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EARNESTLY CONTENDING
FOR THE FAITH:
SOUL DAMING SOUL
WINNING TECHNIQUES
(A PDF copy of this file is available here)
(A WordPerfect copy of this file is available here)
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THE LORD JESUS CHRIST IS GOD MANIFEST IN THE FLESH. THAT IS WHY HE IS GOD. |
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There is hardly a week that goes by when I am teaching a
Sunday School class that I do not bring up repentance. I
have put a heavy emphasis upon repentance both in the audio
and the documents I have uploaded to our website. We did a
four part series on March 21, 2026 that we titled
“Repentance Study” that was based upon our document titled
“Biblical Repentance”. We uploaded that series to our
website. We would encourage you to listen to that series and
to download and study that document located at: earnestlycontendingforthefaith.com . Now, I teach and preach repentance differently than most of my Independent Baptist brethren. Here is another variation on the way I express the absolute necessity of repentance. “You cannot repent unto salvation without the presence of God the Holy Ghost in you because saving repentance is both a gift and a work of the indwelling Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost will not be in you if you have not exercised saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ”. While many Independent Baptists rightly preach and teach the necessity for repentance in salvation they preach and teach repentance as if it is a work of the human will and human works. What immediately follows are several comments, observations, and questions that relate to the outstanding book “A Critique of Soul Winning in the 21st Century” by Pastor John Asquith. I urge every Christian who yearns to be a Biblical soul winner to read it. OBSERVATION: In most churches today we have members who are nothing more than whited sepulchres. The have prayed an unrepentant “sinner’s prayer” and are still dancing the dance of death with devils. For at least the last forty years unsaved “soul winners” and carnal saved “soul winners” have fed unsuspecting lost folks “fast food” from the Devil’s spiritual table. Lost sinners are not even being given skim milk from the word of God. Gone are the real revivals where real soul winning preachers preach on hell for weeks before they give an invitation. The altars in our fundamentalist churches have become abortion mills where potential babes in Christ are butchered on the altar of braggadocios “soul winning” statistics. We have substituted Satanic psychology for the work of the Holy Ghost. We have turned what should be the God honouring and spiritually rewarding work of soul winning into a sales presentation that uses manipulative marketing techniques to sell a lost sinner “fools gold”. In the end, what most have been sold is eternal damnation. I have said for many years that most lost sinners today are being inoculated with a false gospel that is damning them to hell. When we leave the Holy Ghost out of our soul winning we are relying upon the arm of the flesh to do that which only the Holy Ghost can do. It is the Holy Ghost that draws the lost sinner. It is the Holy Ghost that convicts the lost sinner. It is the Holy Ghost that draws the lost sinner. It is the Holy Ghost that converts the lost sinner. It is the Holy Ghost that raises the lost sinner from death (regenerates). No amount of psychology or salesmanship techniques can be substituted for the work of the Holy Ghost. It is God who gets the glory for the true numbers and not some proud preachers from the Independent Baptist Glory Corner who are pushing the damnable heresy of a salvation that is totally devoid of repentance. Every time I hear the phrase “the Devil is making me doubt my salvation” I cringe. It has become so much a part of many testimonies in our Baptist Churches. It is a phrase that is akin to the so-called “unpardonable sin” because it gives the Devil credit for the work of the Holy Ghost. At its very best, it confounds the work of the Holy Ghost with the deception of an unclean spirit. If you are doubting your salvation, then you better check up because the Holy Ghost is pounding on your spiritual door. Many Independent Baptist pastors have taken a peacock’s stroll down lover’s lane walking hand-in-hand with themselves. We have put unholy and wicked Doctors into our pulpits who are into self exaltation and consider themselves to be above rebuke and all the while forgetting the warning and counsel of Job and Jeremiah:
What that tells us is that we are to neither give flattering titles or receive flattering titles. To do either is SIN. Many of these doctors have become the priest class in our Baptist churches who seek the highest seats and honours in OUR churches. A case in point is the following advertisement quoted verbatim from the back page of the August 31, 2012 edition of that Independent Baptist bastion of humility, the “Sword Of The Lord”:
