Repentance

The sons of Israel lived among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; and they took their daughters for themselves as wives, and gave their own daughters to their sons, and served their gods. The sons of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and forgot the LORD their God and served the Baals and the Asheroth.

Then the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, so that He sold them into the hands of Cushan-rishathaim king of Mesopotamia; and the sons of Israel served Cushan-rishathaim eight years. When the sons of Israel cried to the LORD, the LORD raised up a deliverer for the sons of Israel to deliver them, Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother. (Judges 3:5-9)

Under the post "Wayne Grudem's ethical casuistry," Mr. Alex Guggenheim commented: "You are going to get either Trump or Clinton. It's time to grow up and take responsibility for delivering one or the other to us."

Here's my response:

Dear Mr. Guggenheim,

You're avoiding the long game. I understand why you're doing so, but don't accuse those who think about history and judgement or blessing in more than four-year increments of being immature and irresponsible. I would say it's precisely the opposite—that those incapable of thinking and choosing anything other than short-term goods are the ones who are immature and irresponsible. Contrary to what all Donald Trump's supporters are telling the church right now, this election cycle...

Most years we've made it a habit to read some (and one or two years, all) of the 95 Theses that were posted on the door of the All Saints' Church of Wittenberg by Martin Luther. Read them to your family or church today, two years before the theses' 500th anniversary. Twenty of the theses (the ones in italics) will be read during our sermon this morning.

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Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences (Commonly Known as the 95 Theses)

by Dr. Martin Luther

Posted October 31, 1517 on the Door of the All Saints' Church of Wittenberg

Out of love and concern for the truth, and with the object of eliciting it, the following heads will be the subject of a public discussion at Wittenberg under the presidency of the reverend father, Martin Luther, Augustinian, Master of Arts and Sacred Theology, and duly appointed Lecturer on these subjects in that place. He requests that whoever cannot be present personally to debate the matter orally will do so in absence in writing.

1. When our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, said “Repent”, He called for the entire life of believers to be one of penitence.
   

Two days ago, with my wife I posted a statement titled "Christ Church's open letter is pastorally wise..." in support of an open letter issued by the pastors and elders of Christ Church, Moscow, in connection with a member of their congregation named Steven Sitler. Since posting our statement, though, Mary Lee and I have learned more details which have led us to conclude our prior statement was precipitous and should not have been published. We apologize and have removed the statement from Baylyblog...

The problem with my original writings was the focus on sin, the labeling of people according to their sin, the sharing and discussing of sin, and the constant reminders of the sin. This is Old Covenant law-oriented, problem-focused doctrine and not according to biblical truth, and it hurt many people to whom I’ve recently been apologizing.

- Mike Cleveland, announcing his repudiation of thirteen years of work with Setting Captives Free

One change in the past quarter-century that has been terribly destructive within the Church and Her households is the ubiquity of the internet through smartphones, tablets, and laptops. These tools have enabled the private consumption of horrendous moral filth and Christian men and (increasingly) women have found this wickedness almost irresistible. The percentage of young Christian men who have succumbed to internet fornication on a regular basis is likely close to ninety percent, and now women have joined men and are consuming thirty percent of the internet filth.

At Clearnote, we've given ourselves to working closely with men and women repenting of this sin. A critical part of our work with those repenting of this sin is that each man and woman has been required to enroll in an internet discipleship program called Setting Captives Free (SCF).

For this reason we were quite sad to be notified recently by several men of our congregation that SCF is now repudiating and will no longer be offering their former courses, including the Way of Purity (for heterosexuals who are struggling with sexual sin) and Door of Hope (for homosexuals in the same position). After a preliminary investigation, one of our elders wrote "it would appear [they] are watering down the gospel by shifting focus away from sin and the need to repent from it."

We contacted SCF to express our concern and this was their...

[This post is third in a series (the first, second, fourth, fifth, and sixth) working through Pastor Scott Sauls and Christ Presbyterian Church's "Same-Sex Attraction Forum." More will follow.]

