5 Ways on How to Spot a Fake Christian

Written by Warren |Posted on September 24, 2009 | Comments

The list was originally by John MacArthur (except the 5th) taken from his book: Hard to Believe on page 99. The title of the chapter is “Empty Words.” For the sake of the readers, I will try my best to paraphrase and simplify it more for easier reading. The list is somewhat not official, I’m sure there is more. But they’re the basics to spotting a fake Christian. So here we go:

1) He/she is interested in either or all of the ff: feelings, blessings, experiences, healings, angels, and miracles. He/she is more interested in the end-products of the faith than faith itself. More interested in himself than the exaltation of Christ.

2) He/she is denomination-conscious. More committed to their church and/or traditions than to the Word of God. Their kind of Christianity may be purely social. More committed to the organization than to the Lord and His Word.

3) He/she is involved in theology as an academic interest. They may even write books (like John Wesley prior to his conversion), or even preach them in the pulpit but are absolutely void of any real righteousness. Theology to them is an intellectual activity.

4) He/she is interested in one or two areas of theology only. Like the doctrine of the second coming of Christ in relation to current events treating it as some science trivia. This kind of person would boast about his/her interest in that specific area of theology making an impression that he/she is close to God when he/she is actually seeking praises and approvals from men.

5) (this is mine) He/she would boast on his/her activity that was done ages ago as if it belongs only in the past and not in the present. This kind of person uses his/her past activity to show how genuine his/her faith in Christ is not knowing that being a Christian is a present event.

I believe that this list falls short in other churches since the nature of man is to make effort to hide themselves in the dark, people will come up with new creative ways to deceive more that it becomes almost impossible to spot them. But the Scripture always challenges that we ought to examine ourselves more than others. If you spot some folks from your Church (and I’m sure you will) that are among the list, why not minister to them. Reach out to them and have them join your Bible studies or buy him a book as a gift or something. According to John MacArthur, the Church is our mission field because it is packed with people with “empty words.” People who profess but no obedience. This is the trend of the evangelical churches not only in the Philippines, but also around the world.