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.
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