Gospel Doctrine Commentary
Lesson No. Thirty-Five

The Doctrine of Repentance is Restored in the Book of Mormon

The Prodigal Son  -  Clark Kelley Price

After the death of Jesus and his apostles the true doctrine of repentance was lost – The Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew, and the Hebrew word for repentance is shube. The New Testament was originally written in Greek, and the Greek word for repentance is metaneoeo.  The meaning of both shube and metaneoeo is found in the LDS Bible Dictionary definition of Repentance as “a turning of the heart and will to God.”

Unfortunately, when the New Testament was translated from Greek into Latin the Greek word metaneoeo was translated into a Latin word which means hurting or punishing.  In this way the beautiful meaning of the words shube and metaneoeo, to turn our heart and will to God, was changed and people came to believe that repentance meant punishment.  Then rather than desiring to repent and turn their heart and will to God, people came to fear the word repentance.

The true understanding of the doctrine of repentance is an important contribution of the Book of Mormon – Repentance is one of the primary themes of the Book of Mormon including Samuel the Lamanite in Helaman 13-15.   In the index to the Book of Mormon, both faith and repentance have a full page of references.  This is only exceeded by the number of references to God and Jesus Christ.  The following are examples of how the Book of Mormon teaches the doctrine of repentance with great power:  (Italics are my comments)

Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and repentance are closely related:

  • “And thus he shall bring salvation to all those who shall believe on his name; this being the intent of this last sacrifice, to bring about the bowels of mercy, which overpowereth justice, and bringeth about means unto men that they may have faith unto repentance.  And thus mercy can satisfy the demands of justice, and encircles them in the arms of safety, while he that exercises no faith unto repentance is exposed to the whole law of the demands of justice; therefore only unto him that has faith unto repentance is brought about the great and eternal plan of redemption” (Alma 34: 15-16).  “Faith unto repentance” means our faith in Christ must be sufficiently strong to cause us to repent.
  • “Repentance is more than simply a reformation of behavior.  Many men and women in the world demonstrate great will-power and self-discipline in overcoming bad habits and the weaknesses of the flesh.  Yet at the same time give no thought to the Master, sometimes even openly rejecting Him.  Such changes of behavior, even if in a positive direction, do not constitute true repentance….True repentance is based on and flows from faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.  There is no other way.  True repentance involves a change of heart and not just a change of behavior” (Teaching of Ezra Taft Benson, p. 71).

Repentance is to return to the Lord as originally taught in the Old and New Testaments:

  • “Blessed are they who will repent and turn unto me” (Helaman 13:11).  “Turn to the Lord with all your mind, might, and strength” (Alma 39:12).  This means we recommit ourselves completely to the Lord, holding nothing back.  We commit to him our agency by choosing to be obedient.  It starts with faith in Christ, and as our faith in Christ increases we not only forsake sin but we come to truly abhor it.       
  • “O repent ye, repent ye! Why will ye die?  Turn ye, turn ye unto the Lord your God. Why has he forsaken you” (Helaman 7:17).  The essence of repentance is taught in this short and powerful parallelism.  The call to “repent ye, repent ye” in the first phrase of the first line is further explained and repeated in the first phrase of the second line “turn ye, turn ye to the Lord your God.”  The question in the second phrase of the first line “why will ye die?” is repeated in different words in the second phrase of the second line “Why has he forsaken you?”  In other words, to be forsaken by the Lord is to die spiritually.

The Father gave his Son power to redeem us from our sins on the condition of repentance:

  • “The Lord surely should come to redeem his people, but that he should not come to redeem them in their sins, but to redeem them from their sins.  And he hath power given unto him from the Father to redeem them from their sins because of repentance; therefore he hath sent his angels to declare the tidings of the conditions of repentance, which bringeth unto the power of the Redeemer, unto the salvation of their souls” (Helaman 5:10-11).  We cannot be saved in our sins only from or sins on the condition of repentance. 
  • “But God did call on men, in the name of his Son, (this being the plan of redemption which was laid) saying: If ye will repent, and harden not your hearts, then will I have mercy upon you, through mine Only Begotten Son.  Therefore, whosoever repenteth, and hardeneth not his heart, he shall have claim on mercy through mine Only Begotten Son, unto a remission of his sins; and these shall enter into my rest” (Alma 12:33-34).  According to the plan of salvation established by the Father only those who repent can, through the atonement, receive a remission of their sins.

Repentance is the primary work of this life and is not to be procrastinated:

  • “Yea, I would that ye would come forth and harden not your hearts any longer; for behold, now is the time and the day of your salvation; and therefore, if ye will repent and harden not your hearts, immediately shall the great plan of redemption be brought about unto you.  For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God” (Alma 34:31-32).  It is much easier to repent in this life than to wait until the spirit world.  Overcoming the appetites of the flesh when we have a mortal body makes us strong much faster.

The parable of the Prodigal Son epitomizes our need to repent and the Father’s willingness to forgive – Speaking of this parable Elder Bruce R. McConkie, quoting Frederic Farrar, said:

“Never certainly in human language was so much – such a world of love and wisdom and tenderness – compressed into such few immortal words.  Every line, every touch of the picture is full of beautiful eternal significance… All this is indeed a divine epitome of the wandering of man and the love of God such as no literature has ever equaled, such as no ear of man has ever heard elsewhere” (Mortal Messiah, Vol. 3, The Parable of the Prodigal Son).

Through the atonement, conditioned on our repentance, our Father will say to us as the father in the parable said to the older son:  “Son, thou are ever with me, and all that I have is thine.  It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found” (Luke 15:31-32).