Is Repentance for Modern People?

One modern movement in Christendom is called the Emergent Church. It goes by other names as well. Its leaders believe they need to accommodate the worldly folks in order to bring them into church. Doctrine is frowned upon because it divides people. But that's exactly what it must do.

Repentance is the first step toward salvation. But instead of confessing and forsaking sin in order to follow Christ, they preach that everybody's all right as they are. This is absolutely wrong.

First of all, nobody is ever good enough. Isaiah 64:6 (KJV) states, "But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away."

No matter how "nice" somebody is, they need to see how wretched their minds are. As Luke 11:39 (KJV) reads, "And the Lord said unto him, 'Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter; but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness.'"

Just as we need to clean our physical bodies, so must we, through trust in Christ's cleansing us from sin, be clean spiritually. As Paul wrote about former sinners in 1 Corinthians 6:11 (KJV), "And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God."

And here is proof that salvation, including repentance and following Christ, is for all generations. Peter explained in Acts 2:39 (KJV), "For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call."

So we see that nothing has changed about repentance. It was the same in the beginning and still applies today. I'll be writing more about this important step in our spiritual journey in You Think You're Going to Heaven? My book focuses solely on what Scripture says, not what people want it to say. Emergent folks are in the latter category but they're wrong.

Departing from the theme of repentance briefly, I'll post on Saturday about single mothers and the difficulty of remarriage. I'm sure you'll be touched by the song.