"When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, 'The Lord--he is God! The Lord--he is God!' 1 Kings 18:39
This is a vivid example of false conversion.
It was an emotional response to a great miraculous event. It was so spectacular and the response was so overwhelming that it had all of the appearances of a great revival.
But there was no revival.
Very soon everything went back to normal and Elijah ended up fleeing for his life.
The reason is that this was an emotional response to something external. But there was no transformation of the heart.
I remember some years ago at a church we were attending that there was a youth rally. Some members of the praise band (which my son played in at the time) were upset because of the invitation. They said it was completely bogus. They said kids were coming forward, joking and laughing and teasing each other, even during the prayer. It was clear that they were coming down simply because everyone else was. Of course, at the weekend worship services during the announcements, the pastor said they had 150 (I'm guessing) 'confirmed decisions for Christ' at the rally. But there was never any real follow up and this church wasn't known for discipleship. They just pronounced them saved and sent them on their way.
This has become all too familiar in the modern church age. We've seen these huge evangelical gatherings where an invitation to receive Christ is given, and people come forward by the hundreds or even thousands. They are asked to repeat a prayer and then told that "IF" they prayed that prayer they are saved. Often the invitation glosses over the real issue of sin and coming judgment if not ignoring it altogether, and focuses more on the benefits of having Jesus living in your heart.
The problem is that this is not Biblical. This is not to say that many people have not been truly saved by this type of evangelism. It simply means that God saved some in spite of the fact that they responded to an unbiblical invitation. The message the early church preached was one of warning about coming judgment and the need to repent. In Acts 2 Peter preached a sermon that simply said that Jesus was the Messiah and they killed him(v. 36). Verse 37:
"When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, 'Brothers, what shall we do?' "
Notice that the people didn't respond to an invitation. They responded to the message Peter preached that convicted them of their sin. It says that they were 'cut to the heart.' This was not simply an emotional response to something external. This was something that went straight to their hearts and convicted them. It was this conviction that prompted them to ask the disciples what they must do in order to be saved. Peter then told them what they had to do...REPENT!! It is very rare today in the church to hear such a message of warning of impending judgment. Yet that was the message the early church taught.
Many people lament that the church of Jesus Christ appears no different than the rest of the world. If the vast majority of Christendom is preaching the 'therapeutic, feel good massage' that omits the themes of repenting from sin that leads to judgment, then the vast majority of those who call themselves Christians are not truly saved. That means we really are no different than the rest of the world. We need to take the admonition in 2 Corinthians 13:5;
"Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith."
If you responded to any of the false gospel messages out there, you need to go back and examine yourself and make sure that you really are in the faith.
