How Repentance Got Misunderstood!

[Nate]

Chris has already done a great job of covering this, so for many of you this post will be moot. However, I did my own study of Repentance in the Bible too and I noticed something!

Now I understand how many have made the mistake of thinking that repent means "to turn"! It's because God also commanded to turn from sin as well. In three out of the following four passages (there are many more) we find the phrases "repent" AND "turn":

But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die. Ezekiel 18:21

 But shewed first unto them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judaea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance. Acts 26:20
And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him. Luke 17:4
And finally:
 Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?

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. Jonah 3:9-10!

[creationliberty]

I'm going to be blunt here and say that doing a keyword search on the words 'repent' and 'turn' is not the equivalent of "I did my own study." Keyword searches do not teach doctrine nor history. It wasn't from those verses that suddenly, after 1900 years since the apostles, that preachers started thinking that repent meant "to turn," and that's a really large leap to make because you didn't provide any research in which you demonstrated the history of how "repent got taken to mean 'to turn'" from those three passages.

If you're looking for a reason why there was a gradual transition over the past century, there's a different subject you'll have to look into:
The Dangers of Using Lexicons and Concordances
Once you understand that topic, then you'll understand why Strong's Concordance says this:
https://biblehub.com/str/greek/3340.htm
And then you'll understand why it's so commonly taught in error today.

[Nate]

True. I looked up verses that had "repent" in them and noticed a bunch of them also had the command to "turn" as well. Not "a study" I suppose lol.

I've also read the Greek definition of the word in the Strong's  The problem with Strong's is that it gives you the root words, which is deceptive, because a word's root meaning isn't always telling you every nuance of meaning or contextual meaning!

Gail Riplinger has an excellent book on that very topic called Hazardous Materials. A great read, although I don't agree with her on everything

[Zoologistkid]

Better to learn and feel like an idiot than feel that you are always right.

[Nate]

That's just Chris being arrogant again. I guess he thinks no one studies scripture quite like himself. Sad

[strangersmind]

Most church goers don't study like Chris. Even pastors hardly study the bible they just read a book by someone else and just preach it by wording it different