Right Doctrine Matters: Pastor Stacey Shiflett Preaches A False Gospel

Matthew 7:15, “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.”

Thank you! Faith is the only righteous thing that I can do. The Devil is a beautiful liar. Not one verse in the inspired King James Bible teaches to repent "of your sins" or to "turn from your sins" to be saved, Hebrews 6;1 speaks of repentance from "dead works," not from sinful works. In Jonas 3;10 the Bible says that turning from evil ways is works! Jonah 3;10b, "And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way..." Tuning from sinful ways is WORKS!!! You don't turn from your sins to be saved; Christ died on the cross to pay for your sins and mine.

Nowhere in the Bible does it say that you must be willing to turn away from your sins to be saved. The truth is that we all continue living in sin, saved and unsaved alike. The only thing that a person automatically gets at the time of salvation is the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit (1st John 3;24). Everything from that point forward is a separate matter of discipleship. Service is something entirely different than salvation. Discipleship is something different than sonship.

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.” —John Bunyan

Yes, incompetent preachers, evangelists, missionaries, chaplains, laymen and pastors everywhere nowadays are corrupting the Gospel, casting stumblingblocks before the people, damning men's souls to the Lake of Fire forever. In this blog I am going to share with you several excellent helpful quotes differentiating between SALVATION versus DISCIPLESHIP to help you see the difference. Bravo John Bunyan! Yes, Amen, that is 100% sound doctrine. We must keep service separate from salvation, lest we corrupt God's Word and cast stumbling blocks before the people. Every Christian is an adopted child of God John 1;12-13; Romans 8;15).

Here are some more helpful quotes differentiating between discipleship versus sonship...

"It is an inexcusable error to confront sinners with problems that concern the Christian life and call upon them to make promises regarding them. An unsaved person is never called upon to surrender himself to God. The saving act is in no instance represented as our 'giving ourselves to God'; it is, on the contrary, taking His Son as our Savior." —Ryrie, Charles, "Balancing the Christian Life"; Moody Press, Inc., 1969 (p. 170)

"The second approach finds faith in the gospel alone an 'easy Believism' and seeks to add something to faith in order to accomplish salvation. To repent is to 'change one's mind,' and to believe is to remove one's trust from that in which it has rested and place it in Christ." —Howard, William, "Is Faith Enough to Save?," Bibliotheca Sacra; January-March, 1942 (p. 99)

"This kind of faith is not 'easy believism'. It is not easy to say, 'I can't save myself, I must recognize that there is something wrong with me, and I must seek help from someone else.'" —Hook, H. Phillip, "A Biblical Definition Of Saving Faith," Bibliotheca Sacra; April-June, 1964 (pp. 133, 138)

"Eternal life is free. Discipleship is immeasurably hard. The former is attained by faith alone, the latter by a faith that works... the former brings with it the righteousness of God so that a man is 'justified freely by his grace' (Romans 3:24). The latter develops a personal righteousness, based on good deeds, so that a man was also 'justified by works' (James 2:24). The former constituted the believer God's workmanship, the latter fulfilled the wonderful purpose for which he had been created. The former cost man nothing, the latter could cost him everything, including life itself." —Hodges, Zane C, "The Hungry Inherit"; Moody Press, Inc., 1972 (pp. 114, 115)

"For the unregenerate man, repentance is the change of mind whereby he turns from unbelief to faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ." —Post, Roger, "The Meanings of the Words Translated 'Repent' and 'Repentance' in the New Testament"; Master's Thesis, Wheaton College, June 1972 (p. 80)

"There are those who, in their zeal to get people to turn from their sinful ways and receive the Lord, almost put repentance on a par with believing... Repentance, as it relates to Christ, means to change our minds about Him, who He is and what He's done to provide forgiveness and deliverance from our sins. When we place faith in Jesus as having taken our place personally on the cross and borne the penalty due our sins, then we're automatically repenting, because we couldn't accept Him in this way without having had to change our minds in some way concerning Him." —Lindsey, Hal, "The Liberation of Planet Earth"; Zondervan Publishing House, 1974 (pp. 136, 137)

"Discipleship is frequently equated with salvation and often erroneously made a condition for becoming a Christian." —Pentecost, J. Dwight, "Design For Discipleship"; Zondervan Publishing House, 1971 (p. 11)

"Certainly discipleship is a most important aspect of our relation to Christ, but it belongs to the sphere of Christian life rather than entrance upon that life... One does not become a disciple in order to become a Christian, but because he has become a Christian by faith in the Savior, it is fitting that he embark upon a life of discipleship." —Harrison, Everett F., "Must Christ Be Lord To Be Savior?-No"; Eternity, September 1959 (p. 14)

"There is no more piously subtle abrogation of the Gospel than to tell a Sinner that he must not only believe in the Savior, but dedicate himself to do God's will, crown the Savior Lord of his life, etc., etc. Obviously, dedication and service are highly desirable, but they are the privilege and the duty of the saved, never a condition of salvation for the unsaved (cf. Romans 12:1, 2)." —Unger, Merrill F., "God Is Waiting To Meet You"; Moody Press, 1975 (pp. 117, 118)

"People are sometimes led to believe that there is saving value in some public confession of Christ, or profession of a decision. 'With the heart man believeth unto righteousness.' This is salvation. 'With the mouth confession is made unto salvation.' This is the voice of the newborn child speaking to and of its father. The only condition on which one may be saved is to believe." —Chafer, Lewis Sperry, "Salvation"; Dunham Publishing Company, 1917 (p. 46)

Amen, that's good stuff! The following is one of my favorite preacher quotes. Pastor M. R. DeHaan (1891-1965) said it well:

"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." —DeHaan, M.R., "Hebrews"; Zondervan Publishing House, 1959 (p. 117)

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.

