Читать книгу The Impossible Gospel - Joel Collison - Страница 5

The Bible often says you must believe to go to Heaven. It also says you must believe and repent. Other times it just says you must repent. Which one is right? All of them! They are all in God's Word. Believing and repenting must coincide with each other, otherwise, somewhere in the Bible a verse would be wrong. What does repent mean? Let's investigate.

The key to Lordship Salvation is a misrepresentation of the very common word, "repent." They believe repentance is turning away from sin, or at the very least being sorry for sins. This depends on who you ask. Honestly, if you ask ten different people, "What is the definition of repent?" you will probably get 11 different answers. However, if repentance has anything to do with turning from sin, then repentance is a work. Salvation is "Not of works, lest any man should boast."

You might hear a Lordshipper say, "You must kick yourself out of the throne of your life, and put Christ on it." This goes back to the idea that repenting is making Christ the Lord of your life, which means you will serve Him. THAT IS WORKS! There is no Scripture to back up such a claim. Stopping your sin isn't part of Salvation. Christ died for us while we were yet sinners, not after we made Him Lord of all!

Yes, He should be in control of your entire life, but that is where discipleship comes in. However, if you're honest (I John 1:8), you cannot say that Christ is in control of your entire life. That should be your goal, but it will never fully be accomplished until you are in Heaven. So what does repentance mean? It simply means "a change of mind." The word "repentance" in the New Testament usually is the translation of the word "metanoia" in the Greek and just means "to change your mind." If repentance means anything different, then you are adding works to Salvation. That is the difference between Christianity and all other religions. We don't try to reach God by our works; God reached down to us.

I will attempt to prove that "to change your mind" is the biblical definition of "repent." John 20:31 says, "But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name." This verse is stating that the book of John was written for the purpose of bringing people to eternal life. That is why I quote John often.

Now mysteriously, the words "repent" and "repentance" are NEVER used once in the book of John. If repent means to change your mind, then that is understandable, because in John it says to believe. IF YOU START TO BELIEVE SOMETHING THAT YOU DIDN'T BELIEVE BEFORE, YOU CHANGED YOUR MIND. Now if repent means something else, you have a big problem. The book that claims its purpose is to bring people to Christ, missed half the gospel! It got the believe, but it missed the repent! Would God make a mistake like that?

Here are some examples of "repent" being used in the Bible. Genesis 6:6 "And it REPENTED the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart." Exodus 32:14 "And the Lord REPENTED of the evil which he thought to do unto his people." Judges 2:18 ^"And when the LORD raised them up judges, then the LORD was with the judge, and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge: for it REPENTED the LORD because of their groanings by reason of them that oppressed them and vexed them." Here are three examples of God repenting. Did God turn from all known sin? No, He's perfect! That is blasphemy to say such a thing! Repent in these Scriptures simply meant God changed His mind.

Exodus 13:17 "And it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God led them not through the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, Lest peradventure the people REPENT when they see war, and they return to Egypt." Interestingly, God did not want Israel to repent! Also, why would repenting cause the Israelites not to want to go to the promise land? If repentance meant turning from sin, then this verse has many problems. One of the countless problem is that it would contradict II Peter 3:9, "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." We see Exodus 13 makes much more sense if repent means "to change your mind."

Here's an example from the New Testament. Matthew 27:3 "Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, REPENTED himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders." Judas repented? Two verses later he killed himself.

This verse makes a lot more sense if repent means he changed his mind. He wished he hadn't betrayed Jesus. This does not mean that Judas got saved, and it definitely doesn't mean he quit sinning or tried to quit sinning, because the next thing he did was hang himself.

I have tried to give some of the many examples where "repent" can only mean one thing. The verses that you think work well with a different definition work just as well with the context of changing your mind. Will you repent about what the biblical definition of repent is? I hope so.

I pray I have made it clear that I do believe repentance is required to go to Heaven, but at the same time we don't need to stress it. This is because when someone BELIEVES, they have repented. This point makes reading the Bible so much easier, and it solves many so-called contradictions in the Bible.

Mark 1:15 "And [Christ] saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel."