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Tag Archives: Repentance

Another Warning

07 Thursday Jan 2021

Posted by Joshua Steely in Contra Mundum

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America, Culture, God, Hope, Repentance, Salvation

Albert Mohler offers some good reflections on the evil of the riot in our nation’s capitol yesterday. It was a grim and tragic moment in American history.

Freedom is good for humanity, and anarchy is just as much an enemy of freedom as is totalitarianism. The corruption of our democratic institutions is no excuse for desecrating them, and assaulting democracy does not lead to human flourishing.

The headlines are one more call to repentance and revival, if we will read them right. Jesus is Lord. The Prince of Peace offers hope, life, and healing. Without Him, we are lost.

Letting God in

11 Tuesday Feb 2020

Posted by Joshua Steely in Contra Mundum

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America, Celebrities, Cultural Engagement, Culture, Faith, Feminism, Holy Spirit, Repentance, Salvation, Sanctification, Sexual Immorality, Sexual Revolution, Society, Truth

One of the performers of the disgraceful Super Bowl half-time show has recently been in the news responding to critics.  Her response was not, of course, apologetic; this is not the sort of thing that one is expected to apologize for in mainstream American culture.  Instead, she defended her behavior, and referred to criticism as “silliness.”

So goes the blithe dismissiveness for those who would object to the objectification of women.

As expected, defense of the performance was based on feminism and appeal to culture: “a celebration of women and our Latino culture.”  Further, we should trust their character: “Both of us are really respectful performers.”  Respectful of what?

But the most interesting statement was this: “that small fraction of people who want to be negative about it, I can’t even let in.”

I think what she means is that she won’t let these critics and their criticism–framed as negativity–into her mind and heart.  She won’t let them impact her perception of herself and what she has done.

That is one of the mantras of the (post)modern pop-therapeutic mindset.  Keep negativity out.  Be yourself, and don’t let others’ judgment impact you.  Well, sometimes this is the right attitude; but other times it’s not.  And, in this case, what is being kept out is, at least in part, the conviction of sin.

We cannot be made whole if we do not let conviction in.  If we close the door against conviction of sin, we close the door against repentance–and ultimately against God’s saving work in our lives.  It is a terrible and tragic thing to resist the Holy Spirit.  This takes discernment, for there are all kinds of messages floating in this world, many of which we must reject.  But we must not reject the message of righteousness, repentance, and healing.

We must let God in.

A List of Acceptable Sins

13 Wednesday Nov 2019

Posted by Joshua Steely in Contra Mundum, Musings, Pro Ecclesia

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Christianity, Church, Cultural Engagement, Evangelicalism, Faith, Gospel, Homosexuality, Jesus Christ, Repentance, Sin, Society, Truth

I have recently encountered a couple of incidents where a selectively ‘inclusive’ welcome was offered to people, and thought they might be worth reflecting on for a minute, because of who was welcomed and who was not.

The first comes from an event held back in October, the second annual “Evolving Faith” conference–which, it appears to me, would probably be more accurately named something like the “Rejecting God” conference.  As reported by Religion News Service:

During the opening session, Christian author and journalist Jeff Chu…welcomed a long list of groups ranging from introverts to the disabled, from the “frozen chosen” to the pansexual, from “you who do sex work to pay the bills,” Chu said, “and (to you) who are clutching your pearls because I just said ‘sex work.’”

“You who doubt, you who struggle, you who feel lost, you are loved.” Chu continued. “Atheists, agnostics, seekers, you are loved.”

Now, I want to make the significant caveat that this is not a full list of who Chu welcomed to the conference, which the report calls “a long list of groups”.  So it may be that they were far more inclusive than the RNS report gives them credit for in what groups it mentions.

But, as far as the RNS report goes, the list of who is welcomed is as significant for who is unmentioned as for who is mentioned.  Perfectly innocuous personality traits, such as introverts, are acknowledged, together with sins such as atheism and sexual immorality–not that the people at Evolving Faith would see these as sins.

And, indeed, even people with a more conservative worldview receive a welcome (of a sort): those who don’t approve of prostitution are given the backhanded welcome of being classified as elitist prudes.  Already the ‘inclusivity’ seems a little thin.

But what about all the sins that the Evolving Faith people would actually consider sinful–apart from the fairly banal ‘sin’ of prudery?  Perhaps they were included, but not mentioned by RNS.  Or perhaps the Evolving Faith welcome didn’t mean to include anything they regarded as sin; given their openness to atheism, the category can hardly apply in any strong sense.

These observations are really only prelude to the more interesting ‘inclusive’ welcome I encountered recently.  The more interesting welcome was found outside the doors of an evangelical church.  A large placard posted on either side of the door welcomed all sorts of people to the church, expressing delight to have them there.

Now, a placard welcoming people to the church is a wonderful thing.  All kinds of people should be welcome in the church.  All kinds of sinners should be welcome to come and be loved and hear the gospel.  But when you begin to list who is welcome, it raises certain difficulties: who do you list, and who do you not list, and what message is being sent?

This church’s placard included numerous innocuous personality characteristics, such as liking lattes or NASCAR.  But it also included a smattering of sins: divorce, homosexuality, gambling, and substance abuse.  Nothing on the placard suggested that they regarded these things as sins, but knowing the church’s institutional affiliation, I think they probably do.

But this is a very interesting selection of sins to include, and it is very interesting to think of some of the sins that aren’t included.  The sins mentioned are all ones you can safely put on a placard without a hint of disapproval, because our culture’s disapproval for them is tenuous at best.  Our culture outright celebrates homosexuality, sees divorce as perfectly permissible, is overall favorable towards gambling, and substantially regards substance abuse as something to be pitied as much as to be condemned.  In short, this is basically a list of socially acceptable sins.

So we may ask, why didn’t the church include more unsavory sins in their ‘inclusive’ welcome?  Why are not white supremacists, child abusers, and rapists welcomed?  Where is the greeting for human traffickers and pedophiles?  Are these not also sinners who need Jesus?

I don’t think that if I sat down with the elders and asked why these groups weren’t on the list, that the honest answer would be “we certainly would have included them if we’d thought of it.”  I think the honest answer would have to be something more like “that would make people uneasy about coming to our church” or “listing those things together with a bunch of innocuous characteristics in a welcome message might suggest that we don’t strongly disapprove of such acts.”  Precisely.

A list of acceptable sins may be good PR, but as far as the message of the church, it either says too little or too much.  As far as the actual radical welcome of the gospel, it says far too little: it is not only socially acceptable sinners, but also radically unacceptable ones, who need Jesus.  But as far as the church’s social stance goes, it says far too much: lumping sins together with neutral differences of preference and personality weakens the prophetic stance of the church in calling sinners to repentance.

The church has a different standard than the world.  We can’t give a list of acceptable sins, because there are no acceptable sins.  Welcoming select sinners sends the wrong message.

The gospel is utterly inclusive of all sins and all sinners, and utterly exclusive, that all who would be saved must come to Jesus Christ in repentance and faith.  Paul says to the church in Corinth:

“Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God?  Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.  And that is what some of you were.  But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor. 6:9-11).

There the gospel declaration and the prophetic witness of the church meet.

Approval vs. Forgiveness

07 Thursday Nov 2019

Posted by Joshua Steely in Contra Mundum, Musings, Theology

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Christianity, Church, Forgiveness, Homosexuality, LGBTQ+, Reconciliation, Repentance, Restoration, Secularism, Sexual Revolution, Sin, Society

I saw an article the other yesterday on a liberal news venue, pushing back against a conservative church’s attempt to influence their community.  Several observations might be made, but one will suffice for the nonce.

One of the reasons this church’s influence is so objectionable to some is the church’s promotion of Christian sexual ethics, particularly their opposition to homosexuality.  Christian sexual ethics are considered intolerant to secular society.  But, interestingly, another objection cited in the article was that the pastor had officiated the marriage of a man who had a different area of sexual immorality in his past, of which he had repented.

That is to say, part of what some people find so offensive about this church is that it does not approve of sexual immorality (of the kind society presently approves), and another part is that the church believes in restoration for people who have engaged in sexual immorality (of the kind society does not [presently] approve).

I think this is an interesting observation, that can be seen in society at large, at least to some degree.  Tolerance is aggressively (intolerantly?) promoted by de-stigmatizing of numerous immoral behaviors.  Acceptance is the order of the day.  But there are still numerous things that are not tolerated, not accepted; and for these things, forgiveness and restoration for the repentant can be in very short supply.

The Christian church calls sin what it is, but preaches that anyone can be forgiven their sins if they will repent and place their faith in Christ.  It should not be surprising that the secular world, which finds the conviction of sin offensive, sometimes finds forgiveness offensive as well.

