How many of you are familiar with the dishonest “bait and switch” sales technique?
This is a technique where a business lures customers to their store because of an extremely low price or offer that is incredible, only the customer finds that once they enter the store, the price is no longer in effect, or the item is not quite what was advertised. Once in the store, however, they are bombarded by high pressure sales tactics, being offered lesser quality items at higher prices.
This tactic seems to work pretty well as a shady sales technique, and it also works in religion.
My Independent Fundamental Baptist church continually lured people into it’s doors by preaching a gospel of salvation by “grace through faith, not of works lest any man should boast”. It was stressed time and time again that it was “not of ourselves”, but that God gave us the gift of salvation freely if we just believe. But did they actually teach this in practice?
Just like the sales technique that sounds too good to be true, people were lured by this promise, only to find themselves later ensnared by the many terms, conditions and extra pricing that they had not been informed of beforehand.
The cunning preacher offers many deceptive and high pressure sales techniques to be sure they were still sold.
Here are a few of the terms and conditions that the Independent Baptist Church failed to express clearly up front regarding salvation:
1. If you don’t pray and read your Bible every day, earnestly, you probably never were saved in the first place. (Not of works?)
2. If you can’t remember the exact date and time that you received Jesus in your heart, it probably wasn’t a true conversion. (But I thought we just had to believe and it was a gift, not of ourselves?)
3. If you have sin in your life, you probably never were saved. Time to rededicate your life to Jesus. (Not of works?)
4. If you haven’t been Baptized in an independent fundamental, maybe even premillennial Baptist church, it doesn’t count. And if you don’t desire to be baptised again, that’s probably a sign you never were saved in the first place. (Not of works?)
5. If you aren’t actively saving souls by going door to door soul winning, or evangelizing in the street corners, or inviting others to church, you probably never were actually saved. (Works?)
6. If you aren’t tithing, it’s time to check your heart and see if you actually have had a true change of heart and been saved at all. Time to answer the altar call and ask Jesus’s into your heart for the 5,683rd time.
This is just the tip of the iceberg of the terms and conditions that I remember hearing, and trying to reconcile with the passages about “grace through faith”.
In truth, I was being conned; conned into paying a high price for something that was meant to be free all along.
What was the price that I paid? Here are two things that I paid dearly:
1. My peace. The Bible says the one who fears is not made perfect in love, because fear has torment, but perfect love casts out fear. I had no peace of mind because every moment I had to wonder if I had messed up and it was a sign I had never really belonged to Christ in the first place, and actually was destined to burn in hell for all eternity. The absolute despair that came from this mindset was overwhelming. It made me see God as a tyrant who arbitrarily chose to only allow those who were good enough to be His child. This mindset was continually instilled in my mind at every altar call, at every church service.
2. My joy. I was robbed of the joy of knowing that I belonged to Christ. Instead, I felt continual sadness, being worried about dying, and thinking about all of the souls that I believed I was responsible for sending to hell because I had failed yet again each day to attain a certain level of perfection I could never reach.
Have you been in a church that uses this bait and switch technique? Can you relate to my experience?
Please share your story and let us know how it affected you. What price do you feel you had to pay for the deception?
Free From IFB 