The Old Way to Get Saved Didn’t Work

It was getting late one night in a revival at Millersburg, Kentucky in 1821. Several people responded to the preaching and came down front to the mourner’s bench. But after the preachers talked with them and prayed with them, they still didn't feel saved. The popular belief at the time was that the Holy Spirit would convict a person of sin and give assurance of salvation.

A preacher rose up and said, “Brethren, something must be wrong; we have been laboring with these mourners earnestly, and they are deeply penitent; why have they not found relief? We all know that God is willing to pardon them, and certainly they are anxious to receive it. The cause must be that we do not preach as the apostles did. On the day of Pentecost those who were ‘pierced to the heart,’ were promptly told what to do for the remission of sins. And ‘they gladly received the word and were baptized; and the same day about three thousand were added unto them.’”

That preacher's name was Barton W. Stone. Samuel Rogers, another preacher who was there, said at the time he thought Stone was beside himself (Earl West, Search for the Ancient Order, vol. I, pp. 30-31). That’s how deeply ingrained the idea of salvation by faith alone was.

The passage he was referring to was Acts 2:37-38. “Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Men and brethren, what shall we do?’ Then Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’”

Many preachers and church-going people in that age from different denominations changed their belief when they understood this plain teaching of the Bible. They were honest with the Scriptures and admitted they were wrong.

The same change happens today when someone hears what the Bible actually says, not what others say about the Bible.

“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32).

Kerry

West End church of Christ • August 3, 2025