The Lost

05 Monday Aug 2019

Posted by Joshua Steely in Meditations

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Christianity, Compassion, Jesus Christ, Mercy, Repentance, Salvation

“For the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost” (Luke 19:10, NIV).

These words are spoken by Jesus after He pronounces the salvation of a greedy tax collector who repented of his ways.  A miserly government stooge is just the kind of person that people love to hate; but God has compassion on them, just as He has upon the poor.  The greedy, too, are lost.  Christ came to save them.

In all of our disagreements and our (often legitimate) criticisms over social issues, we must never forget the compassion of Christ, the compassion we are to carry if we would be Christlike.  Jesus came to save the poor and needy; He also came to save the rich and greedy.  He came to save the lost.  The gospel is offered to all people: repent and believe.  Repentance will look different for different people–for Zacchaeus, it involved giving away (and giving back) a large amount of money.  But the core is the same: repent and believe, and receive the gift of eternal life from the crucified and risen Savior.

He came to seek and save the lost.

The Massacre of Innocents

29 Tuesday Jan 2019

Posted by Joshua Steely in Contra Mundum

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Abortion, America, Humanity, Planned Parenthood, Repentance, Truth

King Herod Gov. Cuomo has recently signed into law legislation that makes it legal in the Empire State to put to death babies in the womb, at any time prior to birth, and for (effectively) any reason.  With much fanfare, the pro-abortion state legislators advanced this assault on the life of the most vulnerable.  The blood of the innocents is on those clapping hands, who have enabled this unspeakable evil.

We are reminded that America today tolerates an evil as great as any in our nation’s history.  Powerful forces promote the killing of babies, most notably Planned Parenthood; as their president, Leana Wen, recently said, “our core mission is providing, protecting and expanding access to abortion and reproductive healthcare.”  The key lie that abets this vicious crime is the idea that abortion is healthcare, rather than the destruction of an innocent and vulnerable human life.  This is what Planned Parenthood has recently tried to reinforce in a billboard campaign, where one of the images features a woman with the quote “I had an abortion, & it was just healthcare.”  It wasn’t.  It was the murder of a baby.  Other messages begin the same way, but end “and I am not ashamed” or “and I am not apologizing.”  But shame is appropriate in this case, and apologizing would not be nearly enough.  Repentance is necessary, before the throne of God.  Only there can healing and forgiveness be found.

Worst of all, this widespread wickedness is given cover by some who claim to serve God.  The priests of Molech liberal clergy also have made news in their support for this evil.  The rector of Trinity Episcopal Church, and other supposedly Christian leaders, should perhaps have sensed something was amiss with their theology when they found themselves teaming up with the minister from the First Unitarian Universal Church.  All pretensions of Christianity aside, nothing is so pagan as child sacrifice.

The child in the womb is a human being, made in the image of God.  Their lives are sacred, and abortion is a hideous evil.

Yet remember also that Christ died to save a world of sinners; that when we turn to Him with repentance and faith, He forgives all our sins.  And God may yet give us the grace of national repentance, and have mercy on us, and turn our nation from this evil.  For this we should pray.

 

Going Back

09 Friday Feb 2018

Posted by Joshua Steely in Contra Mundum

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Repentance

I saw an advertisement for New Orleans, a celebration of LGBTQ+ gains, where the message was something like “we’re never going back.”  There probably wasn’t any connection to the fact that Bermuda has just gone back (sort of), but the timing was interesting.

In any case, it was a statement of defiance against those with more traditional views, intended to promote tourism–thus, monetarily motivated.  This will probably be the case more and more, as LGBTQ+ groups lobby for economic rewards to cities and states that are outspoken in support of their agenda, and punishments for places that oppose it–tolerance at its finest, if you will.

But there is something especially tragic about the defiance displayed in New Orleans’ advertisement.  You can make it as colorful as you will, but persistence in hard-heartedness only leads to broken lives.  When we have turned away from God and gone our own way, there is one merciful hope left: we can go back.

In Christianity, we call it repentance.  Going back, when you have strayed into sin.  Returning from idols to the Lord of Life.  Stumbling out of the darkness and into His light.  We might even say, going home.

When you determine to never go back, you cut yourself off from hope and life and light.  If you never go back, you will never get home.

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