Repent of Sin. This often-quoted phrase “repent of sin” does not even occur in the Bible. Most people are quite shocked to find that it does not appear in the Scripture. Nowhere does the Scripture use the phrase, “repent of sin” to be saved.
Article Reference: Repentance
Transcription:
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We’re going to talk about the Bible for a few minutes and then take our callers. We’ve got people already calling in, and we also have off-air questions, and we’ll try to get as many of those as we can today. They come in from all over the states, and we are looking forward to getting your question answered today. I cannot get over the fact that we can’t get this doctrine straight out there. That is the doctrine of repentance and the phrase repent of sin.
Did you know does not even occur in the Bible? Listen, I didn’t say repentance doesn’t occur in the Bible. I said the phrase, quote unquote, repent of sin does not occur in the Bible. That’s right. Sometimes people don’t hear what I’m saying. teaching, I’m saying that repentance occurs in the Bible, but it’s misdefined and the phrase repent of sin does not even occur in the Bible. Most people are shocked to find this out because they hear the phrase so often you would think it’s on every page of the Bible, but nowhere does the scripture use the phrase repent of sin to be saved.
Scripture says in Acts 2021, repentance toward God, that really means a change of mind toward God and then face toward our Lord Jesus Christ. You see repentance is the translation of the Greek word metanoia. The literal meaning of metanoia is a change of mind. Meta, M-E-T-A, means change. Neuya means mind, so therefore metanoia means a change of mind before learning about metanoia. I am sure that you are already familiar with the Greek word with the prefix meta. The word is metamorphosis.
Meta means change. Morphosis means form or structure, and the word metamorphosis is used to describe the change of butterfly or caterpillar goes through to become a beautiful butterfly. I am sure that you have studied about this change of form. Repentance, therefore, meta meaning change, noia meaning mine means a change of mine. The misuse of the word repentance has caused untold confusion among believers and unbelievers alike. Satan is the author of confusion, 1 Corinthians 1433. And he’s been delighted, I’m sure, in the misuse of the word repentance.
One of the counterfeit Satan is using today is the misuse of this word repentance and to insist upon a repentance that in any sense includes a demand for a change of conduct. Either toward God or man is to add an element of works or human effort to faith. Let me define some terms here. repentance is payment for sin, penitence is sorrow for sin, and works and something of self is turning from sin, but repentance metanoia means a change of mind.
Repentance and salvation means a change of mind from any idea of religion that man might have and accepting God’s way of salvation. Man’s great need is to understand God’s plan of salvation and accept his sacrifice. for God’s soul of the world that he gave, his only begotten son that who’s the lover believed in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Why do we have the problem? Well, the problem has come about because metanoia, the Greek word, should have never been translated into the English word repent.
Repent in the English does not mean the same thing as the Greek word metanoia, the Greek word. the translators should have done what is called a transliteration of the Greek word. For example, the translators of the King James Bible took the Greek word for baptize, Babtizo dropped the O and replaced it with an E, and they brought the new word baptize into the English language. This is called a transliteration. They should have done this with Metanoia, and the problem would have been eliminated.
Can you imagine preachers across America crunch outing out, Metanoia! To the congregations. Well, at least the correct meaning would probably be discovered and known, but the English word repent doesn’t mean the same thing as the Greek word metanoia. Understanding the doctrine may relieve some of the confusion that you or your friends may have had concerning repentance. Here’s how to get a handle on it. If you can remember this phrase, you will understand repentance. You can repent without believing, but you cannot believe without repenting.
Let me say that again. A person may repent without believing, but a person cannot believe without repenting. What does that mean? Well, a person can repent or change their mind about Christ, about salvation, about whatever, but never trust Christ without believing. But a person cannot believe that has put their trust in Christ without repenting or having changed their mind about whatever they were previously trusting in. Let me make it clear repentance is necessary for salvation, but keep in mind it means a change of mind.
The Bible I use, the Stofield Reference Bible, the notes coming out in 1909, has a note almost 100 years ago now, that says repentance is the translation of the Greek word metanoia, meaning to have another mind or to change the mind. He’s saying it does not mean sorrowful sin or turning from sin, and he says that saving faith includes and implies that change of mind which is called repentance. In other words, when you trust Christ, you do change your mind.
