Galatians 1:6-8, “I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.”
Dr. J. Harold Smith (1910–2001) was a dynamic Southern Baptist evangelist and pastor. He was the founder of the 'Radio Bible Hour' in 1935. Here is a short bizarre excerpt from Pastor J. Harold Smith's (1910-2001) sermon, “God's Three Deadlines.” There are numerous Scriptural problems with Dr. Smith's preaching:
- You don't get saved by “giving your heart to Jesus.” That is simply not the Gospel. The inspired Word of God plainly defines “the gospel” for us in 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.” In his sermon, Dr. Smith never even mentions Jesus' death, burial and resurrection. I am so sick and tired of these incompetent pastors who leave off the Gospel, embellishing it with a bunch of garbage not found in the Holy Bible. The false prophets in Matthew 7:21-23 gave their heart to Jesus, devoutly following and serving Christ, calling Him: “Lord, Lord,” but Jesus denied knowing them as His redeemed sheep. You may give your heart to Jesus, follow and serve Him, do many wonderful works in Jesus' name, call Him your “Lord,” and yet still die in your sins and go to Hell for eternity to burn in fire (Revelation 14:11). The Devil's greatest weapon is to con people into living the Christian life without ever being born again.
- Not one verse in the inspired Holy Bible teaches that the Devil comes to get an unsaved sinner at death. It is God who controls Hell, not Satan. There are no demons torturing sinners in Hell. The Devil does not torture anyone in Hell. Some demons are already imprisoned in a special place in Hell (Greek noun: Tartarus), but they do not hurt lost sinners. God punishes the wicked. Jesus told a true story in Luke 16:19-31 about a rich man and a beggar named Lazarus. Jesus never used proper names when telling a parable. The rich man died in his sleep and woke up in Hell. There were no devils.
- You don't have to give up sinning to be saved. Dr. Smith repeats a story told to him by the pastor who allegedly led him to Christ. Smith says in the story that the wealthy man refused to get saved because he was about to partake in a shady deal for $25,000, and he knew that if he got saved he couldn't do the deal. That is false teaching! Dear reader, you can get saved by God's free grace on Sunday, go to the brothel by sundown, divorce your wife on Monday, rob a bank on Tuesday, murder a man on Wednesday and get drunk on Thursday, but you cannot lose your salvation once you've been born again; and forsaking one's sinful ways is NOT required to receive God's free gift of eternal life. Being willing to forsake your sinful ways is absolutely not a part of God's simple plan of salvation. How could it be, since eternal life is being offered by God to all mankind as a free gift, paid for in full by Jesus' precious blood (1st Peter 1:18-19). Salvation is not a reward for the righteous, it is a gift for the guilty.
- If this story is true, the dying man was have delusions, because none of it is biblical. Dr. Smith says the man cried out, “Don't let him (the Devil) have me!” Smith says the Devil wrapped chains around his ankles. Smith sounds like that nutcase Bill Wiese and his “21 Minutes In Hell” circus show. What nonsense! As I mentioned, not one verse in the inspired Holy Bible supports this heresy. I cannot find one place in Scripture where Satan came to get someone when they died. We read in 1st Peter 5:8 that Satan roams the earth as a roaring lion to kill, steal and destroy his victims (John 10:10). We read in Isaiah 14:9, “Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations.” I did some research concerning this passage. Check out Bible Hub. In our earthly manmade prisons, whenever a new inmate arrives it is the talk of the prisonhouse! I humbly believe the same holds true in Hell. Although there are no parties in Hell, you will burn alive with your wicked unsaved peers if you go there by your own choice. It is clear from the inspired Scripture that eternally condemned sinners in Hell are fully conscious, gnashing their teeth in excruciating regrets (Luke 13:28).
- Avoid superstitious preachers! I hate when preachers try to scare people with bizarre stories that are obviously fake. I have heard numerous preachers, including my hero of the faith Pastor Jack Hyles, use the fake story of drillers in Soviet Russia who dropped a microphone down the Kola Superdeep Borehole in the Pechengsky District and allegedly heard victims screaming in Hell. If that were true, why didn't the microphone burn up? There is a fine line between faith and foolishness. Dr. Smith's strange story of a man screaming for the Devil not to take him on his death bed, while having his hair ripped out on the headboard of his bed from struggling against Satan, is simply not biblical. As a born-again believer, and a fundamentalist Baptist preacher, I don't believe in using bizarre stories to scare people to come to Jesus Christ. The biblical truth of an everlasting burning Hell for all Christ-rejecters is horrifying enough!
