1.<\/strong><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Many people reject the idea of \u201cdeathbed repentance.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The problem with \u201cdeathbed repentance,\u201d as it\u2019s often considered, is that it isn\u2019t really repentance at all<\/em>. \u00a0It\u2019s the cynical calculation \u2014 not infrequently a mis<\/em>calculation, I think \u2014 that one can sin right up until the end and then, when death is imminent, apologize rather insincerely and get a clean bill of spiritual health.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
The goal, obviously, is to have all the putative advantages of a life of sin while narrowly but fully escaping the wages<\/em> of sin, which are spiritual death and damnation.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
But that\u2019s not sincere repentance. \u00a0That\u2019s merely attempting to game the (divine) system, and it\u2019s unlikely to work. \u00a0God isn\u2019t easily fooled.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Truly sincere<\/em> repentance, however, must surely be welcomed by the Lord at any point in a person\u2019s life. \u00a0Even at the very end.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
2.<\/strong><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Incidentally, the word that the King James Version rather misleadingly (for us, anyhow) renders as penny<\/em> is\u00a0\u03b4\u03b7\u03bd\u03ac\u03c1\u03b9\u03bf\u03bd<\/span>\u00a0(Latin\u00a0denarius<\/em>).<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
In\u00a0the period of the late Roman Republic and the early Roman Empire \u2014 i.e., around the time of Jesus \u2014 the small silver coin called the denarius<\/em> was the daily wage for an unskilled laborer or a common soldier. \u00a0The term lived on in the Arab\/Islamic world as the\u00a0dinar<\/em> or, more accurately, the\u00a0d\u012bn\u0101r<\/i><\/span>\u00a0(\u062f\u064a\u0646\u0627\u0631<\/span>), which is still legal tender in such places as Algeria, Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, and Tunisia, as well as in Macedonia and Serbia.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 Matthew 20:1-16 Compare Matthew 19:30; Mark 10:31; Luke 13:30 \u00a0 1. \u00a0 Many people reject the idea of \u201cdeathbed repentance.\u201d \u00a0 I don\u2019t. \u00a0 The problem with \u201cdeathbed repentance,\u201d as it\u2019s often considered, is that it isn\u2019t really repentance at all. \u00a0It\u2019s the cynical calculation \u2014 not infrequently a miscalculation, I think \u2014 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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