What Ever Happen To Sin?
By Charles Grisham
The enemy knows well that sincere people do repent when confronted by Holy Ghost conviction. So for many years now there has been a concerted effort to redefine sin, relabel sin, and to even whitewash sin. This has brought utter confusion into the church world as a whole and has now crept in to the Apostolic Church as well. Soft-shell easy believism has gradually eroded the once clear absolutes of the faith.
This has become so far reaching that preachers struggle for “what to say” and “how to say it”. Compound that by the fact that most of the things we once preached about in the world are now well entrenched in the church. It isn’t possible to preach against something the poor sinner does if the one in church sitting next to him is equally guilty.
So, what is sin?
What do you preach against in today’s world? When you can’t preach against sin because you don’t know what it is or where it went, there can only be one conclusion. There will not be any repentance and there will be few, if any, who receive the Holy Ghost.
Who would be so foolish as to say that television has not contributed to this? It has made inroads into our churches. There isn’t one decent person who would take their family to watch and listen to acts of drinking, vulgarity, fornication, adultery, violence, etc. If someone came by your home and invited your family to attend a few events that evening with him, where all these things were taking place, you would be highly insulted. If he said, “I know where we can all go tonight and watch a nude show, or a young couple committing fornication,” you would think he was crazy. Yet homes having a television offer thousands of similar incidents over the course of a week, month, year, and lifetime.
What does this do? I can tell you and not mince any words. It desensitizes one to sin. It takes away the keen-edge of feeling that opens the door of the heart to conviction. You see, conscience, under normal conditions, would do it’s usual work, for it is the “watch dog” of the soul. How ever, when a person has been so desensitized that they are void of conscience, there seems to be no sin and thus, there can be no repentance. Furthermore, without repentance, there can be no revival and few, if any, receive the Holy Ghost.
The Liberal Minister
Here is a dangerous term, forby the simple use of a label like “liberal”, it places the other persons in the distinct category of being “conservative”, but let’s take a closer look.
Frustrated ministers who want results often put more emphasis upon growth than they do upon God. When there is little if anything to be repented of, and the result is there has to be a whole new approach to God and most certainly church life. A desensitized minister will eventually preach a desensitized message to a desensitized church who will have little effect on an already desensitized community.
Things once thought to be sin become so prevalent in the church that bloody, conviction-type preaching just isn’t welcome any more. So without conviction, there has to be another approach to get the “tongues-speaking” experience for it has become fashionable to speak in tongues.
Usher in the cut hair, makeup jewelry, pant-suits, slacks, shorts, television, etc. Slowly it begins to come back into the church and few, if any, hang around unless they conform to the new order.
It isn’t long until this new lifestyle (called liberty) brings in some closely associated doctrines. Of course you need to be aware of the fact that the old doctrines have to go. They always do!
Then, the new birth has to be redefined which automatically means you change the gospel. With this all encompassing “new liberty”, you feel that the Godhead, Oneness, and Acts 2:38 are simply theological arguments and not salvation issues. In this new environment of so-called “advanced believers”, you must accept the other beliefs and variations of the same. This new mind-set would not allow you to take a definite stand on anything. (That might break fellowship!).
With this new approach, a once very oneness minister becomes confused and alternatives lead him to a point of no identity. When you lose your identity – you lose your message. They go together.
Hebrew people were called upon to do some very different, unusual, and extraordinary things. That was the price of being God’s people. Their “peculiarity” was part of the fare. This is also very true in the
present day church.
The confused minister who refused to protect holiness will finally yield his basic doctrines and end up having trinitarian preachers in his pulpit. When a pastor does this, it isn’t long until he’ll eventually let you live any way you choose.
Who benefits? The enemy of the Church! Who loses? The precious ones who once knew what it took to be saved and were following a clear-cut pathway of righteousness and separation from the world. No one has the slightest idea of what it really takes to be saved in this environment.
The above is exerts from Bro. Grisham’s latest book This is a must reading for every preacher.
The Above Material Has Been Published By Gospel Tidings Magazine, May 1993. This Material Has Been Copyrighted And May Be Used For Study And Research Purposes Only.
