The testimony of Mason Vann, and God’s work outside the sinner’s prayer

Psalm 105:5 says, “Remember His wonders which He has done.” So it is a good thing for us to remember and to think about what God has done in our life.

I grew up in a home where my family took me to church basically every time the doors were open. So the reality of God was in my life from infancy upward. There was never really a time in my life where my parents didn’t make me go to church. Through that time, there was conviction of sin. There were times especially where revivalists would come through and I would have an emotional experience. And I would realize the reality of hell. Kind of realize where I was at. So I would walk an aisle, pray a prayer, and make a decision that never seemed to really last.

I actually, you know, people make jokes about this, but I actually believe that at my house in Alabama, there are at least two Bibles where I have, ‘I, Mason Vann, was saved….’, and the date, and signed it, so that I wouldn’t doubt it. So that’s a reality. That’s not just a joke that people make. I have at least a couple of those. So that’s kind of the realm in which I grew up. And I can remember the final time in that period of my life that I kind of came under conviction. A revivalist had come through, and made a very emotional appeal, and yet God was dealing with me on a certain level.

And so that thought came over me that ‘I am not right with God. And I need to be right with God. And that every profession that I had made up until now was not real’, and I needed something that was real. So I went forward once again, and this time I decided, this time is going to be real. I am really going to make an effort this time to be a Christian.

And so I think I printed it again in the back of my Bible that I was saved on this date. So I started diligently trying to read my Bible. You know, one of the times before that I had come under such intense conviction of sin, that I went downstairs in the basement and went into a corner and just, I sobbed for hours. As a matter of fact, my father came down there and asked me what was going on. So that’s kind of the reality of the level of conviction that I was under.

But, this time it was going to be different. So I set to reading the Bible and praying the best that I could. Every night I would light a candle, turn off all my lights, and I would light a candle by my bed, so that I would read my Bible by candlelight, because that felt more spiritual. You know, that a funny thing, but it really helps us to realize what’s going on with a lot of things like Catholicism, and people that use lighting and, you know, soft music and things like that. My life was propped up on things like reading my Bible by candlelight. It gave me the feeling that this was real. But, as soon as the candle went out, there went my spiritual life also.

Well, this began to fade. And this is about 12 or 13, and I was very much into baseball, sports and athletics and things like that. My father is actually in the Hall of Fame in a college in Alabama. So he was really pushing sports and things. So I was heavily involved in these things, and began to run around in these circles with people that were into sports. And we as a crowd began to kind of move away from all that we had grown up under. And we began to get into things that we knew that we should not be doing.

And so, I kind of, in my mind, walked away from the whole church scene. Even though I was still going to church and things like that, I knew that I wasn’t real. But I kept going to church because I was trying to ease my conscience.

Well, about 14 and a half, this conviction came back. And it came back with such reality, such an unshakable hold on my life, I could not do anything to get away from it. During that time, most people’s perception of me was that I was a tough guy. I was a guy who had very little emotion. I had a very quick temper. So most people thought of me, probably, as a person who would never show any kind of sorrow or remorse, or anything like that. Well, little did they know that every night when I came home from their parties, and I came home from hanging out with them, that I would cry my eyes out for about one to two hours each night, under the reality that I am not right with God. My profession of faith is worthless. Those Bibles with the date in them are worthless. Despite everything else around me, I am not right with Christ. And if I go tonight, I will die under the wrath of God.

So, every night it was basically the same routine. I would cry myself to sleep. And right before I would go to sleep, I would pray the sinner’s prayer again, because that is what I was taught growing up. That’s how you became a Christian. You prayed the sinner’s prayer. And so this continued for about two years that I was in this state of reality and such intense conviction.

Well, my temper ended up getting me in trouble. And without going into too many gory details, I got into a fight with a guy from a neighboring city. All my friends were supposed to come to this fight, and I was clearly smaller than this guy, and so the plan was that basically I start the fight, and then you guys come and help me.

Well, that is not how the plan worked out. God was pursuing me. And God providentially, looking back now as a Christian I can see, God was closing in on me at this point in my life. And so, needless to say, I lose this fight. And I am running for my life. Literally, I am running for my life. And for two weeks, I’m hiding out from everyone. And all these people are looking for me.

Well, providentially, the youth group at the church I went to was going to South Carolina. The year before, I had went with my friend to South Carolina. We met some people up there. So I thought, I have to get out of town. I have to get out of town. So here’s what I’ll do. I’ll catch the bus up there. And my friend and I will hang out with these people, and when the youth group comes back, we’ll catch a ride on the way back. And so that was the plan.

