"You must first deny the authenticity and full inspiration of the Holy Scripture before you can legitimately and truly deny election." - Charles Spurgeon, Sermons, Vol. 3, p. 130.

A person calling himself Evangelical is professing to be committed to the Gospel of Christ as proclaimed in Scripture.  The true Gospel demands separation from all who teach another Gospel. As the Apostle declared, "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.  As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed" (Galatians 1:8-9). "Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them" (Ephesians 5:11). Without such separation the name Evangelical signifies nothing. "New Evangelicalism", which willingly compromises with and accommodates another Gospel, has gained ground everywhere, beginning in the early 1960s.  Since then, the Evangelical world has changed beyond recognition...

C. H. Spurgeon's timely words apply now even more than his own day, "Since he was cursed who rebuilt Jericho, much more the man who labors to restore Popery among us. In our fathers' days the gigantic walls of Popery fell by the power of their faith, the perseverance of their efforts, and the blast of their gospel trumpets...." (Morning and Evening, on Joshua 6:26). The Gospel trumpet is the very issue at stake, for the Roman Catholic and Evangelical signers of ECT I & II first give the false message of Rome, and then in defense of what they have written, declare that the Gospel of Christ is a "domestic matter" or even "a sectarian doctrine."... It is sobering to know that the all holy omnipotent God rebuke in just measure all those who would pervert the Gospel and make merchandise of His sheep. - Richard Bennett, The Alignment of New Evangelicals with Apostasy

"Amongst his hearers were to be found the learned and the illiterate. It was well known that Dr. John Owen, when he had the opportunity, embraced it with pleasure, and sat at the feet of the unlearned, but eloquent tinker. Charles II., hearing of it, asked the learned D.D., ' How a man of his great erudition could sit to hear a tinker preach? 'to which the doctor replied, 'May it please your Majesty, if I could possess the tinker's abilities, I would gladly give in exchange all my learning.'" - Memoir of John Bunyan in The Works of John Bunyan, Volume 1.

"As the apostle says to Timothy, so also he says to every-one, 'Give yourself to reading.' ... He who will not use the thoughts of other men's brains proves that he has no brains of his own... You need to read. Renounce as much as you will all light literature, but study as much as possible sound theological works, especially the Puritanic writers, and expositions of the Bible... the best way for you to spend your leisure is to be either reading or praying. - Charles Spurgeon as cited in "John Knox, Oliver Cromwell, God's Law and the Reformation of Civil Government" by Dr. Reg Barrow

"It is a masterpiece of piety and genius; and will, we doubt not, be of standing use to the people of God so long as the sun and moon endure." - Augustus Toplady on John Bunyan's book the Pilgrim's Progress.

"Accept Jesus into your heart"

It is unscriptural to think that salvation begins by Christ first coming into the sinful heart of a man. The dead and ungodly person can be made acceptable to God only as he is "in Christ," as the New Testament makes so clear. According to the biblical concept, salvation is being made accepted in Christ. The whole theme of Ephesians chapters one and two is summarized by verse 6 of Chapter one, "to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved."

Compared to this, the terminology "accept Jesus into your heart" is literally backward. It assumes that the human heart is a fitting place for Christ to dwell and it takes for granted that the human person initiates salvation. Often we will hear such as the following, "Accept Jesus into your heart, as He Himself asks you in His Word, 'behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me'" (Revelation 3:20-21). To misuse this text to imply that salvation does in fact begin in the human heart is a serious deception. The invitation expressed in Revelation 3:20-21 comes after the Lord had given a list of disgusting and offensive sins committed in the church of Laodicea, and then warned them of His chastisement and judgement. They were then commanded to repent, "I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent" (Revelation 3:19). Fellowship with the Lord presupposes repentance and faith in the Lord. So to misuse the text by totally ignoring this vital groundwork of repentance and faith in the Lord, is soul damning.

A person's only hope lies outside of himself, and in Christ Jesus by His worth and power. Christ Jesus Himself proclaimed the spiritual deadness and wickedness of the human heart. He said, "that which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: all these evil things come from within, and defile the man'" (Mark 7:20-23).

In the Scripture, salvation is seen consistently to be in Christ. In all of the letters of the Apostle Paul, salvation is always expressed as being in Christ. In a similar way in the Apostle John's writing, eternal life is in Christ, "this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son" (I John 5:11). Salvation is given as individuals are made acceptable in Christ before the All Holy God, "therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" (II Corinthians 5:17). Until one realizes the condition of man's heart as being spiritually dead before the All Holy God, one will never properly appreciate God's grace and the security that comes with being, "accepted in the Beloved" and "complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power" (Ephesians 1:6, Colossians 2:10). The all Holy Lord Christ Jesus stands not waiting on any man, He commands all men everywhere to repent and believe on Him.

"Give your life to Jesus to be saved."  

This teaching is error for two reasons.  First, man in his natural condition is "dead in trespasses and sin." Sin is what separates a man from God.  Only God Himself can bestow forgiveness and eternal life.  Eternal life is a gift (Ephesians 2:8-9, Romans 5:15-18, 6:23). A person does not give anything for a gift. God gives this gift to a person when He places that person in Christ Jesus. With the gift of salvation also comes the gift of faith to believe that this is what God has done (See also John 5:24-25).

Second, such phrases as "give your life to Jesus" wrongly presume that a person has some-thing worthy of God to give. Spiritually dead people cannot give anything that will save them from their sins. Because man is dead in sin, Christ Jesus gave His life for the sins of His people, "Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father" (Galatians 1:4). There is no Bible verse that says or teaches that a lost, spiritually dead person gives anything, not even his life, in order to be saved.

When a lost person is taught to "give his life to Jesus" to be saved, he may think that he has to give his service, time, works, money, etc., to be saved.  This may lead the lost person into a "works gospel," which can never save. Being right with God is not some sort of a "trade-in" by which a person gives something to Jesus to be saved. A person is saved by God's grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, and nothing else. Repentance is also a God-given change of mind that comes as a consequence of the work of the Holy Spirit and not a human "trade-in" item; "Him hath God exalted with His right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins" (Acts 5:31).

There are other humanistic ways, too, in which modern Evangelists give a so-called gospel. The two examples given here are just cases in point to illustrate the wholesale departure from the true Gospel that is taking place in the modern world. - Richard Bennett, The Invincible Gospel and the Modern Evangelical Lie