Under the post by Pastor Andrew Dionne yesterday, second in a series on the forum Pastor Scott Sauls sponsored on being willing to come out as gay within the church, there was a comment that deserved a longer response. Thinking the response might be helpful to those not following those comments, here is part of the comment and my response:

COMMENT: My pastor, who is a Tim Keller fanboy, put it like this: "we have [self-identified]gays and lesbians in this church who remain celibate because they know that this is what God asks of them".

What this post is saying, if I have read it right, is: it is not enough for people in this situation to remain celibate; they must move past the desire as well. As I have observed before, too many pastors think it achievement enough to get someone in this situation into living a celibate life; they then put the 'orientation' question into the too-hard basket.

Maybe I'd want to quibble over the way you put it—"it is not enough for people in this situation to remain celibate; they must move past the desire as well"—but not much. If I meet with a man or woman tempted by homosexual desire, my counseling method would not be simply to demand, "you must not only abandon same-sex relations; you must also abandon same-sex desires." Desires hit us from the side, the back, and under the belt. They are sneaky and momentary, as well as pertinacious and stolid. Desires, then, cannot be handled with brute force as sexual relations can. It's a lot easier to tell a woman she may not drink than she may not desire a drink. But what lover of a man or woman's soul would tell her to publicly identify by her sinful desires; to identify herself to everyone by her lust for same-sex flesh; and following that, to tell her, also, to limit her pursuit of holiness merely to making sure she never acts on that desire by actually getting into bed with a woman?

When a male opera singer or woman basketball player tells me of their line of work...

First they called for "free love." It was the sixties and we lusted for fornication—sex before marriage. The movement was loudest in Haight-Ashbury and Woodstock, but fornication quickly spread across the country—including the Church. Not that any church had been vigilant to preach against, admonish, and discipline fornication prior to the sixties, but by the beginning of the seventies any preaching against, or discipline of, fornication in the Evangelical church had ceased. Inter-Varsity Press issued a book by a seminary prof that approved of what the prof sold as responsible fornication. The prof was popular and his book was a bestseller, so if seminaries and Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship called for the reappraisal and approval of fornication, what preacher was going to preach against it or appeal to his elders for its rebuke and discipline? Thus fornication took over the Church and Christians yawned. Heavy petting that stopped just short of intercourse was the sweet spot of maintaining our ability to claim Christian faith while giving in to our lusts.

Next they called for "a woman's choice." It was the seventies and we lusted for the blood of our unborn children. The movement was loudest in the American Law Institute, the American Medical Association, and the National Abortion Rights Action League. In time, the Supreme Court did the bloody work the lawyers and doctors were calling for and issued their infamous Roe v. Wade legalizing abortion from conception to birth across every one of the fifty states of this Union. Child sacrifice quickly spread across the country—including the Church. Following Roe v. Wade, the Evangelical church was silent. It was the day of "law and order" and, as Evangelicals saw it, the Supreme Court was our authority and they had declared "a woman's choice" a fundamental human right, so abortion must be OK. The Roman Catholics had opposed the groundswell calling for abortion prior to Roe v. Wade in 1973, but during the buildup Evangelicals were silent and following Roe v. Wade we continued to be silent as abortions went above 1,500,000 per year. Evangelicals contracted the bloodlust ourselves, joining our pagan neighbors in sacrificing our children to Molech.

Then, at the end of the seventies, C. Everett Koop and Francis Schaeffer joined forces and went on a barnstorming tour across North America calling for Evangelicals to repent of our participation in the holocaust. We lived in Boulder at the time and I remember their appearance in Denver where Schaeffer decried Evangelical pastors and parachurch leaders' indifference to the slaughter. He told us when he and Koop's tour arrived in Chicago, he himself personally called fourteen Evangelical leaders in Wheaton asking them to come and listen to what he and Koop had to say against abortion, but not one of them was willing. A few years later, Inter-Varsity Press issued a book written by some prof who approved of child-murder in this and that case, and thus child-murder came to the Church. Yes, across the intervening thirty-five years, the practice of child-slaughter within the Church has been somewhat hidden...

