The Worst Pervert In America Is The Gospel Pervert

Galatians 1:6-9, “I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.”

The heretical teaching of Lordship Salvation is totally incompatible with the Gospel of free grace. The King James Bible warns about false teachers who “PERVERT” the Scripture. The word “pervert” in Galatians 1:7 is the Greek word metastrephō, which means to “transmute; this is, change or alter in form, appearance, or nature.” Any time someone alters or changes the nature of the Gospel, they have perverted it. The nature of the Gospel is simply that all mankind are guilty sinners (Romans 3:10-23; 5:12). There is a penalty for our sins, which is death (Romans 6:23; Hebrews 9:27). This includes a second death in Hell forever (Revelation 20:11-15; 21:8; Psalms 9:17; Luke 16:19-31). 

The “Good News” (or “Gospel”) is that God loves humanity, and has made a way of escape through the sacrifice of His only begotten Son on Calvary's cross (John 19-20; Romans 5:6-9). Jesus died on the cross for our sins, He was buried, and physically resurrected after three days (1st Corinthians 15:1-4). Anyone who comes to God as a needy sinner, receiving Christ's sacrifice on the cross as payment for their sins, is immediately and forever saved (i.e., born-again, regenerated, redeemed, a saint, a child of God). That is the simple, easy, free and only way to receive God's free gift of eternal life, by faith (Ephesians 2:8-9; Galatians 3:26).

Anyone who alters or changes the nature of the Gospel has perverted God's grace! Three of the biggest offenders today are Evangelist Ray Comfort, Pastor John MacArthur and Dr. Steve Pettit (president of Bob Jones University since 2014). These men all sinfully pervert the truth of the Gospel. These men have changed the Gospel into something different than what the Bible teaches! These men all add turning from your sins to be saved. Sadly, Bob Jones University requires people to be willing to turn from their sins to be saved. That is not the Gospel. The Gospel of John is God's Gospel tract. 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.” We find the word “BELIEVE” mentioned 85 times in the Gospel of John, but there is no mention of forsaking one's sins to receive God's free gift.

Pastor John MacArthur even calls getting saved “AN EXCHANGE” of all that we are for all that Christ is...

“Thus in a sense we pay the ultimate price for salvation when our sinful self is nailed to a cross. . . . It is an exchange of all that we are for all that Christ is. And it denotes implicit obedience, full surrender to the lordship of Christ. Nothing less can qualify as saving faith.” (The Gospel According to Jesus, p. 140.)

Dear reader, that is as Satanic as worshipping the Devil!!! Nowhere in the inspired Word of God are we taught, that to receive God's free gift of eternal life we must EXCHANGE everything we are to receive it! Dr. Steve Pettit teaches this same garbage theology:

“...faith in Jesus is not just an intellectual conviction, it is a personal commitment. Paul says, we have believed in Jesus, and the word 'in' literally means 'into' ...I am taking my life, my eternity, my destiny, everything, and I am placing it into Christ.” —Dr. Steve Pettit, an excerpt from “What Does It Mean To Be Justified?” (The Daily Platform #741)

That is false teaching! Dr. Pettit says it is not enough to trust Jesus in your mind, but there must be action that results in committing EVERYTHING in your life to Christ. That is not the Gospel, it is a perversion of God's free grace! Salvation in NOT an exchange!!! Eternal life is a free gift. Romans 5:15-18 even calls it a “FREE GIFT” multiple times. Matthew 7:15, “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.” It is more than a coincidence that immediately following this warning about WOLVES that come to us in SHEEP'S CLOTHING, that the Lord says in Matthew 7:21, “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.” Could the Bible be any plainer that Lordship is not the way of salvation? God's will is to BELIEVE (John 6:40).

“So I want to ask you, have you come to a genuine acknowledgment before God almighty of your sinfulness? Secondly, you have to change the way you view yourself. We call that 'repentance.' And repentance is sort of saying a 'No' and a 'Yes.'  It's a turning AWAY FROM and a turning TO. What am I turning away from? I'm turning away from my own self-righteousness. I'm to turning away from depending on me, and all that's involved in me—self-righteousness, self-will, self-assertion, living my own life—I'm to turning away from that way of thinking. And then finally what do I have to do? I'm to put my trust, or my confidence, in Jesus alone.” [emphasis added] —Dr. Steve Pettit, an excerpt from “What Does It Mean To Be Justified?” (The Daily Platform #741)

What you just read is of the Devil. Jesus told the Apostle Peter, “Get thee behind me, Satan” (Matthew 16:23b). So I say to Steve Pettit, “Get thee behind me, Satan!” What saith the Scripture? Acts 16:30-31, “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.” The Bible teaches something very different than what Dr. Steve Pettit is teaching! Steve Pettit says you must turn away from living your own life to be saved. That is a doctrine of devils! Steve Pettit is a devil-dog preacher! My destination is not based upon how I live my life, it's on whom that I trust to save me!!! Now that's the truth!

Salvation is salvation, and discipleship is discipleship. No one ever got saved by discipleship! That is why the religious people in Matthew 7:21-23 weren't saved. Jesus called them workers on iniquity. Jesus said He never knew them! They followed Jesus their entire life. They made full surrender to Christ! They called Him, “LORD, LORD” (there's your heresy of Lordship Salvation in the Bible). Judas followed Christ. Matthew 27:3b says “Judas repented himself.” Judas had “a relationship” with Jesus (we hear this false teaching a lot these days). Dear reader, you can follow Christ, have a relationship with Him, you can repent of all your sins, faithfully run the race, turn your life over to Him, and even trust Christ in addition to all that stuff, but YOU WILL SPLIT HELL WIDE OPEN WHEN YOU DIE!!! You are not truly trusting Jesus, unless you are COMPLETELY RESTING IN HIS DEATH, BURIAL AND RESURRECTION ALONE TO SAVE YOU!!! 

