Deep Repentance Is Not Required To Be Saved

Acts 16:29-31: “Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.”

In our text passage of Scripture above, the invitation to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved was also extended to the Philippian jailor's entire family, if they would also individually believe on the name of Jesus. No group has ever been saved as a whole; but rather, as individuals. Salvation is a personal matter. We were born into the world alone, we will die alone, and whether we go to Heaven or Hell is solely up to the individual person. What will you do with Jesus dear reader? Have you been bon again? I did, at age 13 in Chicago.

When I attended Campus Church cult at Pensacola Christian College (PCC) in 2021, their unlearned associate pastor Timothy Zacharias wickedly deceived thousands of people at a Wednesday evening Bible study, saying that to be saved you must first experience a deep profound radical feeling of hatred and guilt over your sins, and have a sincere desire to turn away from those sins. Kindly said, Pastor Zacharias is a fool.

Dr. Curtis Hutson wisely said...

“The fella who knows what repentance is knows it's included in believing.” —Pastor Curtis Hutson (1934-1995)

Dear reader, if you are a soulwinning Christian you don't need to even mention the topic of repentance to a lost sinner to lead them to Jesus Christ, because the man who believes has repented. In fact, mentioning the subject of repentance will likely confuse them, as seen in this terrible confrontation of a woman on an airplane by false prophet Ray Comfort.

Now, in the following quote, I don't like that Evangelist John R. Rice (1895-1980) uses the phrase “turn from sin,” simply because it's not found anywhere in the inspired King James Bible. That being said, Dr. Rice gets it 100% correct that the man who BELIEVES in Jesus has repented...

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. [emphasis added]

SOURCE: Evangelist John R. Rice, “Acts: Filled With The Spirit,” pp. 251-252; Sword Of The Lord, Murfreesboro, Tennessee; ©1963

After listening to Pastor Zacharias' lies at PCC's Campus Church in 2021, I cringed and realized that if I were a lost sinner I would be too intimidated by what he said to ever come to Jesus Christ. I mean, if people have to first experience some radical sense of profound hatred, guilt and a sincere desire to forsake their sinful bad habits to get to Heaven, no one would ever get saved. Who can do that? No one has ever turned away from their sins!!! All you can do is clean up your life some, quit some sinful bad habits, but you're still a dirty sinner and so am I (Romans 3:10-23). There is no such thing as a “good Christian.” At best, all we can achieve is to be a struggling redeemed sinner who is yielding to the indwelling Spirit of Christ to live the Christian life through us (Romans 8:9; Galatians 2:20).

I was so shocked by what I had heard that the next morning on Thursday I emailed PCC's senior pastor Jeff Redlin. To no surprise that incompetent fool sided 100% with his ignoramous accomplice, saying that repentance means a sincere desire to forsake the sinning in your life and that your behavior will improve if you are really saved. That is Lordship Salvation.
My ministry friend Pastor Ralph Yankee Arnold said it well...

“Lordship Salvation is the unsupportable and unbiblical belief that the performance of good works, the promise of good works, or the evidence of good works, must accompany faith in Christ to establish or provide evidence that such faith has resulted in eternal life.” —Pastor Ralph Yankee Arnold, “Jesus Versus John MacArthur”

And Pastor Yankee Arnold also said these helpful words...

“Salvation is one thing and service is another, and never the two goes together. No man is saved because he serves, and no man has to serve because he is saved. Gotta keep them separate. And if you don't do it, the Scriptures will be confusing to you. You'll not rightly divide what God has to say.” —Pastor Ralph Yankee Arnold, "Why Lordship Salvation Is Wrong"

My favorite preacher's quote is from Pilgrim's Progress book author, John Bunyan...

“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)

The simplest repentance (change of mind) is enough to obtain the new birth by the Holy Spirit. All that God requires is for a man to realize his need as a guilty SINNER for the SAVIOR, and that he by childlike faith receive Christ's sacrifice on the cross, burial and bodily resurrection as full payment for his sins.