mindya
Vancouver, BC
64, joined Jan. 2009
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Repent in English has various definitions:
Repent verb
To feel or show that you are sorry for something bad or wrong that you did and that you want to do what is right
Full Definition of REPENT
Intransitive verb
1 - To turn from sin and dedicate oneself to the amendment of one's life
2 a) To feel regret or contrition - 2 b) : to change one's mind
Transitive verb
1 - To cause to feel regret or contrition
2 - To feel sorrow, regret, or contrition for
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/repent
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It is not the equivalent of the Greek word “Metanoeo”
“Repent” is likely the most misunderstood word in the Bible today. A misunderstanding of this word can and does change the true Gospel of Christ. It is used many times in the Bible and a misunderstanding of it will alter the meaning of any passage of scripture where it is used.
First of all let’s understand what it does not mean so that we can grasp the true meaning.
1. It does not mean to turn away from sin.
2. It does not mean to quit sinning.
3. It does not mean to feel sorry for sin.
4. It does not mean to change your sinful ways before you can be saved.
5. It does not imply salvation.
6. It is not the means of forgiveness of sin.
7. It is not salvation nor does it imply that we should live a sinless life.
8. It does not imply sin.
To understand its true meaning lets do a bit of history of the Greek language.
There have been many types of Greek in the past most of which are obsolete now but in the days of Alexander the Great a number of Greek languages existed. After Alexander had conquered the known world around 300 BC he had a problem communicating with the many Greeks under his rule. Rather than learn all of the different types of Greek himself Alexander invented a Greek language called “coine” or common Greek. It was common in that all of the Greek speaking world would be required to learn it in order to resolve the communication problem.
This new Greek language was very precise and mathematical in its precision. Every word had a four fold navigational fix. A word could have only one meaning. It could have several applications but only one interpretation. In English, words can have several meanings but not in the coine (pronounced coin-a) Greek. It was one word, one meaning. In other words, there was no doubt about what was being said in this language. Eventually, this language became the dominate language of the New Testament.
If you have looked up “repent” in your handy Bible dictionary you will likely discover that it gives a definition of everything that I said repent is not. Why is this? Dictionaries get their definitions of words from its common usage. Religions and denominations have distorted the gospel for many years and therefore the word repent as well. In other words the writers of a dictionary get the meaning from different religious organizations and give several different meanings of the word in their publication without regards to the original language that it was translated from.
Compound words were very common in the coine Greek and this brings us to our subject
In the New Testament there are two different Greek words which have been translated repent. The word repent is an English word. It is an obsolete old English word and means nothing to us today. It was not even used in the Bible until the King James Bible came along in 1611. It was translated from the compound Greek words Metanoeo and Metamellamai. These two words have completely different meanings and remember in the coine Greek a word can have only one meaning so how can anyone give one definition or numerous definitions to the word repent? There must be two and only two definitions for repent.
1. Metanoeo. This is a compound word. “Meta” means change “noeo” means thinking. This word is derived from “nous” which means mind. So, metanoeo means to “change your mind”
2. Metamellamai. This is also a compound word. “Meta” means change
“mellamai” means emotions. It means to have a “change of emotions”.
Some brilliant mind somewhere along the way added “of sin” to repent and came up with the moronic phrase “repent of your sins” and someone else added “and be saved” and came up with “repent of your sins and be saved.” This is a false gospel because it leaves out two things. Faith and Jesus Christ. People who use the phrase “repent of your sins as a condition preceding salvation or as forgiveness of sin are either ignorant or are intentionally teaching a false gospel. Anywhere metanoeo is translated repent you can substitute “change your mind” and the verse will make sense. If you are thinking “of sins” after you see repent the whole gospel message shifts from accepting the free gift of God to something you have to do as a condition of salvation.
Of course no one can turn away from sin completely. You can minimize sin in your life and you should but to turn away from sin in total is impossible. The Apostle Paul tells us:
“Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lust thereof” (Romans 6:12) Paul is not telling us here that we must quit sinning completely; he is saying that we should not let it rule our lives.
“If we say that we (Christians) have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1: John here was speaking to Christians and included himself as having sin.
In the Bible there are verses which do say to repent or change your mind about sin but in every case this is speaking to Christians who are sinning. It is simply saying to us to quit letting sin rule our lives and turn our attention back to the things of God and to worship him.
In 2 Corinthians 7 the word metanoeo is used in verse 9 and 10. Read verse 10 carefully. "For Godly sorry WORKETH repentance (metanoeo a change of mind) to salvation"...
Notice that "Godly sorry" is not repentance but rather it works to repentance. In other words a person can become sorrowful of his sinful ways and then repent (change his mind about Christ.) Jesus Christ is always the object of salvation not turning away, refraining, quitting or whatever of sin. In Mark 1:15 Jesus said speaking to unbelievers in Galilee "Repent (metanoeo change your mind) and believe the Gospel." It tells us right here what we are to change our mind about. The Gospel, not our sins. He was speaking to unbelievers who did not believe the gospel. We are condemned because of unbelief not because of our sins:
John 3:18 “He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already BECAUSE he has not believed in the name of the uniquely born Son of God."
Since we are condemned because of unbelief does it not follow that we should turn from our unbelieving mind and not our sins? We are not condemned because of sin. Sins are forgiven when we believe in Christ. Repenting of sin prior to salvation is meaningless because God will not forgive an unbeliever of his sins until he believes. Changing your mind about Christ is repenting which is salvation.
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