Tommy McMurtry / T Ross: "Repent," "Regeneration" Debate 1/2

Debate / Discussion, What is it to Repent in the OT / NT? video part 1:

Watch part 2 of the Tommy McMurtry & Thomas Ross Salvation Debate here

On January 1, 2025, Tommy McMurtry and Thomas Ross held a discussion or a debate in which seven questions were examined:

1.) Does the Old Testament teach that the lost must turn from their sins (repent) to be saved?
2.) Does the New Testament teach that the lost must turn from their sins (repent) to be saved?
3.) Does one become a disciple at the moment of the new birth, or at some point afterwards?
4.) How does regeneration change someone?
5.) Can people be born again without calling on the Lord / saying the “sinner’s prayer”?
6.) Did Christ suffer in hell after His death on the cross?
7.) How do our beliefs on the issues above impact how we seek to fulfill the Great Commission?

Tommy McMurtry represents churches that classify themselves as independent, fundamental Baptists that, on gospel-related issues, stand in continuity with Jack Hyles and the New IFB movement spearheaded by Steven Anderson, although Mr. McMurtry repudiates Anderson’s moral failures. McMurtry states: “when it came to the doctrines associated with new IFB … I am new IFB … I align with … Pastor Anderson … on so many things … I want to see the good things that he has stood for continue … the good things that he has taught … he’s given the truth about repentance … Jack Hyles … typically … the best church … [in] a city …. is probably going to be a Hyles Anderson graduate … Hyles stood for a lot of very good things.” (What has happened to the NIFB? Tommy McMurtry & Matt Furse | Episode 19, ReDiscover Studios, 10/29/2024, 48, 94-104 min). His association with Hyles and Anderson’s doctrines explains why McMurtry believes the lost must repent only of unbelief.

Thomas Ross stands for the historic Baptist faith as contained in Scripture, classic Baptist confessions, and as defended by independent Baptist churches unaffiliated with Jack Hyles and Steven Anderson, what might be called the “old IFB.” Ross argued that Jack Hyles introduced corruption into Baptist churches that was made even worse by Steven Anderson and the “new IFB”; he believes Baptist churches should return to the position on the gospel and evangelism that Baptists believed and practiced before the negative influence of Hyles and Anderson. Baptists historically have believed the lost must repent of their sins.

Tommy McMurtry pastors the Liberty Baptist Church of Rock Falls, IL. Thomas Ross is helping plant the Grace and Truth Baptist Church in San Francisco, CA under the authority of Victory Baptist Church of Oshkosh, WI, while also helping train men through local and distance education classes under the authority of Victory Baptist Church. The discussion took place in the auditorium of the Mukwonago Baptist Church in Mukwonago, WI.

In relation to the specific matters of their debate, Mr. McMurtry denies that the lost must turn from their sins (repent) to be saved; the lost only need to repent of unbelief. Thomas Ross believes that Christians today should warn the lost: “Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions” (Ezekiel 18:30), for they will be damned unless they repent of their sinful deeds (Revelation 2:22).

McMurtry claimed that only some believers are disciples. Ross argued that all true believers are disciples. Someone who does not deny himself and take up the cross, with the result of following Christ, will lose his soul in hell (Mark 8:34-36).

McMurtry argued that in the new birth a Christian receives a sinless spirit, but his body or flesh is unchanged, while his soul can move between the sinless spirit and the unchanged body. Ross argued that regeneration or the new birth affects the entire “man,” not 1/3 of the man; “he,” not 1/3 of him, is born again (John 3:3). Sin’s dominion is shattered in the entire man, but no portion of the regenerate person is untainted by sin.

McMurtry claimed that people always say the sinner’s prayer when they are born again. Ross argues that nobody ever has been or will be born again because he has said the sinner’s prayer-justification is by faith alone. The sinner’s prayer is a 20th century corruption of older Biblical and Baptist evangelism not found in the Old or New Testaments, and not, specifically, taught in Revelation 3:20 or Romans 10:9-13. Calling on the Lord is evidence of the new birth. After people repent, they begin a life of calling on the Lord.

McMurtry argued that Jesus Christ suffered in hell after He died. Ross argued that Baptists have historically viewed such an affirmation as blasphemy and heresy. The immaterial portion of the human nature of Jesus Christ, after the Lord completed His suffering on the cross, went immediately into the presence of His Father in Paradise, while His body was in the grave for three days.

McMurtry evangelizes in a manner comparable to both a Hyles-Anderson College graduate and those affiliated with the New IFB of Steven Anderson. Thomas Ross evangelizes the way Baptists did from the Reformation era through the mid-twentieth century and, he contends, the way the first-century Christians and Christians in the ancient and medieval period evangelized.

Download Thomas Ross’ Presentation Notes:

Download the PowerPoint slides used by Thomas Ross by clicking here.

Notes for Tommy McMurtry & Thomas Ross

Discussion / Debate, part 1

by Thomas Ross

1.) Does the Old Testament teach that the lost

must turn from their sins (repent) to be saved?

I would like to thank Pastor McMurtry for taking the time to engage in this discussion. I think he is sincere in what he stands for and appreciate him taking the time to discuss these crucial matters that relate to Christ’s gospel which, in modern times, have sadly become matters of controversy among Baptists and among other groups in Christendom.

Our first question is: “Does the Old Testament teach that the lost must turn from their sins (repent) to be saved?” Baptists have historically agreed with the Biblical teaching that in both the Old and New Testaments when the lost repent they turn from their sins to trust in Christ. All Baptist confessions that address the question, whether by Calvinist, Arminian, or mediating groups of Baptist churches, have confessed that repentance involves turning from sin to Christ. No Baptist confession of faith by any significant group of Baptists has ever denied that repentance involves turning from sin. Influential confessions such as the General Baptist Orthodox Creed,[1]

the Particular Baptist London Baptist Confession of 1689,[2]

the important American Philadelphia Baptist Confession of Faith,[3]

and the extremely influential New Hampshire Baptist Confession of Faith,[4]

along with all widely-used 20^th century Baptist statements of faith are in agreement; the lost must repent of their sins.[5]

Thus, when I defend the fact that when the lost repent, they turn from their sins to Christ, I am defending not only the teaching of Scripture, but the uniform view of Baptist churches from the time of Christ, their Founder,[6] until the present day, combined with the overwhelming testimony of all evangelical confessions of faith by other denominations of Christians, not one of which denies that repentance involves turning from one’s sins.

I agree 100% with the fine definitions of saving repentance and faith in The Baptist Catechism.

Repentance always accompanies saving faith and always leads to holiness.[7]

Faith rests on Jesus Christ alone for salvation.[8]

Repentance to life is a saving grace, whereby a sinner, out of a true sense of his sins, and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, does with grief and hatred of his sin turn from it to God, with full purpose to strive after new obedience.[9] ^[10]

How does the Old Testament teach this Biblical, Baptist doctrine of repentance?

