Repent, and Believe the Gospel

The Actual One, Not the False Ones

Introduction

The personality inventory is a common tool in psychology (and psychiatry). The tool is relatively simple (at its core, it is just a questionnaire), but can be quite powerful (in the right hands). Some personality inventories are quite useful (MMPI¹), some have become quite popular (Myers-Briggs), and some are openly demonic (Enneagram²). In the case of the useful inventories, they are most useful when interpreted by a competent professional, but even useful tools can prove harmful when wielded by the untrained or incompetent.

So-called ‘witch tests’ have become quite popular on the (online) Right, and (some) such tests certainly do have utility, but they can become counterproductive or even harmful in the wrong hands or when wielded in the wrong way — a sword is a useful tool, but generally less so when you grab it by the blade, or when you mistakenly or recklessly wield it against your own side. More on this matter, infra.

As a sort of introduction to the core (although not the core point) of this article, it must be stated: Context is king. The exact same statement may (and often does) have even wildly different meanings in different contexts. A key part of context is the players: by whom and to whom is the statement, et cetera, being made? If John the Baptist were to tell you “Repent, and believe the Gospel.”, then you could be quite certain precisely what he means by those words, but if Satan were to sidle up alongside you while you were hiking in the desert and tell you precisely the same thing (in terms of the words used): “Repent, and believe the Gospel.”, then you should probably be a little more wary. When he tempted (or, at least, attempted to tempt) Christ in the desert, Satan used the words of Scripture to do so. Do you truly believe that he has abandoned that tactic or would not employ it against you?

The Post

And so we turn to the words of my post that more or less occasioned this article:

The English

Quite frankly, to my mind, the context necessary to understand what I was actually saying is present in the words of the post (not least of all in the second sentence). Nevertheless, I will break down a few key matters:

1. “[v]irtually without exception”
2. “tells”
3. “Repent, and believe the Gospel.”
4. “demon”

After examining the English of my post, we will examine the Greek of the Bible verse that I was (yes, knowingly) quoting.

First, a matter that is virtually without exception is a matter that necessarily has exceptions — this is what the adverb is doing in that phrase. If I had meant to assert that there are no exceptions, then I would have used entirely, completely, absolutely, categorically, or some other similar adverb, but I did not do so; instead, I said virtually, which, again, necessarily means that there are exceptions (they are just rare or few). Consequently, all who replied to my post by quoting or citing Mark 1:15 were and (virtually without exception) still are in gross error.

Second, I chose the verb tells because it is present tense: I was at least very heavily implying that my comment was to be understood as applying to our current context. I, in fact, said nothing about two thousand years ago or even twenty years in the future. Anyone telling you in first-century Palestine to “Repent, and believe the Gospel.” (but in Greek or Aramaic) was more likely being honest and true than those who employ that phrase today, and I sincerely hope the wicked use (so common today) will be only a memory in twenty years.

Third, one must actually understand the actual meaning of the words employed in a command or an injunction to actually understand what is being commanded or enjoined. We could, of course, go over each of these words in English here in this section, but I believe that it will be more profitable to go over the English while examining the Greek. More, infra, in the next section of this article.

Fourth, the use of the word demon. This is almost an aside (and I have addressed it previously), but it remains worth explaining. Scripture speaks of those who teach false doctrines as teaching ‘the doctrines of demons’, and the ‘standard’ for this is ‘low’ enough to include those who forbid relatively trivial things like certain meats. In my post, I was referring to those who demand we confess another ‘gospel’ as being demons; this is a reference both to the master they serve and the ultimate origin of the lies they speak. (Compare, also, what Christ said to Peter in Matthew 16.)

The Greek

And so we turn to the Greek of the Scripture I quoted³:

»μετανοεῖτε καὶ πιστεύετε ἐν τῷ εὐαγγελίῳ.«

(‘metanoeite kai pisteuete en tō euangeliō‘)

— Mark 1:15b (NA28)

There are three words here on which we need to focus (we can assume everyone knows the words ‘and’, ‘in’, and ‘the’ well enough); these words are (in their base forms): μετανοέω, πιστεύω, and εὐαγγέλιον. Briefly and simply, these words are ‘to repent’ or ‘to change one’s mind’ (μετανοέω — metanoeō), ‘to trust’ or ‘to believe’ (πιστεύω — pisteuō), and ‘(the) good news’ or ‘(the) Gospel’ (εὐαγγέλιον — euangelion). More fully, here are the relevant BDAG entries (in truncated form, for several reasons):

