REPENT, AND TURN YOURSELVES FROM ALL YOUR TRANSGRESSIONS…

The Living God Grants Sinners To Repent Contradicting The Double Predestination of Calvin’s Lie!

by Dr. Othello O. Caturan __________________

JEREMIAH 3:12-15,20-23“[11] And the LORD said unto me, The backsliding Israel hath justified herself more than treacherous Judah.

[12] Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the LORD; and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you: for I am merciful, saith the LORD, and I will not keep anger for ever.

[13] Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the LORD thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the LORD.

[14] Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion:

[15] And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding. ”

“[20] Surely as a wife treacherously departeth from her husband, so have ye dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, saith the LORD.

[21] A voice was heard upon the high places, weeping and supplications of the children of Israel: for they have perverted their way, and they have forgotten the LORD their God.

[22] Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings. Behold, we come unto thee; for thou art the LORD our God.

[23] Truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills, and from the multitude of mountains: truly in the LORD our God is the salvation of Israel “ JEREMIAH 3:20-23

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The book of Jeremiah is God’s display of His pleading and longing for His people to come back and return to fellowship with the LORD.This book is the evidence that God loves sinners and that He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked.He is the living God who will not stop loving sinners even though He knows by divine foreknowledge that people are obstinate and stiff-necked in the depths of their wickedness and provocation against the thrice holy God of the holy Scripture. This book is the absolute judgment of God against Calvinism that teaches a false doctrine that God of the Bible issued a decree in the eternity past to send people to eternal damnation for His good pleasure and purpose.

God in His omniscience and infinite wisdom knows that His chosen people Israel and Judah will not repent and return to Him but still He sent the prophet Jeremiah to be His spokesman that judgment is going to come by way of the Babylonian invasion leading to 70 years captivity. For 40 years prophet Jeremiah was proclaiming repentance to God’s chosen people for them to repent and return to God.The prophet must proclaim the words of the Lord against His people for them to repent and forsake their wicked ways.It must be pleading with God’s loving-kindness and compassion for His people.

Here is God’s pleading through prophet Jeremiah to the unrepentant chosen people, Israel and Judah:

JEREMIAH 2: 4-9: “[4] Hear ye the word of the LORD, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel:

[5] Thus saith the LORD, What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain?

[6] Neither said they, Where is the LORD that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, that led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and of pits, through a land of drought, and of the shadow of death, through a land that no man passed through, and where no man dwelt?

[7] And I brought you into a plentiful country, to eat the fruit thereof and the goodness thereof; but when ye entered, ye defiled my land, and made mine heritage an abomination.

[8] The priests said not, Where is the LORD? and they that handle the law knew me not: the pastors also transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things that do not profit.

[9] Wherefore I will yet plead with you, saith the LORD, and with your children’s children will I plead.”

“[6] The LORD said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? she is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlot.

[7] And I said after she had done all these things, Turn thou unto me. But she returned not. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it.

[8] And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also.

[9] And it came to pass through the lightness of her whoredom, that she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and with stocks.

[10] And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah hath not turned unto me with her whole heart, but feignedly, saith the LORD.

[11] And the LORD said unto me, The backsliding Israel hath justified herself more than treacherous Judah.

[12] Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the LORD; and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you: for I am merciful, saith the LORD, and I will not keep anger for ever.

[13] Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the LORD thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the LORD.

[14] Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion:

[15] And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.” JEREMIAH 3:6-15

JEREMIAH 25:27-32, “[27] Therefore thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Drink ye, and be drunken, and spue, and fall, and rise no more, because of the sword which I will send among you.

[28] And it shall be, if they refuse to take the cup at thine hand to drink, then shalt thou say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Ye shall certainly drink.

[29] For, lo, I begin to bring evil on the city which is called by my name, and should ye be utterly unpunished? Ye shall not be unpunished: for I will call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, saith the LORD of hosts.

[30] Therefore prophesy thou against them all these words, and say unto them, The LORD shall roar from on high, and utter his voice from his holy habitation; he shall mightily roar upon his habitation; he shall give a shout, as they that tread the grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth.

[31] A noise shall come even to the ends of the earth; for the LORD hath a controversy with the nations, he will plead with all flesh; he will give them that are wicked to the sword, saith the LORD.

[32] Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Behold, evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great whirlwind shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth.”

God be the judge in our lives should be the dictum of living in this world- at least to those who are advocates of Biblical Christianity. Truly the God of the Bible is full of absolute intolerance to sin and super objective in all things even beyond man’s aggressive reasoning. He is judgmental because He is the Eternal judge and knows all of what is right and wrong.

He can not be otherwise because the Biblical portrayal of the God of the Bible is that He is the Eternal Judge : nobody can escape and hide from His absolute judgments in all the ways of people. Psalm 50: 1-6- “ The mighty God, even the Lord, hath spoken, and called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof. Out Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined. Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him. He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may judge his people. Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice. And the heavens shall declare his righteousness: for God is judge Himself. Selah.”

Transgressions and iniquity will go together and the end result and consequence would be death saith the Lord. This death is not only physical death but eternal death in the lake of fire. Romans 6:23; Revelation 20:12-15 But in His absolute judgments against people, He has no pleasure in the death of the wicked. Ezekiel 33:11–“ Say unto them, As I live, saith the LORD GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will you die, O house of Israel?” God longs for people to repent and change from their wicked ways. This is the other side of God as a loving and a merciful God. Nonetheless, God is longing for sinful Israel to repent and actually turn from the former ways. God in His longing heart is conveying the message: “Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin.”

Repentance is the state of the mind to consider and understand that sin is rebellion against a holy God and His words. This is the bottom line of biblical repentance, even as the Psalmist said: “Because they rebelled against the words of God, and contemned the counsel of the most High: Therefore He brought down their heart with labour; they fell down and there was none to help. Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and be saved them out of their distresses.” Psalm 107: 11-13

The living God of the Scriptures is a pleading and merciful God longing for His people to return to Him in their backsliding situations. “I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed thee.” Isaiah 44:22 “Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings. Behold, we come unto thee; for thou art the LORD our God.” Jeremiah 3:22 “If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the LORD, return unto me; and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight, then shalt thou not remove.”Jeremiah 4:1

In the New Testament, true repentance leads to bearing fruits of repentance. Listen to John the Baptist rebuking the Jews who came to him to be baptized:” Then said he to the multitude that came forth to be baptized of him, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and begin not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, That God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.” Luke 3: 7-8

No matter how strong and dynamic are our voices to say that we are repenting- but these do not add much and manifest fruits worthy of repentance, then these are just plain hogwash and preposterous, meaningless and empty words. Words can not be invigorated without deeds to match and add up to our talk. Actions or deeds are just simply important to substantiate everything that has been said. The evidence of the claims of faith is the work of faith: for faith without works is dead work the Scripture says.

God will make a new heart by instilling into the man a new Spirit of God once true repentance has been made. Sin is understood and is recognized as the human factor that bars and hinders the flow of God’s blessings. Repentance sets a new tone and atmosphere of living in the presence and sight of God. Without repentance it is impossible for God to make His move to change a person to the path of new life. Repentance leads a person to come to Christ to change for the best- eternal life in Christ.

Let us all be genuine and real in repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ! The LORD JESUS CHRIST in Luke 13:3 deman