User:Danielledeluca/sandbox

'''Repentance (Christianity) article building on. So we are going to end up pretty much just adding onto the end.''' Emanuel Swedenborg, and Jonathan S. Rose explain how repentance in the church as a whole is used to take away the serious evils that God cannot overlook. Swedenborg and Rose explain how “acts of repentance include any and all actions that result in our not willing, and consequently not doing, evil things that are sins against God.”  For repentance to be achievable one must think of it using their will or real self and the thinking must be done by their will. Swedenborg and Rose refer to John the Baptist to describe how he was performing baptism of repentance. John the Baptist would preach repentance along with the other disciples and the Lord himself along with performing the baptisms. If people repented then their sins were forgiven and they were welcomed into the church. However, Protestant Christians don’t believe in repentance but contrition because they believe repentance creates a desire for merit which ruins faith. Contrition is fear of God’s justified anger and the fear of eternal damnation. Contrition is the belief that people are born into sin and head towards sin facing God’s wrath and people deserve eternal death. Contrition came up to replace repentance to move away from the Roman Catholics (60-64). Protestants believe oral confession alone does not count as repentance.

Witvliet, Charlotte, Hinman, and Exline explains how repentance is about leading to salvation not regret in the Heidelberg catechism which believes repentance is the dying of the old self with sins and being coming into a new life with full faith in God. Not sure how to work this in yet. However, it is a description of repentance in a sense of a group. So maybe before bringing up contrition.