You do repent. It’s amazing that people don’t get that. Again, I said before, you can repent without believing, but you cannot believe without repenting. If you understand that, you’ve got this doctrine done. You can repent. You can change your mind about Christ, about how salvation is purchased and so on, but not believe or not trust Christ. But you cannot believe or trust Christ without repenting or changing your mind. in the process. Dr. Schofield said a hundred years ago, saving faith includes and implies that change of mind which is called repentance.
If you read through the book of Acts, you’ll find the word repent in Acts 2, 38, 3, 19, 5, 31, 8, 22, 11, 18, verse 17, verse 30, chapter 20, verse 21, and so on and so on. The word change of of mind there is used in every case of changing your mind about Christ being the Messiah. It has nothing to do with turning from sin. I think people don’t think anymore. I can’t tell you how many meetings I’ve been to, how many crusades I’ve been to where the preacher says, Repent of sin.
He defines that as turning from your sin. And then the crusade choir will come right along behind and sing, just as I am I come Err, without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me. What an amazing thing! This hit me hard! I graduated in electrical engineering from the University of Florida, and A plus B had the equal C for me, and I would hear that as a brand new believer, and I said, these people don’t think.
The preacher’s saying, turn from sin, and then the choir comes right along behind him and says, no, no, no, that’s not true at all. Just as I am, I come without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me. And then it’s almost like the preacher comes back and says, no, the choir is wrong. Don’t listen to them. You have to turn from your sin. And then the choir comes back and says, no, the preacher’s not right. You come just as you are without one plea, but that Christ’s blood was shed for you.
That’d make any sense. If you had to turn from your sin to be saved, the choir ought to be singing some kind of song that would reflect that. I could probably write it for him. Turn, turn, turn, turn right now. Turn or burn. Toil or boil. For sake or bake. These are all the things I used to hear as a kid. And none of that is true. You come just as you are. You know Christ died for sinners. I love that hymn.
Christ received sinful men. We come as we are. We trust the Lord. God gives us the Holy Spirit to be able to have victory over sin in our lives. I’m Dr. Englunds from this Bibleline and I have a caller from Sarasota John, the author that brings up this very topic. He says, you don’t read your Bible. It acts. Peter told them that they needed to repent or they would not be saved. You must repent of your sins and ask forgiveness.
Turn from your sins, then you will be saved. Where is your proof that it’s easy to be saved? You have to distrust Christ. You teach a dangerous way to go to heaven. Well, John, I hope you’ve listened today to what I just talked about. You haven’t done your homework. The Greek word metanoia, which is translated wrongly into the English word repent, does not mean to turn from sin. If you read Acts 2 when Peter preached at Pentecost, he told that crowd of Jewish leaders that had by wicked hands taken in crucified Christ, read chapter 2 verse 22.
Peter tells them that they made a big mistake, that Jesus Christ was indeed the Messiah and proved that he was by coming back from the dead. And when they asked what should we do, Peter said, change your mind, repent. That’s what he said. The Greek word is change your mind. The English word repent is a bad translation. There is no such thing as saying you have to turn from your sin to be saved in the Bible. The original word, metanoia, means to change your mind.
And if you read the conclusion of Peter’s message here in Acts 2.36, he says, therefore that all the house of Israel know assuredly that Jesus, that same Jesus that you crucified, God have made both Lord and Christ, which means he’s God and he’s the Messiah. And they were convicted and they said, what should we do? And Peterson changed your mind. You thought he was imposter. You thought he was a fraud. You killed him. You crucified him because you thought he was not the savior.
Not the Messiah, not the Lord. But God has demonstrated by his resurrection. The fact that he is both Lord and he is Christ and you need to change your mind. John, I hope that answers a question for you. A lot of people get repentance wrong because it’s poorly translated word into the English. Look up the Greek word and you’ll find it means to change your mind. Mehta meaning change, noia meaning mind, change of mind does not mean to turn from sin, does not mean sorrow for sin.
Thank you for calling in from down in Sarasota, Florida. I’m Dr. Engleinser. If you want to call in today 525763771. 1 800-576-3771. I was raised in church. I was confirmed. I was baptized, homogenized, pasteurized, capsized, colonized. If there was a process to go through in my church, I went through it. And I was totally misled until I was 18. And I finally heard the gospel and recognized that all I had to do was trust in the finished work of Jesus Christ.