COMMENT: Brother John Asquith, was right about America having been turned over to a reprobate mind. Many times in my Sunday School teaching I refer to America as a reprobate nation. When I do, I see people openly flinch. Many times I take the opportunity to tie that reprobate condition back to having churches in America that are full of unsaved members who have never repented. Most of the churches in America are also reprobate concerning the faith. The problem with our churches is that they know the coming judgement of God upon those who knowingly and willingly sin against God and yet, not only do they participate in those same sins, but have pleasure in them that do them (Romans 1:32). That is the Biblical definition of reprobation. In my Sunday School class, I have seen people openly cringe when I say: “If you have not repented, then you are not saved”. I have also seen people cringe when I say that salvation is more than sinner’s prayer. If you make repentance the abiding principle of your soul winning efforts, many Fundamentalist preachers will accuse you of advocating Lordship Salvation, or a works based salvation. True repentance is never a work of the flesh. It is a work of the Holy Ghost. Repentance is both a fruit and an evidence of salvation. Recently, I heard Pastor Charles Lawson of Temple Baptist Church in Knoxville say that repentance is a manifestation of saving faith. He was hammering the purveyors of the sinner’s prayer and those who say: “all you have to do is believe”. I have taught for years that salvation is a two faced coin with faith on one side and repentance on the other side. When you pick the coin of salvation, you pick up faith and repentance. If faith is missing from one side of the coin then it is a counterfeit. Likewise if repentance is missing from one side of the coin then it is counterfeit. Repentance is a matter of submitting your will to the will of the Holy Ghost. Over the years I have noticed a huge increase in the Satanic resistance to the doctrine of Biblical repentance. It manifests itself in “Easy Believeism”. With that resistance has come a massive falling away (apostasy) from the faith in our Independent Baptist Churches. Many of our churches have become dens of iniquity because they are preachers of another gospel. Over the years, I have watched pastors battle to get Independent Baptist goats to clean up their outward conduct to no avail. In the end, they are still goats because they have not repented. If you expect an unrepentant repeater of the sinner’s prayer to live like a Christian, then you are trying to paddle up a waterfall. Because repentance is not preached and taught, most Independent Baptist pastors find themselves trying to pastor a mixed multitude of professing goats mixed in with a few sheep here and there. This is the fruit of repentanceless “salvations”. For the Christian, the result of repentance is not what you do: repentance is what you are. COMMENT AND QUESTION: Brother John Asquith made the following statement in his book: “I have heard a couple of my acquaintances try to justify a couple of recent events that misguided men are calling revivals. They never get past the size and fervor of the altar call in doing so.”. What specific revivals or events are you referring to? I know there was some very strong criticism about the so-called tent revival(s) taking place at Burlington, North Carolina. It became somewhat of an issue in our church because several of our members are upset because some Independent Baptist pastors and leaders called out the Burlington tent meetings because of their Satanic (unscriptural) soul winning techniques and doctrinal compromise. Many of the members of our church made the trip to the tent meetings and any criticisms of the meeting are taken as a personal attacks. I did not go to any of the Burlington meetings because I believe it is never right to do wrong to get a chance to do right. There is a young man in our church who took some heat from his wife because upon my recommendation he bought the book “Repentance Is More Than A Sinner’s Prayer” by David Cloud. Why did he take heat? Because David Cloud was one of those who through his “O Timothy” magazine and his email list from Way of Life Literature called out the massive compromise at Burlington. In his book, Brother John Asquith made the following statement:
COMMENT: In Brother John’s book, he made the following very powerful statement:
COMMENT: I had never considered the following verses from Brother Tim McVeigh’s chapter in Brother John’s book. That chapter was titled “Untempered Mortar”:
COMMENTS ON THE “SINNER’S PRAYER” AND “EASY BELIEVEISM” IN GENERAL: This is a problem that feeds upon itself. It is a spiritual vicious circle for those who would preach and teach a scriptural gospel to a congregation that has gone into soul winning apostasy and heresy. The reason that it is a vicious circle is that as more and more unrepentant (unsaved) church members are added to a given congregation the more and more resistence there will be to preaching a true Biblical gospel because these congregations will not endure sound doctrine because they do not believe the Bible. The reason that the problem feeds upon itself is that most modern congregations will run off a Godly pastor before he can break up their fallow ground with strong preaching that includes teaching on the law of God and the absolute necessity of repentance in salvation. The weaker and weaker a church gets the less and less sound Bible doctrine it will tolerate. This does not mean that we are to throw up our hands in utter defeat. What it means is that we must trust God and return into Biblical soul winning and discipleship rather than relying upon psychological salesmanship techniques and unbelieving cultural Christianity. Cultural Christianity is customized and compromised to what society believes and lives rather than what the Bible teaches and the Holy Ghost demands. The world is converting the church because the Biblical gospel has been turned on its head. Most Independent Baptists have grieved the Holy Ghost by preaching another gospel. When the Holy Ghost departs a church, there is no liberty to preach the Biblical gospel. Satan’s poet says:
