Galatians 3:1-2, “O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?”
I was watering my flowers yesterday in front of my home, when three younger fellas came by from the Mount Zion Bible Church in Pensacola. They invited me to their church, offered to prayer for me, and then left me with some literature written by their former retired pastor (2002-2025), Jeff Pollard (born 1951).
Dr. Pollard's Toxic Religious Literature
The religious tract is titled, “Do You Know Jesus Christ?” (.pdf). Sadly, kindly said, this literature is so lame that it could never lead anyone to Jesus. You can read it for yourself in the link I just provided. Here's another in case the link goes dead.
1st Corinthians 15:1-6, “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.”
That is THE GOSPEL; namely, three things:
- Jesus DIED on Calvary's cross 2,000 years ago in our place to pay our debt of sin.
- Jesus was BURIED, thus proving that He was indeed dead. It wasn't staged.
- Jesus physically RESURRECTED bodily from the dead after three days.
Although Dr. Pollard does mention Christ's sacrifice and shed blood, it's not effectively the same thing as clearly presenting the Gospel to a lost sinner. RIGHT DOCTRINE MATTERS!
Pastor Jeff Pollard Fails To Put A Difference Between Service And Salvation
I do not question the sincerity of Pastor Pollard, but his religious tract is impotent to win a lost sinner to Jesus Christ, and in my humble opinion he is incompetent as a preacher.
“There is power in this Gospel message. Most people just don't know how to present it... The clarity of the Gospel is what makes it easy for them to believe.”—Pastor Yankee Arnold, “WHY GRACE CAN SAVE THE WORST MAN!”
As I read Pastor Jeff Pollard's 8-page religious brochure from Mount Zion Bible Church in Pensacola, I cringed in frustration as he mumbled needlessly about “knowing Jesus,” but dear friend, did not Judas Iscariot know Jesus? Yes, he certainly did. Judas was one of Christ's very chosen apostles. And did not the lost sinners who did “many wonderful works” in Jesus' name in Matthew 7:21-23 also know Jesus? Yet, Jesus rejected them? Yes, they knew Jesus well, even calling Him “Lord, Lord.” And does not Satan know Jesus? Yes, Lucifer, ole smut face himself, knows Jesus, even casually approaching the throne of grace in Job 1:6-7.
You see dear reader, it matters not if you know Jesus. The $64,000 question is: DOES JESUS KNOW YOU? Does Christ recognize you as one of His redeemed sheep in His fold? That is, have you been born again by the Holy Spirit of God? There are billions of lost sinners who are familiar with Jesus. They know about Him. Sadly, Jesus doesn't know them!
The awakened sinner who thus believes will cleave to the Lord Jesus because God has given him a new heart; and he will walk in loving obedience to his Lord and Saviour, discovering the glories of His mercy and grace: “If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him” (John 14:23).
This false teaching is confusing at best, and damnable heresy at worst. Walking in obedience to Jesus as one's LORD has absolutely nothing to do with getting saved. Respectfully said, Pastor Pollard makes the common dire error of mixing service with salvation, and in do doing he casts stumblingblocks before lost people. I humbly think Pilgrim's Progress author John Bunyan (1628-1688) said it best...
“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.” —Evangelist John Bunyan
Evangelist John Bunyan is exposing the Satanic fraud of “Lordship Salvation,” which deadly counterfeit plan of salvation has crept into nearly every so-called “Christian” pulpit, radio station, missionary board, website, film and book today.
Few Preachers Clearly Present The Gospel
On page 17 of his excellent book in defense of a free grace Gospel, Evangelist Michael P. Bowen writes these edifying words...
“I am at eternal odds with the false, counterfeit messages of salvation-by-works that are taught from virtually every pulpit today, on every television channel, and on every Christian radio station; however, I am not at eternal odds with the individuals who preach these counterfeit messages. My heart literally goes out to all of them because they simply do not understand Christ’s plan of salvation. They have been lied to by a crafty enemy named Satan, whose sole aim is to take as many people with him to the lake of fire as he can possibly manage to steal away from God using a counterfeit plan of salvation that appears so real, so genuine, and so holy that few ever realize they have been deceived by it. Oh reader, so many of today’s professing Christians who think they are going to heaven when they die are not going to make it to heaven as they had assumed because they’ve been lied to by today’s error-filled gospel messages. Radical? Yes. But I am nonjudgmental toward the bearers of false messages; I am only judgmental toward the false plans of salvation they emphasize as being equal to the plan of Christ. There is only one plan of salvation in the bible; therefore, there cannot be two plans.” —Michael P. Bowen, “I Never Knew You: The Horror Of The Great White Throne Judgement And How You Can Avoid It,” p. 17; © 2009
Another one of my favorite Bible preachers is Pastor M.R. Dehaan (1891-1965), who penned these helpful words...
