Is the word 'repent' ever used outside the Christian vernacular?
484419
Sure, words like "repent" and "sin" which have no meaning outside a religion are used all the time in the real world. Ice cream manufacturers that describe their product as "sinfully delicious" for example certainly aren't saying that eating it is an express ride to Hell. \n\nThough I'm told that there is an obscure christian sect that considers Ben & Jerry two sides of the Devil's Trinity. This stems from an incident in which a nun ate three pints of Chunky Monkey and hallucinated visions ofte Apocalypse for twelve hours straight.
1077911
yes and yes\n\nyou cannot hold on to your sin and and Christ. You cannot serve God and mammon (other gods). which is anything that takes priority over God. All need to turn from sin that's repent = 180 degree turn.\n1Cor 6:9-11Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor *homosexuals, nor sodomites, 10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.\n\nMessenger
941872
The only curse word the bible definitely says you shouldn't use is the word 'fools' \n \nMatthew 5:  5:22 But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire\n\nBut you can say 'fool' freely without being censored by the public. You can say 'fool' and not get fired. You can't say that other f-word though, because of old taboos, possibly Victorian in origin when polite society attempted to put sex in its place, to be used for reproductive purposes only.
579152
The word of God says that "None are righteous no not one"\n"Our righteousness is filthy rags"\nGod's children are not perfect. "WE HAVE ALL SINNED" When we become filled with the Holy Spirit, we are not exempt from temptations. Yes, we backslide but how soon are we to repent because God is merciful to forgive us of our sins and turn us from our wicked ways. It doesn't give us a option to keep doing wrong again. Luke 9:57-62
813630
It's a biblical one and not seen as derogatory.\n\n"God's wrath" or "God's anger" is mentioned many times in the bible.  Christians and non-christians use the phrase "wrath of god" to describe cataclysmic events.
1002972
The Word taught us that we are to "go ye out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in." Notice that it said "compel." The word means to ask, or to entice, not to cram it down their throats! While I will agree that there are many Christians who in their zeal to please God do cram it down their throats, I'm becoming rather tired, bored and angry with generalizations made by people like you who then turn around and claim the same Christianity! Have you witnessed to anyone recently? Did you go away feeling like you'd fulfilled you Christian duty? Did the person you witness to ever come to your church or any church for that matter and begin a relationship with God? If so, great! Glory be to God that He'd use you as a tool to lead a soul in. But if you went any futher with that soul without God's influence working a wisdom and cultivating a faith and a relationship with Him, then you're doing the same thing that you claim most other Christians are doing! There is a Scripture that says, "Woe unto those who would offend my little ones (young Christians)! For it would be better for a millstone to be hung around their necks and be cast into the sea and drowned!" Chew on that before you start generalizing the way people witness for Christ! Did you ever stop and think that with the world spinning out of control the way it has that maybe people are beginning to have a greater zeal for serving God and that such a witness is necessary?
576148
I believe when Christians rewrote the Commandment they intended the term "kill" to refer to human beings therefore having the same meaning as the Hebrew.  There is a lot of discussion on defending oneself though.  Jesus said to turn the other cheek in the New Testament.  The early martyrs of the Church did just that.  They didn't fight back when the Romans and others feed them to the lions or tortured them.  They literaly turned the other cheek and went to their deaths, not defending themselves or killing anyone therefore obeying the Commandment"Thy shalt not kill."  Therefore for a lot of Christians, the death penalty and killing that takes place in war is just as abominable as abortion.  Pro Life and Anti abortion are two totally diffferent takes on this commandment. I won't turn this into a debate on that though, but in my opinion, killing another human is wrong no matter what the circumstance.  This is what God told us and He didn't make any footnotes when He gave us the Commandment.  This is my opinion only.
657096
when you repent, you must really mean it\nthere are steps for repentance, i will try to explain them to my understanding:\nas i said, 1st step is you must mean it that you want to quit this sin and never want to come back to it.\n\nyou must realize that this sin angered god and you dont know if he would punish you for it, but you can ask for forgiveness and if you dont go back to the sin he will inshaala.\n\nyou must not think about the sin after you quit it, if you miss the sin, or doing it, or even smile about the days you did it in, your heart wasnt clear when you intended the repentance.\n\nand after all as you said, you have to be sincere with god, you have to honestly from your heart communicate with him and let him know you are sorry for that sin, you hate that sin that made god angry at you, you never intend on going back to that sin.\n\nas to your other part of the question, you know you are not deceiving yourself when you look at the sin, and hate yourself for doing it, remember how it made god angry at you, and know in your heart that you did enough sins and try to stay away from them as you can, and god will help you inshaala.\n\npeace and god's blessings.
