Did Dr. Curtis Hutson Preach A Different Gospel Than Dr. John R. Rice?

Regarding repentance and Dr. John R. Rice (1895-1980), it is unfortunate that Dr. Rice used the phrase "turn from sin with all your heart," in his writings, because the Bible doesn't use those terms concerning salvation. In his book: "I Am A Fundamentalist Not A Nut," Dr. Rice defends Brooke Westcott and Fenton Hort, the two biggest heretics of the 19th century, and fathers of all modern corrupt Bible versions. In fairness to Dr. Rice, he didn't have the incredible library of wealth on the internet as we do today. So to answer the question: Did Dr. Curtis Hutson Preach A Different Gospel Than Dr. John R. Rice? The answers is: Yes and No!

Humbly said, Dr. Rice was wrong about Westcott and Hort not being part of a Satanic conspiracy to corrupt the Holy Bible. They sure were, whether they realized it or not! Both men were unsaved Anglican ministers and supportive of Roman Catholicism. Both men denied numerous fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith; such as, Christ's virgin birth, a literal Heaven and Hell, denied Jesus' deity, denied the doctrine of atonement, and the inerrancy of the Scriptures. Pastor Max Younce exposes Westcott and Hort here.

So Dr. Rice wasn't always correct! We must not cite him as an authority on repentance!

Although I disagree with Dr. Rice's use of the phrase "turn from sin," because the Bible never teaches that, I am convinced that Brother Rice was saved and correct on the Gospel itself, as evidenced by the following helpful quote:

"There are those hyper-dispensationalists who think that John the Baptist preached a different Gospel from Christ when he commanded repentance (Matt. 3:2). But it is the same repentance Jesus commanded in Matthew 4:17, in Luke 13:3 and 5, and the same repentance that Paul preached in Athens that God “now commandeth all men every where to repent” (Acts 17:30 31). Repentance is not a different plan of salvation from having faith: it is part of the same plan of salvation. Or rather repentance is simply another way of describing or looking at the plan of salvation. One who turns from sin to God has done so by trusting in Jesus Christ. A change of mind toward sin is necessarily involved in saving faith. ...Everyone who genuinely repented under the preaching of John the Baptist put his trust in the Saviour John the Baptist preached, and was regenerated. There is no such thing as being “a disciple of John the Baptist” in any honest sense without being a disciple of Jesus, that is, without trusting Christ for salvation." ~Evangelist John R. Rice, “Acts: Filled With The Spirit,” pp. 251-252; Sword Of The Lord, Murfreesboro, Tennessee; ©1963

As Dr. Rice just plainly said: "One who turns from sin to God has done so by trusting in Jesus Christ." So Dr. Rice DIDN'T require people to turn from sin to be saved, he simply believed that when you BELIEVE ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST you have turned from sin. Dr. Rice makes is clear that "TRUSTING IN JESUS CHRIST" is all that is required to be saved. And of course, to trust Christ MUST includes the admission that one is a guilty sinner, because we need to know what we are being saved from (Romans 3:19-20; Galatians 3:24-26). Trusting Christ MUST also include acknowledgement of three facts of the Gospel (1 Corinthians 15:1-4):

1. Christ DIED on the cross for our sins.
2. Christ was BURIED.
3. Christ bodily RESURRECTED from the dead three days later.

Nothing more is required or permitted by God. Anyone who requires a person to turn away from living a lifestyle of sin is WRONG. The very idea is silly, because NO ONE has ever turned away from sinning. Even the best saints still SIN (Romans 7:14-25). The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) today has 45,000 member churches. Every SBC church that I have attended teaches that you must give up your sinful ways to get to Heaven, which is a false gospel. They all preach the Devil's lie of Lordship Salvation, requiring that you surrender control of your life over to Christ, to follow and live for Him from now on. None of that is the Gospel. I love what Pastor Harry A Ironside said:

“The Gospel is not a call to repentance, or to amendment of our ways, to make restitution for past sins, or to promise to do better in the future. These things are proper in their place, but they do not constitute the Gospel; for the Gospel is not good advice to be obeyed, it is good news to be believed. Do not make the mistake then of thinking that the Gospel is a call to duty or a call to reformation, a call to better your condition, to behave yourself in a more perfect way than you have been doing in the past …Nor is the Gospel a demand that you give up the world, that you give up your sins, that you break off bad habits, and try to cultivate good ones. You may do all these things, and yet never believe the Gospel and consequently never be saved at all.” ~Pastor Harry A. Ironside, “What Is The Gospel?”

