This is the first of a series of posts on Repentance. At the end of each is a link to the next one.
I have written and spoken repentance for the last 25 years. Notice I do not say ‘spoken of repentance.’ I used to. Repentance is a noun but repent is a verb, and I prefer the verb because repentance is something we do. In fact it is "all we can do." And it is ongoing. It is not accurate to say 'I repented,' but that I am repenting. While we also need to define repentance, we should move beyond the definition and actually repent. It took me almost 50 years to learn what it means to repent, how we repent, why we need to repent and when we need to repent, or, in other words, what the Lord has revealed concerning repentance. It took me so long because I had to unlearn everything I had been taught concerning repentance. I did not learn what repentance is and then repented. Rather I learned what repentance is as I desired to repent. Every post in this blog is in one way or another about repentance. And yet, I have not even scratched the surface, but I will begin to, in a series of posts on repentance and how repentance is linked to everything.
Repentance is gift from God, and is yet the most misunderstood doctrine in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. There is the word of men narrative (by far the majority) and the word of God narrative. I was taught at home and at church, that repentance meant going to the Bishop and confessing our sins, and while we did not need to go to the bishop for every sin, we did for those ‘major’ sins. I later learned that this was the word of men narrative, and it was about maintaining good standing in the church. There was penance to pay, perhaps a probationary period, and it involved changing some of our behaviors. The church’s ‘judicial code’ has undergone several changes over the years, name changes and procedures. After one court, I was assigned to stay in touch with the member, and I spent every session with him teaching him what the Lord has revealed concerning repentance. I was not interested in protecting his ‘membership’ in the organizational church, but was motivated by Christ’s admonition to say nothing but repentance unto this generation and to bring others into His church (D&C 10:67-69). Church discipline merely decides a person’s standing within the organized Church. (For a more complete account, see Church Discipline.
But Alma removed from the church only those who refused to repent (Alma 6:3). More on this in another post.
This series on repentance will teach only what the Lord has revealed. And you will be amazed at how repentance is linked to every truth, every teaching, every revelation and every prophecy revealed to us. The Lord calls it ‘understanding’ the doctrine of repentance, and not just cognitively, but by experiencing His redemption. While teaching what the Lord has revealed, this series is a call to repentance. Because I have desired to, He has called me to say nothing but repentance.
Those who are not repenting, or think they need no repentance, are not interested in hearing about repentance. Those who are repenting love to hear the call to repentance. Why? What is the difference?
I tried to start a study group where we would only talk repentance and use only the scriptures as our guide. No conference talks. No scholarly definitions of repentance. Only the scriptures. Of the 10 people I invited only 2 volunteered to participate. The others were either too busy or didn’t think they had anything to add.
Having His words and having His words found in us are drastically different.
Since all the prophets tell the same story (2 Nephi 9:2), any prophet is free to contribute anything to the written record that will make that message clear and intelligible. This principle is illustrated throughout the Book of Mormon and indeed by the very existence of the book itself--a book that shocked the world with its revolutionary concept of scripture as an open-ended production susceptible to the errors of men and amenable to correction by the spirit of prophecy.
All are not like Jarom who said he need not bother to write down anything, “...for what could I write more than my fathers have written? For have not they revealed the plan of salvation?” (Jarom 1:2).
So I will use a story already told just as the Lord did. When Jesus himself finally came to the Nephites, he again re-edited the whole corpus, recommended the words of Isaiah, filled in the gaps of the record, corrected all the defects, brought the Nephite scripture up to date, and then “expounded all the scripture in one,” as a single unified work (3 Nephi 23:14,6).
Just so in the New Testament, when the Lord appeared to the disciples after the resurrection, “he opened…the scriptures” to them (Luke 24:32). “And he said unto them, these are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures” (Luke 24:44-45).
There is hardly a scholar who did not believe that Isaiah lifted the passage (Isaiah 2:2-4) from Micah (4:1-3), the two being almost word for word the same. But now it appears that both prophets are quoting archaic ritual texts. Isaiah is simply exercising his prophet’s prerogative of clothing his own message in the inspired words of his predecessors when those words suit his purpose. That is what I will attempt to do in this series on repentance.
Is it boring to keep telling the same story that has already been told? Don’t eager and inquiring minds like the thrill of exploring the unknown? But is a journey any less interesting because we have a map to go by? On the contrary, the scouts with the map not only learn more but have a more exciting time. And as I have learned the beauty is in the details, as the details complete the tapestry.
As I have said before in this blog, I have done the same with the words of other prophets, when those words will make my message clearer. And when it comes to repentance, it never hurts to nudge someone toward turning to Christ. It is, afterall, the greatest good we can do for them.
Topics in this series will include
the Lord's definition of repentance,
what repentance is not,
why repentance is the first and last commandment,
who needs to repent,
why we need to repent,
how the failure of the Lord's people to repent is the catalyst for the Lord’s endtime judgments,
the consequences of repenting or the failure to repent--both temporal and eternal,
how our failure to understand the doctrine of repentance has and will affect generations,
how we have ignored the Lord's command to teach our children to understand the doctrine of repentance,
why repentance is a gift from God,
the context in which repentance is first commanded, but why it is part of the 'second' commandments,
the main message of the Book of Mormon is repentance,
why only godly sorrow brings about repentance,
can we repent after death,
repent and receive the Lord's mercy, fail to repent and be subject to God's justice,
only those who repent are of His church,
what it means to be baptized unto repentance,
what it means to have faith unto repentance,
there is no other doctrine,
repenting and being born again,
repentance and a new heart,
why we do not need to repent of not following the prophet,
and so much more.
Next: Repentance: The Lord's Definition