6 Reasons Why Repentance is Missing Today

I know that I’m not the only one who has noticed the teaching of repentance is largely missing in our churches today.  Since our evangelical ancestors made much of it in their preaching and teaching, we do well to ask ourselves why there is so little focus on it in our time. 

For starters I am offering the following six reasons that seek to explain its demise in Christian circles today. My plan is simply to lay out these points in a somewhat stark format and then expand on them in the days to come.

1.       I believe there is widespread ignorance of what the term actually means. This should not surprise us since doctrinal teaching in the churches has been de-emphasized over a period of many decades

  

2.       I think that some teachers and preachers have concluded that repentance is opposed   to grace. And since grace for them is the primary teaching of the Bible, they are loathe to muddy the waters by also speaking of repentance. 

3.       In order for repentance to make sense as a teaching the pastor has to be willing to treat the wider issue of what constitutes sin. And in an age of rampant ethical relativism the whole concept of sin itself is largely rejected by the broader culture.

4.       The preaching of repentance smacks of judgmentalism.  And our society hates with a passion anybody who dares to pass judgment on its actions.  Likewise, the preacher bristles at the mere idea that he might be perceived as passing judgment on anybody.

5.       The preaching of repentance does not fit in with the seeker sensitive mentality found in many churches today.   In such churches the leaders design everything to appeal to newcomers so they will return.

6.       To boldly preach repentance means taking a stand against popular sins that are culturally accepted and many leaders simply do not have the stomach to confront people in the pew, or the people who make up our society.

YES WE MUST BE OPEN TO THE CULTURE, BUT NO...we cannot baptize sin

Last night I was at a meeting here in Guelph in which we were talking about how Christians can more effectively communicate the good news of Jesus. In a DVD shown the speaker pointed out that a great many Christians today are without knowing it, longing for a better past, kind of a golden era when Christian values were generally more accepted. He added that some Christians see the present culture, and its values as so anti-God that believers are actually angry and hostile at the culture in general.

I think, in part, the speaker is on the money. If believers are angry, contemptuous and hostile toward a culture they are seeking to witness to and win to Christ there is a fundamental problem. Now don't get me wrong, God help us not to fall into the error of being soft on sin and so tolerant and compassionate that we end up being more tolerant than Christ. But on the other hand, it simply will not do to so live and so speak that people only hear condemnation and judgment from our words and lives. Someone much more holy than us mastered this kind of living and speaking. For Jesus was not soft on sin, but somehow he communicated love not condemnation. God help us to learn from him. For there is error on either side of the road. Those who want to speak only of love, compassion and tolerance are also very much in error...for they are prone to leave out the truth about sin and God's hatred of it, and the result is that they are apt to baptize sin and make it virtuous when God has spoken otherwise.

This topic is made more complex by the fact that in several places in scripture Christians are commanded to 'hate that which is evil, and to hold fast to that which is good". We also know that there is such a thing as righteous anger. Who can contemplate the vile actions of pimps for example who seduce young women, or rape them, and then blackmail them into a life of prostitution. Such vileness causes in me a well of righteous anger, and I do believe that God would approve.

We must guard our soul against a generalized anger and contempt toward our culture. Certainly one aspect of such guarding is to love and exercise compassion both for sinners and sinned against, to see all people as lost sheep in need of a shepherd. Jesus modelled such love to both Zacchaeus, the hated tax collector, and as well, to the Samaritan woman. Both of these people would have been considered the dregs of society...but Jesus made it a point to reach out to them with his wonderful good news. We too by his power can and must love the people in our culture without baptizing their sins. And we must find ways of communicating that love.

I am aware that there are some so rebellious against God and truth who will insist that all judging between "right' and "wrong" is in itself an act of hate. Such libertines would do away with all right and wrong if they could, and in the meantime they malign and slander truth for their own ends. I do not say that we will convince them of their error, but we must try, and even with these, seek to do so with a gracious spirit.