So you should have seen the shock on the youth group’s face, when I, the pagan of the school, show up on the bus, the church bus, going to South Carolina! I mean, these people were dumbfounded! A dear brother at the time, who had some discernment, he began to pray for me. He was the youth leader at that time, and he began to pray for me. He knew that I was just in a world of mess.

So we go up there. And throughout this time, and especially through those two weeks, I had been able to, so much of my life, drowned out the voice of God. See, I hated, I hated when I had to lay my head down on a pillow. Because then the voice of God would come rushing back. So if I wasn’t listening to music, I was at a party. If I wasn’t at a party I was talking to a friend. If I wasn’t talking to a friend, I was doing something. I would do absolutely anything to avoid silence. Because when silence came, the voice of God came back rushing into my life saying, ‘You’re not right with God. You know you need to be converted.’

So, this whole thing with this fight, and my support system for drowning out the voice of God with my friends, all came crumbling down, and here I find myself on a trip to South Carolina.

During that time in South Carolina, I don’t really have any recollection that I was making another decision that I was going to follow Christ. I did not go up there with the mindset that I’m really in trouble and I need to make another decision. I had already seen enough at that point to know that it was going to take more than me just praying another prayer [in order] for something real to happen.

And so, the first two days were pretty normal. I don’t even really remember much about them. About the only thing that I remember is the very last night before we were to leave and go back the next day. It seemed to be a really emotional time. And I can remember a little bit that day of thinking about some of these things, I’m not right with God, I need to be right with God, but I feel absolutely powerless.

And so during that night, you know like I said, typical emotional time, everyone bowed their heads. So, out of courtesy, I bowed my head. And I do remember thinking when I bowed my head, I need something real. I can’t explain what happened. But somewhere between the time of bowing my head and when I looked up and opened my eyes again, the only thing that I could see was the glory of God in the face of Christ.

All of the sudden, the wilderness had become a pool. And the love of God came rushing into my life and overwhelmed me! I could not be helped! The youth leaders didn’t know what to do! Because I was crying my eyes out. I had such an overwhelming sense that, that I’m free! I am free. This whole thing, the whole burden of sin, two years of the wrath of God closing down on me, all of my sins, are gone. And Christ is no longer this religious figure that’s way back there 2,000 years ago carrying lambs around on His shoulders. All of the sudden He is the risen Son of God, and I love Him. And I want to follow Him. I don’t ever want to sin again. I don’t ever want to do anything love that is this precious. And so that was that night.

They wisely sent me back to my room and said, ‘You need to pray. I misunderstood that because I had grown up under the mentality that you had to pray and ask Christ into your heart. And so I go back to my hotel room once I can kind of compose myself some. And I began to try to pray the sinner’s prayer. But I was much like the prodigal son when he returned to his father.

You know, on the way returning back, he had rehearsed this speech that he was going to give to his father when he got back. Basically what happens is, when the prodigal actually shows up, the father cuts him off halfway through the speech and says, ‘I don’t want to hear all that you can do for me. I’m glad you’re home.’

And so that’s the way I felt like praying the sinner’s prayer! It’s like I’m asking Christ to come into my heart and He’s saying, ‘You don’t have to… I’m here. I’m here. I’m a living reality. Your sins are done. Your sins are done.’ And so there was joy unspeakable. And my life was totally different. I made a phone call—I believe it was that night or the next day—to all the people that I’d gotten into a fight with and said, ‘I don’t care what you do when I get back home, I have become a Christian now.’ Which, uh, you know, uh, what do you say to that?

You know, but I want to say something about this whole thing because there was joy unspeakable! And there was so much happiness. But I went through several months, maybe even a couple of years of darkness, in a way, over this whole issue of the sinner’s prayer.

You know, you can hear guys preaching against that, and you can think, ‘Maybe you’re overemphasizing this a little too much. Maybe you need to back off a little bit.’ Well, that hurts people. Bad doctrine hurts people. And it hurt me. And here’s the way that it hurt me. For months and like I said, maybe even a couple of years after I was saved, I left almost every meeting that I was in, about halfway through the meeting, and went to a Sunday school room and would pray the sinner’s prayer. Because I thought, ‘Lord, You’re so real to me, but I cannot be saved’, because I was taught that the way you become a Christian is you pray, ask Christ into your heart, and then God saves you.

Well, none of that happened [at my conversion]. All that happened to me was I bowed my head and at some point God shone the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ into my heart, and I was converted. And that’s basically the way that it happened.

