Repentance Has Gone Missing

Just a few days ago a friend of mine related a story about his encounter with the leadership of his church.   Rob (not his real name) had expressed concern with the problem of “Christians” among the fellowship who were cohabiting without benefit of marriage. Rob wanted the leaders to take some kind of action. Specifically he wanted them to lovingly speak the truth of this sin and its dangers to these young couples. He was shocked beyond belief by the leaders’ response. They indicated they were not interested in preaching against sin. But rather they were all about preaching Jesus, and wanted to just preach the gospel and not be judgmental in anyway.  

I suspect, sadly, that this attitude is prevalent in thousands of churches in our day. And I am not speaking solely of the mainline (sidelined and slipping) churches, but of all Christian churches in general.  

Just how important is the teaching or repentance in the scripture? First, let’s note that Jesus began his ministry with the call to repentance. The apostolic preaching in the book of Acts frequently includes the call to repent. The church down through the centuries has carefully guarded the truth that repentance is part of the ministry of preaching the good news of Jesus.  J. Edwin Orr insisted that, “repentance is the first word of the gospel.” Martin Luther strongly called Christians to repent as part of their daily walk with God.  General William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, warned that one of the chief dangers of the twentieth century would be the offering of forgiveness without repentance.

I lament that we live in a time when we see much decline in the churches. I think that one of the clear reasons for this decline is the loss of this very basic teaching of repentance. On every hand we see a growing and blatant apostasy in many mainline churches.  But we need to see there is another apostasy at work, quieter perhaps, but no less dangerous.  Far too many Christians in the conservative churches, yes even some Evangelicals, are neglecting, and abandoning certain basic truths of scripture. 

For the next week or so this blog will explore, just how this doctrine has been lost and how it can be recovered. And yes, it can be recovered and the church can be made strong again. The church can and will find herself, reforming her own reformation by God’s help and leading.  May God help us all to move in that direction. And soon, please God.