Some of us old geezers remember the popular television series “Dragnet”, especially the lead-in phrase that the upcoming story was true, but the names had been changed to protect the innocent. There’s a twist to that theme that is extremely popular in evangelical (I use the term loosely) circles these days. It’s not about changing the names of people, however, but changing the names of essential elements of the Biblical Gospel message for which we are accountable, and that we are charged to faithfully proclaim.
If you haven’t yet figured out what ‘names’ I’m talking about yet, they are repent (in all it’s forms), and sin (and all direct references to it). When Jesus announced that the Kingdom was near, He told his listeners to ‘repent and believe’ (Mark 1:15). When the Apostle Paul found it necessary to remind believers in Corinth of the contents of the Gospel message, he told them that the Gospel IS that Christ died for our sins, and was raised, according to scripture (1 Cor 15:1-4). He also reminded believers in Galatia that different messages than that were ‘another gospel’ (Gal 1:8-9).
We don’t use those terms very much these days. We tell folks Jesus died for their pain, broken heart, in order to have an abundant life, and a number of other reasons, but we don’t lay the cards on the table and tell them that Christ died for their sins. We have all sorts of ways to ‘soften’ the message and ‘short-sheet’ the Holy Spirit.
We don’t tell them they need to repent and believe the Gospel, we tell them they can come to Jesus for spiritual Band-Aids to smooth out the raw ‘stuff’ of life. If we did use the ‘R’ word as we ought, we would have to explain why repentance was necessary and that would necessitate using the dreaded ‘S’ word.
People can’t/don’t ‘repent’ from a broken heart, painful experiences, or lives that aren’t as abundant as they would like them to be. Those are all things that can be understood as outside of oneself, and there is no need repent of that which you are not personally accountable. If we are somehow responsible for anything it’s a poor decision, bad judgment call, or personal misstep, but never in any way the result of ‘sin’. We don’t like to use that word.
So I have to ask myself – Why don’t we tell it like it is, – define the issue using scriptural terms and definitions? Here’s my short list of why we don’t use the ‘S’ word.
- It makes people feel uncomfortable in our ‘seeker friendly’ service.
- People know they are sinners already, so there’s no need.
- If I use the ‘S’ word he/she won’t like me any more.
- If he/she/they like me/our church service they will naturally like Jesus.
- People who feel guilty when they hear the ‘S’ word won’t drop a check in the offering plate or donate to our ministry.
- Talking about ‘sin’ would hinder the warm ‘relationship building’ phase of my evangelism technique/method, without which I’ll never have a chance to share Christ.
- Broken hearts, and all the other painful ‘stuff’ of life, resulted from the Adam’s sin (the Fall) so we can just talk about those things and see even more ‘decisions’ for Christ than making folks feel bad.
- We can always talk about sin after they have made a decision/prayed the prayer/said the right words and are already saved.
- We can just talk about sin being separated from God because of what Satan did in the Garden. We humans are just victims here.
- We’re ashamed of the Gospel.
As for me, I think the first 9 are the ways we soften/disguise the real reason, #10.
Your comments, additions, deletions, and whatever else you want to throw at me, even the occasional rotten egg or tomato. I can take it!
The Battle Cry 