We preach today "let Jesus into your heart," or "receive Christ," or "you must be born again to be saved." The term "born again" does not appear even once in the Book of Acts or in any of the Epistles of Paul.

The Apostles preached none of these things. They preached the need to repent, to change our behavior. We really are unscriptural in many of the things we are preaching today.

Repent, then, and turn to God, so your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, (Acts 3:19 NIV)

Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord. Perhaps he will forgive you for having such a thought in your heart. (Acts 8:22 NIV)

In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. (Acts 17:30 NIV)

First to those in Damascus, then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and to the Gentiles also, I preached that they should repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds. (Acts 26:20 NIV)

"Prove their repentance by their deeds"! This is contrary to most of what is preached in our time.

I wonder if we should be preaching repentance instead of "let Jesus into your heart"? It is clear that forgiveness and eternal life, as preached in the Book of Acts, were associated with repentance.

Repentance is not feeling sorry for our sins. This is not what repentance is. Repentance is not the confession of our sins. Repentance is not doing penance because of our sins.

Repentance is an act of will, a changing from the direction we are going, a change from wicked behavior to righteous behavior.

In my opinion, this is what the Lord Jesus preached to the spirits in prison. Could they then turn from their wickedness and receive the forgiveness of Christ? If not, what was the purpose of preaching to them? To remind them that they deserved to be in prison? That doesn't sound like God to me. How are they any worse than us?

Here you have several million spirits in prison for thousands of years, unable to go anywhere or do anything of interest, and then Jesus Christ is going to preach to them about how terrible they are? I seriously doubt it.

I think we Christians have a mythological concept of the spirit realm. I think we picture everyone going to Heaven when he or she dies, there to walk on streets of gold and live in a splendid mansion, or else being cast into the deepest Hell, there to be tormented for a season and finally cast into the Lake of Fire.

I don't believe this viewpoint tells the whole story.

I think when we go to the spirit realm we will be placed in an area where there are others of like spiritual attainment, there to either be instructed or else to wait for the Day of the Lord. Without doubt some will be ushered immediately into the flames.

We know the rich man is in Hell. We know there are souls waiting under the altar. We know there are people already chosen to be kings who are waiting until they have the opportunity to return to earth. We know some will come out of the great tribulation dressed in white robes. They will stand before God and serve Him in His temple. Others will be standing on the sea of glass mixed with fire, singing the song of Moses and the Lamb.

To be continued.