Jim Vineyard Peddles His Ministry and Easy Believism

In the sermon To the Jew First, delivered December 9, 2010, at Pacific Baptist Church, Jim Vineyard ends the message with an appeal for people to give to his ministry and then a presentation of a prayer that if you pray and "mean it with all your heart," God will save you.

The message given by Jim Vineyard is more a presentation of his ministry that he had to the Jewish people with his ideas and opinions of who the 144,000 Jews would be that are sealed in the book of Revelation. Missing from the message that was delivered is the gospel, that being what the Bible says, the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Further, what is missing is an appeal to repent and have faith in Christ.

Rather, at the end of the sermon, almost as an afterthought, Jim Vineyard transitions into an "easy believism" presentation whereby he tells the listeners that he prayed a prayer back in the '60s, and if they pray a prayer and "mean it with all your heart," God will hear them and take them to heaven. He then leads them in the magic words they are supposed to pray to get saved.

Even more than that, when he is done leading them in prayer, he asks for a show of hands, and tells those who raise their hands to stand so that someone can come and "explain to them what they just did." Now, how can someone get saved if they have no idea what they just did?

When confronted with those needing to be saved, no preacher in the Bible told them to "pray a prayer and mean it with all your heart." Paul, Peter, and others told the hearers to "believe on the Lord Jesus Christ." Faith is the crux of the gospel. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. We are saved by grace through faith. Salvation is not found in just praying a prayer. It is found in repentance and faith.

[IFBPreachers]

Salvation is simple. Salvation comes to anyone who has faith in Christ's substitutionary sacrifice on the cross and His resurrection from the dead. It really is that simple. It is the turning from unbelief to belief, and believing is truly easy.

But when I use the term "easy believism, " what I mean by that is someone who does not present the gospel, but rather tells someone just to "pray a prayer" to get saved. That is not salvation. You can pray prayers all day long and not be saved, because salvation is not found in a magic prayer. It is found in faith.

This clip takes place at the end of Jim Vineyard's sermon, the entirety of which was a presentation of his ministry to the Jewish people. There was no mention of the gospel anywhere in the sermon. Almost as an afterthought, Jim Vineyard transitions into an "easy believism" presentation whereby he tells the listeners that he prayed a prayer back in the '60s, and if they pray a prayer and "mean it with all your heart, " God will hear them and take them to heaven. He then leads them in the magic words they are supposed to pray to get saved. Even more than that, when he is done leading them in prayer, he asks for a show of hands, and tells those who raise their hands to stand so that someone can come and "explain to them what they just did." Now, how can someone get saved if they have no idea what they just did?

When confronted with those needing to be saved, no preacher in the Bible told them to "pray a prayer and mean it with all your heart." Paul, Peter, and others told the hearers to "believe on the Lord Jesus Christ." Faith is the crux of the gospel. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. We are saved by grace through faith. Salvation is not found in just praying a prayer

[AndrewP]

The wrath of God will be revealed against those who misuse His gospel. Those practicing this should fear the Lord and repent. God have mercy on this man.

[Gablesman]

Joel Osteen could not have confused nor misled an audience better (or worse).

[IamaNewCreature]

“Every eyes closed, every head bowed, nobody looking around, put your hand up if you payed that prayer”. Why? So that we put him on a pedestal, because he was ‘ordained’ or ‘called by God’ so he has more authority than others who are in the church? Who do these pastors think they are? It’s all fleshy. Don’t let these denominations fool you, if you are saved, you have the Holy Ghost dwelling in you, pastors don’t have more ‘power’ or ‘authority’ than you, don’t let them tell you that you need them. All you need is the Bible and the Holy Ghost who can and will teach you His Word. And if you desire, find other bible believing Christians you can study with, who don’t exalts themselves and they places the bible as their final authority.

[OrthodoxChristianBeliever]

I'm not against the sinner's Prayer, Saint Basil the Great Had One, About A Paragraph Long he Wrote Before Communion, but for us In The Orthodox, we don't believe that you can just say it, then it doesn't matter what you do after that.

[jd-hjed]

I am not a fan of the IFB. I strongly disagreed with this one. The sermon is irrevelant because it is the Holy Spirit working. Went to a sawdust floor tent revival one night. A bunch of my friends went forward and prayed. I had no compulsion at all to pray. None. A few weeks later, watched a Billy Graham sermon online. Felt compelled to pray. Repeated that prayer and I felt God come into my heart. I was only 8 years old. The Holy Spirit can save with just these words sincerely prayed. Paul in Acts 9 is a rather extraordinary example of that. The only words he said was "Who art thou, Lord"...Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?"

[mccollapiaries]

The most cringe thing is the star of remphan neck tie.

[Europeangardens]

Didn't the "goats" simply believe in Jesus too?

[rodbowles]

Great man of God. I went to Bible College at his church. He is well rewarded in Heaven right now

[rennethjarrett]

This one is not such a huge problem except the mean it with all of your heart idea. It then could become a lordship teaching in his next sermon, As if: if you really meant it last week then you should be giving your tithe, or stop your smoking or stop your bear drinking, or stop your cussing, etc. However there is not enough there in this video to say this guy is a false salvation teacher, but his presentation could have people go home without ever really understanding the clear gospel message. That is a huge problem...

[trentthompson]

If after Jim said to pray this and he said, I know I'm a sinner, he would have inserted, I deserve to pay my own sin debt but I do believe that you Jesus, died on the cross to pay my sin debt for me, it would have been better. Also, left out the part about come into my heart.

What would have been better than that would to have given a short, simple gospel presentation before making an appeal for the lost sinner to do something.