Free-grace Theology: No repentance, no Forgiveness, no Salvation

Let me ask a few simple questions.

1. Does God want people to turn from their sins and turn to Him?

2. Can a person do that if they do not see themselves as a hopelessly enslaved sinner?

3. Will a person truly love Jesus Christ if they have never been convicted that He was crucified for their sin personally?

4. Can a person say they really know Christ, if they do not really love Him?

We are living in a time when people think the 11th commandment is ‘thou shalt not offend anyone’. As a result, many so-called teachers and preachers don’t want to talk about sin, or repentance, they don’t want to offend people because offended people walk out the door and go where they can hear what they want to hear. Obviously, those of us with even the slightest knowledge of Scripture and an ounce of discernment, reject liberal ‘churches’ with lesbian bishops wearing ‘pride colors’, or those who want to include Islam, Hinduism or ‘spirituality’ into their services. Such people are leading ego-centric social clubs which reject Biblical Christianity entirely.

However, my issue is with those who call themselves ‘evangelical’ or ‘biblical’ Christians and have even created ‘seminaries’ to promote a brand of theology which teaches that, and I quote, ‘the truth is you can believe on Christ, live anyway you like and still go to heaven’. In a recent 3 hour long video, a person representing the ‘Layman’s Seminary’ and calling himself the ‘peaceful banana’ went through three of my videos and made the following statements including the one just quoted. I will put the time signature.

1. ‘The bible never says you have to turn from sin to be saved’. 05:11.

2. ‘Discipleship is completely unnecessary for salvation’. 07:03, 1:25:09

3. ‘Salvation is just a fire escape’. 09:05

4. ‘Obedience to Christ is not a requirement for salvation’ 59:50

5. ‘Confession of sin has nothing to do with repentance’. 1:56:30 

6. ‘Fruit of the Spirit is not a natural consequence of regeneration’. 2:21:00

7. ‘If a person just believes, then changes their mind and denies Christ for the rest of their lives and dies denying Him, they are still saved, even false prophets’. 06:25, 

8. ‘There is no verse in Scripture which says you have to have Christ as King or Lord of your life’. 2:03:00

9. ‘If you follow Christ in order to have eternal life you are not saved’. 2:06:48  

These 9 points are just some of the teachings of ‘Free-grace theology’ and taught at the ‘layman’s seminary’. In my opinion, this theology does everything it can to deprive a person of any real experience of new birth and is not conversion, but merely recruitment to a counterfeit form of christianity, indeed, the ‘peaceful banana’ also rejects any notion of new birth being an experience, a common claim for people who have never experienced new birth.

The bottom line is this: If you teach that turning from sin is not repentance or required for new birth, then you will not be preaching about the eternal consequences of sin. If you refuse to preach about sin, the person will not be convicted of sin, will have nothing to seek forgiveness for and will not confess their sin. Furthermore, if a person does not understand that God hates sin, that sin leads to hell, they will not own their sin and repent of it. Also, if you tell a person that obedience to Christ is unnecessary, discipleship is unnecessary, and receiving Christ as Lord is unnecessary you have denied almost everything Jesus said. And finally, if you teach that a person can ‘just believe’ all of this watered down rubbish at 25, return to being an atheist at 26, die as an atheist at 70 and still go to heaven, you are calling Jesus Christ a liar. If there is no repentance, there is no forgiveness and no salvation.

I am not interested in winning theological arguments and have no time to waste arguing with unregenerate fools who have perverted the gospel. My goal is to help people understand the consequences of sin, give the Holy Spirit the opportunity to convict individuals of sin, recognize that Christ took the punishment for their personal sin, surrender their lives to Him as King of Kings and Lord of their life, and receive new birth which will bring about recognizable fruit of the Holy Spirit as they live as disciples of Christ. We are called to make disciples, not recruit people to counterfeit christianity that declares you can ‘just believe, live any way you desire, deny Christ, and still go to heaven’. For me, free-grace theology is the art of self-deception backed by doctrines of demons.

So…let’s explore the first false claim of free-gracers that ‘The bible never says you have to turn from sin to be saved’. This claim is made under the lie that ‘repentance’ only means to change your mind and has nothing to do with sin, confessing sin or forgiveness of sin. It is a foundational doctrine of these people which is utterly contradicted in Scripture.

In the video the peaceful banana was mocking, I listed several old testament verses which included the words ‘turn from sin’ such as Ezekiel 33:14 and Ezekiel 3:18-19. The free-gracer mocked the use of these verses saying they did not contain the word ‘repent’. In fact the word repent was two verses earlier in 33:12 and the verses I quoted were explaining the process of repentance. In Ezekiel 3:18-19, the Lord is warning Ezekiel that if he does not warn people to turn away from their sins, that person will die, and God will hold him accountable. The peaceful banana found that amusing.

In the New Testament and Greek version of the OT, the main noun for repent is the Greek metanoia, a combination of meta and noeo (ennoyo). This word was common in everyday language and can mean to simply change one’s mind about anything as ennoyo means to understand, perceive and consider. The verb form is metanoeo. In the Greek version of the Old Testament metanoeo is often used of God when He changed His mind and has been translated as repentance in the King James version. This can be confusing, because when speaking of God metanoeo obviously does not mean God repented from sin, but rather relented from punishing people. The NIV recognizes this important distinction, and translates metanoeo as relent when speaking of God as in Amos 7:3 and 7:6, and Jonah 3:10 to name a few.