Two major Hebrew verbs are employed for the Old Testament’s doctrine of repentance: nacham (נָחַם) and shuv (שׁוּב) are used for “to repent.”[11]

With reference to people, nacham emphasizes the emotional side of what takes place with the verb “to repent.” Standard Hebrew lexica indicate that in relation to human repentance the word means “be sorry, rue, suffer grief, repent, of one’s own doings.” The verb appears in texts such as Job 42:6:

Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent [nacham] in dust and ashes. (Job 42:6)

Shuv emphasizes the aspect of the command to repent that involves the will. In relation to the topic under discussion today, the word means “turn back from evil, turn away from, abandon, turn away from sin, evil.” Let’s look at one book of Scripture—Ezekiel—where shuv appears repeatedly:

Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Repent (shuv, Qal^[12]), and turn yourselves (shuv, Hiphil) from your idols; and turn away (shuv, Hiphil) your faces from all your abominations. … But if the wicked will turn (shuv, Qal) from all his sins that he hath committed … he shall surely live, he shall not die. … Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, saith the Lord GOD. Repent (shuv, Qal), and turn yourselves (shuv, Hiphil) from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin. Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel? … Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn (shuv, Qal) from it; if he do not turn (shuv, Qal) from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul. … Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn (shuv, Qal) from his way and live: turn (shuv, Qal) ye, turn (shuv, Qal) ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel? (Ezekiel 14:6; 18:21, 23, 30-31; 33:9, 11)

It is overwhelmingly obvious in this passage that repentance involves turning from one’s wicked “way,” from one’s sinful life in general, as well as from specific sins, from “all” of the sinner’s abominations and transgressions. The lost must turn from their sins or they will not inherit eternal life, but will suffer eternal death.

Someone may object that these texts in Ezekiel refer only to the command to repent with reference to those who are already saved, because Ezekiel addresses the “house of Israel.” This objection fails.

First, it requires torture of the Biblical text to claim that “repent” means radically different things for those who have been redeemed and those who have not.[13] If the word “repent” means “turn from your sinful way in general and your sinful ways in particular” for the redeemed, it cannot mean “keep your sinful way in general and your sinful ways in particular as long as you start believing in God and the Messiah” (or something like that) for those who are not redeemed. This would introduce massive confusion into Scripture. Words like walk, or read, or sin or sacrifice do not mean radically different things in Scripture for the redeemed and those not redeemed. Neither does the word repent.

Second, notice that Ezekiel’s call to “repent” is associated with a call to have “a new heart and a new spirit”:

30 Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, saith the Lord GOD. Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin. 31 Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel? 32 For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord GOD: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye. (Ezekiel 18:30-32)

25 Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. 26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. 28 And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God. 29 I will also save you from all your uncleannesses: and I will call for the corn, and will increase it, and lay no famine upon you. (Ezekiel 36:25-29)

This is a call to enter into the New Covenant—to be “born again.” When you are redeemed, you get a new heart and a new spirit. Unless those Ezekiel addresses repented and turned away from all their transgressions, they would not be born again—they would not have new hearts and new spirits, but would perish eternally. God is only truly their God, and they are only truly His people, and He will say to them, “I will save you,” only if they have new hearts and new spirits when they repent of their sins.

Third, Ezekiel calls on the “wicked” (רָשָׁע) to turn from his sins (repent) or perish.

Third, Ezekiel calls on the “wicked” to turn from his sins (repent) or perish. Ezekiel never employs the word “wicked” for a saved person;[14] he uses the word for lost people, such as the idolatrous Babylonians who destroyed the Jerusalem temple (Ezekiel 7:21). Indeed, not one of the 264 references to this Hebrew word for wicked in the Old Testament is clearly to a saved person—the wicked are uniformly those headed to damnation, who are “turned into hell” (Psalm 9:17) under the curse and wrath of God, in contrast to those who trust in the Lord, (by grace) are righteous, and receive salvation.[15]

Fourth, it is completely unbiblical to assume that all Old Testament Israelites were truly saved.[16] The Old and New Testaments are full of statements that only a small minority, a very small remnant, in Israel were true believers; the rest were headed to fire and brimstone just like the lost men in Sodom and Gomorrah (Isaiah 1:9; Romans 9:27, 29). There is no more reason to assume that everyone Ezekiel is speaking to is saved from hell when he addresses the “house of Israel” than there would be if Ezekiel were addressing the nation of Canada. Furthermore, while the truth is that Ezekiel is addressing lost Israelites, those who needed new hearts and spirits, even if one took the wrong view that Ezekiel was addressing both the saved and the lost in Israel it would prove that the lost must repent of their sins or die—God’s prophet would be giving the same command to both the saved and the lost.

Fifth, a study of the 141 Old Testament instances with the language of “the house of Israel” (בֵּית יִשְׂרָאֵל, bēṯ yiśrāʾēl)[17] reveals that the phrase is not only used for Jacob’s children in general, but is frequently used for the wicked and rebellious Israelites, who needed to repent or would be lost, in contrast to those who are pleasing God.

Old Testament references to the “house of Israel” are quoted in the New Testament, specifying the “house of Israel” as those who reject the Messiah and are damned (Amos 5:25; Acts 7:42), and as those who are “lost” (Matthew 10:6; 15:24; Acts 2:36).[18] While Ezekiel does use the phrase for the future conversion of the entire physical nation of Israel (cf. also Hebrews 8:8, 10), many references in the prophets refer to the house of Israel doing things like worshipping Baal (Jeremiah 11:17), so that the prophets can say that those in heathen nations “are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart” (Jeremiah 9:26), needing to be born again and enter into the New Covenant. Ezekiel specifically says that “all the house of Israel are impudent and hardhearted” (Ezekiel 3:7), are “a rebellious house” (Ezekiel 3:9) spiritually worse off than the heathen (Ezekiel 3:4-7), offering their children as human sacrifices to idols (Ezekiel 20:31), guilty of “all … evil abominations” and under the Mosaic curses on the lost (Ezekiel 6:11). They will be “cast … into the midst of the fire … [and] burn in the fire” (Ezekiel 5:4).

There is no reason whatever to assume that Ezekiel’s call to the “house of Israel” to repent is specifically to the small number of saved Jews.[19]

Ezekiel’s repeated calls to the “wicked” in Israel to “repent … turn from all [your] sins … [c]ast away from you all your transgressions … and make you a new heart and a new spirit” is a call to saving conversion for those headed to hell, not a call to people who have eternal life but just need a bit more spiritual growth.

Another example—when under Jonah’s preaching the men of Nineveh “turned from their evil way,” “believed God,” and so did not “perish” (Jonah 3:5, 8-10) the Lord Jesus Himself called their “turn[ing] from their evil way” “repent[ance]” (Matthew 12:41). The Son of God uses the word “repent” to describe Old Testament people turning from their sins![20]

Furthermore, when the Old Testament says that “the just shall live by his faith” (Habakkuk 2:4), Hebrew lexica verify that the word translated “faith” (אֱמוּנָה) is a kind of faith that always results in “faithfulness” (HALOT, BDB, DCH).[21] The idea of turning from sin, what happens when the sinner obeys the command to repent, is involved in the word “faith.” When in the Old Testament people believed in God and His coming Messiah and were accounted righteous (Genesis 15:6) their faith resulted in works and a changed life (Genesis 22; cf. James 2:21-24). Not a single Old Testament saint mentioned in the New Testament who was saved by faith (Hebrews 10:38-11:39) lived just like the pagan heathen; they were all changed!

A silly objection to the argument from Jonah 3 is that since “God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way” (Jonah 3:10), therefore turning from one’s evil way is “works” salvation.[22] This silly objection overlooks that the word “way” is singular and “works” are plural, and the Hebrew word translated “that” could also be rendered as “because”: the meaning of the verse is: “God saw their works, because they had turned from their evil way.” It is obvious that the passage is teaching that the result of repentance, of turning from one’s evil way, is good “works.” The claim that the verse teaches that turning from one’s “way” is works is ridiculous.

