Where In The Bible Will I Find:

Non-Christians Repenting Of Their Sins?

It is believed by some that non-Christians, that is, people who have not obeyed the gospel, are not required to repent of their sins but are only to "repent." They claim that only sinners are to repent toward God. Jesus came to save sinners (I Tim. 1:15), and said, "...I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance" (Mark 2:17).

Since He called sinners to repentance, then they were required to repent of their sins. Not only did Jesus call sinners to repentance but so did John the Baptist and the Disciples of Christ. John the Baptist came "preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins" (Luke 3:3), and Jesus said to His disciples, "...that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem" (Luke 24:46-47).

Everyone must know that in turning "to" God, they would have to turn "from" sin. The apostle Peter had no problem in requiring alien sinners to repent, "Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord" (Acts 3:19). To have their sins blotted out they had to repent, turn, do an about face, be converted (changed), for this is what repentance does, Peter was the first preacher that converted the household of a Gentile.

On relating this story to the brethren at Jerusalem, "...they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life" (Acts 11:18). Cornelius, a Gentile, and all his house, heard "words" from Peter on what to do in order to be saved, believed, obeyed, repented of their sins, and then by being immersed in water for the remission of their sins they were added by the Lord to His church (Acts 10:47-48; 2:47).

Both alien Jews and Gentiles were, and are, required to repent of their sins. Paul, "Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ" (Acts 20:21). Paul's defense before king Agrippa, was that he "...shewed first unto them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judaea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance" (Acts 26:20).

He knew that both alien Jews and Gentiles must repent of their sins before they could be immersed into Christ and become members of His body, the church. The prophet Isaiah said, "But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear" (Isa, 59:2). God, here, makes it plain that everyone must repent of their sins before coming to Him, because He does not bear the prayers of sinners (John 9:31). This is why Jesus sent out the twelve, "And they went out, and preached that men should repent" (Mark 6:12). All must still do the same today.