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Salvation Without The Gospel Elder Mark Green

If his proposition be true, the heathen do not need the gospel for
their salvation. It is no matter what they hear, believe, or do, they
are going to be saved by grace. There is no need in this world, so
far as the question of salvation is concerned, to send them the
gospel; for if saved, it will be independent of, and without, the

gospel. [I. N. Penick, from his debate with Elder C. H. Cayce in 1907]

At least Mr. Penick understood where the Primitive Baptists stand. He did not agree
with us, but he knew what we believed on this point, that the eternal salvation of
God’s elect people is apart from any works that they may or may not do.

The heathen (by which we suppose he means those who have not heard the gospel) do
not need the gospel for their salvation because “the wind bloweth where it listeth,” by
which the Savior meant that in the new birth the Spirit of God acts where, when and
upon whom He pleases. If God desired to save a person, but was not able to save the

individual because some slothful or rebellious man had not gone where he ought to
have gone and preached where he ought to have preached, then the Spirit would not
have been able to act where He desired to act.

We are saved by grace, not by works. If a man is saved, it is apart from “what they
hear, believe, or do.” If he is not yet saved, then he cannot hear the gospel. “Why do
ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.” If they cannot
be saved except by hearing the gospel, and they cannot hear the gospel until they are

saved, then they are going to have a hard time being saved by the gospel and certainly
to not need the gospel in order to be saved. If faith is a fruit of the Spirit, then it is a
result of the Spirit and not a cause of the Spirit. Thus the Spirit must come first –

before belief – and thus there is indeed no need of the gospel in order to be saved if
we cannot believe it until after we are saved. If we are saved by what we do, then we
are saved by our works; but it is “not by works of righteousness which we have done.”
“There is no need in this world, so far as the question of salvation is concerned, to
send them the gospel.” We agree with this statement, even if Mr. Penick did not. God

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