People also argue, “God repented in the Old Testament, so when people repent it can’t mean that they repent of their sins.”[23] First, God repenting is anthropomorphic language, like when Scripture says that God has wings (Ruth 2:12) and will cover you with His feathers (Psalm 91:4). The reality is that “God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent” (Numbers 23:19). God is immutable; He not only never turns from sin, but He never changes, never believes in the Messiah for salvation, and never does what people do on any definition of repentance whatsoever. Second, the Old Testament word used when it speaks of God repenting is the word nacham, meaning “regret.” When in Genesis 6:6-7 God “repents” of making man it means that He “regrets” doing it, so He destroys mankind with a flood. This proves exactly nothing when we are talking about the Hebrew word shuv for “repent,” the word used in the Ezekiel and Jonah texts for man’s turning from his sins. Furthermore, every time God is said to “repent/regret/nacham” doing something, there is always a dramatic, visible change that results. God regrets/repents of making man, so He destroys man from the earth. God repents/regrets making Saul king, so He gets rid of Saul and appoints David (1 Samuel 15:11). The texts where, utilizing anthropomorphic language, God is said to repent prove that repentance is always followed by clear, visible results. They do not in any way prove that the lost do not need to turn from their sins.

In conclusion, the evidence is overwhelming. The Old Testament teaches that the lost must turn from their sins (repent) to be saved—and since the way people receive salvation has always been the same in all dispensations (Romans 4), the lost must repent, that is, turn from their sins, today in order to be saved.

Thank you.

Debate / Discussion Questions:

1.) Does the Old Testament teach that the lost must turn from their sins (repent) to be saved?

2.) Does the New Testament teach that the lost must turn from their sins (repent) to be saved?

3.) Does one become a disciple at the moment of the new birth, or at some point afterwards?

4.) How does regeneration change someone?

5.) Can people be born again without calling on the Lord / saying the “sinner’s prayer”?

6.) Did Christ suffer in hell after His death on the cross?

7.) How do our beliefs on the issues above impact how we seek to fulfill the Great Commission?

[1] Unfeigned repentance is an inward and true sorrow of heart for sin, with sincere confession of the same to God, especially that we have offended so gracious a God and so loving a Father, together with a settled purpose of heart and a careful endeavor to leave all our sins, and to live a more holy and sanctified life according to all God’s commands. (The Orthodox Creed, Baptist, 1679).

[2] [S]aving Repentance is an evangelical grace, whereby a person, being by the Holy Spirit made sensible of the manifold evils of his sin, doth, by faith in Christ, humble himself for it, with godly sorrow, detestation of it, and self-abhorrency … with a purpose and endeavour by supplies of the Spirit, to walk before God unto all well pleasing in all things. (London Baptist Confession, 1689)

[3] “This saving repentance is an evangelical grace, whereby a person, being by the Holy Spirit made sensible of the manifold evils of his sin, doth, by faith in Christ, humble himself for it with godly sorrow, detestation of it, and self-abhorrency; praying for pardon and strength of grace, with a purpose and endeavor by supplies of the Spirit to walk before God unto all well-pleasing in all things” (Philadelphia Confession of Faith, Baptist, 1742).

[4] We believe that Repentance and Faith are sacred duties, and also inseparable graces, wrought in our souls by the regenerating Spirit of God; whereby being deeply convinced of our guilt, danger, and helplessness, and of the way of salvation by Christ, we turn to God with unfeigned contrition, confession, and supplication for mercy; at the same time heartily receiving the Lord Jesus Christ as our Prophet, Priest, and King, and relying on him alone as the only and all-sufficient Saviour. (New Hampshire Confession of Faith, Baptist, 1853)

[5] “Repentance and faith are inseparable experiences of grace. Repentance is a genuine turning from sin toward God. Faith is the acceptance of Jesus Christ and commitment of the entire personality to Him as Lord and Savior” (Baptist Faith and Message, Southern Baptist Convention, 1963).

[6] Compare the resources on Baptist succession at https://faithsaves.net/ecclesiology/.

[7] 68. Q. How may we escape [God’s] wrath and curse due to us for sin?

To escape the wrath and curse of God due to us for sin, we must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ (Jn. 3:16), trusting alone to his blood and righteousness. This faith is attended by repentance for the past (Acts 20:21) and leads to holiness in the future.

[8] 69. Q. What is faith in Jesus Christ?

Faith in Jesus Christ is a saving grace (Heb. 10:39), whereby we receive (Jn. 1:12), and rest upon him alone for salvation (Phil. 3:9), as he is set forth in the gospel (Isa. 33:22).

[9] Repentance to life is a saving grace (Acts 11:18), whereby a sinner, out of a true sense of his sins (Acts 2:37), and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ (Joel 2:13), does with grief and hatred of his sin turn from it to God (Jer. 31:18–19), with full purpose to strive after new obedience (Ps. 119:59).

^[10] C. H. Spurgeon, A Catechism, With Proofs (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2009), 25–26.

[11] Old Testament words for repent: Nacham (נָחַם) & Shuv (שׁוּב)

Nacham: “be sorry, rue, suffer grief, repent, of one’s own doings” (BDB, HALOT, DCH)

Shuv: “turn back from evil, turn away from, abandon, turn away from sin, evil (BDB, HALOT, DCH)

See the complete list of references at faithsaves.net/repentance/.

[12] Speaking simply, the Qal is the basic Hebrew verb stem, while the Hiphil is often causative.

[13] Repent = turn from your sins for the redeemed

Repent = keep your sins for those not redeemed ???

[14] Ezekiel 3:18–19; 7:21; 13:22; 18:20–21, 23–24, 27; 21:3–4, 25, 29; 33:8–9, 11–12, 14–15, 19)

[15] Genesis 18:23, 25; Exodus 2:13; 9:27; 23:1, 7; Numbers 16:26; 35:31; Deuteronomy 25:1–2; 1 Samuel 2:9; 24:13; 2 Samuel 4:11; 1 Kings 8:32; 2 Chronicles 6:23; 19:2; Job 3:17; 8:22; 9:22, 24; 10:3; 11:20; 15:20; 16:11; 18:5; 20:5, 29; 21:7, 16–17, 28; 22:18; 24:6; 27:7, 13; 34:18, 26; 36:6, 17; 38:13, 15; 40:12; Psalm 1:1, 4–6; 3:7; 7:9; 9:5, 16–17; 10:2–4, 13, 15; 11:2, 5–6; 12:8; 17:9, 13; 26:5; 28:3; 31:17; 32:10; 34:21; 36:1, 11; 37:10, 12, 14, 16–17, 20–21, 28, 32, 34–35, 38, 40; 39:1; 50:16; 55:3; 58:3, 10; 68:2; 71:4; 73:3, 12; 75:4, 8, 10; 82:2, 4; 91:8; 92:7; 94:3, 13; 97:10; 101:8; 104:35; 106:18; 109:2, 6–7; 112:10; 119:53, 61, 95, 110, 119, 155; 129:4; 139:19; 140:4, 8; 141:10; 145:20; 146:9; 147:6; Proverbs 2:22; 3:25, 33; 4:14, 19; 5:22; 9:7; 10:3, 6–7, 11, 16, 20, 24–25, 27–28, 30, 32; 11:5, 7–8, 10–11, 18, 23, 31; 12:5–7, 10, 12, 21, 26; 13:5, 9, 17, 25; 14:11, 19, 32; 15:6, 8–9, 28–29; 16:4; 17:15, 23; 18:3, 5; 19:28; 20:26; 21:4, 7, 10, 12, 18, 27, 29; 24:15–16, 19–20, 24; 25:5, 26; 28:1, 4, 12, 15, 28; 29:2, 7, 12, 16, 27; Ecclesiastes 3:17; 7:15; 8:10, 13–14; 9:2; Isaiah 3:11; 5:23; 11:4; 13:11; 14:5; 26:10; 48:22; 53:9; 55:7; 57:20–21; Jeremiah 5:26; 12:1; 23:19; 25:31; 30:23; Ezekiel 3:18–19; 7:21; 13:22; 18:20–21, 23–24, 27; 21:3–4, 25, 29; 33:8–9, 11–12, 14–15, 19; Daniel 12:10; Micah 6:10; Habakkuk 1:4, 13; 3:13; Zephaniah 1:3; Malachi 3:18; 4:3.

