Jeremiah 23:2, “Therefore thus saith the LORD God of Israel against the pastors that feed my people; Ye have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them: behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith the LORD.”
In 2021 I began attending the Family Baptist Church at 5454 W. Mobile Highway in Pensacola. I heard Pastor Brad Moffett from his pulpit say that repentance means to turn away from your past sinful life. I cringed in my chair (they don't have church pews). I prefer church pews. I cringed in horror when the pastor said those horrible words, because they simply are not true. Nowhere does the inspired King James Bible teach that to get to Heaven you must turn away from your past lifestyle of sinning.
So, with a heart of genuine love and concern, I took my own money and bought a $17 hardcopy of Michael P. Bowen's excellent book in defense of a free grace Gospel titled, “I NEVER KNEW YOU.” You can read the book for free online in .pdf format if you'd like. I highly recommend it. If nothing else, you can get the entire gist of the book by reading just the introduction. Please do so, you will be glad that you did.
I never asked Pastor Brad if he read the book, nor what he thought about it, for fear of him kicking me of the church. At the time I was divorced and lonely, and had been kicked out of numerous churches, so I just needed a break and didn't want to rock the boat, so to speak. I wanted a church family.
So for the next few years at Family Baptist Church I studied Pastor Brad's Bible teaching. Admittedly, he says he's not a preacher, and I fully agree. But he is a gifted expository Bible teacher, that is, when he keeps his mouth shut about repentance, Ken Ham, John Calvin, Franklin Graham and other accursed Lordship Salvation infidels that he likes and promotes. Pastor Brad needs to get his doctrine right, or else resign, because at present he has blood on his hands for deceiving many people.
I had never seen a copy of the church's official Statement of Faith until 2025, but I was saddened when Pastor Brad finally handed me a copy. In their Statement of Faith it says that to get to Heaven a person must “Repent of your sins,” which is totally unbiblical. Now, I am all for repenting (changing your mind) about your sins as a Christian, but NOT to get saved!
According to John 20:31 the Gospel of John is God's Gospel tract to humanity. The entire purpose for which the Book of John was written was to show people that Jesus is the only begotten (biological) Son of God, the Christ, and that if you will simply BELIEVE ON CHRIST you will be instantly, irrevocably and eternally saved. We don't need any other passage of Scripture to learn how to got to Heaven than the Gospel of John. And in the wonderful Gospel of John we do not find the word “repent” mentioned even once. However, we do find the word “believe” mentioned 85 times. That says it all folks!
That being said, we know that repentance is necessary to be saved from other books of the Bible; such as, Mark 1:15, “And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.” But since the word “repent” is never mentioned in the Gospel of John, it is safe to conclude that repentance then must be an automatic thing. Therefore, we can conclude that the man who believes on Christ has repented, and the man who repents has believed. So, there is no need to even mention the topic of repentance when sharing the Gospel with someone. In fact, doing so may just confuse the person. So, unless someone asks me about repentance, I don't even bring the subject up in a conversation.
In sharp contrast, look at how false prophet Ray Comfort misleads this poor confused woman on an airplane, lying to her how to get to Heaven. Ray foolishly tells her to repent of her sins. Then he errantly tells her that trusting Jesus is the “second thing” that she must do. Dear reader, repentance and faith are not two steps to salvation, they are two parts of just one step. The woman asked Ray what it means to repent. His answer is as toxic c as nuclear waste! Ray tells her to live a lifestyle of turning away from her sinning, which she declines to do and doesn't get saved, understandably, because NO ONE can do what Ray asks. Ray preaches a false gospel message!
To tell someone to “repent of their sins” is a counterfeit plan of salvation that just confuses people. When the Philippian jailer in Rome asked Paul and Silas how to be saved in Acts 16:30, their simple and brief answer in verse 31 was to, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ...” There is no mention in the Bible of the man being told to repent of his sins (the error of Family Baptist Church in Pensacola), turn from his wicked ways (which is what infidel Ken Ham teaches), live a lifestyle of repentance (infidel Ray Comfort's error), turn away from your self-willed life (the error of the infidels at Pensacola Christian College), nor any other Satanic mumbo-jumbo!!! The disciples simply told the man to trust in Jesus, and thankfully he did and was immediately saved. Oh, how I wish that pastors would stop tampering with the Gospel.
I Suffer In Physical Pain Every Day Of My Life
I have suffer in chronic bodily pain every day of my life since 2004. I was hot by a church bus (of all things) in 1992. Our bus was rear-ended so hard that the engine and transmission of the rear bus were shattered into hundreds of pieces in the street. Dozens of ambulances came. My driver's seat was broken off its hinges when we were severely impacted. The insurance company didn't even try to repair the rear bus, because it was cheaper to just buy a new full-sized 72 passenger bus.
I went to the hospital and they took x-rays. They said nothing was broken, but they weren't trained to look for anything else. This missed the misalignment in my neck, which 12 years later in 2004 led to Cervical Degenerative Disk Disease in my neck. I began feeling horrible chronic arthritis pain in my neck and constant tension. In 2005, I fell down a mailslide at work. which worsened my existing injury, causing radiating pain down the entire right side of my body.
By 2009 I couldn't tolerate the stabbing pain anymore, so I underwent surgery. They didn't do a thorough job, so in 2010 I had the surgery redone. Sadly, the second surgery made me 100% worse, leaving both of my arms feelings inflated with air all the time. The agonizing toothache-like neck pain, in the bony area in back, has been intolerable since 2004, and is just as bad in 2025 as it was in 2004. I have had zero relief.
