What drives men like this?

[heartstrings]

Luke 23:

39And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. 40But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? 41And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss. 42And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. 43And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.

This man acknowledged that he deserved his punishment, that Jesus was Lord, that Jesus had a Heavenly Kingdom, and he asked for God's mercy. He basically turned against himself and turned to God, all at the same time. There's no "step one, step two" etc. The instant one believes It's like doing an "about face". About the "prayer" thing. No, you don't have to say "words" to be saved; a deaf-mute can be saved. Salvation takes place in the heart. But, again, nothing wrong with praying a "one time prayer" like "God be merciful to me a sinner" either  if it's from the heart.

[SureWord]

I've seen Christians have mental breakdowns over "easy believism" vs "did I really repent and how do I know my repentance was true repentance and not the repentance of Judas Iscariot, etc etc etc?"

A camp for troubled teens I was a staff member of back in the late 80s to early 90s this was the biggest issue the kids had. It's a horrible vicious loop to get stuck in.

Charles Ryrie has a good book about "Easy Believism".