Thursday, February 18, 2016

"Turning from sin" or change of mind?

Those who say that a lost person must "turn from sin" to be saved are teaching works salvation.

Jonah 3:10 And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.

Those who misdefine "repent" as "turning from sin" are guilty of making God a sinner that needs to turn from sin, since God repents many times in the Bible. In fact, the word "repent" is first used in reference to God (Gen. 6:6-7, Exod. 32:14, etc.). The word repent means “to change your mind; reconsider; or, to think differently.”

The people who define repentance as turning from sin seem to be very arrogant, you would have to be if you thought that you had turned from all your sins.

"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast." (Eph. 2:8-9). Yet the big 'repentance' people boast of how they turned from theirs sins and so God saved them.

I suppose someone could turn from particular sins...like stop drinking alcohol or something like that, but to just "turn" from all sin is impossible. None of us (saved or lost) have turned from all "Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like" (Gal. 5:19-20).

Then there are those who say that repentance is turning from sin, but that it is extreme sorrow and guilt for sin. They then quote 2 Corinthians 7:10, "For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death." However, if "godly sorrow worketh repentance", then doesn't that mean that sorrow and repentance are different things? Besides, Paul is referring to already saved people in 2 Cor. 7:10, check the context.

Repentance is a change of mind, when someone hears the gospel and submits to the righteousness of God rather than trusting their own righteousness, that is repentance (Acts 20:21, Rom. 10:1-4, Eph. 1:13). To change the Biblical definition of repentance to "turning from sin" creates so many doctrinal problems and a FALSE gospel. A lost person cannot surrender their life to Christ, neither can they turn from all their sins. [By the way, you cannot confess all of your individual sins either, they are more than the hairs of your head. "For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me." Ps. 40:12] 


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