[16] Only a remnant in Israel were ever truly saved:

Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah. (Isaiah 1:9)

Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved: Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodoma, and been made like unto Gomorrha. (Romans 9:27, 29)

[17] “The house of Israel”: 141x in OT.

Frequently general body of the physical descendants of the man Jacob/Israel.

Frequently wicked and rebellious Israelites in contrast to those who are pleasing God (2 Samuel 16:3; 1 Kings 12:21; Isaiah 5:7; 8:14; Jeremiah 2:4, 26; 3:20; 5:11, 15, 9:26; 11:10, 17, 13:11; 48:13; Ezekiel 3:1, 4, 5, 7, 17; Ezekiel 4:4, 5; 6:11; 8:6, 10, 11, 12; 9:9; 12:9, 10; 14:4-7, 11; 18:6, 11, 15 25, 29-31, 20:13, 27, 30, 31, 39; 22:18; 24:21; 33:7, 10, 11, 20; 36:17, 21, 22, 44:6, 12; Hosea 1:4, 6; 5:1; 6:10; 11:12; Amos 5:1, 3, 4, 25; 6:1, 14; Micah 1:5; 3:1, 9).

[18] OT ref. in NT: the “house of Israel” = those who reject the Messiah and are damned (Amos 5:25; Acts 7:42), those who are “lost” (Matthew 10:6; 15:24; Acts 2:36).

The “house of Israel” worships Baal (Jeremiah 11:17); heathen nations “are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart” (Jeremiah 9:26)—not born again

Ezekiel: “the house of Israel will not hearken unto thee; for they will not hearken unto me: for all the house of Israel are impudent and hardhearted” (Ezekiel 3:7); “a rebellious house” (Ezekiel 3:9); spiritually worse off than the heathen (Ezekiel 3:4-7); offering their children as human sacrifices to false gods (20:31); guilty of “all … evil abominations” and under the Mosaic curses on the lost (Ezekiel 6:11); will be “cast … into the midst of the fire … burn in the fire” (Ezekiel 5:4).

[19] No reason whatever to assume that Ezekiel’s call to the “house of Israel” to repent is specifically to the saved Israelites!

[20] The Son of God calls …

“[T]urn[ing] from [one’s] evil way” and “believing God” so that one does not “perish” (Jonah 3:5, 8-10)

“[R]epentance” (Matthew 12:41)!

[21] “The just shall live by his faith” (Habakkuk 2:4, referencing Genesis 15:6)

“Faith” (אֱמוּנָה) = a kind of faith that always results in faithfulness (HALOT, BDB, DCH)

Compare the NT quotations of Habakkuk 2:4 & Genesis 15:6:

Romans 1:16-17 teaches that those justified by faith (Romans 3-5) will always live by faith (Romans 6-8)

Those saved by faith will always have good works show up in their lives (Genesis 15:6; James 2:21-24; Hebrews 10:38-11:39)

[22] Objection #1:

Repentance is works, Jonah 3:10!

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.

וַיַּ֤רְא הָֽאֱלֹהִים֙ אֶֽת־מַ֣עֲשֵׂיהֶ֔ם כִּי־שָׁ֖בוּ מִדַּרְכָּ֣ם הָרָעָ֑ה וַיִּנָּ֣חֶם הָאֱלֹהִ֗ים עַל־הָרָעָ֛ה אֲשֶׁר־דִּבֶּ֥ר לַעֲשׂוֹת־לָהֶ֖ם וְלֹ֥א עָשָֽׂה׃

The true meaning: “God saw their works, because they had turned from their evil way.”

Plural “works” were the result of their (singular) “turn[ing]” from their evil way.

[23] Objection #2:

God repented!

Answer:

1.) Anthropomorphic language, like God having wings and feathers (Ruth 2:12; Psalm 91:4).

2.) God does not really repent (Numbers 23:19; 1 Samuel 15:29).

2.) God is immutable—He never exercises saving faith in the Messiah, turns from unbelief to belief, etc.

3.) Word for God repenting is nacham, not shuv: meaning is “regret.”

4.) Whenever God “repented,” there were always clear, visible results (Genesis 6:6-7; 1 Samuel 15:11)

5.) God’s “repentance” proves that repentance always results in clear change!

Notes for Tommy McMurtry & Thomas Ross

Discussion / Debate, part 2

by Thomas Ross

2.) Does the New Testament teach that the lost

must turn from their sins (repent) to be saved?

I would like to thank Pastor McMurtry for his comments in the first part of our discussion. In this second part, we are going to examine the question: “Does the New Testament teach that the lost must turn from their sins (repent) to be saved?” In part one, I pointed out that the unanimous answer of Baptist confessions to this question is “yes.” The idea that the lost do not need to repent of their sins is entirely absent from Baptist confessional life. Historic Baptist teaching on this topic agrees with Scripture and the overwhelming consensus of all evangelical Christian confessions of faith—the lost must turn from their sins to Christ, they must repent of sin, or they will not be saved.

First, since sinners receive the gospel in the same way in both the Old and New Testament, and since the Old Testament teaches that repentance involves turning from one’s sins, the New Testament does so as well.

One New Testament Greek verb for repentance is metamelomai, meaning “to have regrets about something … be very sorry, regret … to change one’s mind.”^[1] Metamelomai bears some similarities to the Old Testament verb nacham for “to repent.”

The Greek verb appears in New Testament texts such as: “He answered and said, I will not: but afterward he repented, and went” (Matthew 21:29).^[2]

The Old Testament texts in Ezekiel and Jonah that I pointed out in part 1, where we had the Hebrew verb shuv in passages that said things like “Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions” (Ezekiel 18:30) are translated in the Greek Old Testament or LXX with the verbs epistrepho and apostrepho. These words receive definitions such as “change direction, turn around” (BDAG). (We also have the metanoia / metanoeo word group for “repent,” which we will examine shortly.) The KJV usually renders forms of stepho with English words like turn and conversion. Thus, as the Old Testament called on the lost to “repent” and “turn” from all their transgressions, the New Testament indicates that, for their sins to be blotted out, the lost must turn from their iniquities and turn to the Lord Jesus. Note:

Repent [metanoeō] ye therefore, and be converted [epistrephō], that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; (Acts 3:19)

Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning [apostrephō] away every one of you from his iniquities. (Acts 3:26)

And all that dwelt at Lydda and Saron saw him, and turned [epistrephō] to the Lord. (Acts 9:35)

And the hand of the Lord was with them: and a great number believed, and turned [epistrephō] unto the Lord. (Acts 11:21)

And saying, Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn [epistrephō] from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein: (Acts 14:15)

And being brought on their way by the church, they passed through Phenice and Samaria, declaring the conversion [epistrophē] of the Gentiles: and they caused great joy unto all the brethren. … Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned [epistrephō] to God: (Acts 15:3, 19)

To open their eyes, and to turn [epistrephō] them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me. … But shewed first unto them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judaea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent [metanoeō] and turn [epistrephō] to God, and do works meet for repentance [metanoia]. (Acts 26:18-20)

And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away [apostrephō] ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. (Romans 11:26-27)

