The pressure is not imaginary. As a matter of fact it has been imposing its squeeze on us for so long now that you may no longer feel its discomfort. It is likely that you have gotten used to it, perhaps yielded to it and, God forbid, maybe even started exerting it yourself. To what do I refer? There is a presumption that Christians are to remove the sting out of our message. The sharp point of the Gospel message is expected to become rounded and the picante of our confrontation is to be processed with a mild flavor. If we do so quietly enough, we are allowed to bark but there is no allowance anymore of the idea that the church is to retain her bite. Our culture calls us to engage in muted and murky theology and ministry. Let me suggest today why this is unreasonable for us as the Church of the living God.
“Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” – Acts 2:37 {ESV}
Now, if you do not subscribe to the notion that Christianity is, by definition, biblical and that it is to remain that way, you probably do not need to invest any time reading further. I work from the standpoint of understanding the Christian faith to be defined Scripturally and that is the lens through which I analyze our message. Peter was preaching in Acts 2 and at the end of the sermon it says that the people hearing his message were pierced. The Gospel produced discomfort, conviction and pain in the deepest part of their identity. They did not debate with, argue against or compliment the preacher, Peter. They were locked in to what had been said and innately knew that it required a response which is why asked Peter, ‘What shall we do?’ Peter’s message that day was not merely informational but highly confrontational. He spoke with loving fangs. My observations today address how it is we have now moved to the opposite end of the spectrum in this process. The pressure on Christians and churches is to proceed with caution, leave all feathers unruffled, still the ripples, blunt the edges and to offer a low-sodium version of the Christian message which calls us believers “the salt of the earth”. Our culture wants relief from their spiritual blood pressure so they are asking us to remove the salinity of our Gospel. I am not surprised nor offended by that demand from the culture. I am, however, disturbed that facets of the Church are complying with polite smiles of nauseating, inclusive tolerance. It is not adequate to merely oppose the expectation that the Church change our message to result in people feeling good. Hey, I want people to feel good – I want people to feel gloriously good! That is not the issue. The real thorn is that somehow there is the belief that people becoming aware of their guilt (bad feeling) is unnecessary and not a fit price for people experiencing forgiveness and freedom (gloriously good feeling). Our appetite for comfort is replacing our willingness to be convicted. The Church is nodding our collective head of assent and affirming along with the culture that the possibility of a momentary unease of conviction over sin, coupled with a confrontational call to repentance, is far too price to pay for an eternally gracious gift of forgiveness and life. Nobody stole our fangs. We willingly had them removed so we could fit in some well-rounded dentures in their place.
So what should we do?
We have only one message, one body of truth, one mission and one aim. Our biblical calling is tethered to objective truth and the option of substituting truth for anything else is not offered to us by God. If we morph the message then we miss the mark. People have always been offended by the less pleasant aspects of the Christian’s message. Flesh never walks hand-in-hand with Spirit and so the war rages on in each generation. God calls His children to proceed onward and never to dilute His words. The Gospel doesn’t change with the times and the Church could better steward her own time by reaching people with the message we have been given instead of seeking ways to tweak that message in order to reach more people… who actually won’t be being reached because we are not reaching them with that which we are called to reach them (!) Christian friend, let us remain steadfast in loving people so wholeheartedly that we respect them enough to share what God has said with no opaque curtain drawn around it. Allow them to reject His message if they so choose – most always have and most will until the end of days (Matthew 7:13-14). We cannot be a friend of God or a friend to those who do not believe if we misrepresent Him as we patronize them. As a preacher of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, I have no desire to inject angry venom into those who hear me…but I don’t want to lose my bite either. Take out the poison ducts but leave the fangs please. Peter’s audience was cut to the heart and the end result that day is that thousands of people turned to Jesus Christ. Had Peter proceeded with caution his result might have resembled what occurred about a month before Acts 2 when a little campfire girl so intimidated Peter that he ended up denying Jesus and lying to the little girl. May the Church abandon that sort of unloving caution and trust the sovereign God of heaven to open prepared hearts as the truth of His message sets believing people free. I would rather risk my reputation as being abrasive with the truth than to risk it becoming untruthful but accommodating.
Away with religious poison. Away with defanged Christianity. May God graciously continue to provide us a platform to share His truth and may we humbly step up to that appointed place and say with the Church of generations past,
“{People of America} and all who dwell in {around the globe}, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words…” {my paraphrase of Acts 2:14 for us today}
I am so glad you are not giving in to the low-sodium version of the Christian message. More than ever before we need preachers that will preach Hell is hot and eternity is long and unless you except Christ as your Savior you will spend eternity in Hell. I do believe we are living in the time that the Bible speaks of as “the last days” so more than ever the Word does not need to be watered down but proclaimed as He said. I believe the time is soon coming when every knee will bow and every tongue will confess Jesus is Lord. I thank God for the kind of preacher you are and for the stand you take. God bless you.
I used to, even as a church goin’ gal, detest the word “conviction”. I would feel slimed by guilt and wallow in a misery of worthlessness.
Today, conviction simply means that God has “divided the soul”. Conviction leaves me with clarity and choice. The fluffy messages of today aim to be all inclusive. Aside from being nauseating, I fear they leave the seeker out in the abyss. That is far from inclusive.
A line from a movie I enjoyed has the actor declare…
“I’m drowning here…AND YOU’RE DESCRIBING THE WATER!”
My guess is that the audience (and I emphasize, audience) in the fluffy churches deeply longs for conviction to save them from drowning.
It is horrifying for me to think of the hundreds of thousands of church goin’ sheep following blindly to the slaughterhouse. Affirmations and positive attitudes will not hold there.
Christ holds. Conviction clears up profound confusion. I believe folks instinctively want a line in the sand. As you said, they may not cross over that line to Christ, but they will know they made that decision.
Keep your fangs Brother. Keep the line. I wake up looking for that line in my life.
It’s very telling that the only religion being told to file the points off our message’s teeth is Chritianity. Not surprising though because all the other religious voices produce plenty of guilt but never conviction. People will accept guilt because guilt, though unpleasant, leaves the guilty one still in control. Conviction dispels all notions of control. So, it’s not surprising that the culture wants us to either be quiet altogether or, at least, file down those fangs.