The Demise of Repentance!

Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; Let him return to the LORD, And He will have mercy on him; And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon. Isa55:7 

The DESIGN of Bible Repentance from Genius to Revelation is CLEARLY: ‘Forsake’ your wickedness, ‘Purge’ your heart of evil and SEEK the Mercy of God! Thief, do you wish to get forgiveness? steal no more. Adulterer, burn no more! Fornicator, live for the future chastely. You who have robbed, give back, and give back more than you took! False witness, practice truth! Perjurer swear no more, and exterminate the rest of the passions, wrath, lust, grief and fear!

Repentance is the Purging of men's minds that whatever defilement entrenched error had imparted, whatever contamination in the heart of man ignorance had engendered, that REPENTANCE should Sweep and Scrape Away, and CAST out of doors, and thus prepare the home of the heart, by making it clean, for the Holy Spirit to take up His Abode!

If THIS Does NOT Fit into your Definition of Repentance, the BIBLE ITSELF MUST be in Error! For all that is Written on Repentance is Consistent with this CLEARING, ZEAL, INDIGNATION and FEAR! (2Cor7:10-11) That Results in a PURITY of Heart. God Expects the Sin to STOP In the PROCESS of REPENTANCE! BEFORE Mercy can be Granted and the Spirit Given. You DO NOT Receive Christ while Still ‘in your sins.’

That would be like being forgiven of adultery by your spouse while you are STILL Committing Adultery! Or Granting Pardon to a Murderer while he is still holding the smoking Gun in his hand! What Value would Forgiveness serve if it is not accompanied by a Hearty and Zealous renunciation of the Sin? Would you Grant Mercy to a Criminal who will not make a Genuine effort to reform his ways? Or pass over the faults of your children without consideration of their FUTURE Conduct?

If you did, our society would be FULL of Reprobates! WHICH is EXACTLY what has Happened as a Result of the Present Day Gospel Preaching! The Demise of Bible Repentance is seen in the Following:

1)       You Come to Christ ‘in your sin’…..no exceptions!!!

2)       You Cannot Choose to STOP Sinning!  

3)       God Saves you and Then the Clean up begins!

It is Absolutely Pathetic that you CANNOT Find a SINGLE Preacher or Bible Teacher Anywhere who has a Right Concept of Bible Repentance. Across the Board they Believe that man is wholly incapable of Obeying God (unless God somehow enables him to do so) Repenting of…..in the sense of Stopping….any sin. And that he is completely Void of any Power of Free will to Choose Right actions that would lead him to Faith in Christ.

God has to DO all this for man through an elaborate application of His Grace. In the form of: Universal Grace, Prevenient Grace, Divine Grace, Assisting Grace and Effectual Grace! ALL to OFF SET his inbred sinful nature ‘just enough’ so he can ‘Believe’ in Jesus, BUT NOT ENOUGH for him to STOP Sinning!

Thus we have the following Fallacies being preached as the Gospel:

You Can Choose freely to do Wrong, but NOT Right, without God’s help

You Cannot Turn to God unless He enables you to do so, BUT you can TURN Away from Him!

You are FREE To Sin, but NOT FREE From Sin!

So any Right Action is Attributed to God enabling it, But any Wrong Action is YOU Choosing to rebel.

But God is not even ‘indirectly’ responsible for your Wrong actions, even though He knows before hand you will commit them. Although He is DIRECTLY Responsible for any Good you may do! How Does that equal ‘Free Will?’ It DOESN’T! If God is Bound by the Necessity of man’s inability to choose Right (because his free will was lost in Adam) so that He Must Coerce him by Divine Compulsion to CHANGE his mind, then REPENTANCE is OUT the Window! Because by Pure Definition in its most basic form, Repentance BEGINS with this CHANGE of Mind! So man MUST Be FREE to CHOOSE or God is Repenting for him!  

The Following are Responses from Nazarene Pastors in the USA. Their Bondage to the Doctrines of Original Sin and Prevenient Grace has Badly Distorted their Concept of Repentance. As a result they have the Gospel in REVERSE! According to them, since you Can’t Obey God, can NEVER Stop sinning and are not able to DO anything Right, YOU COME to God ‘in sin’ are Forgiven, Filled and Sanctified, While STILL SINNING! And may eventually gain Victory over your bondage IF you ‘CHOOSE’ to Allow God full access over your will. (which was restored in Salvation just enough for you to believe, but not quite enough for you to STOP sinning!)

If you Still Believe there is ANY Redeeming Value to ANYTHING these Pastors are saying, God help you Wake up to the Truth! READ your BIBLES!! They have Got it WRONG! And Coming to Christ in this Manner will only Result in the Mind Numbing Effect of False Teaching! You Come to God in REPENTANCE and FAITH. The Sin STOPS and you OBEY! It’s NOT a Matter of Opinion.

