The Commission pt.1

Before you can go and do the great commission, you first have to believe in the right commission Do we want people to come to church or do we want people to come to know Christ? It's not one or the other, but really one is the seed and the other is the fruit. According to Jesus in verse 47 what are we to be preaching “repentance & forgiveness of sins” The English word "re-pent" is unfortunately an intentional misrepresentation of the Greek word used in Scripture, which is "metanoia". Metanoia literally means to "re-think" or "to change one's mind." It does not mean The modern Church here in America has this idea that "repent" means to: 1 - Tell God that you sinned 2 - Tell God that you are sorry for that sin 3 - Ask God to forgive you of that sin 4 - Promise to never do that sin again 5 - go down to an altar in a church and do all of these things while crying, wailing, and beating your chest, *And a person can and do it all sincerely, and yet NEVER actually repent. SELAH Unfortunately, the prevailing Church of the time intentionally inserted "re-pent" in place of "re-think" because of their emphasis on penance (doing works to merit/earn God's favor instead of depending on Jesus' blood and Finished Work). In other words, they were saying "re-penance"; to do penance again. Of course, this also gave the Church control over people as it kept them coming back to the Church b/c it was the Church that functioned as the mediator between God and, once again, instead of Jesus. So, you had to come to the Church who would assign your re-penance. The Church as a whole here in America desperately needs to repent of this false repentance because it keeps God's people in total bondage. So, groveling in the dirt and going through this list of Protestant penance isn't something one must do to "get right with God" or to "get back into right standing with God." Authentic metanoia is when we stop believing the lie(s) that are keeping us in bondage and turn to God's truth that sets us free. Authentic metanoia is to rethink, to change one's mind, to believe like God, to agree with His opinion, to turn from error to truth, etc.