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REPENTING OF UNBELIEF Many brethren enjoy spreading around silly little half truths like "repentance is turning from unbelief to belief," as if that's ALL that happens when a sinner repents. That's NOT all that happens, according to II Corinthians 5:17, which says, "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." That's MORE than just turning from unbelief to belief. It STARTS with a simple turning from unbelief to belief, but when it's real, it's of the Holy Spirit, and a new life will follow with "fruits meet for repentance" (Mat. 3:8). Sure, one is salvation and the other is sanctification, but BOTH DO HAPPEN. The first time fruit is mentioned in the New Testament (Mat. 3:8), it is connected with repentance in the context. Beware of anyone who ignores this connection and attempts to redefine a sinner's repentance as being a mere profession of belief without any matching fruit ("meet for repentance").The saints from the old Philadelphia church period never believed in this shallow definition of repentance. This whole business of redefining repentance came about mostly after 1960 when Laodicean fundamentalism wanted to reap the same kind of harvest as her older sister Philadelphia, but couldn't due to the stony ground that most of the world had become, especially America. So empty believism was born, a deceptive wile of the devil that assures a sinner that he's saved by merely repeating an empty prayer, even though he feels no conviction for his sins and has no intention of turning from them. This is little more than Dark Age Roman Catholic indulgences repackaged for fundamentalism. Beware! A vain profession and an empty prayer saves no one. JESUS saves, and when he does, lives are changed. That's why he said, "Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them." (Mat. 7:20).