Pastor J. Harold Smith was a well known Southern Baptist preacher whose ministry spanned over half a century. At best he was sloppy with God's simple plan of salvation, at worst he was a damnable false prophet. For example: In his sermon titled, Simply Salvation, Dr. Smith preaches the Devil's lie of Lordship Salvation...
“You just say: 'Jesus, this preacher says that you'll have mercy upon me tonight. Have mercy on me Lord. Forgive me of my sins. I'll trust you. I'll open the door of my heart that's been closed to you for all these years. And right now, I'll open the door. I'll let Jesus Christ come in, and the best I know how I'll live for you the rest of my life.'” —Evangelist J. Harold Smith (1910-2001), 'Simply Salvation' (hear MP3 excerpt)
Tragically, this is the kind of theological dung that is being preached in 99% of churches today! Sadly, Dr. Smith never even mentions the Gospel. Warning Will Robinson!!! Danger! Danger! There's nothing in the Bible about doing your best to live for Christ the rest of your earthly life. THAT IS WORKS! Avoid Pastor J. Harold Smith! If a man is wrong on God's simple plan of salvation, you simply cannot trust his theology. It's like buttoning a dress shirt, if you get the first button wrong then all the other buttons will also be wrong.
Dr. Don Boyd (1947-2009) thankfully gets Bible repentance right. Don Boyd was the faithful principal of Hammond Baptist High School for the First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana, from 1991 until 2008. I heard him preach at Hyles-Anderson College when I was a student (1985-1993). Don was blind in one eye. He wore a patch to cover his glass eye. There is nothing in the inspired King James Bible about repenting of your sins to get to Heaven. Yet, 99% of churches today (including all the pseudo-Christian cults like Mormon, Jehovah's Witness, Seventh-Day Adventism and Roman Catholic) get repentance WRONG! Those false religions all teach that repentance means to turn away from your sinning to get to Heaven. Whereas the inspired Word of God teaches that repentance is a change of mind from unbelief to faith in Jesus Christ.
We can only judge a man's theology based upon what he actually says, not what he might hopefully believe. As far as I can tell, Dr. Smith is wrong on the Gospel. I've listened to his sermons and he is wrong on how to be saved. You don't have to “give your heart to Jesus” to be saved. No such teaching is found in the inspired Holy Bible. It is so important that we do not stray away from the simplicity that is in Christ, which is the Gospel of free grace (Romans 1:16). The Gospel is threefold:
- Jesus DIED on a cross for our sins.
- Jesus was BURIED.
- Jesus physically RESURRECTED from the dead three days later.
So, what's this garbage talk from Harold Smith about “I'll let Jesus Christ come in and the best I know how I'll live for you the rest of my life” nonsense? I triple-dog dare you to show me that heresy in the inspired Scripture!!! I humbly think Pastor Harry Ironside (1876-1951) said it very well...
“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.”Dear reader, we need a revival in our Bible colleges, missions and churches of presenting the Gospel as clear, unadulterated and simple as possible. I love what Pastor Ralph Yankee Arnold said...
SOURCE: Pastor Harry A. Ironside, from the tract: 'What Is The Gospel?'
“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!”Amen and amen! Do you know how to present the Gospel clearly and accurately?
Dear friend, preachers everywhere over the past few centuries have been careless in how they handle the inspired Word of Truth. I hear fools like Ray Comfort and John MacArthur (1939-2025) touting the doctrinal soundness of the old-time preachers from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, but the truth is that in every generation there have been true and false prophets. The so-called “doctrinally sound preachers” that heretics' Ray Comfort and John MacArthur endorse were the damnable false teachers of their generation.
Even in the New Testament the inspired writer of 1st John 2:18 said, “Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.” False prophets have always existed. Please “Search the scripture” as Jesus commanded in John 5:39, so that you won't be woefully deceived and end up in Hell with those lying preachers (Matthew 7:13-15; Luke 13:23-24). Remember, the road to Hell is paved with good intentions (Proverbs 16:25).
RIGHT DOCTRINE MATTERS!
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