Nevertheless when it shall turn [epistrephō] to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away [salvation language]. (2 Corinthians 3:16)

For they themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned [epistrephō] to God from idols to serve the living and true God; (1 Thessalonians 1:9)

Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert [epistrephō] him; Let him know, that he which converteth [epistrephō] the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins. (James 5:19-20)

Thus, for the sinner to obey the command to repent and be converted, he must:

“tur[n] away … from his iniquities” (Acts 3:26)

“turn from … vanities [idolatry and idols] unto the living God” (Acts 14:15)

“tur[n] to the Lord” (Acts 9:35; 11:21; 2 Corinthians 3:16)

“tur[n] to God” (Acts 15:3, 19)

“turn … from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God … by faith” (Acts 26:18-20)

“turn away [from] ungodliness” (Romans 11:26-27)

“tur[n] to God from idols to serve the living and true God” (1 Thessalonians 1:9)

“convert … from the error of his way” (James 5:19-20)

When he obeys the command to repent, he turns from his iniquities, from ungodliness, from idols, and from the error of his way, to God by faith with the intention of serving the living and true God (note that the verb “serve” is used for being a slave or servant; you become God’s servant or slave and He becomes your good Master or Lord), there are wonderful results:

“sins blotted out” (Acts 3:19)

“receive forgiveness of sins” (Acts 26:18-20)

“saved” (Romans 11:26-27)

“take away their sins” (Romans 11:26-27)

“hide a multitude of sins” (James 5:19-20)

“save … soul from death” (James 5:19-20)

At the same moment that God takes your sins away, He gives you a new heart:

“vail … taken away” [new heart, born again] (2 Corinthians 3:16)

And the result of that new heart is that you:

“do works” (Acts 26:18-20)

“serve the living and true God” (1 Thessalonians 1:9)

Why is it certain that when you repent and get a new heart that you will do good works, Christ will be your Lord and Master, and you will be His slave or servant?

Because of the New Covenant![3] Before you are born again, your “heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? … [Your] sin … is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond: it is graven upon the table of [your] heart” (Jeremiah 17:1, 9). God wrote His law on the two tables He gave to Moses, but what is written on the table of your heart is SIN, written there with a pen of iron! But then in the New Covenant God writes His Law on your very heart. That is certain to show up in your life!

“I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” (Jeremiah 31:33-34 & Hebrews 8:8-13)

“A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them … I will also save you from all your uncleannesses … ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.” (Ezekiel 36:26-29)

When, enabled by God’s grace and the powerful drawing of His Holy Spirit, a sinner turns from his sins to trust in Christ, God writes His law in the newly born-again saint’s heart and causes him to keep His commandments. Inward and outward transformation is as certain as God’s unfailing covenants and Almighty power can make them!

In addition to the strepho word group for “to repent,” for the lost man turning from his sins to Christ, we have metanoeo and metanoia for “repentance.”

An examination of every extant use of these words in the Greek language from the New Testament era and earlier reveals the following about the idea “to repent”:

In the New Testament, metanoeo and metanoia … are never used to indicate merely intellectual action. … [T]hey are always used to express volitional action … the change of purpose … from evil to good. … [T]hey always express internal change … [and] they require change in the outward expression of life as a necessary consequent … [t]he fullest content [is] found in the … radical change in the primary choice by which the whole soul is turned away from evil to good. (Effie Freeman Thompson, Metanoeo and metamelei in Greek Literature until 100 A. D., Including Discussion of Their Cognates and of their Hebrew Equivalents [Chicago, IL: University of Chicago, 1908], 376-377. The author made “[d]iligent search … for all the instances of the words under consideration, with a view to including all the works of all the known authors in each period” [pg. 353].)

This explains why every single dictionary of New Testament Greek and of Koine Greek indicate that repentance always results in a changed life and involves turning from sin, and nobody who denies this fact can give even one example of these Greek words either in the New Testament or in Greek literature contemporary with the New Testament where someone “repents” but continues to live and act in exactly the same sinful way as he did before.

We have already pointed out that in Jonah 3[4] when the men of Nineveh “turn[ed] every one from his evil way … [and] believed God,” with the result that their “works” were different (Jonah 3:5-10), Christ said:

The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented [metanoeō] at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here. (Matthew 12:41)

According to the Lord Jesus, “turning from [one’s evil way” that results in good “works,” is “repentance” (John 3:5-10; Matthew 12:41)!

In the book of Revelation, Christ warned that unless sinners would “repent of their deeds” they would enter “into great tribulation” (Revelation 2:22).[5] This Greek phrase is the same one that appears in Revelation 7:14 and Matthew 24:21 for the “great tribulation” period that is coming. Lost people who do not repent of their deeds will miss the pretribulational Rapture and will experience the Great Tribulation. What kind of sinful deeds does Christ refer to? The lost must “repent of [their] fornication” (Revelation 2:21).

The lost “repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols … neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts” (Revelation 9:20-21), “blasphemed the name of God … and … repented not to give him glory. … blasphemed the God of heaven … and repented not of their deeds” (Revelation 16:9, 11). Those who do “repent” will “do … works” as a result (Revelation 2:5).

The first Baptist preacher and martyr—John the Baptist—preached the same thing that Christ preached in the book of Revelation. In Matthew 3:1-12,[6] John preached “Repent [metanoeo] ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand …

O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance [metanoia] … 10 And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. I … baptize you with water unto repentance [metanoia]: but he that cometh after me … will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” The first Baptist preacher taught that repentance resulted in visible “fruit” (Matthew 3:8) without which there was no evidence that conversion had taken place and therefore without which baptism should not be administered, as baptism was on account of (eis, “unto”) repentance (v. 10). Repentance results in fruit, because everyone that has not repented and received a new heart so that he is a good tree that brings forth good fruit will be cast into hell fire (v. 10). The Lord Jesus preached exactly the same message as John the Baptist in Matthew 4:17. All Baptists must preach it today as well!

Saving faith involves commitment:

Furthermore, saving faith involves turning from sin, surrender, and commitment to Christ. The verb normally translated believe, pisteuo, is translated with words including “commit” seven times in the KJV (Luke 16:11; John 2:24; Romans 3:2; 1 Corinthians 9:17; Galatians 2:7; 1 Timothy 1:11; Titus 1:3). The common Biblical phrase for believing in Christ in passages like John 3:16, pisteuein eis auton, involves submission and surrender.

In the words of a standard Greek grammar:

Deissmann in Light From the Ancient East gives several convincing quotations from the papyri to prove that pisteuiein eis auton meant surrender or submission to. A slave was sold into the name of the god of a temple; i. e., to be a temple servant. G. Milligan agrees with Deissmann that this papyri usage of eis auton is also found regularly in the New Testament. Thus to believe on or … into the name of Jesus means to renounce self and to consider oneself the life-time servant of Jesus. (H. E. Dana & Julius R. Mantey, A Manual Grammar of the Greek New Testament [New York, NY: MacMillan, 1955], 105. Greek characters have been transliterated.)

In order to have eternal life, the lost must believe that Jesus is the Christ (John 20:31). He is “the Son of God … the King of Israel” (John 1:49). The “Christ” is not just the Savior, but the King, the Lord. You cannot exercise saving faith unless you want Jesus to be your King, your Lord, the Christ. When you are born again, you enter the kingdom of God (John 3:3). Everyone in the kingdom of God is submitted to God as King. You are no longer king, now Jesus is your King, when you enter the kingdom of God and you believe Jesus is the Christ. Thus, the words for “faith” in the New Testament support that when the lost repent, they turn from their sins to Christ as King and Lord.

