Bible Truth FAQs
WHAT REPENTANCE IS
Jesus said (Luke 13:3, 5), "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." Paul stated in Acts 17:30-31 that God now requires all men everywhere to repent. Realizing the importance of repentance, we need to understand what it is.
Our first impulse is to associate repentance with acts or sinfulness. We must repent of sins in order to be saved, but the meaning of repentance is not limited to sinful situations. Neither is it feeling sorry for one's past actions, because Paul in II Cor. 7:10 said that sorrow leads to, or causes, repentance.
When God declared his intentions of destroying the city of Nineveh because of its great wickedness, Jonah was sent to warn its inhabitants. As the result of Jonah's preaching the men of Nineveh repented in sackcloth and ashes. When God saw their works, that they TURNED FROM their evil way (Jonah 3:10), God also repented in that what He had said he would do unto them, He did it not. The Ninevites turned from their practice of sin, and God changed his mind. In both cases the Bible says that they repented.
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