R.A. Torrey's Repentance Heresy
by David J. Stewart | May 2016
One of the greatest religious leaders of the early 20th century was Reuben
Archer Torrey (1856-1928). He was commonly known as “R.A. Torrey,”
an American evangelist, pastor, educator, and writer. Called by Dwight L.
Moody to head Bible institute in Chicago (now Moody Bible Institute).
Certainly, Dwight Moody was a mighty man and preacher, and I recognize him as
a hero of the Christian faith. My favorite of all the Moody Memorial Church
pastors was Harry A. Ironside (1876-1951). Dr. Ironside pastored Moody
Memorial Church between 1930-1948. Dr. Torrey joined Dwight L. Moody in his
evangelistic work in Chicago in 1889, and became superintendent of the Bible
Institute of the Chicago Evangelization Society (now Moody Bible Institute).
Dr. R.A. Torrey was unquestionably sincere, but as all men, he was imperfect in his theology. I have never found one man, neither living or dead, who was without some doctrinal error. Only God's Words are infallible, perfect, inspired, inerrant and divinely preserved. I believe those divinely inspired preserved words to be the King James Bible for the English-speaking world.
Having said that, I must expose what I believe to be doctrinal error in R.A. Torrey's “WHAT THE BIBLE TEACHES,” in which he states:
“II. What Is Repentance?
(1) THE ETYMOLOGY OF THE WORD USED:
The primary thought of the Hebrew word translated 'repent' in the Old Testament is, to pant, to sigh, to groan, and so to lament, to grieve, to grieve about one's doing. ... The Greek word in the New Testament translated 'repent' means 'To change one's mind.'
The same Greek word is used in the LXX for the Hebrew word mentioned above. So its New Testament meaning is to be determined by this Old Testament usage. There is another Greek word used in the New Testament five times and translated 'repent.' This word means, 'it is a care to one afterwards,' —i.e., it 'repents one.' This word is also used in the LXX for the Hebrew word mentioned above. The thought of both sorrow and change of purpose is in the words.”
SOURCE: Dr. R.A. Torrey; “What The Bible Teaches,” pp. 353; ©1898, Fleming H. Revell Company.
Contrary to what many believers have wrongly been taught, the “Septuagint” is of the Devil. The word “Septuagint” means “70” (or Roman Numeral “LXX”). Between the Old and New Testament, allegedly 70 scholars translated the Old Testament Hebrew into Greek, but this is a myth. The “Septuagint” (LXX) Is A Hoax! Beware Of The Septuagint, Which Is Corrupted Alexandrian Text (it was fabricated in Alexandria, Egypt). The King James Bible is based upon the Masoretic Hebrew text.
Evangelist David W. Daniel's exposes the fraudulent Septuagint:
But do we Christians need the Alexandrian manuscripts? Not at all! For the Old Testament we have the Preserved Words of God in the Hebrew Masoretic text. For the New Testament we have the 5,000-plus manuscripts in Greek, plus the many early translations spread abroad, to witness to the actual words of Christ and His apostles.
So the Septuagint story is a hoax. It was not written before Christ; so it was not used by Jesus or His apostles. It is the only set of manuscripts to include the Apocrypha mixed in with the books of the Bible, so as to justify the Roman Catholic inclusion of them in their Bibles. And it is just those same, perverted Alexandrian codices—the same ones that mess up the New Testament—dressed up in pretty packaging.
Let's stick to our preserved Bible, the King James Bible in English, and leave the Alexandrian perversions alone.
SOURCE: Dr. David W. Daniel's; What Is The Septuagint?.
Dr. Torrey gets into hot water doctrinally with the following embellishment of the word “repent”:
“In the usage of the words the thought of regret, and the thought of change of purpose and action, are both found; but the emphasis is upon the change of purpose and action, especially in the first New Testament word mentioned above. In our day there is a danger of underestimating the importance of sorrow for sin. Sorrow for sin is not repentance, but it is an element in repentance. What the repentance or change of mind is about must be determined by the context. Repentance for sin is such a sorrow for sin or abhorrence of sin, such a change of mind about it, as leads the sinner to turn away from it with all his heart.”
SOURCE: Dr. R.A. Torrey; “What The Bible Teaches,” pp. 355; ©1898, Fleming H. Revell Company.
That is heresy!!! Dr. Torrey is wrong on the subject of repentance. It is a false Gospel to tell unsaved people that they must feel “sorrow” for their sins to be saved. This is the English meaning of the word repent, not the Biblical Greek meaning. Mr. Torrey foolishly attempts to embellish the meaning of repentance from being “a change of mind” to being “a change of life,” by overlaying the New Testament with the Old Testament. That's like comparing green beans to coconuts. The word “repent” in the Old Testament is never used concerning salvation. The word “repent” is mentioned 45 times in the Old Testament. At least 40 of those times, repent refers to God and not man. That fact speaks volumes!!! There is no connection between the word “repent” and salvation in the Old Testament.
