Word Of Wisdom Ministries
By Cheryl Arnold

The answer is very simple. Have you been granted repentance? Do you hate sin and namely your own sin? Have you looked to Jesus for forgiveness?
You are saved forever if you answered yes to each question. These are the questions the word of God asks so you will know if you are saved or not. And we can know. God wants you to have assurance. He doesn’t play games.

Are you saved? Do you hate sin? If you do, then Jesus paid the price for that sin you hate, and all sin. He will declare you not guilty if you come to Him and repent of that sin you hate. He will forgive you. He will claim you as His own forever. He will lead you in paths of righteousness now.

Calvanism teaches that a person can’t repent until they are saved. This is false teaching. It leads to a false gospel. Here is the true gospel and is what the Bible teaches in its entirety:

The whole counsel of God teaches that man in his once born state, loves darkness because his deeds are evil. In other words, he loves sin. This is why he sins.

Calvanism says that a person can’t hate sin until God saves them and then they can repent of sin. This is false.

It is easily proved. A person who is unsaved is once born, and he sins. He knows it is sin. Calvanism teaches that he doesn’t even really know it is sin until God opens the heart and saves him…only then can he repent. This is false.

Romans tells us that every man created has the law of right and wrong written on the heart. He knows what is sin and what is not sin. God gave him that knowledge. Now repentance is only given to a man who comes to the place where he hears the gospel and hates his sin. Once he does, he can long for forgiveness and deliverance from sin. This is salvation.

I could belabor the point and get into all the intricacies, but listen to Jesus: “Preach repentance for the remission of sins”…and many more just like this.

This is the order: repent in order to be forgiven (saved). So salvation does not come first. Repentance comes first.
Calvanism teaches that man is totally depraved and unable to know he is a sinner or turn from sin. The whole Bible teaches us the opposite.
The once born man knows he is a sinner. He is not so depraved that he can’t have that knowledge. God gave it to him when he was created, so he could repent!

He has the choice to remain in the sin he loves or to choose to hate sin. God tells us this. He admonished us to choose the good. Hate the evil. In other words, choose to hate sin. Choose to love right. Jesus will save if you do.

There are types all through the Bible. God showed me the most exquisite one when I was arguing with someone who demanded that repentance was not necessary for salvation. This person was believing that Jesus just saves who He will and then that person can repent. This is a false gospel, I tried to show.

Out of nowhere the Spirit of God said to me , look: “John the Baptist was the type for repentance. He had to pave the way for Jesus to enter the scene. In the same way, repentance has to take place in a heart before Jesus can enter it. It is never the other way around.

So the truth of salvation is that a heart chooses to love sin or to hate sin. If he loves sin and keeps loving sin, eventhough he knows it is sin, he will not be able to repent. Repentance only comes to one who chooses to hate sin.
Once a person decides he hates sin, and the gospel brings this message that he can be forgiven of the sin he has loved, he can choose to repent of sin and be forgiven.
He is not totally depraved and unable to choose good or evil. This is seen nowhere in the Bible nor it is seen anywhere in life.

Anyone who has not chosen to hate sin has chosen to not repent and not be saved. It is a choice that everyone is free to make.
If we will choose to hate sin, God will grant the repentance that leads to salvation. Once we receive salvation, then repentance continues on our walk while we are being sanctified… that is, purified so that our heart and actions grow continually cleaner. The walk purifies.
Salvation justifies. The journey purifies as we walk out and work out our own salvation.

Jesus said no man can come to the Father unless the Spirit draws him. This means that God will only draw a person to Himself when He sees a heart beginning to hate sin and desire to be free of it.
This is the gospel of the Bible.
Calvanism teaches that God opens a heart and saves it. Then that heart repents and turns away completely from sin. If they have any error in their lives then they cannot be saved. This is false.

God removes sin bit by bit on the walk with Him. He begins cleaning up a life after they have been saved. If that heart decides to stay in sin willfully and ongoingly, then they can be in danger of the sin unto death. God will not permit a true believer to continually, and for a long period of time, choose and stay in sin that he knows is sin. One of two things is true: There never was salvation, or that person is walking a thin line and a dangerous one unless they turn and begin purifying their own hands and minds.

Repent for the remission of sins. Jesus is very clear.
Bless His holy name.