From time to time I will add topics to this list, eventually growing it into a separate blog.  But for now, we will simply update as time permits and add as questions are raised or issues rise.  The first topic the Lord would have us address is:

Biblical Repentance.

There is much disagreement and downright hateful and ungodly fighting about the doctrine of repentance.  In lieu of listing all of the heretical teachings surrounding this doctrine, we will limit our comments to what the Bible teaches.

A couple things to keep in mind concerning interpreting the Bible with Spiritual integrity and through the teaching of the Holy Spirit:

1.  The Holy Spirit will produce the fruit of the Spirit in all who walk in the spirit and allow Him to direct their thoughts, words and actions.  That being True, we must know what that means:  a careful reading of Ephesians Chapters 5 and 6 will reveal much of the heart of God in you and I living out the fruit of the Spirit, and we find that fruit listed in Galatians Chapter 5:

"14* For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 15* But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. 16* This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. 17* For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. 18* But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. 19* Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 20* Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, 21* Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. 22* But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness,goodness, faith, 23* Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. 24* And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. 25* If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. 26* Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.

   6:1* Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. 2* Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. 3* For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. 4* But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. 5* For every man shall bear his own burden.

So, taking God's Word in context, we see that no one who is lead of the Spirit of God will act in "... hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions - all attitudes that are taken by people who hold to a heretical teaching of Bible Doctrine, including the Doctrine of Repentance. If you disagree with their definition, they become downright hateful.  This passage also says that if a person is lead of the Spirit, they will act in love towards the person, with joy, peace, lonsuffering (heretics are never longsuffering!), gentleness, goodness, faith , meekness and temperance (which means self-denial involving self-control).

2.  The second thing to keep in mind is that all Bible Doctrine must be accepted as Bible Doctrine - not discerned from any other source.  The Bible WILL answer itself - this is called "systematic theology" and is the only honest form of Doctrinal study.  Also, if a Doctrine is to be a Bible Doctrine it must be help consistent throughout the entire context of the Bible.  For instance, to hold to the modern "tongues" heresy, one would have to take roughly 3 passages of Scripture out of context and ignore the entire remainder of the Bible.  Context.  Every word of heresy that has ever existed has come from taking Scripture out of context. Sometimes this is from malicious intent, sometimes from simple ignorance, but the spirit behind all heresy is the spirit of anti-Christ (1JN 2:18-22).

So, in the Spirit of love and strictly bound to the context of Scripture, let us study the Doctrine of Repentance together.

Note in the following, the bolded text shows the sin of the people, the repentance of the people and the request for hearing and forgiving the people.

In 1 Kings 8:31-53 we read:

31If any man trespass against his neighbour, and an oath be laid upon him to cause him to swear, and the oath come before thine altar in this house: 32* Then hear thou in heaven, and do, and judge thy servants, condemning the wicked, to bring his way upon his head; and justifying the righteous, to give him according to his righteousness. 33* When thy people Israel be smitten down before the enemy, because they have sinned against thee, and shall turn again to thee, and confess thy name, and pray, and make supplication unto thee in this house: 34* Then hear thou in heaven, and forgive the sin of thy people Israel, and bring them again unto the land which thou gavest unto their fathers.35* When heaven is shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against thee; if they pray toward this place, and confess thy name, and turn from their sin, when thou afflictest them: 36* Then hear thou in heaven, and forgive the sin of thy servants, and of thy people Israel, that thou teach them the good way wherein they should walk, and give rain upon thy land, which thou hast given to thy people for an inheritance. 37* If there be in the land famine, if there be pestilence, blasting, mildew, locust, or if there be caterpiller; if their enemy besiege them in the land of their cities; whatsoever plague, whatsoever sickness there be; 38* What prayer and supplication soever be made by any man, or by all thy people Israel, which shall know every man the plague of his own heart, and spread forth his hands toward this house: 39* Then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and do, and give to every man according to his ways, whose heart thou knowest; (for thou, even thou only, knowest the hearts of all the children of men;) 40* That they may fear thee all the days that they live in the land which thou gavest unto our fathers. 41* Moreover concerning a stranger, that is not of thy people Israel, but cometh out of a far country for thy name’s sake; 42* (For they shall hear of thy great name, and of thy strong hand, and of thy stretched out arm;) when he shall come and pray toward this house; 43* Hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and do according to all that the stranger calleth to thee for: that all people of the earth may know thy name, to fear thee, as do thy people Israel; and that they may know that this house, which I have builded, is called by thy name. 44* If thy people go out to battle against their enemy, whithersoever thou shalt send them, and shall pray unto the LORD toward the city which thou hast chosen, and toward the house that I have built for thy name: 45* Then hear thou in heaven their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause. 46* If they sin against thee, (for there is no man that sinneth not,) and thou be angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away captives unto the land of the enemy, far or near; 47* Yet if they shall bethink themselves in the land whither they were carried captives, and repent, and make supplication unto thee in the land of them that carried them captives, saying, We have sinned, and have done perversely, we have committed wickedness; 48* And so return unto thee with all their heart, and with all their soul, in the land of their enemies, which led them away captive, and pray unto thee toward their land, which thou gavest unto their fathers, the city which thou hast chosen, and the house which I have built for thy name: 49* Then hear thou their prayer and their supplication in heaven thy dwelling place, and maintain their cause, 50* And forgive thy people that have sinned against thee, and all their transgressions wherein they have transgressed against thee, and give them compassion before them who carried them captive, that they may have compassion on them: 51* For they be thy people, and thine inheritance, which thou broughtest forth out of Egypt, from the midst of the furnace of iron: 52* That thine eyes may be open unto the supplication of thy servant, and unto the supplication of thy people Israel, to hearken unto them in all that they call for unto thee. 53* For thou didst separate them from among all the people of the earth, to be thine inheritance, as thou spakest by the hand of Moses thy servant, when thou broughtest our fathers out of Egypt, O Lord GOD.

IN all, in this great prayer of dedication of the Temple, we see clearly several instances of the people recognizing their sin, and coming to God with a heart of repentance.  One does not have to be a textural scholar or an expert in Hebrew, Latin or Greek to understand what is being stated here.  The request is that when the people repent, please forgive them.

Computer software allows one the opportunity to search a Bible program and find most any statistic or fact.  The Old Testament (Hebrew) word for "repent" (as given in Ezekiel 14:6 - we will look at that verse later) is bwv we would pronounce it SHOOB.  It is found 1163 times in the Old Testament.  As one reads through the passages that contain the word SHOOB, one gets the unmistakable understanding that God is talking about returning the specific object of repentance to the specific condition of Gods perfect will.  For instance, we were created in the image of God, we were sinless and righteous.  When Adam willfully rebelled against God, human nature became unrighteous (Rom 3:10; Rom 5:12)

THIS DISCUSSION TOPIC IS NOT YET COMPLETE.  I WILL CONTINUE TO WORK ON IT THROUGH THE END OF THE YEAR.  LORD BLESS!