Outside of the rejection of the King James Bible, the repentanceless “sinner’s prayer” has become the single greatest bane of the Independent Baptist movement and his bred much wickedness in the land. Churches that do not preach repentance eventually end up in Satan’s sewer of antinomianism. Some of the most virulently wicked people in America are those ex “fundamentalists” who have come out of the “Easy Believeism”, Independent Baptist Churches that tolerated the vilest of sins in their congregations by their leaders. If you do not believe it, I encourage you to go check out a web site that was set up by a group of them that is called “Stuff Fundies Like” (stufffundieslike.com). This is the fruit of the “sinner’s prayer”. Never has Satan created a more deceptive ruse than the “sinner’s prayer”. I have watched some deceived preachers and pastors cut their own throats when they mock a preacher or pastor that is strong on repentance and the law of God by calling them legalists and Pharisees. While I believe that many Independent Baptist Churches are pastored and preached to by men who are legalists and Pharisees, it has been my experience that when a pastor dwells on attacking Godly pastors as being legalists and Pharisees, he has gone down the road of unending compromise. This is a typical response of those compromisers who will not teach and preach repentance. To hear a Godly man who preaches repentance called a legalist and a Pharisee is like a dagger in this man’s heart. “Legalist” and “Pharisee” are two of the filthiest Christian curse words. Yet, these two words have become the bywords of compromised Independent Baptist preachers who have perverted the gospel to the damnation of untold numbers of souls. When you question their techniques and statistics you are viciously attacked and branded as a legalist or a Pharisee or are accused of not believing “the work of the Holy Spirit”. My response to them is: “Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?” (Galatians 4:16). The reason I put “the work of the Holy Spirit” in quotes above is that I have noticed a marked reluctance by Independent Baptist preachers to use the title “Holy Ghost” for the third person of the Godhead (Trinity). The average Independent Baptist Church that preaches standards to the hilt and uses “Easy Believeism” to fill their pews is full of Pharisees and legalists because they have to rely upon the arm of the flesh and man’s intellect instead of the indwelling Holy Ghost to motivate individuals to live holy lives. A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still. The fruits of a repentanceless gospel are manifested in churches full of unsaved sinners who are church members. Yet, our Independent Baptist pastors, preachers, and teachers are in denial as to the fruits of “Easy Believeism”. They have seen the destruction that “Easy Believeism has wrought in our churches, but they are like a moth drawn to a flame. They continue to use the same unbiblical, destructive methods. It has been said that insanity is doing the same thing over, and over, and over again and expecting different results. None are so blind as those who refuse to see. I believe that many of our Independent Baptist preachers are as lost as a needle in a haystack. Satan is hovering around the haystack with a box of matches and a can of gas. COMMENTS ON DAVID BRAINERD, BROTHER JOHN ASQUITH’S SERMON ON “UNCIRCUMCISED EARS”, AND SOME OTHER OBSERVATIONS: The average “Christian” of today would see Brainerd’s confessions as bordering on insanity. The fact is, that until Brainerd was saved he did not have the mind of Christ. From God’s perspective, that meant that Brainerd, just as the maniac of Gadera in Luke 8:35, was not in his right mind. That is the condition of every unbeliever and false professor today. Most professing Christians today are not “sitting at the feet of Jesus in their right mind”. Most lost sinners try to bury their consciences in a sea of sin while many others try to scrub their consciences clean with religious works. Most of the folks in our Independent Baptist churches fit the religious mold. We Independent Baptists have done the bidding of Satan in filling our churches with whited sepulchres that are full of dead men’s bones (religious works). Our Independent Baptist churches are chock full of members who, like Brainerd prior to his conversion, are relying upon their good works to avoid an eternity in hell and the lake of fire. We have preached them clean on the outside, but God sees them as being inwardly full of ravening and wickedness. Some of the most vile individuals in the world are unbelieving reprobates who identify themselves as ex Independent, Fundamental Baptists. There is an especially vile group of them out there that spends their time attacking Fundamental Baptist preachers and web sites. Let’s return to the subject of Brainerd. Brainerd, however, did have an advantage over most of today’s pseudo Christians in that he lived in an age when repentance was preached and was expected of those that named the name of Christ. Brainerd lived in a time when outward holiness and respect for God was expected even of those who were known to be lost. The general condition of society then had a convicting influence of its own upon those lost folks who lived in them. Today’s pseudo Christians have not had their fallow ground broken up by the preaching of the law of God and the preaching of a holy fear and reverence for God (Jeremiah 4:3-4, Hosea 10:12-13). Jeremiah 4:3-4 and Hosea 10:12-13 state:
I have been saved for almost 34 years now and I have been hearing for almost 34 years now that judgment was coming upon America. I am here to tell you that judgment came upon America long before I got saved. Sodomy, abortion, euthanasia, drugs, alcohol, video games, lawless schools, Jew haters, socialists, reprobate political and religious leaders, transgenderism, same sex perversions of marriage, men being allowed in little girls and women’s bathrooms, child molestation, and so forth are judgments. Child molestation has been added to the American Psychiatric Association’s list of mental disorders. Because child molestation has been classed as a mental disorder eventually it will be decriminalized. It will be yet another abomination in America. That was the same tactic that the sodomites used before sodomy was legalized throughout America. Before long, the sodomites will be demanding the right to molest our children. These are the fruits of a nation that has not repented and cannot repent until its ears are circumcised with God’s law. We have been grappled and mangled by the spirit of fear coming forth from the spirit of antichrist that pervades our country. That spirit of fear has taken control of our pulpits and our churches. We will not preach repentance because we are fearful of doing battle with the Devil. Anyone who promotes the “sinner’s prayer” is woefully unprepared for even a brief skirmish in that battle because they are relying on the arm of the flesh rather than the repentance that is wrought by the power of the Holy Ghost. National repentance will not come at the hands of compromised preachers and phony “soul winners” who lead their marks in a “sinner’s prayer”. National repentance will only come when it is wrought at the hands of God the Holy Ghost. It is the work of the Holy Ghost and not the work of deceitful, manipulative salesmen. Brother John Asquith well spoke when he indicated in his book that most would be soul winners today are themselves unsaved! The whole point of Brother John Asquith’s sermon on uncircumcised ears was that the fallow ground must be broken up before the seed can be sown, or else, we will see no conversions. Brother John’s text verse for that sermon was Jeremiah 6:10 where the Holy Ghost said: “To whom shall I speak, and give warning, that they may hear? behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken: behold, the word of the LORD is unto them a reproach; they have no delight in it”. In America, we have gone beyond the Word of God being a reproach. The average American views the Word of God as being a curse. We are wasting much seed and God’s resources because we will not plow the ground with the preaching of the law of God and the preaching of repentance prior to sowing. We are casting that which is holy before the dogs and God’s pearls before swine. That is not the lost sinner’s fault. That is our fault. While the most important part of Brother John’s sermon was its content, the reaction of that congregation of mostly Fundamental Baptist preachers left an indelible impression on me. The congregation became strangely quiet because Holy Ghost conviction shut the mouths of the gainsayers! Thank God for it. Woe unto you deceitful preachers and promoters and purveyors of false professions who compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more a child of hell than yourselves (Matthew 23:15)! I have seen and heard of so many people who will lead someone in a “sinner’s prayer” and then pronounce them to be saved! The “sinner’s prayer” is a pretentious prayer that I believe brings greater damnation on the unsaved religionists who use it (Matthew 23:14). I am not saying that all who lead someone in a “sinner’s prayer” are unsaved. They just have not been properly discipled. The issue before us is that we do not have the authority from the Word of God to assure anyone that they are saved. To do so is to usurp the authority and ministry of the Holy Ghost. We Independent Baptists have put ourselves in the seat of the Holy Ghost with our “sinner’s prayers” and vainglory assurances of salvation to those hell bound sinners who show no evidence of repentance. Independent Baptists have become obsessed and possessed with numbers when it is God the Holy Ghost that gives the increase. I say possessed because there is an unclean spirit associated with it. It is Satan that stands up against the church to provoke our very proud RELIGIOUS leaders to number the converts (1 Chronicles 21:1). To make repentance a work of man’s flesh is to confound and discredit the work of the Holy Ghost. The reason repentance is not preached in our churches is that it would kill the numbers game immediately. The numbers game is based in an ungodly spiritual pride. I realize that numbers of converts are identified in Acts chapters 2 and 4, but it is clear from the context that it was the work of the Holy Ghost. No man is said to have won those souls to the Lord. I would like to close out my general comments on Brother John Asquith’s critique of 21st century soul winning by stating that I unequivocally agree with his belief that the Baptist “Soul Winner’s Prayer” is no different than the preformatted group prayers acknowledging a belief in Jesus Christ that the Roman Catholics in Europe would conduct with groups of people they required to assemble together. I also agree with him in that we have turned the modern altar call into a “Nehushtan” . Just as Israel profaned the brazen serpent in 2 Kings 18, the modern church has profaned the altar call. We are not saying that the altar call should be eliminated, but that it should be sanctified for the work of the Holy Ghost. The altar should be where the Holy Ghost does his work and man keeps his nose out of it until the Holy Ghost is through. The Holy Ghost does not need our help. He needs our obedience and silent discernment when he is working. From the mid 1850s we started to profane the Word of God with our English perversions. We want a Bible that is of our own choosing. From the 1960s on, we profaned the Biblical gospel with the “sinner’s prayer”. We want a salvation that is of our own choosing. I have deliberately set out to put the phrase “sinner’s prayer” in quotes everywhere it is used in this document because it is not found anywhere in the King James Bible. It is an invention of the Devil. |
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