It’s not Jesus and your efforts that get you to heaven. It’s Jesus alone that is the Savior. Christ said, I am the way, not you and I are the way. And he says, no man can come to the Father except by me, not by you and me or you and I. It’s only by Christ. And unless you trust Christ alone, John, you’ll not be saved. As soon as you add human works and think that by your changing your life that you would be saved, you’re adding works to the pen and salvation and according to the Bible, you will not be saved and you will not go to heaven.
You will not pass go and you’ll not collect you at a dollar. You’re not going to make it at all. We have James in Lakeland, Florida and James, welcome to Bible Ungrateful. Have you on the air? Good morning, Dr. A. How you doing? I have a question about tongues. I’ve listened to you, what you say about scripture last night. You said in 1 Corinthians 13 it tells us that tongues were feasts. Now I have no doubt that the gift of tongues, the original gift of feasts, but I wasn’t quite sure on when the Bible explained when it was feasts.
because I read where it says that which is perfect is wrong. Is there any other references Bible being complete because that which is perfect? Absolutely. James 125 refers to the Bible as being that which is perfect. James was written before 1st Corinthians, so it’s an excellent reference. Obviously it was used in that way. Also back in the Psalms, it tells us in Psalm, let’s see what it is here, chapter 19, I believe, of the Psalms or is chapter 17 of the Psalms.
It says the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul and making wise this simple. And so the Bible is called out, which is perfect. That’s Psalm 19 verse 7. The law of the Lord is perfect. That’s the word of God converting the soul. The testimony in the Lord is sure making wise the simple. And so that is the answer. And it’s interesting that those verses there in verses 8 through 10, 1st Corinthians 13 are all neuter in the Greek.
In the Greek language, in a sentence, everything has a gender ending. If it is masculine, then the nouns, the verbs, the adverbs, they will have masculine ending. And in this case it’s all neuter and so some people say it’s when Christ comes back, that’s when the tongues would cease. But Christ in the Greek is masculine, it’s Christos, the OS ending lets you know it’s masculine. By the way all the namesQuotes for God are masculine, you’ll find the word for God itself is theos, the OS ending is masculine.
Christos. The OS ending is masculine. They’re all masculine. There’s no female God and We find that therefore it cannot refer back to Christependent because distinguo In the Greek masculine and it’s all neutered has to be a neutered subject and Some people say well, it’s love. This is the love chapter when everybody loves one another one day Maybe when Christ comes back then the tongues will cease but love in the Greek is feminine it cannot refer back to love It has to refer to a neuter sub-beat.
The word of God itself is neuter and the word perfect I think is implying the scriptures which is Is a title for it in Psalm 19 7 and also James 125 Examples that come off the top of my head So hopefully that helps a little bit Very good to find the Greek meaning to talk. Well, if you get a strong skincornance you can We have those here in our resource center We can ship it out, but it’s a sticker that a phone book, but it has every word in the Bible, every the every thou every end every But every shelf and you can look up that word in a verse and by number code It’ll give you access to the scholarship of 200 Greek and Hebrew scholars And it’ll give you the original word what it meant how it’s translated and the meaning of that word and so you can be
Just up there with the scholars. I mean you can do it without any Greek training You can look up the words and see what they meant and how they’re translated and it’s wonderful So you can look up the word and find out all you need to know about it with a strong Very good. I can only imagine when you come up against opposition When you know what the Bible said the Bible is true. You can stand firmly on what you believe amen Thank you for your help today, sir James.
Thank you for calling in James from Lakeland, Florida Florida calling in and we have now Carl in Tampa, Florida. Carl, welcome to Bibleline You’re On The Earth. Oh yes, I just wanted to respond to the guy John in Sarasota. I’m glad you’re pointing out the fact that repentance was a bad translation, and it fits perfect with the Bible when it says not by works. Otherwise it would have said it is by works. Amen. Amen, you’re right on. And once you get not by works and know the power of that phrase, you got it.
You won’t struggle with all these other areas in the Bible because it’s a free gift. If you understand free, very basic, very simple, you won’t struggle with, you have to do this, you have to do that because then God works with contradict and none of it will make any sense. When you stick with the basics, you won’t have any trouble. Thanks. Thank you Carl, and you’re absolutely right, because as soon as you make repentance a turning from sin condition of salvation, then that’s works.