John’s Gospel explains that when you believe and are justified by faith alone (John 3:1-18), you “do/practice truth” and “come to the light” and have “deeds that … are wrought in God” (3:19-21).[7]

In almost the same breath, Christ can preach:[8]

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life” (John 5:24) and “Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation” (John 5:28-29). Why? Because true faith will change you into someone who does good!

Christ’s High Priestly prayer for every believer (John 17:8) in John 17 guarantees both the eternal security of every true believer in John 17:24 and also that every true believer will be sanctified (John 17:17).[9]

His prayers are always answered (John 11:42). Once you are saved, you are always saved, not only from hell, but from the reigning power of sin. If you don’t want Jesus to free you from the power of your sin, you don’t want Him, and you cannot believe in Him.

In conclusion, the New Testament evidence is overwhelming that both repentance and faith involve turning from sin and submission to Christ as Lord and King.

Debate / Discussion Questions:

1.) Does the Old Testament teach that the lost must turn from their sins (repent) to be saved?

2.) Does the New Testament teach that the lost must turn from their sins (repent) to be saved?

3.) Does one become a disciple at the moment of the new birth, or at some point afterwards?

4.) How does regeneration change someone?

5.) Can people be born again without calling on the Lord / saying the “sinner’s prayer”?

6.) Did Christ suffer in hell after His death on the cross?

7.) How do our beliefs on the issues above impact how we seek to fulfill the Great Commission?

[1] A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and other early Christian Literature (3rd ed.), W. Arndt, F. Danker, & W. Bauer. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2000.

[2] The complete list of New Testament references is: Matt 21:29, 32; 27:3; 2 Cor 7:8; Heb 7:21.

[3] Outside the New Covenant/Testament:

“[Your] heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? … [Your] sin … is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond: it is graven upon the table of [your] heart” (Jeremiah 17:1, 9).

In the New Covenant/Testament:

[4] When the men of Nineveh “turn[ed] every one from his evil way … [and] believed God,” with the result that their “works” were different (Jonah 3:5-10), Christ said:

[5] Revelation on Repentance, on what it means to repent:

Sinners must “repent of their deeds” or miss the pretribulational Rapture and enter “into great tribulation” (Revelation 2:22; Revelation 7:14; Matthew 24:21).

What does Christ mean by “deeds” of which men must repent?

“Repent of [their] fornication” (Revelation 2:21).

The lost “repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk: neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts …. blasphemed the name of God … and … repented not to give him glory. … blasphemed the God of heaven … and repented not of their deeds” (Revelation 9:20, 21; 16:9, 11).

Those who do “repent” will “do … works” as a result (Revelation 2:5)

[6] 1 In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, 2 And saying, Repent [metanoeo] ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. 3 For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. 4 And the same John had his raiment of camel’s hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey. 5 Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan, 6 And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins. 7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance [metanoia]: 9 And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. 10 And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. 11 I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance [metanoia]: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire: 12 Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

[7] When you are born again simply by faith (John 3:1-18), you:

“do/practice truth … come to the light … [and have] deeds that … are wrought in God” (3:19-21).

[8] Justification by faith alone & all who are justified will do good after they repent:

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. … Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation” (John 5:24, 28-29).

[9] Christ’s prayer for all believers (John 17:8) guarantees their eternal security:

Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory [in heaven], which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.

Christ’s prayer for all believers guarantees their sanctification:

Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. (John 17:17)

Christ’s prayers are always answered (John 11:42)!

Notes for Tommy McMurtry & Thomas Ross

Discussion / Debate, part 3

by Thomas Ross

3.) Does one become a disciple at the moment of the new birth (when the lost repent and believe) or at some point afterwards?

I would like to thank Pastor McMurtry for his thoughts in the first two parts of our discussion. We have looked at the idea of “to repent” in the Old and New Testaments. Our third part asks the question: Does one become a disciple at the moment of the new birth, or at some point afterwards?

Baptists have traditionally confessed that all true believers are disciples. This is the teaching, for example, of Articles 39 and 41 in the Particular Baptist First London Confession^[1] and of Article 15 of the General Baptist Standard Confession of 1660.^[2] The Baptist confessions are right.

Scripture speaks of false believers (cf. John 2:23-3:3; 12:42; Acts 8:13) and false disciples (John 6:60, 66; 12:4), and neither all believers nor all disciples are equally spiritually strong (cf. Acts 14:22; 18:23).[3] Nevertheless, the Bible equates the categories of believer and disciple, so that all saved people, all true believers, are true disciples. Discipleship is not a status that certain believers chose to enter into at some point after their conversion, so that, within the larger class of believers, a smaller, elite group of believers are disciples.

The Greek noun translated disciple appears 269 times in 253 verses in the New Testament,[4] while related words that shed further light on the nature of a disciple appear a number of additional times.[5]

Generally, a disciple is a learner (Mark 9:31; Luke 11:1) or follower of his teacher, and a disciple of Christ is one who learns from and follows the Lord Jesus and follows or keeps His commandments (cf. Matthew 21:6; 26:19).[6]

Scripture thus repeatedly records that Christ’s “disciples follow him” (Mark 6:1; Matthew 8:23; Luke 22:39). Strong exegetical evidence from many passages establish that one becomes a true disciple of Christ at the same moment that one becomes a true believer, so that discipleship begins at regeneration, and all the people of God, not some elite minority, are identified as disciples in Scripture. When you repent, you are a disciple.

No verse in Scripture teaches that believers become disciples at a post-conversion crisis,[7] some time after they initially repent. Scripture exhorts believers to renew their discipleship, but no verse in Scripture exhorts believers to enter into the state of a disciple for the first time. No passage of Scripture states something like: “Believer X became a disciple five years after he was born again when he finally surrendered to Christ for the first time.” No passage of Scripture exhorts Christians to become disciples.

On the contrary, the Greek text of Acts 11:26 explicitly defines “Christian” and “disciple” as identical categories.[8] One category is not bigger than the other category. Christian = disciple, and disciple = Christian.

This is a little technical, but stay with me. In Acts 11:26, the word μαθητὰς, “disciples,” functions as the subject of the infinitive “were called,” χρηματίσαι, while Χριστιανούς, “Christians,” is a predicate accusative in the construction. This syntactical pattern functions like the nominative subject and predicate nominative construction, and the equivalent subject-predicate nominative construction is a convertible, not a subset proposition, because μαθητὰς is articular and Χριστιανούς is a proper noun. That means that the two categories disciple and Christian are explicitly equated as convertible terms.

In a subset proposition, one category is larger than the other category.[9] In a convertible proposition, the two categories are identical. The Greek construction in Acts 11:26 is a convertible proposition, not a subset proposition. Therefore, the “construction indicates an identical exchange … both nouns have an identical referent. The mathematical formulas of A = B, B = A are applicable in such instances. … There is complete interchange between the two [nouns.]” Daniel B. Wallace, Greek Grammar beyond the Basics: An Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1996), 41.

In Acts 11:26 the “construction indicates an identical exchange … both nouns have an identical referent. The mathematical formulas of A = B, B = A are applicable in such instances. … There is complete interchange between the two [nouns.]”[10] The Greek of Acts 11:26 unambiguously and definitively equates the category disciple and the category Christian. Those who read the book of Acts in the first century would have seen the terms as equivalent. We must also agree with what the Holy Spirit wrote through Luke in Acts 11:26. All Christians are disciples, and all disciples are Christians. If only some believers are disciples, then only some believers are Christians.