To make matters much worse, although their are pain medications available to help me cope, because of the epidemic of recreational drug abuse across the United States, legitimate pain sufferers like me are denied enough pain medication. I am now being prescribed what is called BID (Basic Initial Dosage) which is a joke and a crime in God's eyes. I suffer horribly without proper pain medications. I only get 40 mg a day of Oxycontin. On Guam I used to get 140 mg a day. I need at least 80 mg a day to cope, but the doctors are afraid of Uncle Sam. I really hate our ungodly federal government's cruelty and incompetence! God hears the cry!
God Uses My Pain For His Purpose And Glory
That being said, it is not easy for me to continue being kicked out of churches. It's bad enough that I suffer in chronic pain with inadequate pain medications every day of my life. But then I have to fight with church pastors who refuse to leave the Gospel alone. They feel compelled to do the Holy Spirit's job, trying to coerce people to forsake their sinning to be saved. Folks, that is human reformation, not Bible repentance unto life. The correct way is for God to save you by faith alone in Christ alone; and then the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit will work to change you, as you grow in the milk of the Word (1st Peter 2:2).
John Bunyan said it best, I humbly think...
“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)
We must always keep SERVICE (Romans 12:1) separate from SALVATION (Galatians 3:26). One thing has nothing to do with the other. If we fail to separate the two, we will have what is commonly known as: LORDSHIP SALVATION. Service is by works; salvation is by grace. If you mix and combine works with grace, you will be guilty of preaching the Devil's falsehood of Lordship Salvation. When you tell someone to “repent of their sins” to be saved, you are preaching the heresy of Lordship Salvation.
I believe that God has allowed me to suffer in chronic neck pain and tension to keep me humble, and it sure has over the years. This is my thorn in the flesh. I am miserable in my constant physical pain. People don't care. We are all selfish by nature from birth. It's impossible for others to understand how my pain affects me from day to day. Since the pain is in my neck, right next to my head, as you can imagine my bodily afflictions irritate, frustrate and aggravate me continually.
Like a child pulling relentlessly on a parent's garment while they are trying to talk to another person, that is how my constant pain irritates me when I talk with people, making it very awkward and frustrating to get through a single day normally. I have often closed my eyes while talking with people, due to my neck pain, because it helps me to stay focused. The pain radiates into my face, particular my gums. When the pain is at its worst, I feel a sharp pain behind my right eye. Doctors cannot explain why this happens. I am not complaining. I have seen many people much worse off than me, so I count my many blessings from God.
Right Doctrine Matters
Dear friend, it matters what we teach and preach. Jesus warned in Matthew 12:36 that in eternity we will all be held fully accountable for our words, even our idle words. Pastor Brad even reiterated this Bible truth to me and my wife in his office on April 30th, 2025. The pastor doesn't realize that he indicted himself. Matthew 12:37, “For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.” Ouch! When I read that warning from the Lord, I shudder to think how much we are all in a heap of trouble! There's not a human being in existence who hasn't condemned them self with their own words. I know I have at times, and so has Pastor Brad. He is wrong on repentance!
God knows that I do not hate anybody. I became a born again believer at age 13, and I have felt the sweet presence of God's indwelling Holy Spirit ever since. God is love. Those who know God are loving people. I love everyone, which is why I preach THE TRUTH. Those unloving pastors, in their unloving churches, are not right with God. Not even close! We need a revival of right doctrine in our churches today, without which people will continue to go to Hell.
There is a certain particular MINDSET that you must have to be bon again. The moment that you add the slightest bit of human effort to God's grace, you have perverted the Gospel and cannot be saved. There are not versions or variations of God's simple plan of salvation. The only reason why I know I'm going to Heaven someday is because at age 13, I knew I was a needy guilty sinner (Romans 3:19-20). I trusted Jesus as my personal Savior, who is the only begotten Son of God, the Christ (John 20:31). I am trusting Jesus because He died on a cross to pay for my sins. He was buried. Then, three days later Jesus physically resurrected from the dead (1st Corinthians 15:1-6). That is all I am trusting in to get me to Heaven.
Contrawise, I didn't repent of my sins. I didn't turn away from my sinning. I didn't forsake the world. I wasn't willing to turn from my sins. I didn't decide to follow Jesus. I didn't turn from my self-willed ways. I didn't ask Jesus into my heart. I didn't get water baptized. I didn't confess Christ publicly. I didn't turn from my wicked ways. I didn't turn over a new leaf. I didn't receive Jesus as the “Lord” of my life to be saved. I took Him as my Savior!
When He raised up from the dead, Jesus ascended into Heaven as my High Priest (Romans 8:34; Hebrews 4:14-16). When I got saved, God gave me the gift of His indwelling Holy Spirit. That blessed Holy Spirit has been convicting and working on me since the moment I got saved 45 years ago! So, it wasn't me repenting of my sins that changed my behavior, it was God's indwelling Holy Spirit working to sanctify me with the inspired Word of God (John 17:17).
God knows my heart. I do not intend to be mean or unkind, but it matters what we believe. It matters what we teach and preach to others. You cannot show me any place in the inspired King James Bible (all modern Bible versions are corrupt), where it says to “Repent of your sins” to be saved. Pastor Brad Moffett and his wicked father “Bobby Boy” Moffett need to repent of their wrong repentance. RIGHT DOCTRINE MATTERS!!!