161210
First let me say that I agree with you whole-heartedly.  In fact your example word is a good one, and if this is a site for 13 + year olds, I cannot see why it should be *'ed out.\nI tend to agree with Lenny Bruce.  S M U T is in the mind of the beholder.  Yet since Victorian times, our society has taken the view that what you do and say in private should never be reflected in public.  So we end up with priests who abuse young boys and book thumpers who swoon at the thought of the word phuck.\nSo I have to write about Richard Chaney and call a male chicken a rooster.  All because some see themselves as better than those of us common people who use common (vulgar does mean common) words.\nI understand why Yahoo does what it does.  The last thing it needs is a group of politically power fanatics stomping their cyberbutts for allowing crude language.\nYet Mary did ride an ass into Bethlehem.  And Peter did deny knowing Christ three times before the cock crowed.  And Noah did know his daughters and none of this is bleeped out of their Bibles.\nOkay, we try to watch our potty-mouths, but sometime bending over backwards to avoid offending someone is not the best way to become closer to Divinity.\nAny by the way, outside of direct reference in prayer, the use of the name G_d is still a sin, even if quoted by a so-called righteous person in an argument.
1178784
Not in Bible. I thought the Catholics stopped that practice on the 60's? Maybe some still do? They are not consistent from place to place-but who else is.
201718
This concept comes from the idea that if you don't repent from a sin, that you will go to hell, and that there is no opportunity to repent from commiting suicide.  However, most people view repent here as "ask forgiveness."  Repent does not mean that.  It means change the way you think and act.  If we had to ask forgiveness for every sin we ever commit NONE of us would ever go to heaven.  Grace is not such a fine line that if you sin, you are lost, if you ask for forgiveness your saved again, sin again and you're lost again, etc.  There is another problem with this...  There are many ways to commit suicide in which you have time to ask for forgiveness.  Jumping off a bridge, for example.  While I certainly believe it would be a sin to take your own life, I don't think that one sin would necessarily negate the grace that comes from accepting Jesus as your savior.
260654
Sounds like you think that you can purposely go out and sin (knowingly, willingly), repent and all is okay....your are leaving out believing in God...when you believe in God, your sins will be fewer and fewer with each passing day compared to what you were capable of before finding Christ!\nThere is a big difference....don't think for a minute that you can sin on purpose, repent and all is okay....you gotta be trying to live a Christian life along with the repenting!
35375
There have been some good answers so far but let me add another perspective. When a person becomes a Christian, they become a different person with a new nature-the nature of God. With this new nature comes a whole new set of desires. A Christian wants what God wants. As someone once said, "if it pleases you to please God then you can do what you please." \n\nOf course there are times in the life of a Christian when we let our human desires over-rule what God wants. But when you do something wrong, which the Bible describes as sin, then a true Christian will immediately feel bad about it and repent. Repent means to change your thinking and thus your actions. So a Christian will immediately acknowledge it as sin, reject it, and receive God's forgiveness. Since Christ died for all of our sins, He thus secured God's forgiveness for us. Therefore, as Christians we are forgiven. \n\nHowever, this is NOT an excuse to keep on sinning. And as a true Christian you should not want to continue in a life of sin.  For additional info you might check out the chapter entitled Your Means of Exchange: The Cross-Forgiveness in the book, Introducing The New You.
75704
This may be a little off in terms of funny but it is funny/odd. We all have heard the "f" word before & know that the term "f... you" is commonly used as a deragatory term, right? Do you, however, know what it means or where it comes from?\n\nWell, in the past, when people would go to confession, the phrase, "For Unsanctioned Carnal Knowledge" was written into the book where you would list your sins. That phrase means for knowledge of another outside the bonds of marriage, of course. Over time, the phrase was shortened to the word that some people hurl at each other in nasty ways today. Just think, you are mad at someone & cuss at them when, in reality, you are wishing them a VERY good time!\n\nThought you all might find it comical...I know WAY too many odd tidbits of information!
681758
"...can it be backed up with scripture?"\n\nCertainly not; it's not Scriptural.  It's a pseudo-religious phrasing of an old conservative attitude.
1166781
I sincerely doubt that Satan could repent.  Satan is used in the Bible as the personification of all evil, and without evil there can be no good (good is only good when there is evil to compare it to).\n\nThis also explains why god never tries to destroy Satan - he would destroy himself in the process.
216847
Those who repent (Turn from all sin and ask God for forgivness) and have faith in Jesus - That He is the son of God and died that our sins may be forgiven.  Those must follow Jesus' teachings and persevere in doing the right thing while abstaing from sin. People must turn from sin not merely confess it while expecting to do it again.  Their must be a change of heart. "The fear of the LORD is to hate evil"(Prov. 8:13)  Where there is no repentance (turning from sin) their is no forgivness.  Where there is no forgivness there is no salvation from "the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness" (Romans 1:18)\n\nAll have sinned and will be condemed and sent to hell if they do not repent and turn from their sin and trust in Jesus for forgivness of their past sins.  If you deny that you have ever sinned you call God a liar and the truth is not in you (1 John 1).  For everyone at least at one point in their life has lied or stolen or been selfish or lusted or done something evil.  That is why we all are required to repent if we wish to be saved.