The Gospel Call and True Conversion Quotes

“The most common argument used against church discipline is that it is unloving and judgmental. In rebuttal, we merely need to point to the teachings of our Lord, who commanded such a practice. If we are unloving in obeying the command, was He unloving in giving it? Although we are not to judge with critical and censorious attitudes, we are commanded to judge and even expel if necessary.28 If in the consummation of all things we are going to judge angels, are we not now able to judge matters pertaining to the church and her well-being?29 Our boasting in a love that refuses to confront unrepentant sin is not good. Do we not understand that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough?30 Are we demonstrating love toward God when we allow sin to run rampant in the church so that God’s name is blasphemed among unbelievers?31 Are we demonstrating love toward our brothers in Christ when we allow them to be destroyed by habitual sin, or are we demonstrating self-love and refusing to enter into conflict for the sake of self-preservation?”
― Paul Washer, The Gospel Call and True Conversion

“The goal of the Christian life is the pursuit of an intimate knowledge of God that leads to a greater estimation of His worth, a greater satisfaction and joy in His person, and a greater giving of oneself for His glory. As”
― Paul Washer, The Gospel Call and True Conversion

“A sinner is justified and reconciled with God the moment he truly believes in the person and atoning work of Christ. However, the evidence that he truly believed and was genuinely converted in that moment is that he goes on believing and confessing all the days of his life. This is not to say that the true believer will be immune to doubts, free from failure, or unhindered in his growth to maturity. However, it does mean that the God who began a good work in him will continue perfecting that work until the final day.7 Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone.8 However, the evidence of saving faith is a genuine and enduring confession of the lordship of Jesus Christ throughout the believer’s life.”
― Paul Washer, The Gospel Call and True Conversion

“The goal of the Christian life is the pursuit of an intimate knowledge of God that leads to a greater estimation of His worth, a greater satisfaction and joy in His person, and a greater giving of oneself for His glory.”
― Paul Washer, The Gospel Call and True Conversion

“There is not a godly remnant in the true church; that true church is the godly remnant.”
― Paul David Washer, The Gospel Call and True Conversion

“In the new covenant, God is calling forth a spiritual nation made up of Jews and Gentiles, and all of them are regenerate and believing. There is not a godly remnant in the true church; that true church is the godly remnant. The Scriptures teach that there will always be believers and unbelievers mixed in the professing church.8 We also understand from the Scriptures and from church history that this harmful state will become more prominent when the church preaches something less than a biblical gospel and neglects church discipline. Nevertheless, the true church is made up of only those who are regenerate, repenting, and believing and who are being conformed to Christ’s image. This is the major difference between the old and new covenants, and we must maintain and proclaim it.”
― Paul Washer, The Gospel Call and True Conversion

“The former work is accomplished through the cross. The latter work is accomplished through the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit, who radically transforms or recreates each member of God’s new covenant people.”
― Paul David Washer, The Gospel Call and True Conversion

“Very few have heard that without holiness or sanctification no one will see the Lord.”
― Paul David Washer, The Gospel Call and True Conversion

“However, the most frightening thing about many of the individuals and churches that identify with evangelicalism is not that they struggle against sin, but that they do not struggle at all.”
― Paul David Washer, The Gospel Call and True Conversion

“God uses these false prophets to draw out the unbelieving and unregenerate from among His people so that their poison might not spring up and defile many.”
― Paul David Washer, The Gospel Call and True Conversion

“Any honest evaluation of contemporary evangelicalism will acknowledge that there are many people walking the streets and sitting in pews who have “obtained like precious faith with us” as the demons (2 Peter 1:1).11 They know something of the person and work of Christ, and they will make something of a confession when it is convenient. However, there is little evidence of an ongoing reality of the saving work of Christ in their lives. Their hope of eternal salvation is founded upon a decision they made long ago, which they believed was sincere, to “accept Christ” by means of a simple prayer. Ministers of the gospel who should have known better confirmed their hope. Like demons, they are lost. Yet, unlike demons, they do not know it.”
― Paul Washer, The Gospel Call and True Conversion

“Let the struggling believer be comforted; let the apathetic church member be warned. The great evidence of true conversion is God’s ongoing work of sanctification in our lives. If we have been saved by grace through faith, we are now God’s “workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:8–10). The evidence that God has begun a good work in us is that He continues that work until that final day.28”
― Paul Washer, The Gospel Call and True Conversion

“We no longer think the need to examine and test ourselves to see if we are in the faith is necessary.23 Thus, the carnal sing the songs of Zion, thinking they have heaven as a future home, even though this world has their present heart.”
― Paul David Washer, The Gospel Call and True Conversion

“We will not because we cannot, and we cannot because we are new creatures who are no longer able to live without the light of God’s presence or to endure the darkness and filth of this age.”
― Paul David Washer, The Gospel Call and True Conversion

“We have learned of three vital characteristics of God’s new covenant people: first, those who are truly Christians will possess one heart and unite in their affections for God and for one another. Second, they will possess one way or a singularity of purpose and conduct: they will be followers of Jesus Christ. Third, they will be marked by a genuine fear of the Lord, which will result in their own blessing and the blessing of those after them.”
― Paul David Washer, The Gospel Call and True Conversion

“They shall be My people, and I will be their God; then I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear Me forever, for the good of them and their children after them. —Jeremiah 32:38–39”
― Paul David Washer, The Gospel Call and True Conversion

“The erroneous, but prevailing theory of the day is that church must look as much like the world as possible in order to be relevant and reach people for Christ. Thus, we change our look, our services, and our focus. We become interested in things that interest carnal people so that they will become interested in us. This is a grave error.”
― Paul David Washer, The Gospel Call and True Conversion

“In Whitefield’s day, carnal people found assurance in their baptism and confirmation. In our day, the same kind of carnal people find their assurance in the apparent sincerity of a decision they once made and a prayer they once prayed.”
― Paul David Washer, The Gospel Call and True Conversion

“Preachers rarely proclaim the apostolic message that demanded that people “should repent, turn to God, and do works befitting repentance” (Acts 26:20).”
― Paul David Washer, The Gospel Call and True Conversion

“We rarely mention the radical depravity of man and the heinous nature of his sin or expound it to wound the conscience. We have replaced the call to repentance and faith with the repetition of a prayer.”
― Paul David Washer, The Gospel Call and True Conversion

“First, the vast number of carnal people who identify themselves with the church is the result of the unbiblical gospel preached from most evangelical pulpits.”
― Paul David Washer, The Gospel Call and True Conversion

“They are a new people who desire God and delight in His law, not because they come from better stock than the nation of Israel but because the Holy Spirit has recreated them.”
― Paul David Washer, The Gospel Call and True Conversion

“The rampant rebellion in much of Western evangelicalism is not because the new covenant is no better than the old is or because it shares some of the same weaknesses. On the contrary, apathy, materialism, and rebellion have occurred because many who profess Christ are not really of Christ, and much of what is called the church is not the true, living church at all.”
― Paul David Washer, The Gospel Call and True Conversion