Coming to Jesus as we are results in repentance, which means literally to change our mind, to get off one path and onto another, to leave behind our old person and our old ways and take on a new person and new ways.  It is true that we come to God in a state of sin, with all our sinful thoughts and habits.  But if we truly encounter Him, if we really meet Him, if we respond to His presence as we ought to, we will forsake our old sinful life so that we can live as one of His children and as one of His followers.  Jesus said, "Come to me" (Matthew 11:28), but He also said, "Anyone who comes after me must first deny himself and take up his cross and follow me" (Matthew 16:24-26).  We don't have to have our act all together to receive Jesus, but if we do receive Him, then He'll begin to clean it up Himself, by the power of His Spirit and as we submit and surrender to His presence day by day.  Pastor Paul P.

Yes, everyone has the free will to stop known sins. However, they may not have the power to do so. We only have such power through the Lord Jesus Christ .John 1:12-14,  Pastor Luc

In reflection upon my last email, I need to restate my first sentence.  The ultimate purpose of prevenient grace is to bring us to Christ in repentance.  It gives the option for good, right choices all the time, but the purpose is to bring us to Christ.  What is lacking is the power of a man's will in a fallen state to consistently live a righteous life.  Indeed, much of what passes for good in this world is merely enlightened self interest.  Keith Welch

It empowers us for one thing and one thing only: to choose for salvation in Christ.  Think of it like the starter motor on your car.  It doesn't move the car, but starts the engine which does.  Why this particular interest in "stopping all known sin so we can repent and get saved?"  If getting your mind/life to accord with this standard (again, if the standard could be met without Christ there would be no need for Christ) is keeping you from experiencing the joy of salvation, you're making things more complicated that God intends and the Bible teaches.  Just confess your need of forgiveness to God, trust Christ for it and allow Him Lordship over your life.  This forensic interest in the "nature of repentance" causes me to wonder if you're coming from or dealing with someone from the Church of Christ. Keith Welch

I'm saying we are not able to stop all known sin until we receive Christ.  What we DO need is to be forgiven, the desire to stop all known sin and to receive Him into our lives so He may accomplish this.  "If by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live"  Romans 8:13.

The term "lost his freedom" simply means Man lost his capability to come to come to God in his own ability, but through God's Grace he has the capacity to approach God.  Stephan

Prevenient grace gives us the ability to respond to the gospel but we are still capable of rejecting this call Non-believers have exercised free will to stop a habit like smoking, drinking, or doing drugs (will power).  As explained, Prevenient Grace is grace to choose God’s salvation.  There is also the continual grace of  God available to all Christians;  Prevenient Grace is available to all people, so that a sinner can hear and accept the gospel for salvation.  All people including Christians can choose to appropriate (or not) God’s grace.  There is prevenient grace that comes before salvation so that a sinned can hear and be saved. 

There is grace as a free gift of salvation (we are saved by grace, through faith), and there is the continued favor, help, grace of God to all believers.  Pastor George

Prevenient grace is God's grace that goes/comes before, the grace one has before one can make an informed decision to follow or reject Christ. It refers to God's activity prior to any human movement toward God. From the human side, its necessity is the all-pervasiveness of original sin, which affirms the total inability of man to initiate the divine-human relation. From the divine side, it is grounded in the nature of God as love. Previenient Grace must not be confused with free will. In the fall man lost his freedom for God. This did not affect his power of contrary choice. The freedom for God, is restored by the grace of God. Grace is extended to every human being but is resistible. Thus God offers Himself to all, it offers man the awareness and capacity, but neither is saving unless responded to or exercised by one's grace-endowed freedom. Pastor Eastrock.

John Wesley says  “ Indeed, if man were not free, he could not be accountable either for his thoughts, words, or actions.  If he were not free,  He would not be capable either of reward or punishment; he would be incapable either of virtue or vice, of being either morally good or bad.”

Wesley also says ..”I believe that Adam before his fall, has such freedom of will, that he might choose either good or evil;  but since the fall, no child of man has a natural power to choose anything that is truly good.”  John Wesley taught prevenient grace allows us to choose good. Grace offers good choices including regeneration, so we have free will.  Pastor Roy

God is a God of Grace, meaning he wants to extend his love to everyone especially the undeserving.  God wants to change people with his love, he doesn't wait for people to be perfect to be saved.  He just wants them willing to give all of themselves to him.  Pastor Mike

Salvation is a gift from God by which he grants full pardon and forgiveness of all guilt and release from the penalty of sins committed.  It is available only through Jesus Christ, he made it possible because he shed his blood on the cross -- paying for our sins.  It is not by our works or goodness, only by the grace of Jesus Christ. We we ask the Lord to forgive us.  He does just that.  Although we can try to "clean up" our lives before we are saved -- that will not save us.  We must repent and ask the Lord to forgive us.  We then become a new person, because Christ makes us new.  We become his children.  If we are truly sincere and true, then we will turn our back on Sin and live for God.  Sin must not be a part of our life.  In fact, as we draw close to the Lord and allow him to Sanctify our heart, we will begin to not even have the desire to sin.  And when we do, we simply say no to the devil and yes to the Lord.  Ask him to forgive us and we keep on living for him.  Back to your question -- salvation is not dependent upon anything except us accepting God's gift of true life and we will turn from our sin.  If we are truly saved and going to make heaven our home, sin will not be a part of who we are.  We will still make mistakes, but if sin begins to enter in, we will turn away from it and keep our eyes upon the Lord.  We will have perfect motives. 

