The Deception of Easy Believism:
When Faith Stops Short of Repentance

One thing that I wanted to talk about in this blog post is the concept of easy believism. Easy believism is probably not something that you have heard about, but it is definitely something many have experienced, and it’s dangerous. But to start, let me discuss what it’s not. 

Easy believism is not just saying something is easy to believe in. For instance, you could say that it’s easy to believe that the Sun rises in the East and sets in the West. Well of course that’s easy, because all you have to do is pull out your compass app on your smartphone, note where East and West are respectively, and then just watch the Sun in its circuit. That’s not easy believism, that’s proving a fact. Let’s go a step further by saying that to believe in something requires that you “believe in” something that perhaps has not quite revealed itself. Let me give you another example. If you tell your children that you believe in them; that they can do it, whatever the “it” is, then what you are telling them is that they possess the ability to do “something” that has not quite happened yet. You are telling them that you believe in a future reality that has not happened yet because if it had happened you wouldn’t have to “believe” because the reality would be fact. To tell my son that I believe that he can make a particular shot on the basketball court is different than reflecting back on that same shot after he made it. One is a pre-shot thought saying I believe you will make it while the other is a post shot thought reminiscing on the fact that he did. One is belief while the other is fact and one leads to another. To take that down a scriptural path is to say that you “believe” that one day you will rise just as Christ rose from the grave because of what you believe now. Yet, you haven’t died yet, much less you haven’t risen yet, but you possess the belief that you will and if Scripture is true, which we believe it is, then your belief will one day give way to fact. This lines up with Hebrews 11:1 which says about faith, or believing,

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”

Easy believism is none of that and that’s why I have an issue with it and want to point out it’s biggest flaw. The biggest flaw of easy believism is that its ok for you to believe in something, and you believe only what you want to believe. For instance, to say that you believe in Jesus Christ, but you do not feel the need to repent or even change is easy believism. Yes, salvation is by faith alone, but that faith requires repentance and change which lead up to salvation. However, there are some who don’t want to change because they like what they are doing, yet they want to hold on to Jesus with one hand and the world with the other. That’s why Jesus said in Matthew 15:8, 

“These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.”

Jesus was calling them out for their hypocrisy. They wanted to have all of Jesus, but they didn’t want to let go of themselves. That’s easy believism and that lie from the pit of Hell will send you straight to where it came from if you continue in it. 

Just this past week I was thinking about the phrase, “You cannot have your cake and eat it too.” That’s to say that you cannot have the best of both worlds and I’m afraid that there are many out there who are trying to do just that. Galatians 6:7 says,

“Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.”

The devil would have you believe that you can have the best of both worlds but the warning here in this verse is clear; God knows better and so should you. So watch what you plant because one day it’s going to come back on you. To believe in Christ requires both repentance and change. Repentance means a turning away from the path that you were currently on to a new path and change is what is visible towards others. To live a life without change in your life is a clear signal that perhaps you have fallen prey to easy believism yourself. Remember, you cannot have your cake and eat it too. So, search your heart, read or reread the gospels and see what Jesus says about what believing in Him requires. First, it requires submission and next it requires sacrifice. If neither are clear or present in your life then you need to reassess what you believe and move away from secular easy believism and accept what the Bible says about faith.