And so like I said, this [thinking that he wasn’t saved at the retreat in South Carolina] went on for a couple of years. And what brought me out of all of that was someone gave me a tape by Paul Washer. And this was back before the days when everyone knew Paul Washer. And it was a tape of Paul preaching on Hosea 4:6 where it says, ‘My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge.’ And somewhere in the midst of that sermon, he mentioned Jeremiah 17:9 where it says, ‘The heart is desperately wicked and deceitful above all things, who can know it?’ God made that verse real! God brought that home to me. I didn’t hear anything else he said after that. Because I realized God began to unpack that verse in my life.

And He began showing me, if my heart was desperately wicked and deceitful above all things, and myself—I can’t even know it? There was no way I was going to save myself. And so all of a sudden, these verses started becoming real. Matthew 1:21, ‘You shall call His name Jesus, and He will save His people from their sins.’

I realized what happened that night I didn’t save myself. God saved me. We’re not saved by deeds done in righteousness—[not even by a pre-scripted formula like the sinner’s prayer], but by His mercy. And so what happened that night, is that God in His mercy opened my eyes to see the preciousness of Christ. and that vision so raptured my heart that I wanted to follow Christ all of the days of my life.

And so that’s what the Lord has done for me. Amen.

The sinner’s prayer, like liturgy and the Anglican or Catholic book of prayer, are all canned prayers and good for nothing. They are no better than Tetzel’s indulgences. They do not come from a convicted heart that has fallen on the Stone. Those canned, prepared prayers are only placebos that prevent falling on the Stone, and they prevent the real cries for help and for salvation from above. Blasphemy and eternal harm.

Its not that the Jews alone were the holy people and that they were naturally prone to seeking God and being forgiven and having joy and peace with God. As Moses said it,

“Speak not thou in thine heart, after that the LORD thy God hath cast them out from before thee, saying, For my righteousness the LORD hath brought me in to possess this land: but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD doth drive them out from before thee.

Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thine heart, dost thou go to possess their land: but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee, and that He may perform the word which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Understand therefore, that the LORD thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness; for thou art a stiffnecked people.

Remember, and forget not, how thou provokedst the LORD thy God to wrath in the wilderness: from the day that thou didst depart out of the land of Egypt, until ye came unto this place, ye have been rebellious against the LORD.” (Deut. 9:4-7).

The children of Israel were sinners just like us all. But their saving grace and ours was that the only true God was their God and He kept sending them mediators to lead them to repentance. Those prophets would tell them things that the other nations weren’t told—straight talk, shooting from the hip. It led the human heart to repentance and to redemption and to power over the other nations when such a revival of primitive godliness was found by them.

Protestants today have the prophets in print form. Their words live on, especially the words of the greatest prophet that ever lived, Ellen G. White. But, even without her powerful descriptions of sin, Christ is still making it in to the hearts of Protestant Americans and Muslims, and others unto the uttermost parts of the world. He is reaching people through the mighty evil empire spreading around the globe—the Jesuit corruptions for the purpose to ultimately reinstall the Vatican over the world. The Jesuits will not cease their damnable work of abomination and desolation until the old papacy is back in power.

But, in response that all the abomination taking place in the darkening earth, Jesus will shine forth through His people who are sighing and crying for all the abominations taking place around them, repenting and evangelizing. And people all around the world will be coming to Christ just like Mason Vann, and hundreds more like him, who the Spirit of Christ is already preparing for the great backlash against Satan’s earthly forces of woe. Even though they will be a small remnant, they will be a formidable force to make sure the world knows just what they are doing by involving themselves in the devil’s evil work of destruction.

The Protestant witnesses for Christ will be the “burdensome stone” of Zechariah.

“The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him.

Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem.

And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.

In that day, saith the LORD, I will smite every horse with astonishment, and his rider with madness: and I will open mine eyes upon the house of Judah, and will smite every horse of the people with blindness.

And the governors of Judah shall say in their heart, The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength in the LORD of hosts their God.

In that day will I make the governors of Judah like an hearth of fire among the wood, and like a torch of fire in a sheaf; and they shall devour all the people round about, on the right hand and on the left: and Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place, even in Jerusalem.

The LORD also shall save the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem do not magnify themselves against Judah.

In that day shall the LORD defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the LORD before them.

And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.

And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon Me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for Him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.

In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon.” (Zech. 12:111).

This spiritual battle, the “spirit of grace and of supplications” will be poured upon the genuinely repentant and redeemed Protestants around the globe, “the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon”. Then the convicting Spirit of truth will become the Comforter, when He gives His redeemed Protestant people the blessings of “the oil of joy for mourning,  [and] the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness” (Isa. 61:3). Then, at that time, “this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations” (Matt. 24:14). That will be the true battle of Armageddon.

“And He gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.

And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done.

And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.

And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath.” (Rev. 16:16-19).