“Turn or Burn” theology: A church movement peaking in popularity during the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s that focused on using the fear of hell to motivate salvation.
While taking my History of Christianity classes in college, I noticed one similarity of every Church movement: they all focused on some aspect of Christianity that the former movement has neglected and in turn the new movement unintentionally neglects another aspect of Christianity. Ever since Christianity first began there has been movement after movement pursuing truth and we’re still not there.
Movements never have some standard amount of time to last, some longer than others. Many overlap and many aspects of a certain movements have been around for centuries.
For the past few decades we have been living in the “Turn or Burn” church movement. Everything from people standing on street corners attempting to instill the fear of God to the “It’s a very easy prayer, and then you’re saved!” speech have all been a part of this movement.
While some just simply use hell as a way to motivate the unsaved to save themselves, others use fancy rhetoric and the concept that the decision is a very simple prayer and will keep you from going to hell. I remember, as a teen in youth, being taught the “Roman Road” and other good rhetoric to save my friends. No joke, I specifically remember a man at a church that opened by saying, “I have saved over 1,000 people and if you follow my simple steps, you can save even more!”
Because of these motivators we have come up with some strange phrases. The saying, “just ask Jesus in your heart” has been a popular phrase, in fact it was the exact prayer I said at age 7. “Dear Jesus, come into my heart and bring my dog back to life, amen.” The church rejoiced at my decision to “follow Jesus as my personal Lord and Savior” but I really didn’t know exactly what I got myself into.
Even as a very young child, I knew something was wrong with what many were saying. For the longest time I thought the only benefit of following Christ was not going to hell. So why did I need to be a good boy too? After I said “the simple prayer” I began to wonder if it was too simple. Soon after my Baptism, my mother caught me doing something I wasn’t supposed to, she reprimanded me by saying, “You’re a Christian now, you can’t be doing these things.” I felt like I was lied to, “simple prayer my butt! Now I have all these lame rules I gotta follow” at a young age of seven I regretted my decision to make Jesus my personal Lord and Savior.
This idea that “if we have the right rhetoric, you can save anyone” and attempting to “Scare the Hell” out of the unsaved has so many dangers. A great example of this is there is absolutely no room in fancy rhetoric, the appealing idea of a simple decision and fear of hell to appropriately explain grace. Going back to my young childhood, after doing something wrong I would spend days in regret and hate myself for what I did. I probably asked Jesus in my heart a hundred times before my dad finally told me I am being too hard on myself for my wrong doings, I needed to accept that I was forgiven and thank God for sending His son to die for my sins. Obviously, my reaction to this concept was, “I can do whatever I want and be okay? Perfect!” Again, I had to have a talk with my dad. I hated this whole Jesus thing, “If asking Him in my heart was so easy, why is living it so hard?” It took years and God personally revealing Himself for me to realize that there were more reasons to follow Him other than the fear of hell.
Certain book series have developed during the climax of “Turn or Burn.” Which distort the Apocalyptic literature into this theology of the end times that is completely false! I hesitate to tell this story, mainly because of how recent it was and how bitter I still am. At my Grandmother’s funeral the pastor went on a tangent of the AntiChrist and the threat of being... “Left Behind.” He spoke for 40 minutes, 5 of which was directly related to my grandmother, the rest was an unorganized, unplanned rant on the end times and the AntiChrist already being on earth, Tim Lahaye would have been so proud. “Dear pastor, subscribe to dispensationalism all you want, but don’t turn my mourning over my grandmother’s death into an opportunity to scare some into salvation. Her life of refusing to do nothing but love all people, her selflessness and her giving nature is a far better witness than your mediocre sermon about the Rapture being right around the corner.” Again, let me apologize. I try not to allow my emotions get the best of me. Hopefully, as time passes I’ll be less bitter about the whole situation.
Sometimes I’ll walk down town and people will come up and witness to me. I know this is really mean, but I play along and tell them I’m not saved. I’m just curious to see what they say. Most of the time it’s “if you died tonight do you know where you would go?” I always answer, “hopefully the morgue, if not I hope someone is looking for me!” But one witnessing tool I heard was extremely disturbing, “Think of it this way, if I’m right and there is life after death and you chose not to accept Jesus you will go to hell. But, if you are right and there is nothing after death, you really got nothing to loose if you ask Him in your heart. You know, just to be sure.” When I heard this I could no longer play along. I told him who I really was and that salvation is not a simple prayer it’s a life long journey pursuing and pushing to get closer to God.
