Amazing Grace said:
Seems to me repenting takes a bit more than just changing one mind. It engages the heart and requires some action.
The Churches I have been a member of over the years have all preached repentance not as a condemnation but as a requirement of salvation. Mind you they are Protestant Churches that have not gone liberal yet.
I have noticed it's absence lately when people have been preaching some sort of Gospel message these days.
I have never heard of repentance taught in the way the OP had described. I'm not saying it hasn't as I haven't been all around the world in every Church there is. Just I have never heard pf the word repentance used like that.
Repentance is a requirement of salvation but not many people will agree with me on that one these days.
Repentance IS a prerequisite for salvation as far as the man is concerned. Women are already perfect. Ask any lady and she'll tell you. ;)
Seriously, does not the ministry of John the baptizer precede that of Christ? It does and what does that mean to us? It means that mountains shall be laid low and valleys raised up. All things must be made level, meaning that hubris or self-deluded humility doesn't mean a thing in the Kingdom of God. Only Christ, only the blood He shed and only a repentance for sin must precede salvation.
And where does repentance come from? It too is a spiritual gift of God, not to be disdained or ignored.
To those who have posted their experience of hearing repentance preached in their assemblies I recommend a prayer of thankfulness to God for His mercy. It is a very rare thing, indeed. Repentance isn't a single episode in the pilgrimage of life either. It continues throughout and it needs to be heard periodically. We all stumble, we all dirty our feet as it were and we all need periodic cleansing preceded by repentance. The man who thinks he is always pure and not needful of such a thing is deluding himself (does he stand with the ladies on this?).
and that's just me, hollering from the choir loft...
