Beware Of False Prophet Pastor Greg Laurie

Acts 3:14-21, “But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you; And killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses. And his name through faith in his name hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know: yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. And now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers. But those things, which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled. Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.”

Greg Laurie is the theologically incompetent pastor (in my humble opinion) and founder of the Harvest churches in California and Hawaii and of Harvest Crusades. Pastor Laurie is an evangelist, best-selling author and religious movie producer. Unfortunately, Mr. Laurie is also a dangerous false prophet who preaches a counterfeit plan of salvation.

The Difference Between Remorse and Repentance

“Now repent of your sins and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped away.” (Acts 3:19 NLT)

Spiritually speaking, there’s a vast difference between the words remorse and repentance. And it’s important that we understand this difference. People are sorry when their sin catches up with them. They feel remorse when they begin to reap what they sow. But remorse doesn’t necessarily mean that someone has repented. The apostle Paul wrote, “For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There’s no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death” (2 Corinthians 7:10 NLT). If you are truly sorry, you will not only have remorse for your sins, but you will also repent and change your behavior.

Too many people have a false assurance that they are Christians because they possess a sense of remorse for their sins, even though they never repent. But look at the words of Acts 3:19 again: “Now repent of your sins and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped away” (NLT).

The word repent means to change direction. But we have people today who theoretically come to Christ without ever changing their lifestyle. They have never repented. They will say, “I’m sorry for what I did,” and then keep sinning like nothing ever happened. What kind of sorrow is that?

SOURCE: https://www.crosswalk.com/devotionals/harvestdaily/greg-laurie-devotion-july-23-2025.html

Dear reader, what you have just read from Pastor Greg Laurie was inspired by demons. The first big mistake that he made was to use one of Satan's modern corrupt Bibles. Laurie quotes Acts 3:19 from the corrupt New Living Translation (NLT), “Now repent of your sins and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped away.” According to Acts 20:25, the turning “toward God” part is correct; however, nowhere does the original Greek language suggest that the word “repent” (metanoeo: to think differently) in this verse means to repent “of your sins.” The wicked translators of the NLT and Greg Laurie sinfully added those words, thus perverting God's inspired Word (Proverbs 30:5-6; Jeremiah 23:36). The accurate King James Bible reads in Acts 3:19a, “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out...” A more literal translation using Greek meaning would be, “Think differently and be converted, that your sins may be erased.”

That being said, the second big mistake that Greg Laurie made was to misinterpret this passage by only quoting one verse. In order to properly understand what you need to think differently about in Verse 19, we need to examine Verses 14 through 18 as well. Let's examine this passage further. ...

In Verse 14 the Apostle Peter tells the Jews that they had just crucified the Holy One, that is, the promised Messiah, Jesus.

Peter says in Verse 15 that God raised Jesus up from the dead.

In Verse 16, the apostle tells the Jews, that the lame man they witnessed being made whole (in Verse 7) was healed by faith in Christ.

In Verse 17, Peter tells the Jews that he knows they killed Jesus in their ignorance.

In Verse 18, Peter tells them it was prophesied by the Old Testament prophets that Jesus should suffer such things and be crucified.

In Verse 19, having already explained the situation to the unbelieving Jews, who had just recently crucified their Messiah, Peter invites the people to change their mind to believe on Jesus Christ to be saved, just as the lame man who had just been healed believed and was saved. This is the proper interpretation of this Scripture passage, but what Greg Laurie is teaching is irresponsible Bible exegesis and a lie. The Jews were not being invited by Peter to turn away from their sinful lives; but rather, to place their faith in Jesus Christ to be saved. Their dilemma wasn't that they were active sinners, it was their sinful unbelief in Christ.

The third big mistake that Pastor Greg Laurie made is to errantly assume that you must feel sorrow to be saved. He differentiates between remorse and repentance of your sins, both of which are NOT required to get to Heaven. You do not have to feel sorrow for sins to be saved, you must admit you're a sinner. That is, you must see your need for Christ (Galatians 3:24-26).

Pastor Curtis Hutson (1934-1995) rightly said that a good rule to follow when interpreting the Bible is to never use an obscure passage to contradict a clear one. Acts 3:19 is a highly controversial passage of Scripture, while Greg Laurie totally ignores hundreds of clear passages of Scripture concerning what is required to be saved. Other controversial passages of Scripture are Acts 2:38 and Romans 10:9, which verses do not constitute the Gospel. The Gospel is plainly defined for us in 1st Corinthians 15:1-6, which does NOT include turning away from your sinning to be saved. Nor does the Gospel require that you live a changed life as Greg Laurie foolishly requires.

One of my favorite preachers, Pastor Harry Ironside (1876-1951) said it well...

“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.”

SOURCE: Harry A. Ironside, from the sermon: 'What Is The Gospel?'

Shame on Pastor Laurie for using the Devil's blatantly corrupt modern Bible revisions. By doing so he was misled to improperly interpret Acts 3:19 to mean forsaking your sinning instead of trusting in Christ to be saved. I hate all of the modern Bible perversions! They are all corrupted, every last one of them!!! If you don't have a King James Bible, you don't have an inspired Holy Bible. Bible repentance never means to turn from your sins! Bible repentance is a change mind, which use can only be determined by the context of a particular Scripture passage. In the case of Acts 3:19, the context plainly indicates that it is thinking differently to put one's faith in Christ, nothing more.

I cannot warn you enough dear reader to avoid and run away from Pastor Greg Laurie (Romans 16:17-18). If you do your homework to examine what the Roman Catholics, Mormons, Seventh-Day Adventists, Jehovah's Witnesses, Churches of Christ and other pseudo-Christian religious cults teach about repentance, you will find that they all teach the same errant theology as does Greg Laurie. Jesus came into the world to die for our sins on a cross. God does not demand that you first be willing to reform to turn from your sinning, to receive God's free gift of eternal life which is through faith alone in Jesus Christ (Romans 4:4-7, 6:23; Ephesians 2:8-9; Philippians 3:9).

Greg Laurie is a false teacher! Anyone who teaches that you must “repent of your sins” to get to Heaven is a bold-faced liar! You do need to repent to be saved, but repentance simply means to change your mind. It is clear from umpteen Bible passages that repentance to be saved simply involves changing your mind from unbelief to belief in Christ. John 6:47, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.”