An appalling and horrible thing Has happened in the land: The prophets prophesy falsely, And the priests rule on their own authority; And My people love it so! But what will you do at the end of it?  - Jeremiah 5:30, 31

Lately I had been thinking about the terrible betrayal of Gospel ministry by Robert Schuller. And then, yesterday, he died.

Back in seminary, one day our campus mailboxes had a gift placed in them. It was the latest book by Dr. Robert Schuller titled, Self-Esteem: The New Reformation.

Taking the book out, I glanced at the title as I walked out of the mailroom and it stopped me short. It seemed inconceivable the seminary had allowed Dr. Schuller to distribute a book with this title through our campus mailroom! I'd never heard of the book, but the title clearly communicated Dr. Schuller's grand pretensions.

Riding the wave of Southern California's infatuation with all things superficial, Dr. Schuller was a celebrity Reformed pastor of national reputation before anyone had heard of Tim Keller or Mark Driscoll. Dr. Schuller had built a mega church on his particular seventies and eighties brand of glib preaching of the Word of God and his tickling the ears of his parishioners was unbelievably lucrative. Like every mega church pastor, Dr. Schuller had a keen eye for marketing and Evangelicals swooned over him and poured money into his church and ministry through television donations, book sales, and conferences. Americans have their super-heroes. Reformed Evangelicals have our super-apostles...

Some years ago, I was speaking to a middle-aged woman who had been raised in a pious Christian home, sent to a good Christian liberal arts college, married a handsome young man entering the ministry after getting his seminary degree at one of the finest and most conservative Evangelical seminaries, but then given herself to adultery which had marked her and her family for the past twenty years or so. She had long ago given up any pretense of Christian faith, but I appealed to her to pray to God, asking for His help. I told her God would hear her prayers. She responded with a broken question: "But what if He doesn't answer?" She added, softly, "I've tried to pray, but He doesn't answer." It was unbearable and I didn't know what to say.

Later I was speaking to her Christian brother whose faith is strong. I asked if he had any advice concerning future conversations I might have with his sister and he didn't hesitate in his response: "Did she come to God in repentance? There must be repentance." His statement didn't come out any of those sins we associate with calls to repentance today, such as unkindness, vindictiveness, bitterness, moralism, censoriousness; in general, "elder brotherhood." Rather, his comment came from an evident spirit of mourning and faithful love, and it left me very, very sad.

What is the nature of repentance? Is there false repentance, or is all repentance efficacious just like the "Trinitarian baptism" the new Presbyterian sacramentarians hold out to their followers? Should a father or mother, pastor, elder, deacon, or older woman simply comfort those souls who confess to them that they have a bad conscience, telling them that knowing our sin is half or three-quarters of the way to being forgiven; "just ask Jesus and He'll certainly forgive you."

How very enticing it is to heal the souls under our care falsely, as the shepherds of Israel did in the time of...

“My bad,” is a pretty common expression when playing pick-up basketball. If you make an errant pass or let your man drive around you or lose the ball off the dribble, the standard way to acknowledge your error is simply to say to your teammates, “my bad.”

Contrary to Erich Segal, marriage means always having to say you’re sorry. Segal wrote this inanity because, as Sir Elton John puts it, "'sorry seems to be the hardest word." To say "my bad" to my wife is hard, but repentance is the privilege of the Christian and God has set things up so that "my bad" and "sorry" are a necessary part of the grease that keeps a marriage running smoothly.

In marriage, "sorry” can cover a whole multitude of issues, all the way from putting the wrong piece of clothing in the dryer to dropping a plate to an angry outburst.  But … How does a pastor or theologian say "sorry" or "I was wrong?" And if you’re a published author, it gets even more complicated.

I remember one time hearing a pastor …