Please BEWARE dear reader of the Devil's deadly neo-evangelical heresy today in most churches, which errantly teaches that you must be willing to stop sinning to get to Heaven. That is a counterfeit plan of salvation of partial faith in Christ plus works. JESUS PAID IT ALL! Satan's greatest weapon is to con people into living the Christian life without ever being born-again.

When the Philippian jailer asked Paul and Silas in Acts 16:30b: "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?," they simply answered in 𝗔𝗰𝘁𝘀 𝟭𝟲:𝟯𝟭𝗮, "𝗕𝗘𝗟𝗜𝗘𝗩𝗘 𝗢𝗡 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗟𝗢𝗥𝗗 𝗝𝗘𝗦𝗨𝗦 𝗖𝗛𝗥𝗜𝗦𝗧, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗹𝘁 𝗯𝗲 𝘀𝗮𝘃𝗲𝗱..."

Paul and Silas DIDN'T tell the Roman jailer that he must first be willing to stop sinning to be saved. When the people asked Jesus in John 6:28b, "What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?," Jesus simply replied in 𝗝𝗼𝗵𝗻 𝟲:𝟮𝟵𝗯, "𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗼𝗳 𝗚𝗼𝗱, 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘆𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗲𝘃𝗲 𝗼𝗻 𝗵𝗶𝗺 𝘄𝗵𝗼𝗺 𝗵𝗲 𝗵𝗮𝘁𝗵 𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁." Jesus DIDN'T tell the people that they must first be willing to stop their sinning to be saved.

Pastor Stacey Shiflett is Teaching LIES!

Pastor Shiflett says that he won't even bother to share the Gospel with someone who isn't willing to forsake their sinning. That is so wrong, unbiblical and a bad attitude. Jesus shared the truth of the Gospel with the wicked Pharisees, trying to get them to believe to be saved. God told Isaiah to keep preaching to the rebellious people, to fatten their hearts with truth. The Bible doesn't command us as saints to preach the Gospel to some people; but rather, "to every creature" (Mark 16;15). Noah preached the Gospel to a rebellious world for 120 years, but no one listened. Pastor Shiflett is wrong to withhold the Gospel from unbelievers for whom it is intended by God.

What disturbs me is hearing a bunch of men in the audience shouting “Amen” in agreement with Pastor Shiflett's damnable counterfeit plan of salvation. The Greek word for “repent” in the New Testament regarding salvation is always either the noun form “metanoia” (a change of mind), or the verb form “metanoeo” (to think differently). In the case of Judas Iscariot who repented of his sins in Matthew 27:3, a completely different Greek word is used: “metamellomaiin” (to regret). Carefully notice that even though Judas repented of his sins, he went to Hell in his sins and unbelief to be tormented forever without rest nor hope.

Matthew 27:3, “Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that.”

Judas was a child of the Devil, like so many religious people in this world. Judas was one of Jesus' followers, and in fact one of His very apostles. Unfortunately, Judas was not saved and perished in his sins and unbelief. Sadly, Judas went to Hell. Let us define some theological terms to gain a better understanding:

penitence = sorrow for sin
penance = making a mend for sin
reformation = turning away from sin
repentance = a change of mind

Judas felt sorry for what he had done (penitence), betraying Jesus, an innocent man. Judas tried to make a mend (penance), returning the 30 pieces of silver to the Pharisees. Judas was a changed man (reformation). Interestingly, the Pharisees called it “blood money,” when they were the very ones who concocted the evil plot in the first place to destroy Jesus. But in all of this Judas never repented toward God of his unbelief in Christ. Acts 20:21, “Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.” I love what Pastor Harry Ironside (1876-1951) said about repentance:

“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?'

That was well said by Dr. Ironside, one of my favorite free grace Gospel preachers.

In the Gospel of John we find the word "believe" mentioned 85 times, but the word "repent" is not mentioned even once. That is because repentance is automatic, included with BELIEVING. The man who believes has also repented; the man who repents (i.e., changes his mind) has believed. That is why repentance is not mentioned even once in the Gospel of John, which according to John 20;31 is God's Gospel tract.

What Is Bible Repentance?

Here are about a dozen thought-provoking images with messages that contend for the faith, refuting the Devil's lie that you must be willing to stop sinning to be saved. You are very welcome to share these on social media, to help contend for the Christian faith. We need to uphold the simplicity that is in Christ, which is the unadulterated free grace Gospel. Kindly said, the inspired Word of God exposes Pastor Stacey Shiflett as a damnable heretic. Jesus is precious!!! Thank you for reading. There is a great video sermon at the end of this blog by Pastor Ralph Yankee Arnold, in which he explains repentance in the Old Testament and then the New Testament in a separate video on YouTube...