The Problem Of Telling Lost Sinners To “Turn From Your Sin” To Be Saved

Acts 16:29-31, “Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, 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.”

I am so sick and tired as a fundamentalist Bible preacher of hearing professed Christians tell people to repent of your sin to get to Heaven. I was reading the website of 'Roloff Ministries' today. The article is titled: “What Must I Do To Be Saved?,” which excerpts and writings they attribute to Brother Lester Roloff (1914-1982), and I read these disturbing words...

4. You must repent.

Turn to God from your sin (Acts 26:20). You must believe and receive Jesus Christ to save you. “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name” (John 1:12). SOURCE

Now, here is Acts 26:20, “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.” The Roloff Homes teach that repentance means to turn from your sin, but that is NOT what this Bible verse says at all. The Scripture simply teaches to “repent.” The Greek verb for repent here is metanoeo, which simply means: “to think differently.” That is all that the word means! So, we need supplemental information to know what to think differently about. In this particular context we clearly see that the Apostle Paul preached the gospel in hope that all who heard would think differently to “turn to God.” There is absolutely nothing in the context that indicates we must turn from our sin to be saved. Sincere but unlearned men added those words (Proverbs 30:5-6).

The Gospel of John was specifically written to convince the reader “that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name” (John 20:31b). Throughout the Gospel of John we find the word “believe” mentioned 86 times, but the word repent is not mentioned even once. That is simply because repentance is an automatic thing. The man who believes on Christ has repented, and the man who repents has believed on Christ. Repentance is necessary for salvation, but to repent simply means to change your mind. By cross referencing and comparing Scripture with Scripture, we can honestly conclude that to be saved you must change your mind about two things to get to Heaven, The first is to admit you are a guilty SINNER (Romans 3:19-20). The second thing is to admit that Jesus is the only SAVIOR.

One of my favorite Bible teachers is Pastor Brad Strand. I recently purchased his 'The Strand Study Bible.' I love it so much that I bought five of them (2 new and 3 used). Here is Brother Strand's commentary for our text passage from 2nd Corinthians 7:8...

Repentance may include “remorse” (made you sorry), but remorse is not repentance. If so, then Judas repented because he was remorseful over what he had done to Christ (Mt 27:3). You can weep over sin and even express great remorse, but until you “change your mind” as to who you are and who Christ is and agree with God (Mt 3:2), you have not repented biblically.

Repentance may include “sorrow” (you were made sorry), but sorrow for sin is not repentance. Hell is full or sorrow, but only for the consequences of sin. The rich man who died and went to Hell uttered not a word of sorrow for his sin, only sorrow for his pain (Lk 16:19-31). You can weep over sin and even express great regret, but until you “change your mind” as to who you are and who Christ is and agree with God, you have not repented biblically.

Repentance may include “conviction” (after a godly manner), but conviction is not repentance. If so, then Felix repented when he trembled before Paul (Acts 24:24-25). You may be convicted that you are a sinner and even admit that you are lost, but repentance is a two-sided coin. You not only have to “change your mind” as to who you are, you have to also “change your mind” as to who Christ is and call upon Him to be your Savior (Rom 10:9-13). Otherwise, you have not repented biblically.

SOURCE: Brad Strand, “The Strand Study Bible,” p. 1938

I am so thankful for Pastor Strand, that he is one of few preachers today who gets repentance correct. Pastor Jack Hyles (1926-2001), in a sermon titled “A Vote For Preaching,” spoke in this excerpt about the false gospel of Lordship Salvation which is unfortunately being preached from nearly every pulpit today. RIGHT DOCTRINE MATTERS!!!

Pastor Jack Hyles (1926-2001) said these helpful words...

“Repentance is not some little silly, 'I'm sorry.' Repentance is not simply a fear of God. Repentance is not a monk fasting and afflicting his body in a monastery. Repentance is not remorse because of sin's consequences. Repentance is not penance performed before the pope as you kiss his toe... Repentance is not being sorry for what I've done wrong. It is not confessing one's sins to a priest. It is not just conviction of sin. It is not the signing of a pledge of abstinence. Repentance is that thing when you come before God and see yourself as you are, and see Him as he is, and say with Isaiah 'Woe is me, for I am unclean!'” —Pastor Jack Hyles (1926-2001), a quote from the timeless MP3 sermon, 'THE GOODNESS OF GOD LEADETH TO REPENTANCE!'

Having said all that, please understand that I am not attacking the ministry at the Roloff Homes, but they are needlessly confusing people by continuing to tell them to “turn to God from your sin” to get to Heaven, when the inspired King James Bible teaches no such thing. You may argue with me, but I have several dozen Scripture passages to back me up in this important matter...

• A grieved father was saved by simply believing on Christ (Mark 9:24)
• Jesus told Nicodemus that the way to be saved is to believe on Him (John 3:14-18)
• Many Samaritans simply "believed" on Jesus to be saved (John 4:39-42)
• Jesus told a crowd of people who followed Him across the Sea of Galilee that the work of God to be saved is to believe on Him (John 6:28-29)
• Martha was saved by simply believing on Jesus (John 11:25-27)
• 3,000 people were saved on the Day of Pentecost by "gladly receiving" Peter's Gospel message (Acts 2:41)
• Phillip told the curious Ethiopian eunuch that to be saved he needed to believe that Jesus is the Son of God (Acts 8:36-38)
• Cornelius and his companions simply believed the Gospel and were saved (Acts 10:43-44)
• The Philippian jailer in Rome simply believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and was saved Acts 16-30-31)
• The Apostle Paul said that to become child of Abraham we must believe on Christ (Galatians 3:26)

In not one of these precious Scripture passages are we told that anyone turned from their sins to be saved. So, why do men still teach this unbiblical heresy? Preachers are woefully guilty of focusing far too much on deliverance from sin, as they are about eternal salvation as a free gift through faith in Christ.

