Proverbs 22:28 and 23:10, “Remove not the ancient landmark, which thy fathers have set. ... Remove not the old landmark; and enter not into the fields of the fatherless.”
I have quite a large collection of old and new books, Gospel tracts and
materials. I've been giving some of them away to a local Baptist church,
simply because I have accumulated too many books and commentaries on the
Bible. I have numerous books from the 1800's. I grab a book or an item here and there and
look for something to inspire a new article.
Today, I picked up a little Gospel tract titled, “God's Way Of Salvation,” authored in the 1920's by Evangelist Alexander Marshall (1846-1928). The original Gospel tract that I have set before me is nearly a century old. It is a little 31-page booklet, which could easily fit into a man's shirt pocket, and it's as thin as a dime. This excellent Gospel tract was originally published by Moody Press in Chicago, back when Moody Bible Institute and Moody Church could be trusted doctrinally. Today, Moody honors, promotes and publishes the books of heretics like Dr. John MacArthur, who denies that Jesus' blood is sprinkled upon the heavenly Mercy Seat. MacArthur is also a devout 5-point Calvinist, who teaches that it is not easy to be saved, which is a satanic lie!
As I read Alexander Marshall's excellent tract, “God's Way Of Salvation,” I was so impressed that out of curiosity I went online to search for it. I was particularly impressed Marshall taught the Biblical truth that “repentance” is A CHANGE OF MIND. The tract today is published by Bible Truth Publishers, who sell the tract. To my dismay, someone very deceitfully and deliberately changed Marshall's tract to leave out the truth about repentance. The Bible Truth Publishers' website has converted Brother Marshall's printed Gospel tract into audio format (35 separate tracts). Between tract 24 (“Can A Man Be Saved At Once?”) and track 25 (“I Cannot Love God”), they intentionally removed the section titled, “I Have Not Repented Enough.” You can listen on their website to tracts 24 and 25, which are word-for-word what I have in front of me from the original tract.
However, I am now going to type out the missing portion from Alexander Marshall's Gospel tract, which someone shadily removed. Little things are important, and this little omission speaks volumes against the corrupter. I am going to quote the missing portion of the tract exactly as it is printed—italics, quotation marks and all...
“I HAVE NOT REPENTED ENOUGH”
What do you mean? “I am not sorry enough for my sins.”
And if you were very sorry, would God be more willing to save you than He is now? “I think so.”
Then you are completely mistaken.
“But does it not say, unless we repent we shall perish?”
Yes; but what do you think is the Scriptural significance of “repentance”? If you say “sorrow for sin” you are wrong. It does not mean sorrow for sin: it means a CHANGE OF MIND (Matt. 21:29). This change will doubtless produce sorrow; but sorrow and repentance are two very different things (Heb. 12:17. margin, and II Cor. 7:9). When God calls on you to “repent, and believe the Gospel,” He wishes you to lay aside your wrong thoughts, and believe the glad tidings that He proclaims to you. Formerly you may have imagined that you were required to feel very sorry before being saved. Change your mind. You may have supposed you must first “feel” some great change in order to know you were saved. Change your mind. First believe in God's great love to you, as revealed in His gospel, and you will KNOW that you have eternal life (John 5:24).
Yes, that is excellent. Mr. Marshall is 100% correct! Yet, some unlearned and/or heretical person changed his tract, completely removing the preceding section on repentance from the work. Marshall plainly says that sinners are saved by BELIEVING THE GOSPEL, that is, he says, “to lay aside your wrong thoughts [Repentance], and believe the glad tidings [Gospel] that He proclaims to you.”
Our text Bible verses from Proverbs 22:28 and 23:10 teach us not to remove the ancient landmarks. In ancient times, surveyed land was marked off with large stones or some type of difficult to move land-marker. Sometimes, when the man of the house died, widows and orphans were victimized by dishonest neighbours, who would remove the landmarks from their original position. By doing so, they stole their neighbour's land.
Whoever butchered Alexander Marshall's Gospel tract (no doubt to promote the heresy of Lordship Salvation), dishonestly removed the ancient landmark. They have done a horrible injustice to Mr. Marshall, misrepresenting his original work. The entire section that I just quoted to you word-for-word has been maliciously removed from Evangelist Marshall's tract. Again, the tract is titled, “God's Way Of Salvation.” Why would anyone remove this section on repentance as A CHANGE OF MIND from Brother Marshall's Gospel tract? The answer is obvious, that is, because the heresy of Lordship Salvation has crept unawares into most churches today. Lordship Salvation is synonymous with the false teachings of John Calvin (aka, “Calvinism”).
The Bible warns us
that Satan creeps into the churches UNAWARES (undetected) through ungodly
false prophets. Jude 1:4, “For there are certain men crept in unawares, who
were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the
grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our
Lord Jesus Christ.” You don't have to reject the name and person of Jesus
Christ to deny Him. In Matthew 7:21-23 we find a group of religious
people, who performed “many wonderful works” in Jesus' name, yet the Lord said
the horrorifying words, “I NEVER KNEW YOU!” Listen friend, if you're wrong on
repentance, then you're wrong on salvation; and if you're wrong on salvation,
then you're not saved.
Clearly, whoever changed Alexander Marshall's Gospel tract has a serious problem with “repentance” simply meaning A CHANGE OF MIND, but this is the Biblical meaning! Again, Evangelist Marshall is correct that “TO REPENT” means “to lay aside your wrong thoughts, and believe the glad tidings that He proclaims to you.” Most preachers today disagree with this truth, instead requiring people to turn away from sinful behavior to be saved, and to forsake the world, and to surrender “ALL” to Christ as Lord to be saved. None of these constitute the Gospel. What Is The Gospel? (Pastor Harry Ironside, 1876-1951).
Alexander Marshall was born in 1846 and died in 1928. He authored, God's Way Of Salvation, when he was in his 70's. That aged man of God knew that salvation rests completely in “THE SIMPLICITY THAT IS IN CHRIST.” Would to God that religious leaders today would believe the Word of God and stop listening to corrupt radio preachers concerning what it means “to repent.” There is not one verse in the Holy Bible which teaches to “turn from sin to be saved.” Marshall is correct that repentance is not sorrow, and that the “feeling” of sorrow is not required for salvation. The apostle Judas had sorrow for betraying Christ (Matthew 27:3), even returning the 30 pieces of silver, but he still went to Hell in unbelief. I have no doubt that Alexander Marshall is grieved in Heaven, because some dishonest religious person (not a born-again Christian) changed his Gospel tract, removing the ancient landmark concerning the true meaning of Biblical repentance.
Here are some excellent, doctrinally sound, helpful, Biblical sermons to help you understand “the simplicity that is in Christ” (2nd Corinthians 11:3-4) for salvation . . .
