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Friday, August 14, 2009

HyperDispensational Heresy Part Two Lack of Biblical Repentance

I will continue with this series by dealing with a major problem within this movement.
Lack of Biblical Repentance
This is an issue among many "Christians" today, not just the HD's.
Biblical Repentance has to do with the character of God. He is Holy, Just and Righteous-AMEN!
God hates sin and is always contrary to it. The problem is that for God to accept a sinner who has no desire to change, no desire to leave a sinful lifestyle, it would totally change His Holy character! The word "repentance" concerning genuine evangelical repentance means, "real penitance, sorrow or deep contrition for sin, as an offense or dishonor to God, a violation of His Holy Law, and the basest ingratitude towards a being of infinite benevolence and is followed and accompanied by an amendment of life." It can also mean, "grieving for what is past, a change of mind, to change the mind in consequence of the inconvenience or injury done by past conduct, " etc. The scriptures teach repentance all through the Bible (Jer. 8:6, 31:19, Matt. 3:2, Luke 11:32,13:3, Mark 1:15, Acts 20:20,21, 2 Cor. 12:21, Rev. 9:20,21, 16:11 etc.). Some foolishly will state, "God repented" and God never sinned, so to repent cannot mean to turn from sin. I would not trust a man who thinks that way to teach me the Bible, that is for sure. The word "repent" as we already looked at can mean to change the mind, to grieve over the past, etc. so when God repents, CERTAINLY He is not turning from sin, because He is sinless, but he is grieved, sorrowful or He has changed His mind. This is grade school hermeneutics. Gen 6:6, "And it repented the Lord that he had made man..." means the the Lord was grieved that he had created man, because man became so wicked.
So to biblically repent concerning salvation is for the sinner to have sorrow and grief over past sinful conduct, realizing that they have offended God and dishonored Him by those actions and then to change their mind about their sin, and this will result in and be accompanied by a change of conduct, or as the Websters puts it, an amendment of life. When the sinner comes to Christ, realizing his sinfulness, he needs God's MERCY! If the sinner received what he deserved, it would be punishment, judgment and hell, so MERCY from God is what is needed. Look at Prov. 28:13, "...whoso confesseth and FORSAKETH them (his sins) shall have mercy." THE SINNER MUST FEEL ABOUT SIN THE WAY GOD DOES-GOD IS TOO HOLY TO JUST LOOK THE OTHER WAY! The word "forsake" means, "to quit or leave entirely, to desert, to depart from, to abandon, to RENOUNCE, to reject, to WITHDRAW FROM, etc." THIS IS NOT DISPENSATIONAL, BUT HAVING TO DO WITH GOD'S HOLY CHARACTER! To wrongly divide the Word of Truth to the point of slicing biblical repentance out of this dispensation is to be totally unscriptural, because Paul preached and taught biblical repentance, and it undermines and weakens the Holiness of God! And to pervert the word repentance to ONLY mean as some do, "a change of mind about who or what you are trusting in for salvation" is to pervert the meaning of the word. As well it again corrupts God's character by making sin a non-issue and sin is always an issue with God. This generic Romans Road gospel message does the same thing and that is why many people use it. People today want conversions (another notch on their gunbelt) while some are sincere but undiscerning about genuine conversions, and hence, they use this RR method that makes sin GENERIC and unspecific.
What God is looking for is a sinner to be sorrowful to the point of being willing to change their conduct. That is godly sorrow (1 Cor. 7:8-11, 1 Thes. 1:9 etc.) Imagine a criminal standing before a judge requesting leniency and mercy, asking for a pardon. After inquiring about the criminals intentions, the criminal replies that he will take a short break but soon will again continue his life of crime. No honest judge with integrity would pardon the man and for the "soulwinner" to preach a message that God will forgive the sinner who has NO INTENTION of changing his conduct, is to make God and unrighteous Judge with no integrity! Now if a thief requested mercy and a pardon from a judge, but he was remorseful and had full intentions to cease his criminal activity, THEN a righteous judge might consider giving him mercy! That is a picture of the Holiness of God and how He deals with a sinner!
Now the HD's love to throw out biblical repentance and relate that Paul never preached a repentance from sin as a requirement for conversion. Acts 20:21 reads, "...repentance towards God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ." Repentance TOWARDS! See that. TOWARDS means "In the direction to, with direction to, with respect to, regarding, etc." TOWARDS implies and means a direction! If I was heading north TOWARDS Chicago, I have a direction in which I am headed. The sinner upon conversion, CHANGES HIS DIRECTION! It is away from sin and self TOWARDS Christ and righteousness. In Acts 17:30 Paul preaches that all men should REPENT! In Acts 26:20 in a very important passage that tells us Paul's evangelistic ministry, it was that he was preaching to the Jews and the Gentiles that they should "...repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance." CLEAR! TURN! There is NO dispensational difference here. All through the Bible when repentance is concerning the sinner it is about TURNING FROM SIN! Look at Ezek. 3 and 33 where the concept of repentance is clear, even though the word is not used. Look at Ezek. 18 and in particular verse 30, "...repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions;..." Going back to Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles, look at 1 Thes. 1:9, "...how ye TURNED TO GOD FROM IDOLS to SERVE the living and true God." This concept of the sinner just TRUSTING JESUS apart from a desire to turn from sin, and possibly NEVER changing is completely unscriptural and damning to men. That is why the old preachers like Sam Jones, Wesley, Whitefield, Richard Baxter, John Bunyan, Peter Cartwright, Johnathan Edwards, Billy Sunday, Spurgeon etc. ALL preached biblical repentance which meant a willingness to turn FROM sin and a sinful lifestyle and turn TO Christ! God is TOO Holy to accept a man who has an improper view of sin! But thank God that He will show mercy to the sinner that is CONVICTED over his sin and is willing to turn FROM his sin and turn TO Christ! 1 Cor. 6:9-11 is a passage that many attempt to pervert to mean that the context here is rewards in the 1000 year-old reign. But look at the context. "And such WERE some of you." True Christianity DELIVERS one from a lifestyle of sin! 2 Cor. 5;17, "Therefore IF any man be IN CHRIST, he is a NEW CREATURE:old things are passed away;behold all things become new." This has got to be PRACTICALLY, not just positionally as some would like to interpret it so that it fits their doctrinal position! See also Titus 2:11-13 and see what BIBLICAL CHRISTIANITY is! This is the same area that the Beale Street Blast crowd messed up in because they know not the scriptures or they are too cowardly to preach them correctly! To state as some HD's have stated to me that a sinner can get saved, NEVER change and still go to heaven, is GARBAGE and an insult to the Holy God of the Bible! Look at Ezek. 13:22 and see what this heretical doctrine does. It leads to the sinner thinking he is right with God and going to heaven, even though he is lost and on his way to hell!
Brethren, there is much more I could elaborate on, but this should be enough to prove that biblical repentance is more than just changing one's mind about who they are trusting in for salvation, but includes a willingness to turn from sin, which results in a changed life, making one desirous of following the Word of God and Christ! And this includes Paul's teachings as well as i have scripturally proven.
And brethen this does not make repentance a work, which would be contrary to Romans 4:5, Eph. 2:8,9 etc. because it is dealing with the HEART! If a man was to REPENT and just reform with out turning to Christ, he would be LOST, in his sins and end up in hell! It is a work of the HEART that must be done before one can be scripturally converted TO Christ!

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