Counterfeit Conversions

In his treatise on Religious Affections, Jonathan Edwards first set forth several things that in themselves do not prove that a person is genuinely converted.  People can display a great deal of confidence regarding their profession of faith, they can impress others with a large amount of knowledge of the Bible, and can display strong emotion in worship and prayer, all of which appears to be very sincere, without having been truly born again.  Every kind of external moral behavior can be easily counterfeited by the devil.  A person can appear to be very zealous for God, can quote large portions of Scripture, can claim to love God, and speak with great assurance, and yet never experienced the saving grace of God.  I have seen many apparently sincere and very zealous people abandon the faith after years of professing to be followers of Christ.   People can be deceived and believe that they are in a saving relationship with Christ while they are still under the wrath of God.  One of Edwards’ primary reasons for writing the Religious Affections was to prevent this great tragedy.  More on the positive side tomorrow.