What Does Turn from Sin to be Saved Mean?
There is the controversy today of what "turn from sin" means which can range from the Lordship salvation view to the quasi-easy believist to the actual easy believist. To be honest the term "turn from sin" has caused some wrong labels on even fundamental Baptist preachers like Lester Roloff, John R. Rice and Charles Spurgeon who some Independent Baptists support. So far the Independent Fundamental Baptist site called "Repentance Blacklist" has unfairly blacklisted certain preachers for teaching "works salvation" when they don't.
However while some quasi-easy believists appeal to Jack Hyles who was more of a quasi-opponent of Lordship salvation than a real opponent, he however supported Lester Roloff. So far I've even met some so-called opponents of Lordship salvation to actually be supporters of Charles Spurgeon and his sermon "Turn or Burn" or to Harry Allen Ironside to who can be misquoted by hyper-Lordship groups and easy believist groups. But it gets pretty strange how some IFB preachers who are in the same floor of fundamentals with pastors like Paul Washer, John MacArthur, Ray Comfort, Robert Charles Sproul, and John Piper tend to be divided and falsely accuse. Sad to say, some IFBs are even at each other's throats. Now, what does it mean to "turn from sin"? At first it seems to be works salvation or the turn away from sin... so what does it mean? Here's what John R. Rice has to say:
"To repent literally means to have a change of mind or spirit toward God and toward sin. It means to turn from your sins, earnestly, with all your heart, and trust in Jesus Christ to save you. You can see, then, how the man who believes in Christ repents and the man who repents believes in Christ. The jailer repented when he turned from sin to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ." (John R. Rice, What Must I Do to Be Saved?, 1940).
Dr. John R. Rice may not hold a Calvinist view like Charles Haddon Spurgeon or John F. MacArthur do but we do realize he is right on repentance. This is what it means to turn away from sins to be saved. To have a CHANGED MIND about your sin. In fact how often has turn from sin be misrepresented? When I viewed both videos "Hell's Best Kept Secret" and "True and False Conversion", Ray Comfort's not best-kept secret is also that he really stresses repentance of sins necessary for salvation because in the sense, if a person does not repent of sin would they admit they are sinners? Nope. Works salvation? Nope. Does stressing "You can't live the way you want anymore because you're saved." teach works salvation? Again it's a no. Does Comfort's use of the Ten Commandments preach works salvation that salvation by grace as some IFBs claim? Again it's a no.
Unless one is willing to turn from sin, they will NEVER turn from unbelief. In fact, I really am aghast to how many times people try to separate repentance from the doctrine of salvation which is so dead wrong resulting in false conversions.