1/ This is the sort of dumb, Muslim-tier "exegesis" that you get from a lot of these easy-believist, no repentance types that I was talking about earlier.

Obviously this is a dumb argument. By it's exact same framing... https://twitter.com/No2Sovereignty/status/1198339055953436672

2/ ...one can point out that the word "Trinity" never appears in the Bible, but appears several times in the Qur'an, this, the Trinity is a false gospel, yada yada.

It's literally the reasoning process of 5-year olds.

3/ However, since the Hyles-Anderson heretics are all riled up now, I'd like to take the opportunity to go through some of their history and doctrine, which has lead to the sort of abominable treatment of the Bible and the Gospel to which they subject these blessed things of God

4/ Most of my mutuals and many of my followers are aware that I am a Baptist, of the independent persuasion, which essentially means that I hold to a local-only polity wrt ecclesiastical organisation - monarchial within a local church but no hierarchy above the local church

5/ This is the scriptural organisation for the churches that we see in the NT. However, it *does* mean that there can be variance between independent churches wrt doctrine (though, not nearly as much actually exists as denominational critics tend to imagine).

6/ One of the major areas of division in independent Baptist circles is between those who hold to orthodox, historic Baptist doctrine on salvation ("pro-repentance") and those who hold to "easy believism," essentially that repentance is a "work" and not necessary for salvation.

7/ The latter make up a smallish (I'd guesstimate ~10-15% of churches) but vocal minority.

Easy believism in its modern incarnation is not really "Baptist." It arises neither from Scripture nor from the teachings of the apostolic churches established by the Apostles.

8/ Neither does it stem from the soteriology of the First Great Awakening of the 1730-1740s.

Rather, easy believism arose out of the sentimental revivalism (which was itself moralistic and emotionalistic, rather than doctrinal) of the fundamentalist movement in the last half...

9/ ...of the 19th century, and which was a cross-denominational movement (making revivalism and easy believism species of Evangelicalism, rather than Baptist proper).

To this revivalism was added 20th century advertising techniques that emphasised tailoring your message...

10/ ...to give your customer what they want.

This last influence is especially important to keep in mind because it is much of what drives the easy believist doctrine, as will be shown below.

11/ Anywise, revivalism as found in the Sword of the Lord circle of the mid-20th century formed the embryo of today's easy believism. The emphasis lay on encouraging a potential convert to "make a decision for the Lord," which is obviously not the same thing...

12/ ...repenting and believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. This approach to evangelism is essentially a form of functional Pelagianism, placing the "decision" for salvation in the convert's power rather than in the calling of God upon the lost sinner.

13/ Taking this approach even further, we come to Jack Hyles, who became the pastor of First Baptist Church, in Hammond, Indiana, in 1959. Hyles, along with Russell Anderson, founded the Hyles-Anderson college in 1972, to which you often see me referring.

14/ At its peak in the early 1990s, FBC in Hammond boasted over 100,000 members.

Wow, they must really be doing something for the Lord and He's blessing, right?

Eh, not so much.

This is where the marketing approach in easy believism mentioned earlier comes into play.

15/ Even today, it's not unusual to hear door-to-door evangelists from FBC claim to have seen 600, 1000, 1500 people saved during a single Saturday of door-knocking. Prizes are given out to the soul-winner who gets the most professions.

16/ Yet, if any of this methodology were genuinely legitimate, spiritually speaking, then the entire state of Indiana would be saved, serving members of FBC of Hammond.

Obviously, this isn't the case.

17/ In fact, the ratio between professions of faith obtained versus people who actually bring forth the fruits of changed lives and live for God is extremely low.

18/ This is because the "evangelism" pursued by easy believists is extremely shallow and is designed to maximise the number of people willing to pray a prayer and "get saved."

We all know that modern people do not like think of themselves as being sinners.

19/ Yet, the Bible's testimony about man is clear,

"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" (Jer. 17:9)

So how do you rack up huge numbers in evangelism like H-A types do?

You don't talk about sin.

20/ You avoid the topic. You tell them they can be saved without ever addressing sin or that it separates us from God. You dilute the meaning of "repentance" or avoid the topic altogether. You tailor your message to market to your target audience.

21/ You ask them if they want to go to heaven, and when they say "yes," you have them pray a simple prayer after you, and then you tell them they're saved.

I've seen this done. It's exactly what many of these folks do.

