Information Related to "What Is Repentance? (4/2004)"
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Repentance.
It's a strange-sounding word. It gets used a lot in religious circles: People
speak of it as something essential, and Jesus Christ taught that all who
are without it will perish (Luke 13:3,5). But what exactly is repentance?
What does it involve? If it's so essential, you need to understand it to
be able to do it.
As a teenager growing up in London, England, I began to read the literature of the Church of God and was fascinated with the subject of prophecy. I read all I could lay my hands on concerning the end of the age and the return of Jesus Christ. But the articles often ended with a reference to the same subject—repentance.
I couldn't understand what repentance really meant. I think I toyed with the idea of walking through deep snow with a heavy burden strapped to my back. Perhaps this was repentance? Or maybe it involved fasting, and getting very hungry, so God would accept me and spare me. Was that repentance?
Years later, I came to understand that the definition of repentance is, in fact, quite simple.
Perhaps the clearest and most basic definition is provided by King David in one of the Psalms. He wrote, "Depart from evil and do good" (Psalm 34:14). The same words are echoed in Psalm 37:27, with a related thought in the second part of the verse: "And dwell forevermore."
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