“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.” —Pastor M.R. DeHaan, “Hebrews”; Zondervan Publishing House; 1959 (p. 117)
I have just shared some excellent resources with you dear reader. Very few churchgoers today have been properly taught by the leaders to differentiate between service versus salvation, between discipleship versus sonship, between sanctification versus justification. One thing has nothing to do with the other, and if you do not put a difference between them you will corrupt God's inspired Word and cast stumbling blocks before the people. It is clear to see from John Bunyan's teachings that he had a keen understanding of the free grace of God...
What a great meme! Any unlearned preacher who says that you must “repent of your sins” or “turn from your sinful ways” to be saved is a theological liar! You cannot show me one Scripture from an inspired King James Bible which says to repent “of your sins” or “turn from your sins” to receive God's free gift of eternal life. You simply need to acknowledge your guilt as a needy sinner (Romans 3:19-20; Galatians 3:26-29). You need to know why you need to be saved, because you are a wretched sinner (and so am I and everybody else), and the penalty for sin is to burn in the fires of Hell forever (Revelation 20:11-15; 21:8).
God Made His Plan of Salvation Free, Easy And Simple
The free grace Gospel has always been under attack by the Devil, but not like today. Satan knows that his time is short, and the earth's population just reached 8 billion people in 2022. There are billions of religious people on the planet, but so few are saved. Luke 13:23-24, “Then said one unto him, Lord, are there few that be saved? And he said unto them, Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.” I believe a big reason why so few people are saved is because the god of this world has deliberately blinded their minds from the light of the truth of the Gospel (2nd Corinthians 4:3-4). Jesus warned about FALSE PROPHETS, ravenous wolves who come to us in sheep's clothing to deceive their victims.
Pastor Jeff Pollard is correct that if you have the Son, you have life; but if you don't have the Son, you don't have life. 1st John 5:12, “He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” Unfortunately, Jeff Pollard doesn't ever tell you how to actually get saved. He never once presents the Gospel. To make matters worse, he talks about obeying Jesus if you love Him. Jeff speaks of walking in obedience to Christ, but at best he is mixing service with salvation, thus confusing the lost reader. At worst he is obscuring the Gospel and misleading people concerning how to get to Heaven.
On the last page of Jeff Pollard's tract “Do You Know Jesus Christ?” (.pdf), in the very last paragraph, he foolishly writes...
Hearing that Jesus is the Prophet is not the same as hearing God’s prophet; believing that the Priest died is not the same as faith in the Priest that died; nodding the head that there is a King is not bowing the heart to that King. “Knowing” Jesus Christ is the very life of God working in the soul of man, leading him into a living, personal relationship with the Son of God and conformity to His blessed Word. Do you know Jesus Christ?
How in the world could anyone ever read those words and know how to be saved? Furthermore, having a “relationship” with Christ is NOT the same as being born again. Judas Iscariot had a “relationship” with Jesus, but still went to Hell in his unbelief forever. Satan has a “relationship” with Jesus. You don't get saved by having a relationship with Jesus, you get saved by resting in Christ's finished work through Calvary's cross 2,000 years ago. John 6:28-29, “Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.”
Here is the church's sermon web page. In Pastor Pollard's sermon preached on November 12, 2017, titled: “Judas In Hell: The Dangers Of False Repentance,” Pollard heretically teaches that if you haven't turned from your sins that you are not saved. He specifically mentions that Judas was still a thief, proving that his repentance was false. This is a counterfeit gospel that Jeff Pollard in preaching, not grace. Clearly, Mr. Pollard associates forsaking your sinful behavior with the free grace of God, and by doing so perverts the grace of God.
Pastor Jeff Pollard resigned, thankfully, in October of 2025. Unfortunately his sermons are still circulating on social media, and Mount Zion Bible Church in Pensacola where he pastored for 23 years is still handicapped by his false teachings. Again, in Pastor Jeff Pollard's “gospel” tract you will not find the words “death,” “cross,” “burial,” “resurrection,” “risen” or “raised” mentioned even one time. Where is THE GOSPEL?
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