The Problem With Telling Sinners To 'Turn From Sin'

The first and biggest problem with teaching lost sinners that they must “turn from sin” to be saved is simply that it is not true biblically. You turn from your unbelief to be saved, not from your sinful bad habits. You cannot show me even one place in the inspired King James Bible where it says someone turned from their sin to be saved. The Apostle Paul when writing to the Thessalonicans said in 1st Thessalonians 1:9, “For they themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God.” But the Bible doesn't say that they turned from sin, does it.

Effectively, Bible repentance is turning away from whatever has been hindering you from coming to the light of the truth of the Gospel to be saved. It couldn't be more clear that repentance means to turn from one's “dead works,” not from your sins (Hebrews 6:1). And “dead works” includes both good and bad works alike. Turning from one's sins would constitute good works! What saith the Scripture? Jonah 3:10, “And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.” By requiring someone to turn from their sin to be saved, effectively you are adding WORKS to God's simple plan of salvation, and that is rally bad. Salvation is not a reward for the righteous, it is a gift for the guilty. Salvation is not doing your best, it is having Christ's best put to your account through receiving Him by faith.

Turning away from sinful ways would be a work. Faith puts all of the merit where it belongs, on the object of our faith, Jesus and His work. If to “repent” means to forsake our sinful ways TO BE SAVED, but Jesus already paid for our sins by dying on the cross, then what are we repenting from? The true Gospel always points you to CHRIST; a false gospel always points to YOU. If salvation is truly by grace, then you don't need to start or stop anything to be saved. Eternal life is a free gift from God (Romans 6:23). 

The second big problem of telling people to turn from sin to be saved is that there is no way of even knowing what that means. When you tell a lost person to “turn to God from sin” to be saved, what does that even mean. How do you turn from sin? To shame utter shame, I think most people who use such unbiblical terminology know the implications that turn from sin imposes on a person, and that is wicked.

I have never heard Brother Roloff preach that you must be willing to forsake your sinful ways to be saved, but I did hear him say this in his sermon "Faith"...

“You'll never get saved until you judge yourself lost.” —Brother Lester Roloff

I fully agree with that teaching. No one has ever been saved who did not come to God as an admitted guilty sinner. As Dr. Jack Hyles rightly said, you need to know what you're being saved from. Romans 6:23 declares that “the wages of sin is death.” This includes the “second death” of body and soul (Matthew 10:28) in the Lake of Fire for all eternity without rest or hope, day and night, forever (Revelation 14:11; 20:11-15, 21:8).

What Repentance Is Not

Repentance is NOT a change of lifestyle. I think Pastor Harry Ironside (1876-1951) of the Moody Memorial Church said it very well:

“Repentance is the very opposite of meritorious experience. It is the confession that one is utterly without merit, and if he is ever saved at all it can only be through the merits of our Lord Jesus Christ, 'who gave himself a ransom for all.' Here is firm footing for the soul who realizes that all self-effort is but sinking sand. Christ alone is the Rock of our salvation.”

SOURCE: Harry A. Ironside; 'Except Ye Repent,' p. 36

Clearly, Ironside taught a Free Grace view of the Gospel. Consider further the following awesome quote by Dr. Ironside:

“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 tract: 'What Is The Gospel?'

Kindly said, I do not think Roloff Ministries should even use the phrase “turn from sin” to get to Heaven, simply because it is not found in the inspired King James Bible, which is the ONLY English Bible translation today that hasn't been corrupted by the Devil. But if they do continue to use it, they should at least explain to people exactly what that phrase means, because it confuses people and runs the serious risk of implying that you cannot be saved without being willing to stop living in willful sin.

Do you really believe that a man who is shacking up with his girlfriend in fornication cannot be saved without first being willing to stop living in fornication? Long time missionary to India David W. Cloud (born 1949) believes exactly that heresy! If you believe that too dear reader, then you are not saved. No one is saved who believes it's Jesus + something more. Satan's greatest weapon is to con people into living the Christian life without ever being born again.

Right Doctrine Matters

Since what we believe will determine where we spend eternity, it's is critically important that we get the message of the gospel accurate.

“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!”

I am fully convinced that the Roloff Ministries do not agree with David W. Cloud, or I'd expose them as false prophets. I do not think they are false prophets at Roloff Ministries; but rather, I just think they are sincerely mishandling the Word of God, carelessly embellishing the Gospel, merely going along with things they've heard others say.

Again, I haven't personally heard Brother Roloff preach any heresy, but this article that I read today at the Roloff Ministries website is misleading. By requiring a lost person to “turn to God from sin” strongly implies that you need to do something about your own sin. But dear reader, Jesus did something about our sins on Calvary's cross 2,000 years ago, and that is what getting saved is all about—accepting Christ's sacrificial death on the cross as full payment for our sins, believing that He was buried, but then miraculously resurrected from the dead three days later. This is the gospel by which we are saved (1st Corinthians 15:1-6), for those who simply believe it (Romans 1:16). Right doctrine matters!