Please don't let Steve Pettit take you to Hell with him. On March 30, 2020 he told 2,700 students and faculty that “perpetual liars” go to Hell! The Bible says that ALL LIARS go to Hell (Revelation 21:8). How many lies do I have to tell you to be a liar? Just one, right! James 2:10 confirms this truth, “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” It is disturbing that Steve Pettit thinks habitual sinners are going to Hell, because we are saved by God's righteousness, nor our own righteousness. My destination is not based upon how I live my life, it's on whom that I trust to save me. How much you lie and sin has nothing to do with the gift of eternal life. If a child of God lives in willful sin, God is not an absent parent, He will chastise a child whom He loves. Proverbs 3:12, “For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.”

Here are some excellent helpful quotes differentiating between SALVATION versus DISCIPLESHIP...

"It is an inexcusable error to confront sinners with problems that concern the Christian life and call upon them to make promises regarding them. An unsaved person is never called upon to surrender himself to God. The saving act is in no instance represented as our 'giving ourselves to God'; it is, on the contrary, taking His Son as our Savior." Ryrie, Charles. Balancing the Christian Life. Moody Press, Inc., 1969 (p. 170). 

"The second approach finds faith in the gospel alone an 'easy Believism' and seeks to add something to faith in order to accomplish salvation. To repent is to 'change one's mind,' and to believe is to remove one's trust from that in which it has rested and place it in Christ." Howard, William. "Is Faith Enough to Save?" Bibliotheca Sacra. January-March, 1942 (p.99). 

"This kind of faith is not 'easy believism'. It is not easy to say, 'I can't save myself, I must recognize that there is something wrong with me, and I must seek help from someone else.'" Hook, H. Phillip. "A Biblical Definition of Saving Faith." Bibliotheca Sacra. April-June, 1964 (p. 133, 138). 

"Eternal life is free. Discipleship is immeasurably hard. The former is attained by faith alone, the latter by a faith that works... the former brings with it the righteousness of God so that a man is 'justified freely by his grace' (Romans 3:24). The latter develops a personal righteousness, based on good deeds, so that a man was also 'justified by works' (James 2:24). The former constituted the believer God's workmanship, the latter fulfilled the wonderful purpose for which he had been created. The former cost man nothing, the latter could cost him everything, including life itself." Hodges, Zane C. The Hungry Inherit. Moody Press, Inc., 1972 (p. 114, 115). 

"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." DeHaan, M. R. Hebrews. Zondervan Publishing House, 1959 (p. 117). 

"For the unregenerate man, repentance is the change of mind whereby he turns from unbelief to faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ." Post, Roger. "The Meanings of the Words Translated 'Repent' and 'Repentance' in the New Testament." Master's Thesis, Wheaton College, June 1972 (p. 80). 

"There are those who, in their zeal to get people to turn from their sinful ways and receive the Lord, almost put repentance on a par with believing... Repentance, as it relates to Christ, means to change our minds about Him, who He is and what He's done to provide forgiveness and deliverance from our sins. When we place faith in Jesus as having taken our place personally on the cross and borne the penalty due our sins, then we're automatically repenting, because we couldn't accept Him in this way without having had to change our minds in some way concerning Him." Lindsey, Hal. The Liberation of Planet Earth. Zondervan Publishing House, 1974 (p. 136, 137). 

"Discipleship is frequently equated with salvation and often erroneously made a condition for becoming a Christian". Pentecost, J. Dwight. Design for Discipleship. Zondervan Publishing House, 1971 (p. 11). 

"Certainly discipleship is a most important aspect of our relation to Christ, but it belongs to the sphere of Christian life rather than entrance upon that life... One does not become a disciple in order to become a Christian, but because he has become a Christian by faith in the Savior, it is fitting that he embark upon a life of discipleship". Harrison, Everett F. "Must Christ be Lord to Be Savior?-No." Eternity, September 1959 (p. 14). 

"There is no more piously subtle abrogation of the Gospel than to tell a Sinner that he must not only believe in the Savior, but dedicate himself to do God's will, crown the Savior Lord of his life, etc., etc. Obviously, dedication and service are highly desirable, but they are the privilege and the duty of the saved, never a condition of salvation for the unsaved (cf. Romans 12:1, 2)." Unger, Merrill F. God is Waiting to Meet You. Moody Press, 1975 (p. 117, 118). 

"People are sometimes led to believe that there is saving value in some public confession of Christ, or profession of a decision. "With the heart man believeth unto righteousness." This is salvation. "With the mouth confession is made unto salvation." This is the voice of the newborn child speaking to and of its father. The only condition on which one may be saved is to believe." Chafer, Lewis Sperry. Salvation. Dunham Publishing Company, 1917 (p. 46). 

The evidence that we are saved is the indwelling Holy Spirit, not the way we live. 1st John 3:24, “And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.” 

“If you have to look at your life to prove that you are saved, it proves that you're not!” —Pastor Ralph 'Yankee' Arnold; an excellent quote from the awesome YouTube sermon, “Why Lordship Salvation is WRONG!”