And the Bible says salvation is not of yourself, Ephesians 2 8. It is the gift of God. It is not of works, Ephesians 2 9, lest any man should boast. So nobody can say, well, I turned from my sins, and therefore I’m saved. No, you can’t say that. We come just as we are, as the hymn writer really got it right when he wrote that beautiful hymn. And it’s amazing that the preachers aren’t smart enough to figure out that what they’re preaching and what the hymn rather requires singing doesn’t match up.
But when the preacher says you have to turn from your sin to be saved and then the choir says no you don’t, you come just like you are, I’m wondering is anybody doing any thinking today? Mike on the line from Tampa, Florida. Mike, welcome to Bibleline. Good morning. How you doing? Good. I had a question. I was hoping to get your opinion on Pastor Dave Hunt and the Brienne Call newsletter. I don’t hang up and listen. All right. I like Dave Hunt.
He’s usually a good researcher and he’s written a number of books that I recommend. We have his book here, Woman Rides the Beast and this seduction of Christianity and then I think more seduction which really talks about a lot of the deception that’s out there today and uh… so uh… i like that thank you for calling we have herald in camp before the herald welcome to my blood on the air a story doing always a pleasure i was talking to the seven-day event and i have to you know if she would die where she thought she would go and she wasn’t sure about it and she mentioned something i looked at the seven-day event is teaching Alrighty, well the 7-Ed Venice Have this thing where we’re basically all the sudden, the Adventist at least, are on probation.
They have to wait until Christ finishes the investigative judgment. This is an imaginary thing that they came up with that says that Christ, instead of coming back in 1844, as they had predicted He would, actually they have the date right with the event wrong. And so He went into the Holy of Holies and there He’s weighing everybody’s works in the balances to see whether you’re worthy of grace. They teach in one breath, you’re saved by grace, but then they take it away with this investigative judgment because whether you receive grace or not is based on your works, and so you have to ultimately wait to find out whether you’ve made it or not.
So unfortunately, these people are hanging out, waiting on probation to see if they somehow had enough good works to be able to deserve grace to be saved by grace. It’s a contradiction. It’s certainly something not taught in the Bible. And it’s wrong. And no Seventh-day Adventists can say, I know I’m going to heaven right now. My sins are blotted out. They don’t accept that because they are reading the Bible through the lenses of LNG White. And as long as they read her books, they’ll never come clean.
They need to dump LNG White in all of her books because she is totally wrong. and she’s the reason why that cult, the Seventh Adventist will never come clean with the truth until they go right to the Bible alone. Coming up on Breaktime, we’ve got lots of callers waiting to get on the line here and we have off air callers from everywhere. We’ll try to get to as many as we can in the second half hour. So stay tuned right where you are and we’ll be right back for a second half hour of Bible line in just one moment.
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The tribulation period was 8063 to 8070 and Christ came in judgment, not physically, but in judgment in 8070. And it’s all passed. Well guess what? I believe that’s absolutely wrong and we’re going to be telling why and we’ll study the methods of interpretation that these people use, which is their downfall. And the Bible warns about that too. Peter gives us some great lessons on how to avoid these kinds of theological mistakes that are being made by major players today.
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Anyway, I’m Dr. Englins from the Bibleline and we thank you in advance. God bless all of you who pray for and give to Bibleline and you’re just really my heroes. You want to go now to Joe in Land of Lakes Florida and Joe, welcome to Bibleline. Oh, Dr. Lindstrom. Yes. How are you? Good. I wanted to call in concerning the word repentance and repent. And we’re the gentlemen from Sarasota had brought up in Acts 2.38. Yeah, where he tells them to repent and meaning the word met in the way to change one’s mind and that’s what he’s telling them that it’s a but if you look in the and I think where the confusion might be if you look at the English version of it in the English dictionary it does says it says the feel regret or dissatisfaction over as to change one’s mind about something so there has to be there has to be some you
know you have to change your mind about the direction you were headed in in your thinking and to realize the crisis the only way to heaven and I think repentance is something that you do after one’s saved. How do you feel about that? Well, I believe that we have the power to have victory over sin, which is not really the issue in Acts 2.38. Their repentance there was a change of mind about who Christ is. They obviously thought he was a fraud, a counterfeit, not the Savior, blasphemer, because he claimed to be God when they said in their minds that he was not.
