Bible Dictionary: Definition of Repentance, Define Repentance

How can we know anything about anything

To try to explain truth to him who loves it not is but to give him more plentiful material for misinterpretation. George Macdonald

Do we have to make a choice between science and the Bible?

NO!

That is NOT where the problem is, but that is what everyone seems to want to talk about.

Take science as an example. How can we know anything about the created material world around us?

How can we know anything from what we can see using natural sciences?

We all see the same things in the material world, but we don't come to the same answers.

Why is that?

How can we know anything about the Bible and what it teaches? Every person believes different things about the Bible and how it should be read.

Why is that?

Same scientific facts. Different answers.

Same Bible. Different answers.

Why is that?

The true question is this: How do we come to our answers that we get from what we can see through science or what we can read in the Bible?

How do we think about what we see using science or what we read in the Bible?

How do we analyze what we have seen and read?

How do we interpret what we have seen and read?

We use logic, but logic always has a foundation. Jesus talked about building on the Rock. That Rock is Jesus Christ. He is the true foundation. There are also the false foundations of the ungodly.

An example might help.

Question: Why do you believe in evolution?

Answer: Because my science teacher told me that evolution is scientific fact.

Question: Why do you believe your science teacher?

Answer: because he agrees with the textbook he assigned us to read.

Now, we have asked, "Why?" twice.

If we continued to ask, "Why?" we would come down to the foundation of this person's thoughts.

When we get down to the foundations, there are no more questions that can be answered. So where to the foundations come from?

There are three possibilities.

things that we make up, pulled from the air
demonic lies
divine revelation

Question: Why do you believe in creation?

Answer: Because God revealed this to me. He spoke to me through the Bible and gave me His faith so that I could believe Him.

See how quickly we got to the foundation. This is a belief that has a foundation that is solid and that cannot be moved.

In reality, the things that we make up, that are pulled from the air, are actually from demons and all the lies of demons spring from the prince of demons, Satan. So these are one and the same.

Divine revelation comes from the Almighty, Creator, God, Jesus Christ. So there are only two choices, but how do we know there are only two choices? Because God has revealed this truth to us.

The question then is how do we tell the difference between the revelation that comes from God and the lies of Satan?

The answer is that everyone who sincerely wants to do the will of God will know.

Jesus said, "If you really want to obey God, you will know if what I teach comes from God or from me"

The rejection of the revelation that comes from God is not an intellectual problem. It is a moral problem.

Jesus said, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you: For everyone who asks receives; and he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks it shall be opened." *

Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to those who ask him? Matthew 7:7-11 *

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. You can set the truth before someone, but you can't make anyone believe those things that they don't want to submit to. They have to want to obey God.

How frequently it is brought to our attention that nothing good can be done if the will is wrong! Reason alone fails to justify itself. Richard M. Weaver

Jesus said, "You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (John 8:32)

"If we are not prepared to buy the truth at the cost of our own humbling we shall not receive it"

Lies appear to have no price upon them. They seem cheap and they abound everywhere. But for the truth there is always an obvious price to pay.

"[God] has set a day when He will judge all the world's people with fairness. And He has chosen the man Jesus to do the judging for Him. God has given proof of this to all of us by raising Jesus from death" (Acts 17:31).

"There is a judge for the one who rejects Me [Jesus] and does not accept My words; that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day" (John 12:48)

That also stands for every person who speaks the utterances of Jesus. When we hear them, we hear Jesus Christ, and we either accept or reject. Every person who follows Jesus Christ is commanded to only speak His utterances and not their own.

"When we love others, we know that we belong to the truth, and we feel at ease in the presence of God" (1 John 3:19)

Ravi Zacharias did two open forums in a university. On the second night, one man told him that he had brought two Atheists in the night before who said that the arguments presented were so strong that they could not contend with them, but they were going to remain Atheists because that is what they prefer to be true.

In another case of just listening to an unbeliever and drawing out his reasoning, the unbeliever finally came to his foundations.

They turned out to be assumptions that were pulled from the air. When asked why he believed his basic assumption, the unbeliever looked startled and blurted out, "I guess I'm making the whole thing up." It was quite a revelation to him since he hadn't even known that he had any assumptions. However, he decided to remain an Atheist because he didn't want God to rule over him.

The English word, repent, means to turn around and proceed in the opposite direction. Repent is not an entirely accurate translation from the Greek. To repent is literally to have a new mind. God’s intent is that you change your mind or, literally, have a new mind. Repentance is having a new mind.

Romans 12:1-2 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed [metamorphoo means literally transfigured] by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

This word that is translated as transformed is the Greek word, metamorphoo. From it, we get the English word, metamorphosis. Metamorphosis is a change from one type of thing into another type of thing. We apply this word to caterpillars turning into butterflies.

God is very careful about the use of the word, metamorphoo, in Scripture. It is only used in three places. It is used here and it is used in 2 Corinthians 3:18 to explain the same process from a different angle. Here, Paul explains that we are to take away the veil from our faces (the veil is a reference to the flesh). He says that, as we behold the glory of the Lord without the veil in front of our faces, we behold the glory of the Lord as in a mirror, and we are transfigured [metamorphoo] into the same image from glory to glory... and all of this is performed by the Spirit of the Lord. Notice that God is telling us the same thing from a different angle.

This is in passive voice. That means that you don't do it. You are not being told to renew your mind. Your mind is being renewed. By whom? By the Holy Ghost. This happens as we yield the members of our bodies to the flow of the anointing, the Holy Spirit.

The battle is clearly for the mind. The enemy of our souls is using every trick to keep our minds captive to himself. He does this by lying. The Truth is what sets us free. There is a process by which God uses Truth to set us free. First, He speaks, He utters His words to us. Faith comes by hearing and hearing comes by an utterance of God [literal]. Faith gives us access to grace. Grace does the work in us—that is the fruit of the Spirit or righteousness. Righteousness prepares the ground of our hearts and plants the good seed. God causes the good seed to grow. The evil in our heart dies in the process. This is what it means to die to self and to live to God. This is how righteousness leads to holiness. At any time that we think that we can do good works, we spoil the process. We become self righteous. God must do the work. We must enter into His rest and submit to Him. We rest in Him and stop trying in self-effort. We dwell in the presence of the Almighty in the wonderful flow of His anointing and He does His work in us. He gives us both the will and the power to do His good pleasure. Yet not us, but Christ dwelling in us does His good pleasure. Read much more about this here and at the links found on this page: http://www.seekfind.net/Meaning_of_Life.html

1) a change of mind, as it appears to one who repents, of a purpose he has formed or of something he has done

Repent:

2) to change one’s mind for better, heartily to amend with abhorrence of one’s past sins

The distinction often given between these is; 3338 refers to an emotional change, 3340 to a change of choice, 3338 has reference to particulars, 3340 to the entire life, 3338 signifies nothing but regret even amounting to remorse, 3340 that reversal of moral purpose known as repentance; does not seem to be sustained by usage. But that 3340 is the fuller and nobler term, expressive of moral action and issues, is indicated not only by its derivation, but by the greater frequency of its use and by the fact it is often used in the imperative.

Bible Dictionary: Definition of Repentance, Define Repentance

How can we know anything about anything

Repent:

Repentance and Repenting

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