---
title: Acts 3:19
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/acts-3-19/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/acts-3-19.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Acts 3:19
testament: NT
section: Acts
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Acts 3:19

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> Repent, then, and turn back, so that your sins may be wiped away,

## JW Usage

JWs read Acts 3:19 as a call to repentance that unlocks Jehovah's provisional mercy, to be maintained through ongoing law-obedience, field service, and loyalty to the organisation. The "blotting out of sins" is understood as conditional rather than a completed act.

## Protestant Usage

The Greek verb Peter uses for "blotted out" is ἐξαλείφω (exaleiphō) — the same verb Paul uses in Colossians 2:14 for "erasing the handwritten document" of our trespasses, and Isaiah 43:25 in the LXX for "I am he who blots out your transgressions." Every use is about total, decisive sin-erasure, not provisional standing. The picture is a tablet wiped clean, ink lifted off papyrus, a debt note struck through. Acts 3:19 promises this to those who "repent and turn around" — the same pair of verbs Paul uses in Acts 20:21 ("repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus"). If the debt has been *blotted out*, it is not a debt the organisation can re-impose with fresh ink. The cancellation is complete. The fruit of that cancellation is a transformed life — not a probation under new decrees.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [The Certificate of Debt — Erased, Not Replaced](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/certificate-of-debt-nailed.md) — Colossians 2:13-15 [Salvation]