"By conversion we mean the reorientation of the soul of an individual, his deliberate turning from indifference or from an earlier form of piety to another, a turning which implies a consciousness that a great change is involved, that the old was wrong and the new is right. It is seen at its fullest in the positive response of a man to the choice set before him by the prophetic religions [like Christianity]." - A.D. Nock (Conversion: The Old and the New in Religion from Alexander the Great to Augustine of Hippo,1933)
"Contrarily, many people think of repentance as moral reformation, a turning over of new leaves in one's life. We know people who used to drink and do no longer; who have greatly improved their marriages, who have made peace with their children. We know people who led criminal lives but who do no longer. All of this is to the good, but it is not repentance, or, better, it may not be repentance and often is not repentance. Reformation is as different from repentance as changing one's clothes is from changing one's heart. Repentance goes down to the root and changes the life from the bottom up and the inside out. It concerns motives as well as actions and its reasons are all found in Christ and the kingdom of God that has drawn near. Only a Christian truly repents. Only a Christian can. Only a Christian can even know what real repentance is and consists of...in biblical usage it refers to change, a change of heart and of life, a turning away from sin and toward the will of God, a change that is characteristic of those who are born again."-Robert Rayburn ("Transformed Lives", Matthew 4:12-17, October 26, 2003)
"When faith has primed the pump of the human heart, repentance is the way of living that results." (J. I. Packer, Quest for Godliness, 173)
"Exclusiveness in religion is confined to the prophetic type, and it is natural that there should be give and take outside it." -A.D. Nock (1933)
"Will everyone who doesn't know Jesus go to hell? Yes, yes, yes." - Mark Driscoll (at the Mars Hill Church Ballard campus in Seattle Washington on March 20, 2011 see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XicnbW06fbk&feature=youtu.be)
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