Dennis Corle's “REVIVAL FIRES” Get Repentance Wrong

2nd Timothy 2:25, “In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.”

At their website with the heading: “REVIVAL FIRES: FUNDAMENTALISM'S POSITIVE VOICE,” Dr. Dennis Corle makes the following statements:

God does expect us to obey Him after we become His children, and the very first command that He gives is found in Acts 2:38. “…Repent, and be baptized every one of you…” Repentance takes place within, when I turn away from sin and self and turn to Christ as my Saviour. [emphasis added] —SOURCE: Revival Fires, 'Eternity'

Where does the Bible teach that repentance takes place “when I turn away from sin and self”? Proverbs 30:5-6, “Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.” Well meaning and sincere clergy have ADDED words to the inspired King James Bible which God never put in there. RIGHT DOCTRINE MATTERS!!!

It is sadly a trifle matter to thousands of preachers today to change God's simple plan of salvation. Telling a lost sinner that God requires them to “turn away from sin and self” to be saved is WORKS! Argue as many will, requiring someone to TURN AWAY FROM SIN AND SELF places a heavy burden and obligation upon a sinner to DO SOMETHING in order for them to receive God's free gift of eternal life.

“More people will die and burn in Hell, because they're trusting too much!”—Pastor Jack Hyles, “Yea, Yea, And Nay, Nay!”

“Everything that's hard and complicated about salvation is God's side of it!”—Pastor Jack Hyles, “Yea, Yea, And Nay, Nay!”

You cannot show me in the Gospel of John where it reads, “turn away from sin and self” to be saved. Shame on Revival Fires for corrupting the Gospel. The Gospel of John is God's Gospel tract according to John 20:21, “But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.” We keep hearing infidel fools like Billy Graham, Franklin Graham, John MacArthur and other proponents of the Lordship Salvation heresy citing Scripture passages from Matthew, Mark, and Luke (to bolster up their Strawman heresy of Lordship Salvation); but God authored the Gospel of John to convince us that Jesus is the Christ, the only begotten Son of God, so that by BELIEVING we would be saved.

• The Gospel of Matthew was written to convince us that Jesus is a King.
• The Gospel of Mark was written to convince us that Jesus is a Servant.
• The Gospel of Luke was written to convince us that Jesus is a Man.
• The Gospel of John was written to convince us that Jesus is the Christ.

So any time you hear a corrupt preacher citing passages from other books of the Bible to support their damnable heresy, just go read or listen to the Gospel of John to clarify God's simple plan of salvation. In John chapters 19 and 20 we read about Jesus' crucifixtion, His burial and bodily resurrection. That is the Gospel. Jesus died on a cross in your place and mine, to pay our debt of sin. Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea buried Jesus' body in a tomb. Three days later by a miracle of God, Jesus physically resurrected from the dead. Amen. If you acknowledge THE TRUTH that you are a guilty sinner and turn to Jesus Christ by faith, that is REPENTANCE.

Some of the best help in understanding repentance comes from Pastor Harry Ironside (1876-1951). Please consider the following eloquent quotations: 

Dr. Harry Ironside On Repentance

 

"Repentance is the sinner’s recognition of and acknowledgment of his lost estate." ('Except Ye Repent,' p. 11)

 

"No one was ever saved in any dispensation excepting by grace. Neither sacrificial observances, nor ritual service, nor works of law ever had any part in justifying the ungodly. Nor were any sinners ever saved by grace until they repented. Repentance is not opposed to grace; it is the recognition of the need of grace. ‘They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.’" ('Except Ye Repent,' p. 10)

 

"There is no saving merit in owning my true condition. There is no healing in acknowledging the nature of my illness. And repentance, as we have seen, is just this very thing." ('Except Ye Repent,' p. 12)

 

"Need I add that repentance then is not to be considered synonymous with joining a church or taking up one's religious duties, as people say. It is not doing anything." ('Except Ye Repent,' p. 14)

 

I think the following quote From Dr. Ironside is one of the best I've found on repentance:

“Which comes first, repentance or faith? In Scripture we read, 'Repent ye, and believe the gospel.' Yet we find true believers exhorted to 'repent, and do the first works.' So intimately are the two related that you cannot have one without the other. The man who believes God repents; the repentant soul puts his trust in the Lord when the Gospel is revealed to him. Theologians may wrangle over this, but the fact is, no man repents until the Holy Spirit produces repentance in his soul through the truth. No man believes the Gospel and rests in it for his own salvation until he has judged himself as a needy sinner before God. And this is repentance.” (Except Ye Repent, p. 16)

* * * * * * *

QUESTION 67: I understand that you teach that repentance is a prerequisite to salvation, that is, that a man has to show a certain amount of sorrow for sin before God will cooperate with him and save him. Is this your position? 

