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In this instance, ["repent"] means to "do a 180", with regards to sin. Where God comes into the picture is that our relationship with Him is then "repaired". When a person is in a right relationship with God, they desire to please Him with righteous living, acted out in love toward others.
In scripture you will encounter phrases such as "god repented that he had made man" (the reason for the flood). He made man, and he changed his mind about that being a Good Idea. He admitted he was mistaken to create man. So even god understands this concept.
Sermons explaining sin that I ever heard invariably liken repenting to changing one's mind -- in this case about the badness of sin, so yes that would be a 180, I suppose.
But it is still changing one's opinion or judgement about the goodness / badness of a particular action. It is not some mysterious $25 theological word with esoteric significance that requires that theological underpinning to be valid. When a particular thing is labeled "sin" then there is a corresponding incantation called "repentance" that is required but if you remove the theological connotations it is simply saying, for example, "ya know, stealing from others is dysfunctional and has brought me nothing but grief -- I am going to knock that off."
I daresay that many believers would opine that this would not be good enough, if it is not directed at god in the form of contrite prayer, and possibly coupled with public disavowal in front of a church assembly, it wouldn't count for removing what they conceive as the "stain of sin". Yet if I quit stealing simply because I think it's in my rational self interest to do so, the end result is still the same: no more thieving. The harm is removed from society. Society's censure and shunning and penalizing is also removed once known past debts are paid. But for some reason god would continue to regard you as a sinner, in the eyes of some at least, if you don't don sackcloth and ashes and prostrate yourself specifically before god on the matter.
My point is that repentance is just as efficacious either way, so no god(s) need be a part of it. It is simply recognizing the harm in an action, and determining to stop the harmful action. Barnacling that with religious overhead is unhelpful.
In scripture you will encounter phrases such as "god repented that he had made man" (the reason for the flood). He made man, and he changed his mind about that being a Good Idea. He admitted he was mistaken to create man. So even god understands this concept.
Some of us have nothing to repent of. I wouldn't have anything to confess either. I'm pretty at peace with everything I've done in life and I'm smart enough to be embarrassed by mistakes I made or the things I've done that weren't up to snuff and have not done them again. Granted, my life has been mostly boring and above board but I can't be the only one.
I think there is a lot of personal philosophy involved in someone turning to religion (as opposed to be raised with religion which is a whole other beast). People who know they've done wrong or acted ignorantly or made mistakes, but can't manage to move on from that and need outside validation (forgiveness) even if it's just in theory.
people don't like Christianity because of Christians. But I think it's the few that misrepresent Christ that do the most damage. Not the regular person. Like any other group.
people don't like Christianity because of Christians. But I think it's the few that misrepresent Christ that do the most damage. Not the regular person. Like any other group.
I don't 'like' Christianity because it teaches that pure innocent children are taught to believe they are tainted from the get-go by some sin of two people they don't even know , born thousands of years ago and they'll remain worthless and in dire danger unless they can somehow atone for that sin that they didn't even commit rather than as blank slates that can have written on them all loving, optimistic and encouraging things.
We get all outraged over the innocent people that are found guilty and sent to jail but not over generations of these babes. that are guilty already and told their fate is much worse.
Any person who claims to be "good" (Christian, atheist or in between), and does wrong, is a hypocrite. IOW, we're all hypocrites-it's the human condition. To claim Christians or religious people in general are hypocrites, is a case of pot/kettle.
Good point. A woman I know says that saying there are hypocrites at church is just like saying that there are fat people at the gym. Well...yeah.
The problem is that both the Christian telling everyone else what they should do and the gym rat telling everyone else how to exercise are annoying.
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