Repentance was Christ's plan of salvation. And when He gave the disciples the Great Commission, as reported in Luke, He said unto them, "That repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among the nations, beginning at Jerusalem" (Luke 24:47). It was just another way of stating His plan of salvation "among all nations." All who honestly repent-- that is all who turn, in the heart, from sin to God-- certainly trust in Christ. So repentance and faith are inseparable.
And Paul preached the same thing, namely that God "commandeth all men every where to repent" (Acts 17:30). It is silly, then, to say that repentance is only for Jews. Actually repentance means a change of mind, a heart's turning from sin toward God. And of course every person who was ever saved in the Old Testament or the New turned his heart from sin toward God, that is, he repented, as he trusted. - John R. Rice
I went into the Masonic lodge. I meant well. My father was active and a speaker in the Masonic lodge. Other good men said, "Brother Rice, you are going to be a preacher; and you will have more influence if you belong to the lodge." I thought that. They thought it was true. I went in. I found in it an old infidel, cussing, dirty-mouthed man whom I had rebuked on the streets for cursing in my presence and the presence of others. Yet, here he was helping my father give me the entered apprentice degree in a Masonic lodge! And I found I was taking oath to support these men in business instead of others who were not lodge members, support them when they ran for office instead of somebody else who wasn't a lodge member, and I should support him if he got arrested and put in jail, and if I were on the jury I was to try and uphold him. Good night! I didn't want that! I thought, that is not my place. That is not my crowd. So I got out. I never went back. I have great respect for many noble good men who mean well, but they still ought not be yoked up with unbelievers. - John R. Rice
Sure, I love born-again Christians where they are in the churches. I mean I am a brother to Southern Baptists or Methodists or Presbyterians or Pentecostals or to any man who loves the Lord Jesus and trusts in Him and believes the Bible and depends on the shed blood of Jesus. I am his brother. I am his friend. I want his love. But I don't want to call any man "brother" who says the Bible is full of mistakes, who says Adam was not a real person, as the Bible says-- that that story is just mythical and allegorical; who say God didn't create the earth like He said He did in six days but instead, says the earth has been here billions of years. I don't want any fellowship with him. That is infidelity. That is contrary to the Bible. Christians ought not put up with it. You are not to run with those people. Rather, you'd better say, "I am never going to give another dollar where it will get in the hands of anybody who is breaking down faith in the Bible." - John R. Rice
So Paul was inspired to use the same figure of speech in 1 Corinthians 12:13 when he said, "For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body." In a figurative sense, when one is converted, he becomes a part of the mystical, unseen body of Christians who will be called out at the rapture and assemble in Heaven. So as a figure of speech, one may say that he is buried into that body, immersed in it, becoming a part of that body. The picture is the same used in 1 Peter 2:5 where Christians are said to be living stones, built into a wall, and the wall is a spiritual house for God. In that fanciful and beautiful figure of speech the word baptism or immersion is used. But actually, of course, that is not in a physical baptism. It is only in a figurative sense that a Christian is built into a wall and covered or buried in the wall of a house. It is all right to say we are baptized into the body of Christ, if you realize that it is only a figure of speech and not a literal, physical immersion of the believer into anything. - John R. Rice
Listen. You better get out and put your influence out-and-out for Christ and the Bible.
I don't mean to hate anybody. I am just against those who are not for Christ and the Bible. I am for everybody who is for Christ and the Bible. Christians ought to take sides and put your money where your mouth is. And it ought to be your mouth and your money both for Jesus and salvation. - John R. Rice
One pastor said to me when I was in a revival campaign, "You talk as if Satan were out after you all the time and opposing you! Satan never bothers me." I said to him, "If you twisted his tail as much as I do and got as many drunkards saved as I do, he would be against you."
The Devil is working against the Lord and against the salvation of souls and against out-and-out Christians. - John R. Rice
So it is with the Christian schools. Yale, Harvard, Brown, Princeton, Oberlin, Northwestern, University of Chicago-- all these schools were founded primarily for training preachers in the Christian religion. They are gone now. Yes, they grow rich and powerful and scholarly, so after awhile scholarship gets to be more important than the power of God, and they drift away. God then has to start some other schools. - John R. Rice
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