ANSWER: It certainly is not. In the first place, repentance is not mere penitence or sorrow for sin. Repentance is simply a man's recognition of his own true condition before God. No man would desire to come to the Saviour unless he realized his need of a Saviour. The realization of this need and the acknowledgment of it is, in the truest sense, the work of repentance. Thus men repent and through believing the Gospel are eternally saved. We who are saved, however, have done more repenting since we were converted than we did before.

* * * * * * *

QUESTION 166: Is repentance the first or the second step in salvation?

ANSWER: Repentance is not a "step" at all, yet there is no salvation without repentance. But repentance is a changed attitude on the part of man. This is what takes place when he believes the Word of Truth as to his lost condition and need of a Saviour. Thus faith and repentance are indissolubly linked together. [Harry A. Ironside, 'What's the Answer? 362 Bible Questions Answered,' pp. 36, 76]

* * * * * * *

You confess you are a sinner, unable to save yourself, and you are willing to be saved in God’s way. This is repentance. And remember, it is not the amount of repentance that counts: it is the fact that you turn from unbelief to God that puts you in the place where His grace avails through believing the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

"Strictly speaking, not one of us has ever repented enough. None of us has realized the enormity of our guilt as God sees it. But when we judge ourselves and trust the Saviour whom He has provided, we are saved through His merits. As recipients of His lovingkindness, repentance will be deepened and will continue day by day, as we learn more and more of His infinite worth and our own unworthiness." SOURCE: From 'Full Assurance' by Harry A. Ironside, pages 89-90

The following statement is from Dr. Ironside's commentary on Luke: "Repentance is just the sick man’s acknowledgment of his illness. It is simply the sinner recognizing his guilt and confessing his need of deliverance” (Luke, p. 253).

Thus, to Dr. Harry Ironside (1976-1951) repentance is simply the sick man acknowledging his illness; the sinner recognizing his need. It is a man realizing his utter bankruptcy before God, judging himself as a Hell-deserving, lost, corrupt sinner before God. A person cannot be saved apart from acknowledgment of his sinful lost condition before God. I agree with Dr. Ironside.

What Is Bible Repentance?

Simply come to God as a guilty sinner, and receive Jesus' sacrifice on the cross as payment for your sins, believing that after He was buried for three days, Jesus miraculously resurrected bodily from the dead. Jesus conquered sin and the grave for you and me dear reader. That is what the Apostle Paul means in 1st Corinthians 15:55-57, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Just like a bee that stings its victim, but then dies so it can never sting anyone again, Jesus removed the sting from death for those who trust in Him. For the born-again child of God, we need have no fear whatsoever of dying, because Jesus took the sting out of death, by His precious blood which He shed on the cross, and sprinkled upon the heavenly Mercy Seat (Hebrews 9:12, 22-24; 12:24). Simply BELIEVE THE GOOD NEWS, Oh sinner, and you will be saved immediately and forever. It is that simple to go to Heaven, when your body can no longer house your soul and spirit.

Pastor Harry 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 sermon: What Is The Gospel?

Sadly, Moody Church and their Moody Bible Institute today are doctrinally corrupt, teaching the fallacies of Calvinism instead of the Gospel of free grace. That is why Moody Ministries today support, honor and publish the heretical books of infidel John MacArthur.