Furthermore, at Antioch the disciples were called Christians first in time, but this designation spread to the rest of the believing community in the same manner. That is, Acts 11:26 teaches that first at Antioch, and from there in the rest of the world where the gospel had penetrated, it was disciples who were called Christians. The equation disciple = Christian was not limited to Antioch—it was universal, just starting first in time at Antioch. Acts 11:26 definitively equates the category of disciple and of Christian. Even if you do not know Greek, you can see from the English of Acts 11:26 that disciple = Christian. The passage does not say that some Christians were called disciples, or that some Christians became disciples. It says that all those in the category disciples were called Christians. Close examination of the English of Acts 11:26 agrees with what the Greek syntax of Acts 11:26 definitively proves.

Acts 11:26 is decisive, and I could rest my case on that passage alone. But I will not do that. In John 8:30-32, Christ explicitly calls all those who have believed on Him, who have obeyed the command to repent, became disciples.

The Lord tells those who have truly believed on Him, “ye ARE my disciples.”[11] He then tells those whom He knows have believed on Him that they will show that they “are” true disciples because they will persevere, they will continue in His Word. He does not say, “If you continue in my word, ye will become my disciples,” but “If you continue in my word, you are my disciples,” right now, and you will show that you have really believed on Me because you will continue, remain, or persevere.

The “if … then” clause is an evidence/inference construction,[12] so “the relation the protasis [the “if” part of the clause] [has] to the apodosis [the “then” part of the clause] is that of ground, or evidence … for example, ‘If she has a ring on her left hand, then she’s married.’ Notice that the protasis is not the cause of the apodosis. In fact, it is often just the opposite.”[13] Those who had become the Lord’s disciples at the moment they believed in Christ would persevere; if someone did not do so, he never was a true convert.

Furthermore, disciples are not an elite order of especially consecrated believers because disciples are too often sadly lacking in consecration.[14] Disciples can be chastened as those of “little faith” (Matthew 8:23-27). They can act in pride (Mark 9:31-34). They can require Christ’s correction (Matthew 19:13-14; 26:8-10) and rebuke (Luke 9:54-55), because they make Him “much displeased” (Mark 10:13-14). Disciples can fail to grasp spiritual truth as they ought (Mark 7:18-19; 8:16-21; 9:32; John 4:31-35; 9:2-3; 11:11-13; 12:16) and even fail to pursue understanding as they ought when they fail to grasp it (Luke 9:45).

Disciples can fear to boldly confess Christ (John 19:38) although their faith does not stay perpetually hidden (19:39-40). Disciples can sleep instead of pray, give in to temptation and fear, and fail to unflinchingly stand for Christ (Matthew 26:40, 45, 56; Luke 22:45-46; John 18:15-27), although their faith does not fail and their repentant return to their Redeemer is as certain as are the answers to Christ’s prayers for His own as High Priest (Luke 22:32) since Christ powerfully works in them through His Word to bring them back to Himself when they sin (22:60-62).

While disciples—since they are believers and are therefore the recipients of a new heart—are going to be different from the unregenerate, they are not an elite subcategory of especially consecrated Christian. No text indicates that a special post-conversion act of consecration makes a believer into the higher category of disciple, nor that a certain amount of sin makes a disciple lose his status and return to a lower subcategory of mere believer. Rather, all believers, with both their Spirit-wrought change and their remaining indwelling sin, are identified as disciples.

Disciples are also never distinguished from the regenerate who are at a lower plane. They are regularly distinguished from hell-bound lost people.

We can see in Scripture:[15]

Disciples vs. publicans and sinners (Matthew 9:9-13; Mark 2:13-17).

Disciples vs. perishing multitudes (Matthew 9:35-38; Luke 19:36-38).

Disciples vs. persecuting ungodly (Matthew 10:22-27).

Disciples vs. lost in/out of the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 13:10-12; Mark 4:33-34; Luke 8:9-11).

Disciples vs. those who “believed not” (Acts 19:9).

Disciples inherit the kingdom of God (Luke 6:20).

Disciples’ names are written in heaven (Luke 10:20-24).

Disciples are Christ’s spiritual brethren (Matthew 12:49-50; 28:7-10).

Disciples recognize Jesus is the Christ (Matthew 16:14-16, 20).

Disciples are Christ’s little children who are not condemned (Matthew 10:42; John 13:33).

Disciples are believers and will have heavenly mansions (John 13:35-14:3).

Disciples bear fruit (John 15:8) and are not burned eternally in the fires of hell (15:6).

Disciples are believers (John 16:7, 27) and are therefore those who are promised the indwelling Holy Spirit (John 16:7-17; 14:16-18; cf. 20:19-22).

Christian “brethren” are “disciples” (Acts 6:1-3; 9:17, 26-30; 14:28-15:1).

Those who “believed” received “eternal life” (Acts 13:48) and thus became “disciples” (13:50; cf. 14:1, 21-23).

People who have had God “purif[y] their hearts by faith … disciples … through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ . . . shall be saved” (Acts 15:9-11).

Disciples (Acts 9:1) are those who are of the Christian “way” (9:2).

Disciples (Acts 9:1-2) are all who “call on [Christ’s] name” (9:14; cf. 9:19, 21, 25-27).

Disciples as an elite subcategory of believers? NEVER!

Scripture clearly and regularly equates the categories of believer and disciple, promises those who are in these categories the same eternal life, and warns of the same eternal damnation for all who do not become disciples or believers.

Mark 8:34-38 teaches that one who does not become a disciple of Christ will be eternally damned.[16] In v. 34,[17] denial of self and taking up the cross is a representation of the sinner’s coming to the point of saving repentance, with a resultant lifestyle of continued following of Christ.[18] Christ’s call to sinners to “follow me” (v. 34) was a call to discipleship, since the Lord’s “disciples follow him” (Mark 6:1; Matthew 8:23; Luke 22:39; John 18:15; 21:20).[19] One who was bearing a cross in the land of Israel in Christ’s day was on his way to the shameful and extremely painful death of crucifixion (John 19:17); thus, repentant faith in Christ involved losing one’s life or soul, that is, turning from his own way of living, exaltation of self and comfort, to surrender to Christ as unconditional Lord (Mark 8:35). The parallel passages to Mark 8:35 in Matthew 10:28, 39 and John 12:25 indicate that someone who wishes to continue to live his own way, to “save his life [or soul],” will eternally lose “both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28, 39),[20] while one who turns from his own way, denying himself, taking up the cross, and losing his own life or soul for the sake of Christ and the gospel, will save his life or soul (psuche) by receiving eternal life. “He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal” (John 12:25). To encourage the lost to give up their own way and surrender to Christ’s Lordship for salvation, Christ reminds them that it profits them nothing if they would gain the whole world, but lose their souls (Mark 8:36-37).

Those who, rather than being ashamed of their sins (Romans 6:21; contrast Romans 1:16; 2 Timothy 1:8, 12, 16) are ashamed to follow Christ and His Words in the evil and adulterous world will have Christ be ashamed of them at His return and be damned—for Christ is “not ashamed to call [true believers] brethren” (Hebrews 2:11), and “God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city” (Hebrews 11:16; Luke 9:26). No text in Scripture indicates that God will be “ashamed” of His people—He is not ashamed of them (Hebrews 11:16). Mark 8:34-38 clearly teaches that all saved people are disciples, and that one who refuses to become Christ’s disciple at the moment he obeys the command to repent will face an eternity in hell.

