Removing of the Offence?

We have no need of being culturally sensitive as long as we're biblically accurate.

- Paul Washer on the Gospel

So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God,just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved.

- 1 Corinthians 10:31-33

For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

- 1 Corinthians 1:22-24

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

- Romans 1:16

Reading a book on the rise of Western Christendom, it was said of some of the 8th century missionaries, that

"[He] made his entrance there with exceeding splendor, for barbarian nations need to see a little worldly pomp and show to attract them to make them draw nigh willingly to Christianity"

Now who says the Seeker-Sensitive Movement is a new thing, as the Wise man said, "Their is nothing new under the sun."(Eccl 1:9)

A couple of months ago I was "facilitating" my church cell group's discussion on Romans 2:1-16. As we went through verse by verse we came to verse 4 which said,

Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.

- Romans 2:4-5

I began talking about the dangers of presuming upon the Love of God especially prevalent in the visible church today, of how God's Love has been taken for granted to such an extent that it is used as an essentially blank cheque to live a life of almost total disobedience to God. I then mentioned about God's Mercy in providing each new day an opportunity of sinners to repent, but that we cannot presume upon this mercy and say "I will repent at such and such a later time" since we can have no guarantee we will see the sun the next morning nor can we predict the return of the Lord at any moment.

Everything was going relatively fine till someone piped up, "That's all well and good, but how do we tell or convince other people?" Needless to say that put a screeching halt to my train of thought. "Well plainly I suppose", I hurriedly replied. I soon discovered that wasn't quite an adequate enough answer. The discussions came quick and fast and the fundamental point to them which I failed to see for about ten minutes was this, how do you convince lost, carnal christians and unbelievers that this is true? There was no confusion or disagreement over the truth of this passage (at least I hope there wasn't), but the question of convincing others came up. I guess my confusion was that it never occurred to me about the "need" to repackage uncomfortable truths in God's Word in order to make it more "acceptable" to those "outside".

I had the strongest urge to say that I had little concern of making hard truths more palatable to sinful men since men are convinced (or rather convicted) not by human wisdom or clever arguments, but by the Holy Spirit and our role is to simply speak forth the Truth of God plainly from Scriptures. However, in my cowardice I dared not speak up for the Sufficiency and Power of God's Word. May the Lord forgive me of this great sin.

But is not the weakness in me so much prevalent in the church as well? In the quest to be well-liked, to be thought of as a nice guy, in the desire to be as unoffensive to as many people as possible, we remove the offense of Christ and His Cross and betray the one who shed His Blood for us. We do not trust in God's power to save His Elect, but we must use every conceivable marketing gimmick and emotional manipulation technique in order to coerce as many people as we can to make "decisions for Christ", and we pat ourselves on our backs for a job well-done when all we have done is to make two-fold sons of hell.

Is it little wonder then that so many church members live lives in exactly the same manner as their unsaved neighbours do? Is it little wonder then that so many youths in churches today are hardly interested in the things of God and that we have to pander to their carnal interests in order to keep them in church? For the Word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword (Heb. 4:12), and it will wound the conscience and soul of one who is walking contrary to Him.

I write this post not to heap further condemnation those who hold to a man-centered Christianity (for they are condemned already (see John 3:18)), but rather as a confession of my being ashamed of Christ and failing to contend earnestly for the Faith once and for all delivered to the saints. May the Lord have mercy upon me and upon those who have traded God's Truths for man-pleasing doctrines.