WHAT’S THE POINT OF IT ALL?

Whatever happened to preaching righteousness? Is it that that has become too volatile and dangerous in today’s anti-Godly climate and societies? Are we afraid of those in our midst who will inevitably complain? There are Unsaved people, and Feminists, and Fornicators, and Adulterers, and all sorts of other things in our midst, yet we hear sermons on financial stewardship and inter-personal relationships, messages on defeating emotional hang-ups and additive behaviours, and perhaps even sermons against the sins of those ‘terrible heathen’ outside the church. But where are the calls to repentance directed toward those within the church, against those sins committed regularly and blatantly by the people in our pews, who we draw in with Sunday morning rock-and-roll band entertainment, and mid-week family nights? By the time the one service of the week is over we might very well be more educated regarding the customs of ancient near-east cultures, or the development of Church history, or how our particular denomination is better than the ones ‘out there,’ and therefore we can feel superior to them, but where are the calls to righteousness? Where are the condemnations of specific, individual sins in our own church and fellowship? Where is the encouragement to reflect Christ more, and the specific instructions on how to do so, so that the call is impossible to ignore or escape? Where are the changes we are making in society, rather than society’s changes in us? If all we’re given is instruction in the historical narratives in the Bible, but no specific and inescapable calls to righteousness, what is the use of any of this? Roman Catholic priests, with their advanced “Theological” degrees and education in church history are far more educated than most if not all Evangelical pastors, but the Bible calls them, “the Great Whore,” who are going to suffer the ravages of hell! So our own brief Sunday morning lessons on Church history and Near-Eastern culture, and lessons on emotional hang-ups and so-called ‘friendship evangelism’ do absolutely nothing for us, if that’s all they are, and they don’t make us more like Christ!

What’s the point of it all?