Missionary to India for over 30 years, Evangelist David C. Cloud, is a good man as far as good men go. But he is a bitter enemy against Pastor Jack Hyles, for which I do not respect him. David Cloud has horribly dubbed Dr. Hyles: "The King Of Shallow Soulwinning!" On the Day of Pentecost, the Bible says the Apostle Peter preached the Gospel and 3,000 people got saved. No one was interrogated. No one had to be watched to see if their life changed. No one was required to forsake their sinful lifestyle. They simply "gladly received his Word" (Acts 2:41). That is, they heard the Gospel and they BELIEVED it! (Galatians 3:2). Now, David Cloud can call that type of soulwinning "shallow," but it is the Bible way and the only way to be saved! I have read Mr. Cloud's plan of damnation, and it is not the free grace Gospel.

It was David Cloud who started saying garbage that Pastor Curtis Hutson and Dr. John R. Rice didn't agree on salvation. They both believed the same Gospel!!! They just presented it differently. The only difference is that Dr. Hutson refused to use the words: "turn from sin" as Dr. Rice did. But from the quote I just shared with you, Brother Rice made it very clear that he believed: "One who turns from sin to God has done so by trusting in Jesus Christ." That is the opposite of what we are hearing preached in 90% of Bible colleges and churches today! Look at this Satanic tommyrot preached at Bob Jones University nowadays by Dr. Steve Pettit.

It is my humble opinion that Dr. John R. Rice hindered many people from getting saved, by his use of the unbiblical phrase “turn from your sin.” Likewise, I believe that cartoon artist Jack Chick was saved, but he also sinfully embellished the simple Gospel, requiring people to “turn away from sin (repent)” in all 800,000,000 of his Chick Tracts on the back page, step number 2 in his perverse plan of damnation. I believe Jack was saved because I have read his website about Jesus' imputed righteousness, in which he never mentions the word repent even once. I think Jack Chick knew he was in error, and struggling with the issue, trying to remedy the matter by writing a correct Gospel elsewhere. Likely, in his thinking, he couldn't change his plan of salvation 800,000,000 tracts later without looking like a fool, and angering many churches. But friend, we are not supposed to present our OWN plan of salvation. We are commanded to share GOD'S plan of salvation, which doesn't include turning from your sinning. Romans 5:6b plainly says, “CHRIST DIED FOR THE UNGODLY”!!!

I think a lot of people did get saved from Chick Tracts, who had heard the Gospel preached elsewhere, but Jack's cartoon evangelism impressed upon them to receive Christ. However, I have personally received emails from people, who testified to me that they almost went to Hell because of Jack Chick. One man told me that for several years he wouldn't come to Christ, because he had read in a Chick Tract that God required him to forsake his sinful lifestyle to be saved, and he wasn't ready to do that. Jack Chick has much blood on his hands, for adding an unnecessary requirement to God's simple plan of salvation, which is by faith alone in the Good News (Gospel) of the Lord Jesus Christ (1st Corinthians 15:1-4).

What Steve Pettit, David Cloud and Jack Chick preach is NOT the Gospel, not even close! I humbly think Pilgrim's Progress author, John Bunyan, said it best:

“If you do not put a difference between justification wrought by the man Christ without and sanctification wrought by the Spirit of Christ within, you are not able to divide the Word aright; but contrariwise, you corrupt the Word of God, and cast stumbling blocks before the people.” —John Bunyan (1628-1688)

Neither repentance or getting saved (which are the same event) result in a changed life. Getting saved doesn't change a person one bit, except that now God's Holy Spirit lives inside of that new believer. Once saved, all things are become new (2nd Corinthians 5:17), because now our spiritual eyes are opened (1 Corinthians 2:14-16). A believer must desire the sincere milk of the Word of God to grow (1 Peter 2:2). The Word of God sanctifies us, because it is THE TRUTH (John 17:17). God wants every believer to make a second decision, to yield our self as a living sacrifice to serve Christ as our "Lord" (Romans 12:1-2). I think Pastor M.R. DeHaan (1891-1965) said it very well:

