Whenever churches take a stand on major moral issues such as homosexual marriage or abortion, and receive bad publicity and hate for it, it is never the church of Christ. In California when we had a proposition on the ballet to preserve marriage as between one man and one woman, protestors came to one of our church buildings thinking they were the Church of Christ of Latter-Day Saints, or Mormons, because the Mormons took very public stands against homosexual marriage. They were reassured that they had come to the wrong church of Christ. When a society gets very dark with sin, those who publicly shine the light of God's Word will attract the interest of those tired of evil and want to find righteousness. As an evangelist, I have been strongly rebuked by 'leaders' for making members aware of very evil legislation in our area. Not talking about politics, just issues.
Seems like we've been listening in on each other's conversations, Jack. The reason the West/world is this bad is the church isn't doing her job. I hadn't thought to link this with God's discipline, but that makes perfect sense.
I've always thought of the two -- persecution (to whatever degree it occurs) and discipline from the Lord as a result of our sin -- as the same. I'm one of those who thinks persecution increasing in westernized societies as ultimately a good thing because I see it as God disciplining us per Hebrews 12:3ff so as to bring about repentance AND spiritual growth. The discussion in Hebrews 12 about God disciplining his children out of love with the end result being their spiritual strengthening is given in the context discussing the persecution of the Hebrew Christians (chapters 10-11). So I think a case could be made that persecution and discipline are interchangeable to a degree.
Great article and I agree with all of your points. The difficulty, however, with implementation of these ideas is finding how to exercise discipline without falling into overt legalism. Discipline by its nature requires the “drawing of a line in the sand”, and that can easily become divisive and problematic. We’ve seen failure of “big tent” policy with the recent UMC split, yet there are also numerous examples of legalism resulting in needless division. When our emphasis is on the transformation of the hearts of believers, there is necessarily a degree of grace and mercy that must exist. I would be very interested to hear your thoughts on avoiding these potential traps while regaining control of discipline within our churches.
Had to step away and then re-read the article. I understand the point that Jack is making, and I appreciate it. Is the American Church being persecuted like the one in China or in the Middle East? No. Over there, Christians are being jailed and killed for their belief. But, in America, there's definitely "soft" persecution. I can't think of a single institution in this country that isn't following the spirit of antichrist or working overtime in trying to cancel those who follow Christ. Those of us who believe that rights come from God are vilified as being those deplorable Christian (spit!) Nationalists. Pro-life warriors and Christian universities in our country ARE being prosecuted and persecuted. Things going well for you? It's just not your turn yet.
Whenever churches take a stand on major moral issues such as homosexual marriage or abortion, and receive bad publicity and hate for it, it is never the church of Christ. In California when we had a proposition on the ballet to preserve marriage as between one man and one woman, protestors came to one of our church buildings thinking they were the Church of Christ of Latter-Day Saints, or Mormons, because the Mormons took very public stands against homosexual marriage. They were reassured that they had come to the wrong church of Christ. When a society gets very dark with sin, those who publicly shine the light of God's Word will attract the interest of those tired of evil and want to find righteousness. As an evangelist, I have been strongly rebuked by 'leaders' for making members aware of very evil legislation in our area. Not talking about politics, just issues.
Amen. Christians in America need to hear this.
Spot on Jack. Thank you for this insight.
Seems like we've been listening in on each other's conversations, Jack. The reason the West/world is this bad is the church isn't doing her job. I hadn't thought to link this with God's discipline, but that makes perfect sense.
I've always thought of the two -- persecution (to whatever degree it occurs) and discipline from the Lord as a result of our sin -- as the same. I'm one of those who thinks persecution increasing in westernized societies as ultimately a good thing because I see it as God disciplining us per Hebrews 12:3ff so as to bring about repentance AND spiritual growth. The discussion in Hebrews 12 about God disciplining his children out of love with the end result being their spiritual strengthening is given in the context discussing the persecution of the Hebrew Christians (chapters 10-11). So I think a case could be made that persecution and discipline are interchangeable to a degree.
Great article and I agree with all of your points. The difficulty, however, with implementation of these ideas is finding how to exercise discipline without falling into overt legalism. Discipline by its nature requires the “drawing of a line in the sand”, and that can easily become divisive and problematic. We’ve seen failure of “big tent” policy with the recent UMC split, yet there are also numerous examples of legalism resulting in needless division. When our emphasis is on the transformation of the hearts of believers, there is necessarily a degree of grace and mercy that must exist. I would be very interested to hear your thoughts on avoiding these potential traps while regaining control of discipline within our churches.
Had to step away and then re-read the article. I understand the point that Jack is making, and I appreciate it. Is the American Church being persecuted like the one in China or in the Middle East? No. Over there, Christians are being jailed and killed for their belief. But, in America, there's definitely "soft" persecution. I can't think of a single institution in this country that isn't following the spirit of antichrist or working overtime in trying to cancel those who follow Christ. Those of us who believe that rights come from God are vilified as being those deplorable Christian (spit!) Nationalists. Pro-life warriors and Christian universities in our country ARE being prosecuted and persecuted. Things going well for you? It's just not your turn yet.