22/ Of course, in very, very few of these cases does anyone actually get saved. Most of the time, they continue on as profane, corrupt, wicked as they were before, only now they've been told they're "saved," so they're insulated from the Gospel when a *real* soul-winner comes by

23/ Now, easy believists will argue that looking for evidence of regeneration in someone's life is "works-based salvation" and that an act of sin would make you "lose your salvation."

This argument was designed as a cover for the obvious lack of change in most of their converts

24/ That such change is to be expected, scripturally, is quite obvious, however.

"Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance." (Matthew 3:8)

25/ "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." (II Cor. 5:17)

26/ "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law." (Gal. 5:22-23)

Clearly, the Scriptural expectation is that those who have been genuinely born again will be changed

27/ This change is a work of God's grace that supernaturally occurs through the agency of God's Spirit when a soul is regenerated (Titus 3:5)

If there's no evidence of that fruit, then there's strong reason to doubt that salvation has actually been given to that soul.

28/ Yet, the "fruit" of easy-believist "evangelism" is a drunk guy answering his door with his live-in girlfriend on his arm and a joint hanging from his mouth telling you he's "already done that so I'm good" (seen it happen).

29/ Thanks, Hyles-Anderson, for making that guy twofold a child of hell

We shouldn't be surprised, however, that easy believists dismiss repentance of sin so blithely, however. Just look at how some of their exemplars have conducted themselves.

30/ Jack Hyles himself was accused of several sexual and financial improprieties, including a decade long affair with the wife of one of his deacons. Other credible accusations of others in FBC (some went to trial) included child molestation and abuse

31/ Jack Schaap, who took over FBC after Hyles passed away, was removed from the pastorate and sent to jail after being convicted of having sex with a 16 year old girl at H-A college.

32/ Joseph Combs, a professor at H-A college, and his wife were convicted in 2000 of torturing and abusing their adopted daughter for nearly two decades.

These things are obviously pretty serious, and indicate patterns of ongoing unregenerate behaviour

33/ I can see why easy believists don't want to acknowledge the need for repentance of sin as a part of placing faith in Christ.

So, what *does* the Bible say about repentance, once you get past the 2-3 out of context pull quotes that easy believists use?

34/ "But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." (Matthew 9:13)

Christ calls "sinners," this is what He is saving them from, and what lies between them and God

35/ "When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." (Mark 2:17)

Sinners - that word again...maybe this sin thing *is* a problem after all?

36/ "I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." (Luke 5:32)

There He goes again, talking about *sinners* needing repentance for salvation.

37/ "I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." (Luke 13:3)

Lack of repentance leads to perishing (eternal death). You know what else the Scripture connects with eternal death? Sin (Rom. 3:23, 5:12, 6:23; James 1:15)

38/ "And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." (Luke 24:47)

We are to preach and *specifically connect* repentance with the remission of sins through Christ

39/ "When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life." (Acts 11:17)

Repentance gives life (the apophasis of what sin brings, which is death)

40/ "Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ." (Acts 20:21)

Repentance and faith are two aspects of the *same* thing. If we're saved by grace through faith (Eph. 2:8), then repentance must be there

41/ "But shewed first unto them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judaea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance." (Acts 26:20)

Repentance is turning to God. From what? Sin and unbelief

42/ "Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God." (Heb. 6:1)

"Dead works" is sin and not only does faith = repentance, but this is BASIC DOCTRINE

43/ "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." (II Pet. 3:9)

Again, lack of repentance leads to death, scripturally caused by sin.

44/ Now, does repentance involve "changing your mind from unbelief to belief"?

Sure, you bet it does. But that's because unbelief is itself a sin, and leads to all other sins. People sin because they don't take seriously the warnings against in God's Word

45/ What about the places where the Bible says that God repents? Since God can't sin (Num. 23:19, James 1:13), doesn't this mean that repentance isn't about sin?

No, it just means that a word can have different shades of meaning in different contexts.

46/ Duh. That's basic knowledge of language. Somebody ought to be able to figure this out merely by being fluent in speaking English, even without any specific schooling.

47/ I'm going to wrap up this very long tweet storm, but it should be obvious that the whole easy believist, no repentance of sin heresy is a poisonous fruit that has nothing to do with historic Christianity...

48/ ...produces nothing but bad fruit in its practitioners, and has no real scriptural support upon which it rests. Literally all that easy believists can do is pull a couple of verses out of natural context and set them against the rest of Scripture (i.e. eisegesis)

FINIS