The only requirement to BELIEVE THE GOSPEL is to repent (think
differently) about whatever has been hindering you from believing the Gospel.
A person is born-again the very moment that they BELIEVE. 1st Corinthians
1:21, “For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God,
it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them
that believe.” The idea of turning away from sins as a
prerequisite to placing one's faith in the Gospel is totally unbiblical. You
cannot show me even one mention in the Holy Bible that says to “turn from
sins” or “repent of sins” to be saved. This includes the Old Testament.
In nearly every mention of the word “repent” in the Old Testament, it is God
that is God doing the repenting, not man.
Deep Sorrow for Sin, Regret and Hatred of it, are Not Requirements to Believe the Gospel
The idea of repentance being a deep sorrow for sin, and regret over past actions, and a purpose to turn away from it, is not a requirement to receive the free gift of God, which is eternal life. The following is heresy taught by Dr. Torrey, the same wrong meaning of repentance as espoused by Roman Catholicism...
“Repentance for sin is such a sorrow for sin or abhorrence of sin, such a change of mind about it, as leads the sinner to turn away from it with all his heart.”
SOURCE: Dr. R.A. Torrey; “What The Bible Teaches,” pp. 355; ©1898, Fleming H. Revell Company.
I do not agree with the unbiblical use of sacraments in the Episcopal Church. However, the following explanation of metanoia by Episcopal Pastor Eli Brayley is superbly written, with which I agree wholeheartedly:
Simply put, metanoia is a word filled with remarkable meaning by the preaching of Christ and the apostles. It is not a word that comes replete with it's own meaning. The English word "repentance", on the other hand, comes filled with it's own meaning - it needs no supplementation by context. Repentance means to feel remorse or regret for your sins; it's Latin root literally means "pain; suffering in view of being liable to punishment". Metanoia has no such meaning associated with it. The word is Greek, and it is made up of two words: meta & nous. Meta means "after" or "change", and nous is the Greek word for "mind". The word means "after-mind" and signifies a change of mind: thinking one way, but then afterwards thinking another. It is the opposite of pronoia (pro-nous) which means before-mind: the mind or thinking you have before. Interestingly, there is another Greek word we frequently use in English that is related to metanoia: it is paranoia (para-nous). Literally, the word means to be beside-mind, or we would say "out of your mind", or "beside yourself". Paranoia is not being in a right mind, but having a mind that is off center - that is, not where it should be (http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=paranoia). If you compare metanoia and paranoia together, you get the idea of what the New Testament call for metanoia is: it is a command to change your mind and get it where it should be.
Of course, metanoia, when used as a command ("change your mind") needs supplementation by context; it needs to be filled with more information because we need to know what we are supposed to change our mind about. It can be something small (metanoia about how to spell "judgment"), to something enormously large (metanoia about your religious worldview). The sky is the limit with metanoia, and that is precisely the point of the remarkable function of the word in the New Testament. It is not restricted, like "repentance", to a narrow meaning of pain and sorrow for sin, which we then have to force unnaturally to fit with the gospel. It is a change of mind unto the gospel itself. The gospel is what the change of mind is about. The preaching of Jesus and the apostles speaks to the nous and men change or don't change their mind as they hear it. When a man changes his mind at the preaching of the gospel, he has experienced metanoia. Thus, the proclamation of metanoia at the beginning of the New Testament is the doorway into the entire rest of the doctrine of the New Testament: Change your mind! About what? Listen! A radical mindshift in the religious world is about to happen... no, it is happening now... What we thought about God and the law and righteousness and forgiveness is all about to change. Hear! Metanoia and believe the gospel!
New Testament metanoia is a divine call to a radical mind-shift in the way men think about religion. Therefore "repentance" is an entirely unsatisfactory translation of the amazing word "metanoia" which gives a completely different feeling to the preaching of Jesus and His apostles. Was the major proclamation of Jesus and the apostles "Repent! Feel sorry for your sins"? Or was it "Metanoia! Think a new way"! Do you see what a difference these two words make? Which one is in keeping with the gospel of grace as we know it from the New Testament? Not the first, but the second. The gospel calls us to a new way of thinking about religion. Whereas men think that they are good, and that obedience to the law is the way of salvation, and that the law only requires partial obedience, and that most people won't perish, Jesus calls us to believe that there is none good, and that no one will be saved by obedience to the law, because the law requires perfect obedience, and that broad is the road that leads to destruction. The apostles call us to believe that the cross of Christ is the power and the wisdom of God, the only way whereby we are saved, and live, through faith, while the world thinks that the cross is foolishness. Which word best summarizes this kind of preaching: "repent", or "metanoia"? Certainly not the first, but the second.