However, metanoeo also means to turn from sin and provide an act of contrition to prove that one has been made conscious of the consequences of their sin as in Jeremiah 31:19. In other words, when a person is convicted about their sin by the Spirit of God through preaching or revelation, they understand and perceive the consequences, and in godly sorrow, prove their sincerity through an act of contrition in order to gain forgiveness.

I do not know if the ‘layman’s seminary’ teaches Greek and I seriously doubt it as their students would soon be challenging their theology. Serious students of Greek will own several Greek lexicons, a kind of dictionary, and lecturers in Greek, use lexicons which also include the use of Greek by the earliest Christian theologians. Such books include Thayers, a popular and adequate English to Greek lexicon, Moulton, an analytical lexicon, but few have Walter Bauer’s lexicon, a 900 page work which includes the New Testament and early Christian literature. Unfortunately, most online Greek tools do not go into the details that written lexicons have.

So what do Greek experts have to say about the word metanoia in New Testament verses? I will quote Thayers in the hope that this so-called seminary at least has a copy, even though the other lexicons are even more adamant. In Luke 21 Jesus is sending the disciples out to preach the gospel of the Kingdom. He gives them instructions about blessing those who welcome them and warning those who do not. He tells them it will be more bearable on judgment day for Sodom than the people of those towns. Then he says this.

Woe to you. Chorazin! Woe to you Bethsaida! For if the miracles performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented in sackcloth and ashes. But it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you. (Luke 10:13-14, Matthew 11:21)

Of these verses, Thayer states that repent means ‘to change one’s mind for the better, to amend heartily with abhorrence for one’s past sins’ (Thayers p405). Note that the change of mind brings an act of repentance through recognition of sin, that action being to repent in sackcloth and ashes, a sign of intense sorrow for their sin.

And to believers Paul writes this:

I am afraid that when I come again my God will humble me before you, and I will be grieved over many who sinned earlier and have not repented of the impurity, sexual sin and debauchery in which they have indulged. (2 Corinthians 12:21)

To this verse Thayer states that repent is, quote, ‘used of those who, conscious of their sins and with manifest tokens of sorrow, are intent on obtaining God’s pardon’. Paul was not hoping for a simple ‘change of mind’, but a complete change of behavior coming from a conviction of their sin being manifested through action in order to obtain forgiveness from God.

But one does not have to be a Greek scholar in order to see the plain teaching of Scripture. In the video the peaceful banana was mocking, I used the example of John the Baptist. Why use John, simply because John’s baptism is called a ‘baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins’. Mark 1:4-5 summarizes John’s ministry with these words.

And so John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by John in the Jordan River. (Mark 1:4-5)

John’s ministry was to prepare people’s hearts for the Messiah, to prepare them to receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, that is, new birth. According to the banana, and I quote, ‘confession of sin has nothing to do with repentance’ (1:56:30). According to John the Baptist, repentance is required for the forgiveness of sins, and confession of sins and being baptized for forgiveness are a public act of sincerity. 

Did John stand up and preach ‘just change your minds’…’oh and it’s a hot day so come and have a dip in the Jordan to cool down’. The Pharisees also came out to see and hear John, but they did not act in repentance, they were too proud. He called them a ‘brood of vipers’ and warned them that like every bad tree they would be thrown into the fire. The peaceful banana deceitfully ignored the verses about repentance for forgiveness, confession of sin and the public act of contrition, and commented that ‘John wasn’t talking about the Pharisees personal sins’. 

I trust that most of you reading this article have better theology, more intellectual capacity, and integrity than a banana, so let me ask you this. If all the people of Judea and Jerusalem came out to hear John preach to prepare them for the ministry of Jesus Christ, as Mark claims, do you think they understood ‘repentance’ to just be a ‘change of mind’ or a conscious conviction of sin, a confession of sin, and an action in order to receive forgiveness from God?  When Peter preached to the crowd on the Day of Pentecost we are told they were ‘cut to the heart’ and cried out ‘what must we do’, showing they were convicted and confessing they were sinners. He told them to them to repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit’.  

According to free-grace heretics, these people just had a change of mind from believing Jesus was not the Messiah to believing he was. No conviction, no confession, no cry to know how to be saved, just a change of mind. If you choose to believe that turning from sin is not necessary for salvation, and that confession of sin has nothing to do with repentance, and that you can ‘just believe, live any way you like and go to heaven’, then your that is your choice and you have sealed your own fate. My role is to warn you and those who have deceived you. The ‘layman’s seminary’ should be called the ‘lameman’s cemetery’ as it is spiritually dead men, deceiving spiritually dead people into remaining spiritually dead’. 

I think you know in your heart of hearts that God hates sin, that God calls people to turn away from sin and to Himself. I think you also know that without sincere repentance there is no forgiveness, and if no forgiveness, there is no salvation. And if some fool tells you that people can boast that they repented in order to be saved, just know they have never been convicted or repented. There is no pride left in the person who has been truly convicted by the Holy Spirit and in godly sorrow cries out to God for mercy and forgiveness, indeed, Scripture states that there is joy in the presence of God’s angels in heaven if even one sinner repents.

You do not need to be a Greek scholar to understand the Bible, but neither can you be convicted by the Holy Spirit if you refuse to let Him convict you.  Read your Bible with an open and teachable heart, ask the Lord to be your teacher and be willing to admit you may have been deceived. 

I pray this article has been a blessing to you. I also hope that free-grace adherents will abandon their lame and false theology, get born again, and start preaching the gospel instead of their diluted counterfeit christianity. God bless.

Steve Copland