Exhortation-Men With Chests

I know that many of us have given up on the Republican party as representative of our political views. But the Republican party can teach us something. Already, there are cries from the left leaning and morallyliberal wing of the Republican party to move more in that direction. They lay the blame on conservatives, the Sarah Palin constituency, for polarizing the party. Let us move left and all will be well.

The reason they can teach us something is that we hear this same sort of thing in the Church. We have to be kinder and gentler in the pulpit. We have to downplay sins and speak carefully so we do not offend anyone. We want to appease, rather than prophecy.

This was happening in Jeremiah’s day. He was speaking against the people’s idolatry and for their need to repent of such things. He was issuing dire warnings of what God was going to do if they did not repent. What was their response?

Jer. 44: 17-18 But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth, to burn incense unto the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, as we have done, we, and our fathers, our kings, and our princes, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem: for then had we plenty of victuals, and were well, and saw no evil. 18But since we left off to burn incense to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, we have wanted all things, and have been consumed by the sword and by the famine. .

God was judging them for the very thing they thought that they should keep doing and do more.

We do not need more gentleness and understanding in our pulpits, not if that means obscuring the truth and tickling ears. We need boldness to proclaim the Word of God. This means calling sin, sin and proscribing the biblical antidote for sin, repentance and forgiveness. Until we do this well, we should expect to see the same things that are currently happening in the American Church and in the Culture at large. Soft, effeminate men afraid of their shadows and a populace that loves them.