There was one time where someone witnessed to me that truly made me thankful for God and His love. I was driving to Bolivar from Springfield and got a flat tire. While pulled over I saw someone from SBU known for being a “Jesus All-star” see I needed help and keep driving. I shrugged it off and began changing my tire. While working on the car this grungy man with a big beard and unwashed hair pulled over his beater truck. As he got out he threw his half smoked cigarette in the ditch and grunted with smoke still escaping his breathe, “you needing help?” Not wanting to turn down a hand I allowed him to pull out this super fast car lift and an air powered lug gun connected to a portable compressed air tank. Nascar had nothing on how fast we changed this tire. After we were done I thanked him for the help and this was his reply, “You know, I do this because Jesus told us the way we treat the least of these is the same way we have treated Him. When I see people in need I just ask myself, ‘If Jesus needed help wouldn’t you stop everything you were doing to help Him?’ If the answer is ‘yes’ than I always help without hesitation.” I was overwhelmed with the Gospel being lived out in my life personally. By the way, the next time I saw the “Jesus All-Star” from SBU his excuse for not helping was he was on his way to church and was running late.
Many churches take pride in being called a “seeker” church, and there is nothing wrong with wanting to seek the unsaved. But many make some bad sacrifices: they remove all crosses from the sanctuary as to not make anyone uncomfortable, their sermons will be extremely simple and unedifying, and will usually end with, “everyone bow your heads and close your eyes, if you wanna be saved just look up at me. No one else has to know... thank you, thank you.... I see that hand.” They do nothing for them after their decision, other than make another notch and pat themselves on the back. And what happens to those who raised their hand? I doubt the pastor even knows.
Some Churches go as far as just simply telling people what they want to hear, they promise riches and power, saying “you are now a son and daughter of a King and you deserve Kingly rewards.” The best example is Joel Osteen. I never specifically point out one person, but with him, he’s created his own category of people who have ruined Christianity.
Becoming a Christian is not easy, being a Christian is not easy. If it were, I doubt Jesus would have gotten killed. Our savior didn’t even have a place to lay His head. What makes us think we’ll get by better off than Him?
The biggest danger is the fact that scripture is blatantly ignored. “Turn or Burn” theology is guilty of focusing too much on Christ’s death and resurrection and not enough on His ministry. For many, the gospels would suffice if they just started at His trial. How many hungry and homeless people were told they needed to accept Jesus as their savior and then instantly turned away, still hungry and homeless?
The worst part is these strategies work. Many people all over the world are saved, because of the fear of hell, fancy rhetoric and simplicity of the decision, but at what cost? The end result does not justify the means.
More and more people are pursuing God and find distaste in this “Turn or Burn” theology. We will be facing the repercussions of this movement for some time. But my biggest fear is the reaction the Church will have.
I bet it sounds like I’m back tracking, but not all aspects of this movement were bad. It is healthy to want our friends to share the same experience we have. We should hurt and pray for those who oppose us. Also, do not confuse me for lumping every church in existence in this category. There are so many great churches out there, who are doing great things. I have mainly pointed out the most radical of the bunch, the few bad apples, if you will. But like all things, the worst stick out the most.
So what now? Many have seen the issues and the problems and want to change, pursue God and edify the Church. They want new motivations for the Church’s actions.
My biggest fear is our change in the Church will solely be a reaction to the “Turn or Burn” movement. We can very easily become too accepting, refuse to say anyone needs Christ. Sacrifice the idea that we need salvation and solely focus on social reform. We cannot be solely motivated to change by the mistakes of the past. Our motivation should come from the scriptures. Until the end we will always be seeking the truth and benefitting from our mistakes in the past. At no point in time has any movement had it all figured out. Even the early Church needed to be called out on their mistakes. We can not neglect the need to witness and tell others the good news, but equally can not neglect the need to serve others.
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