Ten Indictments Against the Modern Church by Paul Washer 

The book is Ten Indictments Against the Modern Church by Paul Washer. It was originally published in 2018 by Reformation Heritage Books. I read the 2018 paperback edition. I read it in July of 2023.  

The title is what the book is. Washer tears big eva a new one.  

I read this because I’ve never read anything from him. It’s better to read him instead of watch or listen to a sermon. He always sounds like he’s about to cry. But I like his content, so maybe I’ll stick to reading his books.  

Washer’s main complaint is that people think they’re saved when they’re not. He’s really against the “sinner’s prayer.” That’s where you’re at church camp or vacation Bible school and you repeat after someone that you invite Jesus into our heart.  

“What we often face now is the so-called sinner’s prayer. I want you to know, if I have declared war on anything, it is the sinner’s prayer. The sinner’s prayer is the golden calf of today for the Baptists, the evangelicals, and everyone else who has followed them in this. The sinner’s prayer has sent more people to hell than nearly anything else on the face of the earth!” (p31) 

This method of evangelism is little more than fire insurance. People get their golden ticket punched and think they’re going to heaven when they die. They don’t have to change a single thing about how they live their life. They said the magic words and were sincere about it so that means they are on their way to heaven.  

If someone thinks they’re a Christian because they said a little prayer one time, they’ll be resistant to any other presentation of the gospel. They find it offensive if you say they’re not a Christian.  

Washer explains that the reward of eternal life is not streets of gold, the reward is knowing God himself.  

Eternal life is to know God. Do you honestly think you are going to be thrilled about walking down streets of gold for an eternity? The reason why you will not lose your mind in eternity is because there is One there who is infinite in glory, and you will spend an eternity of eternities pursuing Him, and finding Him, but you will never get your arms around even the foothill of His mountain! (p15) 

The lifelong pursuit to more deeply and truly know God is the mark of a faithful Christian. This doesn’t mean it’s all about head knowledge or that we have to be intellectual and theological nerds to be true Christians.  

While sound doctrine is the main indicator of deciphering God, it’s not the only way to know him. We know him with our hearts as well as our minds. We feel him. He breaks and transforms our heart.  

We know him when we’re moved emotionally and spiritually as well as when he reveals his word in mental understanding. It’s not an “either or,” it’s “both and.” We know him with our mind and our heart.  

This book made me think about my own conversion story. I hardly remember becoming a Christian. I repeated the sinner’s prayer after my dad when I was five.  

I think I knew what sin was. I knew I got in trouble for disobeying my parents and that was not good. I knew my parents forgave me and that God forgave me. But none of that really got into the process of me becoming a Christian.  

Maybe that wasn’t the moment it happened. But I’ve lived my whole life since then in ebbs and flows of repentance and confession of sin in my lifelong effort of sanctification. Along the way somewhere I know I became extremely aware that I am a sinner in need of a savior and that Christ is that perfect savior.  

I owe a debt I am incapable of paying off. I know that Jesus has paid that debt and I have forgiveness and grace in him.  

I really like Washer’s take on kids programs for churches.  

Now I am not saying that children cannot come together in groups and be catechized or taught, but if that ever even begins to supplant the ministry of the father in the home, you must rectify this immediately! (p68) 

This is vitally important since most families rely entirely on their church for the spiritual growth in their kids. This is primarily the job of the father and mother in the home. Attending and serving the church is something you do together. But it should not be the main or only place our kids are taught about Christ.  

I’d recommend this to all evangelical Christians. I’d recommend this to any person who thinks they’re saved because they said a prayer one time at church camp. It’s very short and easy to read.  

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Notable Quotables 

Social sciences, in my opinion, have taken precedence over the Word of God in such a way that most of us cannot even see it. (p10) 

Eternal life is to know God. Do you honestly think you are going to be thrilled about walking down streets of gold for an eternity? The reason why you will not lose your mind in eternity is because there is One there who is infinite in glory, and you will spend an eternity of eternities pursuing Him, and finding Him, but you will never get your arms around even the foothill of His mountain! (p15) 

men must be brought to a knowledge of self before they will surrender themselves to God. (p17) 

Today so many preachers just walk into a church building and talk to people, give them three exploratory questions, and ask them if they want to pray a prayer and ask Jesus to come into their heart. We make a twofold son of hell who will never again be open to the gospel because of the religious lie that we, as professing evangelicals, have spewed out of our mouth. (p19) 

We have traded regeneration -the biblical doctrine of the new birth -for mere decisionism. (p23) 

Christ was able to redeem sinners because He was crushed under the justice of God. Having satisfied divine justice by means of the death of His beloved Son, God is now just and the justifier of the wicked. Anything other than this is gospel reductionism! (p26) 

What we often face now is the so-called sinner’s prayer. I want you to know, if I have declared war on anything, it is the sinner’s prayer. The sinner’s prayer is the golden calf of today for the Baptists, the evangelicals, and everyone else who has followed them in this. The sinner’s prayer has sent more people to hell than nearly anything else on the face of the earth! (p31) 

Then after college, when they are twenty-four or twenty-five, or maybe thirty, they come back to church and “rededicate their life.” They join right in with that pseudo-Christian morality that encompasses “churchianity” in America. And in the last great day, they will hear this: “I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity” (Matt. 7:23). (p36) 

The question is not, then, “Do you want to go to heaven?” The question must be this: “Do you want God? Have you stopped being a hater of God? Has Christ become precious to you? Do you desire Him?” (p36-37) 

Some of you may cry out that the Spirit of God would fill you and work in you, but it takes only a half hour of television to so grieve Him that He will be miles from you. If water is 99 percent pure, and 1 percent sewage, then I am not drinking it! (p62) 

Now I am not saying that children cannot come together in groups and be catechized or taught, but if that ever even begins to supplant the ministry of the father in the home, you must rectify this immediately! (p68) 

Man of God, do you want revival? So do I. We need an army, though. If mighty, flaming pikes and swords and weaponry are to be dropped out of heaven for our fight, then we must be the caliber of men who can wield those things to fight with sound character. We should discipline ourselves for the purpose of godliness. (p74) 

We are men of God. We are ministers of the Most High. There should be an “otherness” about us. We should have a distant gaze in our eyes toward a distant star. The greatest thing we can do for our people is to be men of God, 

we open absorbed in the things of God, so that when our mouths the Word of God comes out. (p77)