Scripture is clear that all believers are disciples. The notion that, after regeneration, a smaller, elite group of believers choose to become disciples is entirely absent from Scripture. Disciples are regularly contrasted with the unregenerate, but never with an underclass of truly saved people who have not yet become disciples. When disciples sin or backslide, they are never said to lose their status as disciples and return to a supposed larger unconsecrated Christian underclass. Indeed, the terms Christian and disciple are explicitly equated (Acts 11:26). Numerous passages of Scripture teach and affirm the truth that one becomes a disciple at the moment of saving faith, and that those who do not become disciples are unbelievers who will be damned. If only some Christians are disciples, then only some Christians get eternal life and escape hell, are adopted into the family of God, enter the kingdom of God, have faith in Christ, and have a new nature—in short, if only some Christians are disciples, only some Christians are Christians. The Bible is clear—a believer is a disciple, and a disciple is a believer.

Debate / Discussion Questions:

1.) Does the Old Testament teach that the lost must turn from their sins (repent) to be saved?

2.) Does the New Testament teach that the lost must turn from their sins (repent) to be saved?

3.) Does one become a disciple at the moment of the new birth, or at some point afterwards?

4.) How does regeneration change someone?

5.) Can people be born again without calling on the Lord / saying the “sinner’s prayer”?

6.) Did Christ suffer in hell after His death on the cross?

7.) How do our beliefs on the issues above impact how we seek to fulfill the Great Commission?

^[1] W. J. McGlothlin, Baptist Confessions of Faith (Philadelphia: American Baptist Publication Society, 1911), 185.

^[2] W. J. McGlothlin, Baptist Confessions of Faith (Philadelphia: American Baptist Publication Society, 1911), 116.

[3] There are false believers (John 2:23-3:3; 12:42; Acts 8:13).

There are false disciples (John 6:60, 66; 12:4).

Nevertheless, all true believers are true disciples.

Believer = Disciple.

[4] Maqhth/ß appears in Matthew 5:1; 8:21, 23, 25; 9:10–11, 14, 19, 37; 10:1, 24–25, 42–11:2; 12:1–2, 49; 13:10, 36; 14:12, 15, 19, 22, 26; 15:2, 12, 23, 32–33, 36; 16:5, 13, 20–21, 24; 17:6, 10, 13, 16, 19; 18:1; 19:10, 13, 23, 25; 20:17; 21:1, 6, 20; 22:16; 23:1; 24:1, 3; 26:1, 8, 17–19, 26, 35–36, 40, 45, 56; 27:64; 28:7–9, 13, 16; Mark 2:15–16, 18, 23; 3:7, 9; 4:34; 5:31; 6:1, 29, 35, 41, 45; 7:2, 5, 17; 8:1, 4, 6, 10, 14, 27, 33–34; 9:14, 18, 28, 31; 10:10, 13, 23–24, 46; 11:1, 14; 12:43; 13:1; 14:12–14, 16, 32; 16:7; Luke 5:30, 33; 6:1, 13, 17, 20, 40; 7:11, 18–19; 8:9, 22; 9:1, 14, 16, 18, 40, 43, 54; 10:23; 11:1; 12:1, 22; 14:26–27, 33; 16:1; 17:1, 22; 18:15; 19:29, 37, 39; 20:45; 22:11, 39, 45; John 1:35, 37; 2:2, 11–12, 17, 22; 3:22, 25; 4:1–2, 8, 27, 31, 33; 6:3, 8, 11–12, 16, 22, 24, 60–61, 66; 7:3; 8:31; 9:2, 27–28; 11:7–8, 12, 54; 12:4, 16; 13:5, 22–23, 35; 15:8; 16:17, 29; 18:1–2, 15–17, 19, 25; 19:26–27, 38; 20:2–4, 8, 10, 18–20, 25–26, 30; 21:1–2, 4, 7–8, 12, 14, 20, 23–24; Acts 1:15; 6:1–2, 7; 9:1, 10, 19, 25–26, 38; 11:26, 29; 13:52; 14:20, 22, 28; 15:10; 16:1; 18:23, 27; 19:1, 9, 30; 20:1, 7, 30; 21:4, 16.

[5] The verb maqhteu/w appears four times (Matthew 13:52; 27:57; 28:19; Acts 14:21), and the nouns maqh/tria and summaqhth/ß appear once each (Acts 9:36; John 11:16).

[6] Disciples learn from and follow their teacher:

[C]hrist taught his disciples … (Mark 9:31)

Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. (Luke 11:1)

A disciple of Christ learns from, follows, and keeps Christ’s commandments:

And the disciples went, and did as Jesus commanded them (Matthew 21:6)

And the disciples did as Jesus had appointed them … (Matthew 26:19)

[H]is disciples follow him. (Mark 6:1)

[H]is disciples followed him. (Matthew 8:23)

[H]is disciples also followed him. (Luke 22:39)

[7] Verses that teach believers become disciples at a post-conversion crisis?

None!

Verses that exhort believers to enter into the state of a disciple for the first time?

None!

Verses that state “Believer X finally became a disciple five years after he was born again when he finally surrendered to Christ” (or something similar)?

None!

Verse that exhort Christians to become disciples?

None!

[8] Acts 11:26:

And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.

χρηματίσαι τε πρῶτον ἐν Ἀντιοχείᾳ τοὺς μαθητὰς Χριστιανούς.

chrēmatisai te prōton en Antiocheia tous mathētas Christianous.

mathētas (disciples) = subject of the infinitive

chrēmatisai (were called) = infinitive

Christianous (Christians) = predicate accusative

In this construction, Christians is not a bigger category with disciples a smaller category. They are identical categories (a convertible, not a subset proposition). See Daniel B. Wallace, Greek Grammar beyond the Basics: An Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1996), 40-46, 190-197.

[9]

Daniel B. Wallace, Greek Grammar beyond the Basics: An Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1996), 42.

[10] Daniel B. Wallace, Greek Grammar beyond the Basics: An Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1996), 41.

[11] 30 As he spake these words, many believed on him. 31 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; 32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

[12] The “if . . . then” clause is an evidence/inference construction, so “the relation the protasis [has] to the apodosis is that of ground, or evidence … for example, ‘If she has a ring on her left hand, then she’s married.’ Notice that the protasis is not the cause of the apodosis. In fact, it is often just the opposite.” (Daniel B. Wallace, Greek Grammar beyond the Basics: An Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament [Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1996], 683)

Protasis = “if” part of a conditional clause.

Apodosis = “then” part of a conditional clause.

[13] Pg. 683, Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics, by Daniel Wallace.

[14] Disciples ¹ Elite, Consecrated Believers

Disciples can:

Have “little faith” (Matthew 8:23-27).

Act in pride (Mark 9:31-34).

Require Christ’s correction (Matthew 19:13-14; 26:8-10).

Require rebuke (Luke 9:54-55).

Cause Christ to be “much displeased” (Mark 10:13-14).

Fail to grasp spiritual truth as they ought (Mark 7:18-19; 8:16-21; 9:32; John 4:31-35; 9:2-3; 11:11-13; 12:16).

Fail to pursue understanding as they ought when they fail to grasp it (Luke 9:45).

Fear to boldly confess Christ (John 19:38)—although their faith does not stay perpetually hidden (19:39-40).

Sleep instead of pray; give in to temptation; fail to unflinchingly stand for Christ (Matthew 26:40, 45, 56; Luke 22:45-46; John 18:15-27)—although their faith does not fail and their repentant return to their Redeemer is as certain as are the answers to Christ’s prayers for His own as High Priest (Luke 22:32) since Christ powerfully works in them through His Word to bring them back to Himself when they sin (Luke 22:60-62).

[15] Disciples vs. publicans and sinners (Matthew 9:9-13; Mark 2:13-17).