• μετανοέω (metanoeō)
  1. change one’s mind
  2. feel remorse, repent, be converted
• ‌μετάνοια (metanoia⁴)
  • prim. ‘a change of mind’
    • also w. the nuance of ‘remorse’
  • repentance, turning about, conversion
• πιστεύω (pisteuō)
  1. to consider someth. to be true and therefore worthy of one’s trust, believe
  2. to entrust oneself to an entity in complete confidence, believe (in), trust
  3. entrust
  4. be confident about
  5. think/consider (possible)
• ‌πίστις (pistis)
  1. that which evokes trust and faith
  2. state of believing on the basis of the reliability of the one trusted, trust, confidence, faith
  3. that which is believed, body of faith/belief/teaching
• εὐαγγέλιον (euangelion)
  1. God’s good news to humans, good news
  2. details relating to the life and ministry of Jesus, good news of Jesus
  3. a book dealing with the life and teaching of Jesus, a gospel account

I have included two additional related nouns (effectively just the substantive forms of the two verbs) for the sake of additional context. We will now deal with each of the Greek terms in order, but using their English equivalents. This is necessary, because you cannot even consider obeying a command (two commands, in this case) unless you know what is being commanded. You cannot repent unless you know what it means to repent. You cannot believe unless you know what it means to believe. You cannot believe in (or on) the Gospel (or good news) unless you know what that Gospel is.

First, repentance is both remorse and a changing of one’s mind that leads to a turning away from the thing over which one feels such remorse. (In Christian theological terms, repentance is contrition plus faith.) And yet this is still not a complete description of repentance, for one must repent of something. In Christian terms, we call that of which one must repent sin. In fact and further, one may repent only of sin, for to repent of that which is not sin is worship of a false god (itself, obviously, sin). And herein lies the crux of the problem: Most of those who would demand of us that we “Repent, and believe the gospel.” are demanding that we repent of things that are not sin (in the Christian religion). If someone demands that you repent of ‘racism’ ‘sexism’, ‘homophobia’, or some other similar ‘transgression’, what they are actually doing is demanding that you worship the god of the New Global Religion (i.e., Satan) — something you obviously cannot do without forfeiting your soul. Arguably (as noted above), it is not even truly possible to repent of that which is not sin, but that is beyond the scope of this article.

Second, belief actually consists of three things: notitia, assensus, and fiducia. We can translate these into English as notice, assent, and trust. To have Christian belief, you must have all three of these. Of course, the question remains: belief in what? The answer of course, is the Gospel, infra, but what does it mean (in the Christian sense) to believe in the Gospel? It means to know the content of the Gospel message (notice), to accept the truth of it (assent), and to believe that it applies to you (trust). Without trust, without fiducia, faith is not saving faith or even really faith at all. The demons are aware of the Gospel and even accept (after their fashion) the truth of it, but they cannot trust in it and it will not save them. If someone were, for instance, to command merely notice and assent, then what that person would be commanding would not be Christian belief — it would not be what is in view in “Repent, and believe the Gospel.”

Third, the good news (which we usually call the Gospel) is Christ crucified for sinners. Of course, this raises additional questions:

• Who are these sinners?
• Why was Christ crucified for them?
• Why is this good news?

but the scope of this article is limited, and so agreement on such things will be simply presumed. To believe in the Gospel, you must know that the foregoing is the Gospel. Most of those who would demand that we “Repent, and believe the gospel.” are peddling some alternative gospel (hence the lowercase). If someone demands that you believe in Critical Race Theory, the ‘Holocaust’, Egalitarianism, Feminism, or some other similar component part of the New Global Religion, then what they are actually doing is demanding that you worship a false god (Satan) by confessing their false religion — again, you obviously cannot do this without forfeiting your own soul.

And so, the problem now should be clear: Most of those who demand that we “Repent, and believe the gospel.” have a false gospel, and what they are actually doing is attempting to deceive you by maliciously abusing Scripture. If Satan can lead you stray with a statement that is true on its face (but false by implication, assumption, et cetera), then he considers that a greater win, for he has led you into sin and subverted the truth. If someone demands that you “Repent, and believe the gospel.”, then you have to know the actual Gospel and whatever he is calling the gospel; if those do not match, then you are, indeed, dealing with a demon. You cannot repent unless you know of what you should (and must) repent. You cannot believe unless you know in what you should (and must) believe. You cannot believe in the Gospel unless you know what the Gospel is. A naked demand from a stranger that you “Repent, and believe the Gospel.” raises more questions than it answers and should also raise your hackles — God warns you that there will be wolves and commands you to be wise.

The Eighth Commandment

Before moving on to the core point of this article, I would like to take a moment to briefly discuss the Eighth Commandment and its interaction with social media. It is easy to treat social media like a game that has no rules (other than the ones so many of us know all too well from a number of bans over a number of years), but it does have rules for all of life has rules: God’s rules. One of God’s rules is:

Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.