But now they need to realize, as Peter says in verse 2036, that he is God. He is the Lord and he is the Christ. And so, but once we get saved, you know, my life didn’t change until after I got saved. Right. And to try to say that I have to change my life before I get saved is unscriptural because I don’t have the desire nor the power to do so. But once I get saved, the Holy Spirit is in me and I have the power to have victory and the Christian.
So I think they get things backward and basically most churches that I was raised around as a child taught that you had to turn from your sin to be saved, and I realized later that that was a work and it was certainly based on the wrong translation of that Greek word into English. The English word does mean as you just pointed out, you know, discomfort or grief over sin or sorrow for sin and even turning from sin but that’s not what the Greek word means at all.
So it means repent meaning just as you had said, no I agree with you, that you have to change your mind. As Isaac Catholic was headed in one direction and when I got saved, realizing that the only way to heaven was through the hit blooded Jesus Christ and there was nothing else that I could do. But I think sometimes we’re, because I was confused about that for a while, but I think people repent, as you said, changing your mind about Christ who He is and how to get to heaven.
And then repentance is just after you’re saved. It’s that I think, I believe, that the repentance part of it is characterized by an indication of where 1st us 1 is 1 9, where then I think God tells us that we need to turn from our idols and turned to him. But that’s only after someone is saved through Christ. I know you had the one person and I know what you’re talking about that when if someone were to say that to me, that’s Ephesians 2 8 9 is impossible.
You cannot work your way into heaven. You cannot turn from your sins to be saved. Absolutely. The reference you just made in Thessalonians, that’s the Christian life. These people at Thessalonica were saved. And then it says in verse 9 of chapter 1 of 1 Thessalonians, for they themselves show of us what man are vintering in we had unto you, and how you turn to God for idols to serve the living and through God. That’s not talking about salvation because the notice says you turn to God for idols to serve, to serve, to serve.
It’s when a person makes that second choice to serve the Lord after their saved, but then there is a change in their life. But to try to say that somebody has to change their life to be saved is not true. The people at Thessalonika were saved when they believed on Christ. You see that earlier in the chapter and then of course in Acts 17 where you see Paul ministering and bringing the gospel and it says that many of them believed.
But here it says that they then evidenced the fact that they were really saved and were wanting to tell others this good news and so they turned from their idols so they could serve the living out. And you know what’s interesting, Dr. Lizzie, if you read Acts 2.38, you’re correct because he’s telling them to do something immediately, you know, and it’s not as if there’s something that they can go out and earn that salvation. I mean he’s telling them that they need to repent.
Exactly. Change their mind that’s something they need to do immediately or you know they’re headed they’re on their way to hell and so you’re absolutely correct so that’s an immediate response and then based on that change of mind then repentance you know someone has got worked in someone’s life and they submit to his will you know the life has changed but i appreciate that you had me go through that and that you know really make sense and i know we use the word repent we have to be careful.
I think the problem is that it’s not explained properly when you use the word repentance and people have to know it’s a change of mind. You cannot earn a single thing. Now I did have a question for you, and you might find this funny, but I was on a flight yesterday with a gentleman on my way to Pittsburgh and he was reading, he’s a Catholic, getting his PhD and he was reading this Greek New Testament dictionary and I had my Bible open.
So of course we were going back and forth. And he brought up Matthew 25 31 through 46 and I tried to convince him that the sheep were the sage and the goats were the unbelievers but he just said you’ve got to read it the way it reads and the sheep were doing these works or acts, saved in a process and I so he wouldn’t admit that the sheep were the sage or believers and so he’s going to start emailing me and I need some help with this.
Well, also it talks about the sheep there being the righteous and they were righteous By faith, you know in Romans 3 10 it says as it is written there is none righteous. No not one so for so Therefore for a person to be declared righteous They have to have it imputed to them and of course the righteousness of God is Credited to the account of the believer so that he’s seen as righteous that begins all the way back early in Genesis You see Genesis 15, 6 where Abraham believed God and it was counted in for righteousness.
And so the righteous in the Bible are always the believers and the unrighteous are the unbelievers. And so that’s also very clearly in that text. But also I think this is future. It’s during the tribulation period after the rapture. He is a church-based church where there is a third group involved in that discussion here which Christ calls his brethren. I think that’s the 144,000 Jewish men that will be evangelizing during the seven years of tribulation. And the sheep become sheep as a result of their evangelization.
