The Greek words for repent in New Testament are μετανοέω and μεταμεληθεὶς which mean "I change my mind". The Hebrew word for repent is שׁוּב, which mean "to turn back, return".
When I was in secondary two, I had a Buddhist friend and a Christian friend. One day they decided to have a debate about the six-day creation. I was asked to be the judge. After reading the first chapter of the Bible, I felt that if there is a true God that created the heavens and the earth, the God in Genesis chapter one fits the bill. This is repentance. I changed my mind about God. I think if there is a God, that is what He should be like. But this is not a repentance to salvation because I did not accept that there is a God. I just say, "If there is a God."
In the year 1973 on the first day of the second month, I was walking outside the squash court, a friend sitting on a bench called to me. He spoke to me about Jesus and somehow, I accepted Jesus as my savior and prayed the sinner's prayer. After that, I kept saying to myself, "Now I am a Christian" although I don't have a Bible and did not attend any church. I just joined my school's Christian fellowship every Wednesday before the start of school. This is Repentance with a capital R. I made a decision to accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior. I changed my mind and changed my direction toward Jesus although at that moment, I knew very little. I always mark this day as my new birth.
Despite being a Christian, I still have very little knowledge and I remembered disagreeing with one verse in the Bible, Isaiah 64:6. When I read that "all our righteousness are as filthy rags", I said, "How can that be? What about people like Confucius and Mencius? Is their righteousness also filthy rags?" I cannot accept that. Somewhere down the road, another repentance occurred. I realized that the Bible is always right. The righteousness of Confucius and Mencius are indeed filthy rags. But there was no marker to date this change. It must have been a gradual process.
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