02-10-2010, 10:35 AM
As some of you know I was in Sedona-Flagstaff over New Year's. We went to see the Pine Cone drop in Flagstaff for New Years eve. While we were waiting there was a small group of people hollering, screaming and holding up signs....saying to "Repent". I just shook my head....they don't get it.
Definition of Repent from Merriam-Webster Dictionary:
intransitive verb
1 : to turn from sin and dedicate oneself to the amendment of one's life
2 a : to feel regret or contrition b : to change one's mind
transitive verb
1 : to cause to feel regret or contrition
2 : to feel sorrow, regret, or contrition for
So another words, when someone tells you to repent they are saying you are a sinner and there not. And perhaps holier than you. It takes a lot of audacity and self righteous pride to yell, proclaim, etc. this to others. Does the Bible use this word? Of course, but it also tells you how to use it.
2 Timothy, Chapter 2:
22 So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. 23Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. 24And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, 25correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, 26and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.
What a lot of people miss, the growth of the early church was due to the example they lived, not how "holy" they looked or sounded. Christ spoke against people sitting in public wearing sack-cloth and ashes, but instead said to go into your closet. A modern day Molokan example may be someone who publicly states they are going to fast for three days and then has a huge dzela inviting virtually everyone....whereas the correct way would be fast three days and don't tell anyone. Of course this isn't limited to Molokans, Protestants are famous for this, talking up publicly how they volunteered in a soup line, incessantly speaking how they were saved (while not realizing they are discouraging others and not listening to their issues), etc.
A parable Christ states also applies to repentance. Luke 18:
[10] "Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
[11] The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, `God, I thank thee that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.
[12] I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I get.'
[13] But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, `God, be merciful to me a sinner!'
[14] I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for every one who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted."
People telling others to repent are no different than the Pharisee in this Parable from Christ.
Definition of Repent from Merriam-Webster Dictionary:
intransitive verb
1 : to turn from sin and dedicate oneself to the amendment of one's life
2 a : to feel regret or contrition b : to change one's mind
transitive verb
1 : to cause to feel regret or contrition
2 : to feel sorrow, regret, or contrition for
So another words, when someone tells you to repent they are saying you are a sinner and there not. And perhaps holier than you. It takes a lot of audacity and self righteous pride to yell, proclaim, etc. this to others. Does the Bible use this word? Of course, but it also tells you how to use it.
2 Timothy, Chapter 2:
22 So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. 23Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. 24And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, 25correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, 26and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.
What a lot of people miss, the growth of the early church was due to the example they lived, not how "holy" they looked or sounded. Christ spoke against people sitting in public wearing sack-cloth and ashes, but instead said to go into your closet. A modern day Molokan example may be someone who publicly states they are going to fast for three days and then has a huge dzela inviting virtually everyone....whereas the correct way would be fast three days and don't tell anyone. Of course this isn't limited to Molokans, Protestants are famous for this, talking up publicly how they volunteered in a soup line, incessantly speaking how they were saved (while not realizing they are discouraging others and not listening to their issues), etc.
A parable Christ states also applies to repentance. Luke 18:
[10] "Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
[11] The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, `God, I thank thee that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.
[12] I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I get.'
[13] But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, `God, be merciful to me a sinner!'
[14] I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for every one who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted."
People telling others to repent are no different than the Pharisee in this Parable from Christ.