And the sheep therefore have compassion upon those, his brethren. And when they are persecuted and cast into prison and they have trouble finding a meal that they take them in and feed them and they clothe them. them and they visit them in prison and so on, whereas the goats being the unsaved who reject the message of the 144,000 Christ brethren during the tribulation period will have no compassion on these people. Be glad that they’re probably in prison and may be glad when they die.
And so they treat them poorly, whereas the believers who are grateful for the message of the gospel coming to them through these brethren of Christ, the Jewish 144,000, will be grateful and do all they can to help them in a system. So it’s the result of their new birth. It’s the result of who they are and the result of the fact that they’re grateful for the evangelism of these that are Christ brethren that are talked about here. So there’s that other group that we have to include that I think Christ is talking about and they said, well, when did we do this?
And Christ said that you gave me drink and you gave me clothing and you helped me when you did uh… unto the least of these my brother in which i think is the jewish witnesses during the tribulation well i wish i had you sit next to me we were course going back and forth and i tried to get him to explain the phoenix two eight nine and he didn’t uh… he just uh… was adamant to stay with uh… you know matthew twenty five thirty one two forty six by no he’s going to start emailing me i’d like to use uh…
i guess if i can you know to call in and possibly get some help with him i think i left in a track and and uh… name is Ken, but do you have a in Pittsburgh? Are you on from 10 to 11 and what’s the station I can refer him to? You’re going to have to call into my secretary because I don’t have all that memorized, but we’re on every day in Pittsburgh, but we’re on in the afternoon. I think it’s on at 5 or 5 30 up there.
Okay. And it’s a 50,000 watt station. I know that. Okay. And but I don’t recall the call letters or the or the or the time exactly right now. So if you call back to the church office here, okay, I don’t have that number. All right. It’s 813-8844-4228 and my secretary can give you all that information. And thank you for the explanation on on on repenting and repent. Okay, Joe. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. That was Joe in Landa Lakes, Florida.
We have Ken in Decatur, Illinois and Ken, welcome to Bibleline your own ear. Yes, Dr. Hank, along with the same line and subject that you guys have been on here all morning about repentance and all this in 2nd Peter chapter 2. And I know that we’re talking to, he’s talking here about the false teacher and that’s easy to understand what they are and that they’re unsafe and all this. But then in chapter 18 it talks about those who are listening to these false teachers and that they were clean and they had thoroughly escaped from them who live in error.
And if you could please explain Chapter 20. I know King James has written for a person with an eight-grade education to understand this, but sometimes it kind of walks you around and looping that old English sentence structure, and it’s hard to figure out if these people in verse 20 of Chapter 2, 2 Peter, if they they are saved were saved uh… if the end of them is just going to be uh… uh… punishment from god or if they’re actually losing that i know you can’t lose your salvation as what i say uh…
you know you have to take all the scripture that you know and then apply it anyway just tell me about this right on the I’ll be happy to do this. This is talking of this whole chapter of 2 Peter 2 about false teachers. It talks about it beginning in verse 1, there were false prophets also among the people even as there shall be false teachers among you. And they’re going to bring in damnable heresies or teachings that would cause people to be lost and go to hell.
Now in verse 20 it talks about these false teachers that they have escaped many of them, the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Just think about the cult that your host witnesses and the others, the Mormons, that others they are offering a nice moral platform where they don’t drink and they don’t smoke and and so on and so on and so on. But they never come to know Christ as their Savior.
They live in a so-called environment where they claim that they’re Christians. But it says in verse 21, and here’s your answer, it had been better for them. It had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness which is Christ, then after they have known it to turn from the Holy Commandment delivered unto them. That Holy Commandment is the Trust Christ. In 1 John 3, 23 it says this is his commandment that we should believe on his Son Jesus Christ.
They turn from that commandment and they never trust Christ. It’s like Judas who was an apostle and that he was living in the environment of Christianity He was one of the disciples who was living close to Christ, and yet he never did accept the commandment to trust Christ. In John 664, Jesus said he knew from the beginning who they were that believed not and who should betray him. So Judas was in the environment of Christianity and you can be in the environment, you can go to church and you can be religious and you can stay in the pollutions of this world because you are in a so-called Christian environment and yet never trust the Lord as your Savior.
