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How
"now is the day of salvation"
Relates to the
Heresy of Decisional Regeneration

"Now is the day of salvation" is OFTEN quoted to groups of people who may have heard just one sermon as a rational for coming forward in an altar call and repeating a salvation prayer despite the obvious problem of their not knowing anything other than they want whatever God has for them since it is free and there is no obligation to change anything in their life (yes, that is a typical modern altar call presentation). This is the type of “seeker” D. L. Moody instructed his Inquiry Room workers to give "nothing but the Law, the Law, the Law". In other words, convince them they are a sinner and forget about talking about grace until they understand their desperate condition.

There are only two places in the Bible where the idea "now is the day of salvation" is presented. In the first instance, God is speaking prophetically to the Messiah. God had warned Israel for 1400 years to repent, and now God was providing a Savior that would change the endless cycle of sin. God says in Isaiah 49:8-11: “Thus saith the Lord, In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee: and I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages; That thou mayest say to the prisoners, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Shew yourselves. They shall feed in the ways, and their pastures shall be in all high places. They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun smite them: for he that hath mercy on them shall lead them, even by the springs of water shall he guide them. And I will make all my mountains a way, and my highways shall be exalted”.

It is this scripture that the Apostle Paul quotes in 2 Corinthians 6:1-3: “We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain. (For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.) Giving no offence in any thing, that the ministry be not blamed”.

This is hardly an offer of superficial salvation for repeating a salvation prayer. Paul had been warning the Corinthian Church for at least two years,
“now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat” (1 Corinthians 5:11) and “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 6:9-10). In fact, at the end of the letter where he says “now is the day of salvation, he warns them, “examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith” (2 Corinthians 13:5).