Chapter 11 — The Practical Problem: How Can a Church of Millions of Members Repent?

Does our complex machinery get in the way of the Holy Spirit’s working? As we get bigger and bigger, must we drift farther from Christ? There must be an answer.

How is it possible for a large organized church to repent? Must the body become spiritually more disjointed and uncoordinated, like a quadriplegic whose spasms and jerks are uncontrollable by the head?

The essential quality of repentance remains the same in all ages and in all circumstances. People, not machines, not organizations, repent. But the repentance called for from Laodicea is unique in circumstances, depth, and extent. The church is not a machine, nor is its organization an impersonal force. The church is a “body,” and its organism is its vital functioning capacity. The individuals comprising this body can repent as a body because each member is integrally one with every other member.

As we have seen, metanoia (Greek for repentance) literally means “perceptive afterthought.” It cannot be complete until the close of probationary history when history’s guilt is at last discerned. So long as there is a tomorrow which will provide further reflection on the meaning of our “mind” today, or so long as another’s sins may yet disclose to us our own deeper guilt, our repentance must remain to that extent incomplete.

But it will grow, for “at every advance step in Christian experience our repentance will deepen” (Christ’s Object Lessons, page 160). The High Priest who is cleansing the heavenly sanctuary has not abdicated His work. His people may fail to learn their lessons, but He will bring them back over the same ground to test them again and again until they overcome. The final test may be in process now (see Testimonies, vol. 4, page 214; vol. 5, page 623).

A Bright Future for God’s Work

A beautiful experience is on the program of coming events, unique in history. We have often neglected that heartwarming prophecy from Zechariah, the Christ-centered prophet of the latter rain. He tells us that there will come to the last-day church and its leadership a heart-response to Calvary that will completely transform the church. Speaking through him of the final events, the Lord says:

And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they have pierced; they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son. … In that day a fountain shall be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness (Zechariah 12:10-13:1).

Who is “the house of David”? It was anciently the government of the denominated people of God. Zechariah refers to the leadership of the last-day church, the same as “the angel of the church,” or “the king and his nobles” to borrow Jonah’s terminology. They are “the men of Judah” whom Daniel distinguishes from “the inhabitants of Jerusalem” (Daniel 9:7). “The house of David” includes all levels of leadership in the organized church.

Who are the “inhabitants of Jerusalem”? Jerusalem is a “city” of Abraham’s descendants, the organized body of God’s people. In Zechariah’s day, it was the capital of a distinct group of people called to represent the true God to the nations of the world, a corporate, denominated body of professed worshippers.

“The Spirit of grace and supplication” is not to be poured out on scattered individual descendants of Abraham, but on the inhabitants of the “city,” a visible body of God’s denominated people on earth. (It is implied that no descendant of Abraham choosing to dwell outside “Jerusalem” will share in the blessing. After the Babylonian Captivity, those Jews were indeed lost to history who chose to remain in the nations where they were scattered, refusing to move back to the corporate, ancestral nation in Palestine.)

Does it seem impossible that a spirit of contrition can be poured out on a leadership and a world church congested by organizational complexity? The more involved the church becomes with its multitudinous entities, the greater is the danger of its huge collective self choking the simple, direct promptings of the Holy Spirit. Each individual catching a vision is tempted to feel that his hands are tied—what can he do? The great organizational monolith, permeated with formalism and lukewarmness, seems to move only at a snail’s pace. Aside from this “Spirit of grace and supplication,” the nearer we come to the end of time and the bigger the church becomes, the more complex and congested is its movement, and the more remote appears the prospect of this experience.

But let us not overlook what the Bible says. We need to remember that long before we developed our intricate systems of church organization, the Lord created infinitely more complex systems of organization, and yet “the spirit … was in the wheels” (Ezekiel 1:20). Our problem is not the complexity of organization; it is the collective love of self. And the message of the cross can take care of that!

Why the World Needs God’s People

The world needs a “Jerusalem” as a “witness to all nations.” Without her, the task cannot be done. The history of old Jerusalem’s failure proves that without “the Spirit of grace and of supplications,” denominational organization inevitably becomes rigid and misrepresentative of its divine mission. Zechariah says that a correct view of Calvary imparts contrition (“they will look on Me whom they [not the Jews and Romans of a past millennium] have pierced”). Thus the vision of the cross will provide the ultimate solution to the problem of human “sin and uncleanness.”

