I have heard recordings of Question-and-Answer panels from the 1960s. Those old preachers and teachers, including their audiences, really knew their subjects well. By all appearances, everyone knew what was going to be said before it was said. They were simpler days, where right and wrong needed no explanation.
However, the years that followed were testament to the fact that following generations will do as they please. The next five decades saw many of the churches of Christ, along with other churches, liberalise and decline. Those halcyon days of “God, church, and county” disappeared as “mum, dad and the kids” looked away from God—to their destruction!
I am not discouraged. If anything, I sense that today’s young people aren’t as far away from God as their grandparents’ generation. Forgive me if I missed something, but I really didn’t see much evidence of faith back-in-the-day. In fact, the outpouring of self-pity we are witnessing today is but the latest rendition of the same old song.
But whether it be the “self-assured about everything people” of yesteryear, or the “no one is qualified to judge anything people” of today, one thing has not changed in 2000 years—Jesus only calls sinners!
Jesus is the doctor who treats those who know that they are sin-sick; those fully aware that they are unrighteous before God. But he told those who self-diagnosed themselves as “righteous” before God:
“It is not those who are well who need a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:31-32).
Jesus’ call to salvation cuts through all generations and circumstances. He has always been heard by those who seek the restoration of their souls. But to the self-righteous, then and now, Jesus says, “Truly I say to you that the tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the kingdom of God before you” (Matthew 21:31).
John Staiger
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