Dear friend, the Revival Fires ministry are dropping the ball for God, by teaching a woeful misunderstanding about what it means to repent to be saved. Kindly said, Dr. Dennis Corle is very wrong that repentance means to, “turn away from sin and self.” That is a despicable form of Lordship Salvation, adding to the Gospel, by requiring sinners to do more than simply put one's childlike faith in the 'GOOD NEWS' (GOSPEL) of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Dr. John R. Rice was a godly man, whom I respect and admire for his faithfulness to the Lord. However, Dr. Rice did a woeful injustice to the Christian world by using such unbiblical phrases as “repent of your sins with all your heart” and “turn from your sin” to be saved. I would have exposed John R. Rice as an unsaved heretic if it weren't for his clarifying of exactly what he meant by “turn from your sin” to be saved. Anyone who represents Dr. Rice as teaching that you have to turn from sins, as a separate act from believing, is slandering him! Please read what Dr. Rice actually believed and taught:

There are those hyper-dispensationalists who think that John the Baptist preached a different Gospel from Christ when he commanded repentance (Matt. 3:2). But it is the same repentance Jesus commanded in Matthew 4:17, in Luke 13:3 and 5, and the same repentance that Paul preached in Athens that God “now commandeth all men every where to repent” (Acts 17:30 31). Repentance is not a different plan of salvation from having faith: it is part of the same plan of salvation. Or rather repentance is simply another way of describing or looking at the plan of salvation. One who turns from sin to God has done so by trusting in Jesus Christ. A change of mind toward sin is necessarily involved in saving faith. 

Everyone who genuinely repented under the preaching of John the Baptist put his trust in the Saviour John the Baptist preached, and was regenerated. There is no such thing as being “a disciple of John the Baptist” in any honest sense without being a disciple of Jesus, that is, without trusting Christ for salvation. [emphasis added]

SOURCE: Evangelist John R. Rice, “Acts: Filled With The Spirit,” pp. 251-252; Sword Of The Lord, Murfreesboro, Tennessee; ©1963

Oh dear friend, that is so beautiful. Please don't miss it! The only change of mind concerning sin that you need to have to be saved, is to ADMIT that you are one. Romans 3:19-20, “Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” To be saved, you just need to realize that you are a GUILTY SINNER, so that you will know what you are being saved from. As guilty sinners we all deserve to be punished by God's wrath in a burning Hell forever and ever (Revelation 20:12-15).

Nowhere in the inspired King James Bible are we ever told to “turn away from sin and self” to be saved. Rather, we read in 2nd Timothy 2:25, “In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.” Repentance is acknowledging THE TRUTH that you are a dirty sinner and that Jesus is the blessed Savior. Repentance is not turning away from your sin; but rather, your unbelief. Repentance is turning to Christ in faith to be saved, not turning away from your evil way, which according to Jonah 3:10 would be WORKS, “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.”

Listen, Jesus Christ came into the world to die on a cross to pay your sin debt and mine, He doesn't demand that we first reform (nor commit to reform) to change our behavior as a prerequisite to saving faith. That would be WORKS! Romans 4:5-7, “But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.” Faith is the only righteous thing that I can do.

By sloppy preachers (like Revival Fires) foolishly using phrases like, “turn away from sin and self” to be saved, it utterly confuses people. What does that even mean, “turn away from sin and self,” to be saved? Do they mean to literally forsake your sinful bad habits? Do they mean that you must stop being so selfish in your dealings with others? We simply don't know, because the terminology that they use is so vague. Do they mean what John R. Rice meant, that the way you turn from sin is to believe on Christ? Do they mean that repentance is an extra step to be saved, or part of just believing? The burden of trying to figure out what Revival Fires meant is a serious problem. This is another reason why I absolutely hate phrases like “repent of your sins” or “turn from your sin” to be saved, because they are very ambiguous terms that leave much room for wild speculation. We simply don't know what preachers and laymen mean, when they use such unbiblical lingo.

Dear reader, a Gospel presentation ought never be so confusing that a lost sinner feels burdened, not knowing what to do to be saved. When the Philippian jailer in Rome asked Paul and Silas in prison, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” in Acts 16:30, their simply answer in verse 31b was to, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved...” They didn't tell the man to “turn from his sins and self.” In fact, I cannot find even one passage of Scripture in the King James Bible, where anyone was told to “turn from their sin” to be saved. Ungodly clergy have wrested the Holy Bible to fit their whims and agendas, perverted the Gospel. 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. The true Gospel always points you to CHRIST; a false gospel always points to YOU. Thank you for reading.