This Commandment applies in a number of ways in a number of places (e.g., courts of law), but a key aspect of it is that we are not to deprive our neighbor of his good name and reputation, at least without sufficient warrant for doing so. This can, at times, be a difficult line to walk. Generally, when there is a line demarcating sin, it is best to stay well away from it, but, in the case of social media, et cetera, there are countervailing interests (e.g., engaging and challenging ideas or teachers, exposing lies or deceit, identifying and addressing wolves). There are no easy answers here, only a general warning to listen to one’s conscience, to employ the measure of wisdom given by God, and to be deliberate. Some will (undoubtedly) accuse me of hypocrisy here, but the simple fact of the matter is this: I do not act without warrant and I know precisely what I am doing. And to be clear: This warning is not intended to be at all self-serving; rather, I wish to save from sin those with ears to hear. Lastly, you are still beholden, even on social media, to give your Christian brothers the benefit of the doubt. If you know a man to be a solid Christian and he says something that seems off to you: Ask him about it — have him clarify. Conduct yourself as a child of God.

Witch Tests and Skinsuits

And now let us step back and look at the larger picture: What is actually being done by those who loudly demand that we “Repent, and believe the Gospel.” and why does this tactic work on so many? There are two related concepts we must address here: the witch test and the skinsuit. A witch test, in essence, is a specific sort of shibboleth; it is a test, of some sort, that is designed to detect someone who does not belong (hence being a shibboleth) and is seeking to subvert (hence a witch). Witch tests can be very useful, but they can easily be overused and can be actively harmful in the wrong hands. A witch test applied in the wrong way or at the wrong time can yield a false negative, thereby shielding the unidentified witch from further scrutiny. And some witch tests can become overused and, consequently, ineffective. A witch test that witches can pass is of little value. And this is where the skinsuit enters the picture.

Every single Sunday, the demon oppressed and even the demon possessed commune in Christian churches. There was a time when such communing was met with swift retribution from the Lord, but there were also Apostles in those days who could raise the dead back to life. For reasons that are His own, and into which we should not too deeply pry, God has significantly scaled back such miracles. And so, no, the Sacrament will not inevitably or invariably identify for you the possessed — the demons these days do not recoil and cry out as did Legion. And yet some think catchphrases and snippets of Scripture — “Christ is King.”, “Repent, and believe the Gospel.” — will avail where the body of Christ will not. Demons quote Scripture all the time. They tell you ‘God is love.’ (1 John 4:8), and then push you to affirm homosexual ‘marriage’. They tell you ‘judge not’ (Matthew 7:1), and then push you to approve the sins of others, thereby becoming party to them and condemning yourself. They tell you ‘love your enemies’ (Matthew 5:44), and then push you to join hands with God’s enemies⁵ and sell your patrimony for economic promises (a dollar-denominated virtual bowl of soup).

Demons both serve at and commune at your altars. Do you really think you are going to identify and repulse them with random contextless snippets of Scripture? They wear your religion as a skinsuit (Matthew 7:15) and you further cheapen it by treating the Word of God like a toy or a fetish. Worse, so very many treat Scripture in precisely the same way the demons do: ripping it out of context to wield it as a bludgeon against Christians. At least the demons have a plan and a goal; many Christians abuse God’s Word and attack their brothers (even if in error) for nothing more than ‘likes’. In both cases, Satan wins, the Church is harmed, and bystanders are hardened or misled. It is bad enough when a witch test can no longer identify witches, but it is so much worse when the test becomes a tool of the very witches it was meant to identify. If you teach your enemies how to say the word or perform the action correctly, then your former shibboleth becomes a potential liability.

There is a meme that has been making the rounds that plays on an inherent ambiguity in (at least some) languages: space billionaires. Depending on how you read “space” (as a noun or adjective or as a verb), the statement says one of two very different things. The same holds for the witch test: As a compound noun, it is a tool for detecting malefactors; as a paired adjective and noun, it becomes a tool of the witches themselves. All the clapping seals that replied to my post with Mark 1:15 (or similar) accomplished nothing but weakening the utility of that particular witch test and giving the demons cover. A few of the more malicious quote tweets (the very subversives, infiltrators, and malefactors I was highlighting) got hundreds of likes, but that clear signal was drowned out in a sea of supposed Christians seizing the opportunity to serve the ends of Hell for thirty molecules of dopamine.

Conclusion

Perhaps the greatest irony in all of this is that I now find myself in a position where I could in clean conscience and with perfect warrant tell some number of thousands of men: Repent, and believe the Gospel. We are not playing a game. There are no matters more serious than these and to treat them with the sort of levity verging on contempt that was (and still is) on full parade in my notifications is unconscionable, and certainly beneath anything that could reasonably be called Christian.

There is nothing inherently wrong with saying “Christ is King.” or “Repent, and believe the Gospel.” — in fact, I affirm the accuracy and propriety of both —, but such things must be done in context at the proper time and in the proper way. Using the latter phrase as a cudgel against another Christian with whom you disagree politically is sin, and I would advise you to find a mirror. We live in a time of great apostasy, wolves in sheep’s clothing, false believers wearing skinsuits, and demons wearing still more literal ones; it is time to put away childish things, take matters seriously, and act in, with, and according to wisdom, not according to Skinner box⁶ rewards. Satan is fighting a war of annihilation; Christians are shooting each other in the back and providing cover for spies, saboteurs, and assassins. With friends and allies like these.