SOURCE: The Great Meaning Of Metanoia
Amen, that is 100% accurate and Biblical.
In sharp contrast, Dr. R.A. Torrey does what false prophets typically do. That is, he begins by making a true statement, but then subtly builds from that truthfully statement an entire system of falsehood and heresy. Dr. Torrey begins by defining repentance correctly as “a change of mind,” but then Pastor Torrey makes the following heretical, exaggerated, false claim:
“In the usage of the words the thought of regret, and the thought of change of purpose and action, are both found; but the emphasis is upon the change of purpose and action, especially in the first New Testament word mentioned above. In our day there is a danger of underestimating the importance of sorrow for sin. Sorrow for sin is not repentance, but it is an element in repentance. What the repentance or change of mind is about must be determined by the context. Repentance for sin is such a sorrow for sin or abhorrence of sin, such a change of mind about it, as leads the sinner to turn away from it with all his heart.”
SOURCE: Dr. R.A. Torrey; “What The Bible Teaches,” pp. 355; ©1898, Fleming H. Revell Company.
Dr. Torrey wrongly assumes that repentance is a change of mind about sinful bad habits. That is the English understanding of what it means to “repent,” not the Greek word “metanoia.” Effectively, R.A. Torrey is teaching the heresy of Lordship Salvation.
We are Saved by God's Imputed
Righteousness by Faith Alone
But we do read in Genesis 15:6 that Abraham's faith was imputed (counted) for righteousness. Genesis 15:6, “And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.” This is the Gospel. The Gospel is not predicated by turning away from sinful behavior as Dr. Torrey errantly teaches. I mean no unkindness to Dr. Torrey, but the Gospel as defined in the Bible does not require forsaking the world, ceasing from sinful bad habits, nor following Jesus as the “Lord” of one's life. None of these constitute the Gospel.
As appealing as R.A. Torrey's teachings on repentance may be, the Biblical doctrine of IMPUTATION exposes Mr. Torrey as a false prophet. Romans 4:5-6, “But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works.” The word “counted” in Romans 4:5 comes from the same exact Greek word, logizomai, as “impute” in verse 6. A man's faith is IMPUTED for righteousness!!! This totally leaves out the concept of turning away from sins to be saved.
Granted, the entire reason for God saving a man is to liberate him from the chains of sin, and the power of darkness. Colossians 1:13, “Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son.” God saves believers UNTO GOOD WORKS, not BY GOOD WORKS. Ephesians 2:10, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”
Please don't get the wrong idea that
I think Christians have God's permission to live in habitual sin, because we
don't (Romans 3:31); but if a believer does choose to live in deliberate sin,
their eternal security is not in jeopardy (as Evangelists Ray Comfort and Paul
Washer falsely teach). This is why there are two separate judgments: one for
believers (2nd Corinthians 5:9-11) and another for unbelievers
(Revelation 20:11-15). Jesus died for our sins on the cross. We've been bought
with a price, and that “price” is the precious blood of Jesus. 1st
Corinthians 6:20, “For ye are bought with a price: therefore
glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.”
If you are a born-again believer, you completely belong to God. We ought to
live for the Lord as believers. However, regardless of how we choose to live
our life, eternal life is a free gift. The two are not related.
Salvation and Discipleship are two separate matters.
Confessing Christ is Not Necessary for Salvation
It is gross theological incompetence
for Bible teachers to
turn Romans
10:9 into a requirement to be saved. Of all the hundreds of references in
the New Testament to believing the Gospel to be saved, only once in Romans
10:9 do we read anything about “confession” being related to salvation. I have
found umpteen websites which require “confessing 'Jesus is Lord'” to be saved.
This is a false Gospel. Whereas the King James Bible correctly says, “That
if though shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus,” the corrupted New
International Version (NIV) says, “That if you confess with your mouth,
'Jesus is Lord'.” This is the corrupted Alexandrian text of Satan. The
Bible does not require declaring Jesus as one's Lord to be saved. This is
works. Many of today's preachers are caught between grace and works.
The Bible gives us clear evidence that it is possible to BELIEVE THE GOSPEL and still refuse to confess Christ. This plainly teaches us that salvation does not require confession. Romans 10:9 is often taken out of context. It is improper Bible exegesis to lift a Bible verse out of context and base a doctrine of just one passage of Scripture.
John 12:42-43, “Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue: For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.” Anybody who teaches that a person must “confess Jesus” to be saved is teaching heresy. The chief rulers who believed were saved, but “THEY DID NOT CONFESS HIM” (John 12:43-43).