Pastor Dustin

When God saves and sanctifies a person, the personality is raised to its highest pitch of freedom; one is free now to sin if he or she wants to; before, one was not free, to sin was impelling and urging him; when one is delivered from sin one is free not to sin, or free to sin if one chooses.  The doctrine of sinless perfection and consequent freedom from temptation runs on the line that because I am sanctified, I cannot now do wrong.  If that is so, you cease to be a human being.  If God puts us in such a condition that we could not disobey, our obedience would be of no value to Him.  My question to you is why would you want to sin?

Pastor Bishop

don;t know if you received my first email, but to answer your question, Adam was created with a free will, but after he sinned his will was no more. His free will had been tampered with. So it is with the descendants of Adam. Man does have a will but not towards God. He has the ability to choose for he has an intellect. However, there must be the drawing of the Holy Spirit for a man to come to Christ, and there must be a regeneration for a man's will to be turned towards God. This my opinion.

 H. D. Shuemake, Chancellor

The condition for being saved is our sinfulness. When His grace meets our  sinfulness then we are saved. Change in us comes afterward.  Pastor Dwight

The answer to your question as found in the Bible is this When Jesus was brought a woman caught in adultery, Jesus told those who were accusing her to stone her if they where without sin.  When no one throw a stone, Jesus asked her, "Where are they?  Has no one condemned you?"  "No one, sir," she said.  "Then neither do I condemn you,"  Jesus declared.  "Go now and leave your life of sin."  (John 8:1-11) To what extent can we leave our life of sin depends on how close we live to God.  But it is clear that it is God's desire for us to leave our lives of sin when he has created a new spiritual being within us.  Pastor Dale

When you ask for forgiveness of your sins and accept Jesus as your personal savior that will happen or should. at times it is not easy, that ole devil fights hard to keep us in sin. Now God will help us stop committing sins when we ask Him. Sometimes people need to talk with others for support to help them in their new walk with Christ to help them over come certain sins like drug addiction child molesting, and others. With God's help we can stop willful sin in our life.  God bless,   Brian

Hi.  I don't know who you are, but will answer your question as God gives  it.  Stealing, lying, cheating, or any other action is not THE SIN.  They are symptoms of the sin.  "All have sinned and come short of the glory of  God."  Man cannot be saved by his own acts.  To be resurrected with Him, we must first die with Him. Salvation comes from the Lord, by His grace, not by  acts, so no one can boast. When the Lord gave Himself as a sacrifice for  man's sin, salvation came.  One must believe that. The Bible says one cannot come to the Father except through Christ, and one cannot come to  Christ unless called by God.  It is His doing, not man's.  If God is calling you to Him, all you must "do" is believe on His Son. So simple. It is not the works of man, but the grace of God.  Marlyn

The only requirement for being saved is a belief in Jesus Christ as the only way to being saved and then to sincerely ask for forgiveness of our sins. Once we have asked for forgiveness we then need to seek God’s help in overcoming these areas of our life. To continue to willingly live in these areas would be to remain in the sin. However if  seek help from Christ and others where necessary, I believe God will help us overcome. In areas that may cause harm to others such as murdering, child molestation, Adultery, fornication . . . it is important that one would seek appropriate help to rectify, and overcome these areas  Pastor Garner.

The Requirement is REPENTANCE and FAITH! (Acts20:21) Repentance PROVEN By DEEDS and FAITH WORKING by LOVE! (Acts26:20, Gal5:6) These Pastors are the Blind Leading the Blind! Sin is NOT a ‘Symptom’ or ‘Disease’ It’s a CRIME against God!!! Repentance was Granted by God Precisely for the Reason to CLEAN you UP in the PROCESS, CRUCIFY your Flesh, PUT to DEATH your Passions and Desires! NOT so He could forgiven you in your sins!

MOST Professed Christians today have Never Repented and have NO IDEA what Repentance means or How it works. Neither do they have a Faith that Works and Obeys God from the heart! At Best they are Reformed Pagans and nothing more. Still in their sins. The churches they attend are merely a System of Error designed to silence their conscience making them impervious to the Spirit of Truth. They are like ships being tossed to and forth by the Winds of false Doctrine, sailing through time into their eternal ruin unaware of their final destination.