Apostasy refers to a person who has once heard, understood, followed, and professed the gospel of Christ, and yet turned away. This is not the same as a person who hears an evangelistic plea and says, “no, thank you.” This is a person who has been walking the walk and talking the talk before abandoning …
Tag Archives: repentance
Repentance is Never Out of Season
I recently read Thomas Watson’s, The Doctrine of Repentance. Like most puritan classics, it is a thoughtful, well-developed masterpiece, which leaves no stone unturned. Here are my fifteen favorite quotes from the book: It is better to go with difficulty to heaven than with ease to hell. We are to find as much bitterness in …
Have You Created a Monster?
Fact: Some congregations chew up pastors and spit them out every 2-3 years. I don’t have a Barna Study or Pew Research Poll to verify that assertion. But I don’t think verification is necessary. We’ve all seen the tragedy of “Monster Churches.” What leads me to believe it is the church’s fault? Before I get …
Salt, Pepper, Faith & Repentance
During one of my high school classes, we studied etiquette. My teacher always repeated the phrase “don’t divorce the salt and pepper.” Apparently, when someone asks for the salt, you are supposed to pass the pepper too. To do otherwise is considered rude (who knew?). It reminds me of what happens simultaneously at conversion: repentance …