Organic Grace Blog







  • Ted's Blog
  • Home

REPENTING OF FALSE REPENTANCE

8/28/2019

0 Comments

 

The modern Church has this idea that "repent" means to:
1 - Tell God that you sinned
2 - Tell God that you are sorry for that sin
3 - Ask God to forgive you of that sin
4 - Promise to never do that sin again
5 - The really difficult part: never do that sin again

And a person can go down to an altar in a church and do all of these things while crying, wailing, and beating their chest, and do it all sincerely, and yet NEVER actually repent.
The English word "re-pent" was/is unfortunately an intentional misrepresentation of the Greek word used in Scripture, which is "metanoia". Metanoia literally means to "re-think" or "to change one's mind." It does not mean the things listed above. One can and may do some or all of the things listed above while re-thinking but they're not one and the same thing.

Unfortunately, the prevailing Church of the time intentionally inserted "re-pent" in place of "re-think" because of their emphasis on penance (doing works of attrition to merit God's favor instead of depending on Jesus' blood and Finished Work). Of course, this also gave the Church control over people as it kept them coming back to the Church b/c it was the Church that functioned as the mediator between God and, once again, instead of Jesus.

Nonetheless, we the modern Church desperately need to repent of this false repentance because it keeps God's people in total bondage. We Protestants like to think that we're above and beyond the Catholic Church's practice of penance. However, practically, we really aren't. The difference is simply that Catholics get works of penance directly from a priest whereas we get our works of penance from a sermon and then work our penance directly towards God. But it amounts to the same thing.
​

The absolute fact of the matter is that the list above is not and cannot be authentic "metanoia." Now, it is indeed in a very literal sense re-penance because it's absolutely a form of Protestant penance. So, groveling in the dirt and going through this list of Protestant penance isn't something one must do to "get right with God" or to "get back into right standing with God." Authentic metanoia is when we stop believing the lie(s) that are keeping us in bondage and turn to God's truth that sets us free. Authentic metanoia is to rethink, to change one's mind, to believe like God, to agree with His opinion, to turn from error to truth, etc. ~ JO
0 Comments

    About this blog:

    These are articles that I find of interest.
    Some I wrote, most are written by others.  

    No claims of absolute originality are made for this material. As one man said, "I milk a lot of cows, but I churn my own butter."

    Archives

    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    April 2016
    December 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014

    Categories

    All
    50 Scriptures Incl. Can't Explain
    Believe To Receive
    Bible Timeline
    Grace Expose Heart
    Grace Isn't Greasy
    Grace Vs Freewill
    Grace Vs. Inclusion
    Grace Vs. Wrath
    Hebrews 6:4-6
    Inclusion Misleads
    Is God Sovereign?
    Organic Grace
    Positive Eschatology
    Radical Grace
    The Full-Grace Gospel
    What Is God's Rest
    Will Hell Be Forever?
    Your Wrong Theology

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.