And that is the case here. It says it would be better for them that they had never heard it because the degree of punishment that they are going to receive and held will be much greater for them because they rejected greater light. And that is the same thing we see in Matthew chapter 11 where Christ curses three cities that are on the northern edge of the Sea of Galilee. We just got back from seeing all three of those cities and nobody lives in them today.
The curse was real and Christ said it’s going to be more tolerable in the day of judgment. That’s the great white throne judgment when unsaved people are cast into hell for the people of Sodom than the people of Capernaum. Because the people of Capernaum turned down greater light. Christ walked through their city, hid miracles in their city and they rejected him. He says people in Sodom are going to be better off in hell than the people of Capernaum. that are degrees of punishment based on light rejected and they’re going to be really in deep trouble.
It’s been better that they’ve never heard the gospel than to reject the commandment to trust Christ, which they do. Right. Thirdly, I understand what you’re saying there. I say this King James English. It makes it sound that if you listen to what is actually said here in verse 21, for it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness. Well, to me, to know the way of righteousness, the only way you can know that way of righteousness would be to trust Christ.
Otherwise, you couldn’t have any clue of anything that was going on in the saved. Right. Right. But it’s clear in the next phrase that they turn from that commandment to believe on the press. Oh, yeah, that’s a part that I couldn’t understand that I wasn’t getting this maybe. Well, anyway, make that cross-reference. So write it down someplace. First John, 323. John 323, they turn from the commandment to believe on his son. Okay, thanks a lot, Dr. I appreciate that.
Thank you Ken. Ken up in Decatur, Illinois, listening to Bibleline as we speak. We have Donna in Fort Walton Beach, Florida and Donna, welcome to Bibleline. Good morning, Pastor Hank. Good morning. I have a question about the upcoming presidential elections. of them being a Mormon and you touch on Mormonism and teach about it all the time. Even though they are moral and do very good things, personally I could never go along with someone who is of the Mormon faith to lead our country.
But in the Bible it says that render under Caesar, what is Caesar, but is there anything in the Bible that would direct us away from, I know this is kind of political, but it’s something that we’re facing and I really need to know any advice that you have on that? Well you know, it seems like we’re doing just what Israel did way back in the Old Testament times and they departed from the living God and began to bring in the false gods and we’re doing that certainly in America.
As tragic as that experience was in West Virginia, look at all the different people that they had on the podium yesterday quoting the Dalai Lama, quoting the Quran and who’s Speaking of Jesus, when our country was a Christian country founded on Christianity, everybody wants to tiptoe through the tulips and not talk about Jesus openly, when they certainly had people standing there quoting the Quran openly and the Dalai Lama openly. And where is the voice for Christ? I just think it’s a tragedy.
We are in the end times and these things are happening fast before our very eyes. The other candidates that may be strong on leadership and have both qualities that socially go against what I believe strongly the Bible teaches. One is kind of bad and one is kind of bad in another way. I agree with you. I think the spiritual ones are the higher value ones because I think when we bring in and a thought or give God’s speed to false teachings and false religions, that’s a greater sin or a crime than we can commit in other areas.
And I just say that we certainly couldn’t support that as a Christian. We shouldn’t endorse false belief systems. That’s a greater crime, I think, than the other areas of sin. I’m Dr. Englund and I hope you’ll give us a call and maybe get the CDs for this upcoming class and get the passcode so you can watch it on the internet. Also don’t forget to, if you’re living in the area to come out on the 29th of this month, we have an extra dinner because this is a five-sundee month.
You’re welcome to come and join us for the worship and the dinner be my guest. So we want you to think about giving a gift to Bible in this month of April and you can do it by credit card or over the phone. We can send you an envelope with our address on it and just call the 1-800-Number and we’ll be glad to take care of that. God bless you and have a wonderful day and I’ll be back tomorrow.
I hope you’ll join me on Bible and keep looking up. Jesus is coming. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a presentation of Bibleline Ministries of Tampa, Florida. For donation to Bibleline makes it possible for this ministry to continue in your area. Bibleline’s address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Or visit Bibleline Online at BibleLineMinistries.com. Be sure to tune in for another edition of Bibleline from Calvary Community Church of Tampa, Florida. Well, I’m Dr. Engleinscherman. This is Bibleline. It’s been wonderful to be able to be with you today.
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