Do we choose to repent?

[TonyChanYT]

I am talking about the initial repentance when you first become a Christian.

Jesus commanded everyone to repent, Mark 1:

15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

Acts 17:

30b [God] commands all people everywhere to repent.

God wants everyone to repent, 2 Peter 3:

9b he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

1 Timothy 2:

4 [God] desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

However, people choose not to repent, Revelation 2:

21 Even though I have given her time to repent of her immorality, she is unwilling.

Do we choose to repent?

Yes, we choose to repent and not to repent. If we can only choose not to repent, then it is not a choice.

Now, there is a spiritual warfare going on, 2 Timothy 2:

25b God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, 26 and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.

There is a bit of controversy about this, but I see the original Greek as a potential subjunctive: God may or may not grant them repentance.

Acts 11:

18 When they heard this, they quieted down and glorified God, saying, “Well then, God has also granted to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life.”

Does God choose to grant repentance?

Yes, God grants repentance to some and not to others.

Yes, people choose to repent or not to repent.

Yes, when people choose not to repent, God can choose not to grant them repentance.

All are true. This is the concept of Co-Reality.

See also

• Do we choose to be born again?
• Do we have freewill?
• Did Esau repent?

 

[Arial]

I am talking about the initial repentance when you first become a Christian.

Jesus commanded everyone to repent, Mark 1:

Acts 17:

"Repent and believe in the gospel." Believing the gospel is repentance. So what is the gospel in a nutshell? The only way to be reconciled to God is through faith/trust in the substitutionary work of Jesus, who made that reconciliation possible by standing in our place (redeemer) and bearing upon Himself the just penalty for our sins on the cross.

What is believing the gospel repentance of? Our hatred of God, and rebellion against Him.

What does this reconciliation do? It restores our intended relationship with God that mankind had, and was intended to have, before the fall.

God wants everyone to repent, 2 Peter 3:

He doesn't want them to repent. He commands that they do. Even the non-believer stands beneath that command.

1 Timothy 2:

If that scripture was intended in the way that you present it----isolating it from all context, immediate and within the whole teaching of the Bible---then God is no longer God, but mankind is. IOW man has the upper hand, able to thwart God's will and desires. Which Scripture clearly says no one can do.

Job 42:2 I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted.

Dan 4:35 All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, "What have your done?"

However, people choose not to repent, Revelation 2:

v.21 I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. This is referring to a specific person in the congregation of a specific church (Thyatira) and that churches following after her and the consequences of continuing to do so. It can in no way legitimately be used to support a doctrine of choosing to repent being tied to salvation as the OP states is being discussed. The passage has nothing to do with the "initial repentance when you first become a Christian."

I will address the rest of the post later.

 

[TonyChanYT]

If that scripture was intended in the way that you present it----isolating it from all context, immediate and within the whole teaching of the Bible---then God is no longer God, but mankind is. IOW man has the upper hand, able to thwart God's will and desires. Which Scripture clearly says no one can do.

Can you quote my words and directly contradict them according to First-Order Logic?

 

[Arial]

Now, there is a spiritual warfare going on, 2 Timothy 2:

There is a bit of controversy about this, but I see the original Greek as a potential subjunctive: God may or may not grant them repentance.

Respectively: Could you please not put the scripture quotes in a quoted format, so that in order for the responses to make sense, the responder does not have to have to do that for you?

2 Tim 2:25b cannot stand apart from either the surrounding text or the complete sentence from which it is pulled. 24-26 And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will. The full context is Paul, just prior to his death, giving Timothy instructions on how to conduct himself as the shepherd of the flock Paul was entrusting him with. I fail to see one iota of controversy concerning that scripture. The controversy comes from using half a sentence to be addressing something it is not addressing.

Acts 11:

Does God choose to grant repentance?

Acts 11:18 When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, "Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life."

What is the repentance that leads to life? Being turned from rebellion against God because of unbelief, to being turned to God in belief. The repenting of specific sins---turning away from them because of this change of heart, follows in a progressive fashion. And all of this is the work of God.

Only those who have been granted repentance come to Jesus in faith. John 6:35-49, 60-65; John 10:14-30; John 3:1-15; Eph 1:1-6; Romans 8:28-30; Acts 1348

Does God choose to grant repentance?

Yes, God grants repentance to some and not to others.

Yes, people choose to repent or not to repent.

Yes, when people choose not to repent, God can choose not to grant them repentance.

All are true. This is the concept of Co-Reality.

It is not a co-reality. What you are calling a co-reality is a subject that has been expounded on for centuries. God's sovereignty and man's responsibility. And God is not choosing anything. He is doing what He is doing. Electing some for salvation, leaving others in their sins. Giving some to Christ before the foundation of the world, for Christ's glory and His inheritance, showing them mercy because Christ died for them, bearing the punishment their sin deserves Himself. The rest meet sins justice.

 

[Arial]

Can you quote my words and directly contradict them according to First-Order Logic?

What would be considerate would be actually responding to what was posted instead of nothing but this type of thing.