"There is a vast difference between coming to Jesus for salvation and coming after Jesus for service. Coming to Christ makes one a believer, while coming after Christ makes one a disciple. All believers are not disciples. To become a believer one accepts the invitation of the Gospel, to be a disciple one obeys the challenge to a life of dedicated service and separation. Salvation comes through the sacrifice of Christ; discipleship comes only by sacrifice of self and surrender to His call for devoted service. Salvation is free, but discipleship involves paying the price of a separated walk. Salvation can't be lost because it depends upon God's faithfulness, but discipleship can be lost because it depends upon our faithfulness." ~Pastor M.R. DeHaan, "Hebrews"; Zondervan Publishing House, 1959 (p. 117)

In summary, I do not think David Cloud is saved. He denies that faith alone can save a man. Mr. Cloud teaches that you must be willing to stop living in sin to be saved, which is the same as requiring someone to keep the Mosaic law, which cannot justify a man (Romans 3:29-20). Only faith justifies a man (Galatians 3:26). I think Dr. Curtis Hutson gets repentance and the Gospel 100% correct. I think Dr. John R. Rice got the Gospel correct, but poorly chose his wording, which unfortunately has caused much confusion in the churches who respect his theology. John R. Rice was wrong to tell people to turn from sin to be saved.

I would expose him as a heretic if it weren't for the fact that he explains exactly what he means, which I shared with you earlier: "One who turns from sin to God has done so by trusting in Jesus Christ." All that Dr. Rice believed a person needs to do to be saved is to TRUST IN JESUS CHRIST!!! I agree. That is Biblical (John 6:47).

The word “repent” as it relates to salvation always means “a change of mind.” This is the Greek noun form, metanoia. The Greek verb form (e.g., Mark 1:15) of the word is metanoeo, which means “to think differently.” The Bible doesn't tell us what to think differently about. God intentionally chose to use this open-ended, all-inclusive word. In other words, you must repent of whatever it is that is hindering you from doing the ONLY thing you can do to be saved, put your FAITH in Jesus Christ. Galatians 3:26, “For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.”

Not one verse in the Bible teaches to “turn from sin” to be saved! Proponents of the “turn from your sins” heresy always run to every verse in the Bible which says to “repent,” taking the verses out of proper context, ASS-U-ming that the word “repent” means to “turn from sin.” Dear friend, since the ONLY thing that can keep a person out of Heaven is UNBELIEF, then the only sin that you need to literally repent of is UNBELIEF.

The man, woman or child who BELIEVES on Jesus Christ, no matter how ungodly or unwilling to depart from their sins they may be, will be instantly forgiven and pardoned upon the basis of Christ's sacrifice on the cross. Repentance is solely a matter of acknowledging THE TRUTH that you are a guilty sinner (John 3:21; 2nd Timothy 2:25), and turning TOWARD GOD (Acts 20:21) to be saved by faith alone in His only begotten Son (John 3:16). Whatever changes God wants to see happen in that person's life, you can be assured that God is not an absent parent, and He will attend to that matter (Hebrews 12:6-8).

The Gospel of John is God's Gospel tract according to John 20:31, "But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name." In John we find the word "believe" mentioned 88 times, but there is NO MENTION of the words: "surrender" or "repent" or "follow" or "confess" or "run the race" or anything else to get to Heaven. Jesus said in John 6:28-29 that the only "work of God" to be saved is to "BELIEVE ON HIM."

Salvation is not a reward for the righteous; it is a gift for the guilty!

Salvation is not doing your best, it is having Christ's best put to your account through receiving Him by faith.

Turning away from sinful ways would be a work. Faith puts all of the merit where it belongs, on the object of our faith, Jesus and His work.

If to “repent” means to forsake our sinful ways TO BE SAVED, but Jesus already paid for our sins by dying on the cross, then what are we repenting from?

The true Gospel always points you to CHRIST; a false gospel always points to YOU.

Kindest regards and thank you for reading.