commentary books on the shortest books of the bible run multi-volume. It encompasses an ancient time frame that had different thoughts on morals, government, family relationships and nearly everything else.


But I'm going to present it to you as a A-Z books with one message and one goal and pretend that its settled and there's a quick answer to get out of this book.


Easy Conversion.


What does easy conversion look like when its played out? Well, I think we can see it in America today:
- strange attempts to apply ancient texts to different world. There's nothing in the bible about a thousand different modern topics and Iron/Bronze Age morals are impossible to apply in many cases
- An entire group of people that believe in a book they have only read in portions.
- A populace that denies basic science because nothing can challenge the belief they wrote on that decision card in the back of "Four Spiritual Laws."
- A culture that divides every human being to "saved" or "unsaved." And can't understand why people don't convert because, after all, it is so easy.


Easy conversion is supposed to be followed up with discipleship and instruction on how to read the bible. And that's usually about the time you realize that answers are heavily coded and mostly influenced by church rules and vague interpretations. It took only a few months in my church to realize that along with the check off list on the card, we were signing up for a massive amount of things.


- Time to be fitted for a purity ring and time to sign a "True love waits" card. The implications of this are staggering because its all about discipline and thought police. Everything you look at is temptation and its time to train your brain to hate that
- The complete demolishing of all secular music... At some events they even had huge bins to throw your beloved heathen music in. And that also means listening to some pretty mediocre Christian replacements.
- Beware atheist activist teachers! Yes, most Christians find that there is a huge conspiracy amongst the academic world of evil teachers who hate God because of some dark event in their lives. (See: God's not Dead...)
- Seeing everyone as "others." Everyone that is unsaved is incapable of pleasing God and is "of the world." Satan will try to influence you through them so you need to start cutting people out of your life. (or bringing them to church.)
- patriarchal without even knowing it. Indeed, this was something my sister noticed right away when she started going and I was ignorant about it. Submissive women, chest thumping men, modesty and purity. Acting as a "lady." An entire plethora of ancient precepts that they insisted was God's will for women. You already know you won't be preaching or praying or teaching Sunday School above 4th grade.


You are signing up for a complete worldview when you sign that card. And its a world view that immediately sets up inconsistencies and drama that you could never think of.


If you had to think about it, you probably wouldn't do it.


That's why the language is so simple.


ABC... and then right into a world of things you had no idea you signed up for. We need to add more letters.