False conversions refer to the experience of claiming faith without genuine repentance and transformation, highlighting the difference between superficial profession and true salvation. Preachers often use images of counterfeit currency or shallow roots to illustrate the danger of insincere faith, emphasizing the necessity of authentic conversion as taught in Hebrews 6:4-6.
Many claim conversion without true repentance, but genuine salvation is neither easy nor common.
Every man oath conversion, and the new birth; but it is not lawfully attained: they had never a sick night for sin: conversion came to them as a night-dream. In a word, hell will be empty at the day of judgment, and heaven crammed full. Alas! it is neither easy nor ordinary to believe and to be saved. Rutherford.
A mad enthusiast's misguided zeal led to foolish actions and failure.
A poor mad enthusiast thought he might ascend to heaven, as well as Elijah, in a chariot of fire, and so set his barn on fire, that, when the flames reached his elevated position among the bay, the thing might be accomplished. The chariot, as it approached him, looked so uncomfortable, that he concluded not to go up just yet, and hastened out of the way. Caughey.
Spanish priest falsely assures condemned Catholic pirates of heaven at execution.
Several Spanish pirates were once taken and brought into Boston, tried and sentenced to death. They were, it seems, Catholics; and on the day of their execution they were attended by a Spanish priest. As they arrived at the foot of the gallows, the priest turned to the captain, and with much gravity exclaimed:
"SPANIARDS, ASCEND TO HEAVEN."
True believers are like wheat; false ones are like tares, revealed at harvest.
Tares a counterfeit. Appearance fair to eye. Lack of kernel not manifest until harvest time. True believers, the real wheat, rooted in Christ
Some profess faith but lack the Holy Spirit's true presence within.
Wise virins with oil in lamps (oil type of Holy Spirit). Those without oil speak of professors of religion who carry lamp (Bible) but are not regenerated
Evil spirits watch for victims among those clinging to false hopes like sinking ships.
A sailor while clinging with others to a waterlogged vessel, observed great swarms of sharks and other ferocious fish swimming on all sides, as if waiting for their prey. If men had eyes might they not clearly see evil spirits gathering around the sinking hulks of Romanism and self-righteousness, watching for their expected victims?
Old spiritual homes become obsolete as people seek new faiths, often empty like abandoned shells.
When the simple conch is built its tenant adds a larger disk from the material provided in the sea; but after a time “the outgrown shell” is altogether left by “life’s unresting sea” and we find that empty shell cast on the shore. When the old temple has become obsolete humanity finds a spiritual home in new faith. (Text.)
A man’s hidden struggle with sin reveals the danger of false conversions during revival.
DRINKER'S CONVERSION.—During the revival at S., says Rev. Mr. Nettleton, I witnessed an instance which, if you please, I will relate. Mr. A. was one of the most respectable men in that village, about thirty years of age, who kept a large boarding-house. His wife was under deep conviction, and soon was rejoicing in hope, and prayed with and for her husband. This was the means of his conviction; though, at the time, it was not known. Report said he was confined to his bed, and dangerously ill. Hints were privately circulating that he was anxious for his soul, and was ashamed to have it known. It was late in the evening, when Brother G. went to his house, and found him in a bedroom, in a remote corner, in the greatest agony. "What is the matter?" said Brother G. "Oh, I am sick! I am in such distress!" "But your pulse is regular. Where is your pain?" He made no reply; but with violence smote upon his breast. He was asked, "Is it there?" "It is," he replied. The next evening I called, and found him still in the same distress. His convictions appeared to be deep. But when I returned, I suggested to Brother G. a suspicion of the smell of ardent spirits. I then related a number of anecdotes of false conversions, connected with this suspicious scent. "Mr. A. is a very moral man," said he, "and far from suspicion on that point." But, for fear, he sent me back to give him a solemn caution. I returned, and with much delicacy, warned him not to taste, lest ——. He seemed startled at my suggestion, and assured me that he was far from that habit. I requested his wife to watch him, and learned from her, that through his distress his strength had greatly failed, and that he had taken a very little, only, to prevent his sinking entirely. I returned, and observed to Brother G. that I feared Mr. A. was a ruined man. His concern continued for a few days, when he became exceedingly joyful. His conversion was considered wonderful. But my joy was checked. I could not forget the smell of ardent spirits. I called and found him much elated with joy. But when I cautioned him, he seemed surprised and somewhat offended, and observed—"I think I have been distressed enough to experience religion." "Ah!" said I, "now I doubt more than ever whether your heart has ever been changed. Do you think there is any merit in the distress of an awakened sinner? Suppose you had been to hell, and endured the torments of the damned; what then? It is not distress, but love to God and a change of heart
### 403. SELI
False assurance in sin forgiveness comes from misplaced trust in rituals rather than Christ.
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A deacon in a Jacobite church near Tripoli, Syria, was seeking relief for his sin-burdened conscience. He heard of a woman who wrote out all her sins on a paper and laid it on the tomb of St. Ephraim. When she found the paper later, there were no traces of writing on it, so she knew her sins had been erased. The deacon wrote his, and placed them under the altar-cloth beneath the sacred wafer which he believed to be the very body of Christ; but the ink showed no signs of dimness. He was disappointed and discouraged, but just at that time he found a tract entitled “Looking unto Jesus,” which showed him a better way.
Universalists failed to pray, showing the emptiness of their faith and practice.
Some three or four years since, (says the New-York Evangelist of 1832) the Universalists of B—, Allegany Co., New-York, met for the purpose of forming themselves into a religious society; and certain of them supposing prayer to belong to a transaction of this kind, the inquiry was made for some one of the "brethren" to open the meeting by prayer. But in vain. Not one among them all could be found to open or close the meeting in this appropriate and solemn way! One of them, Mr. H—, a justice, perceiving this, and having an idea that religion was a serious, prayerful concern, "took the hint," and left them! He thought it unsafe to embark his religious and eternal interests with a prayerless, not to say wicked people. Hence the beginning and ending of the squire's Universalism.
Fame can rest on mistaken identity and superficial recognition, lacking true substance.
A rather amusing illustration of the slender foundation on which literary fame rests is found in the following:
“Literary fame is not always highly regarded by the people,” says William Dean Howells. “I remember when I was in San Remo, some years ago, seeing in a French newspaper this notice by a rat-trap maker of Lyons:
“‘To whom it may concern: M. Pierre Loti, of Lyons, inventor of the automatic rat-trap, begs to state that he is not the same person and that he has nothing in common with one Pierre Loti, a writer.’”
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