"Just now some professedly Christian teachers are misleading many by saying that 'repentance is only a change of mind.'. . . The repentance that does not include sincere sorrow for sin is not the saving grace that is wrought by the Holy Spirit." - Charles Haddon Spurgeon, in "the Royal Saviour."
"The way of salvation is falsely defined. In most instances the modern 'evangelist' assures his congregation that all any sinner has to do in order to escape hell and make sure of heaven is to 'receive Christ as his personal Savior.' But such teaching is utterly misleading. No one can receive Christ as his Savior while he rejects Him as Lord! - Arthur Pink, in "Present Day Evangelism."
"It is easy to get children to hold up their hands to indicate a decision, but that does not mean they are saved. The Bible says that no one can be saved unless he repents." - George Eager, "Winning Children To Christ."
"When you 'convert' a child (or an adult) by the process of cheap methods, you do not convert him to Christ, but to a circus, or at best to a movement. This type of convert will return to his 'wallowing in the mire' as soon as the circus tent is taken away." - Forrest Keener, "Visions of Bubble Gum," in "Faith For the Family" magazine, Bob Jones University.
"To leave out or minimize repentance, no matter what sort of a faith you preach, is to prepare a generation of professors who are such in name only." -B.H. Carroll, "Repentance and Remission of Sins."
"Today, in the ranks of our Independent Baptist Churches, we are overcome by the supersalesman 'soulwinners' who pull professions out of lost souls with a promise that they will go to heaven on the basis of a little prayer and a profession of faith in Jesus. They follow the Hyles, Hutson, Gray, Vineyard, statement of faith and never know the reality of passing from death to life." - Gaylon Wilson, "Last Baptist Church."
"Shallow preaching that does not grapple with the terrible fact of man's sinfulness and guilt, calling on 'all men everywhere to repent,' results in shallow conversions; and so we have a myriad of glib-tongued professors today who give no evidence of salvation." - Harry Ironside, "Except Ye Repent."
"I doubted that asking Jesus to come into your heart was valid. That provoked me to study. Since then I have come to the conclusion that the Bible does not teach that a person gets saved by asking Jesus Christ to come into his heart or into his life." - G. Michael Cocoris, in "Evangelism - A Biblical Approach," Moody Press.
"Decisionism is the belief that a person is saved by coming forward, raising the hand, saying a prayer, believing a doctrine, making a lordship commitment, or some other external human act, which is taken as the equivalent to, and proof of, the miracle of inward conversion. . . . Decisionism is purely human, carnal, and natural." - R.L. Hymers and Christopher Cagan, in "Today's Apostasy."
"Just as 75% of the church is not saved, a full 50% of the preachers are not either. . . . I have called the new way of getting saved 'easy believism.' In simpler words, all a person has to do to be saved is to 'accept Jesus Christ as your Savior.' Walk down the aisle and tell the preacher you have accepted Christ. He takes your word for it and admits you to church membership." - Morris Wright (IFB) in "Flaming Torch."