What is “uncleanness”? It must be that deeper layer of unrealized selfish motivation that underlies all sin, which must be cleansed in the Day of Atonement, but which has never been fully accomplished in any previous generation. The motivation of fear of hell with the reverse side of the same coin, hope of eternal reward, will give way to the pure constraint of the love of Christ. The collective love of self will be “crucified with Christ.”

How does that “Spirit of grace and supplication” work? Two distinct elements make up this remarkable experience: (a) “the Spirit of grace,” an appreciation of the cross, a view of God’s character of love completely devastating and annihilating to human self-sufficiency and pride; and (b) “the Spirit of supplication,” prayer arising from melted, contrite hearts. The difference in essential quality between this “supplication” and ordinary formal prayers is great. People will immediately detect the genuineness of such prayer because it will come from hearts humbled by corporate repentance. When prayer comes from such a heart, says David, then will we “teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners shall be converted to You” (Psalm 51:13). Soul-winning will become successful.

The Spirit pervading every congregation will be recognized. In close context to Zechariah’s prophecy of chapter 10, we find another prophecy showing what will be the results of such denominational repentance:

People from around the world will come on pilgrimages and pour into Jerusalem from many foreign cities to attend these celebrations. People will write their friends in other cities [denominations] and say, ‘Let’s go to Jerusalem to ask the Lord to bless us, and be merciful to us. I’m going! Please come with me. Let’s go now!” (Zechariah 8:20, 21, Living Prophecies, paraphrased by Kenneth N. Taylor).

The Cross and Denominational Repentance

What can anyone do to hasten this day? Must we go into our graves and leave it to some future generation?

If we refuse the repentance Christ calls for, the answer must be Yes. If we hold to “business-as-usual” pride and dignity, the answer must be Yes. If we permit past negative patterns of leadership reaction to continue, the answer must be Yes. The answer can and will be No when personal and group love of self is crucified with Christ. Only then will anyone have the courage to bear witness to truth in sanctified opposition to unsanctified group-think.

The answer to the question “How?” is the message of the cross. “They shall look on Me whom they have pierced,” the Lord says. Here is focused the full recognition of corporate guilt; and the “Spirit” bestowed can only follow a full, frank repentance of the body. All human sin centers in the murder of the Son of God. So long as this is not perceived, the “Spirit of grace and supplication” is unwelcome to proud hearts and therefore not receivable. We then remain childish, tragically content to strut on the stage of the universe unaware of our true pathetic condition. A knowledge of the full truth brings sorrow for sin, not a self-centered fear of punishment, but a Christ-centered empathy for Him in His sufferings and a wholehearted concern for His vindication.

This transfer of concern from self to Christ will be thorough and pervasive. It has never been fully realized since apostolic days. “They will mourn for Him, as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him, as one grieves for a firstborn” (Zechariah 12:10). Thank God, most of us have never known that particular kind of grief; yet we can begin to appreciate it. We will sing, “Out of the depths I have cried to You, O Lord” (Psalm 130:1). To shift our focus of concern from anxiety regarding our own salvation to such concern for Christ—this phenomenon the Holy Spirit alone can accomplish.

Our natural concern for our own personal security has often permeated our spiritual experience in our hymns, our prayers, our sermons. If there were no power of the Holy Spirit to accomplish the miracle of this change, we might estimate that decades, perhaps even centuries, would be needed to effect such a transformation in human nature. But a “short work” is possible, and has been promised (Romans 9:28). If Communism in Eastern Europe could collapse so suddenly, surely Laodicea’s unbelief can collapse in a short time.

The last church is composed of individuals like everyone else in human history, born with a “carnal mind,” the natural unregenerate heart of the sinner. But the revelation of truth will work for them a transformation of mind. The more fully the mind of Christ is received, the deeper becomes their sense of contrition. The after-perception of the enlightened mind views sin without illusion. Laodicea at last has her eyes open.

It’s Good News, Not Bad

Nevertheless, this repentance is the opposite of despair or gloom. When we can view our sinful state with the repentance of enlightened “after perception,” we can truly appreciate the “Good News” in it. Those who fear repentance lest it induce gloom or sadness misunderstand the mind of Christ and close their hearts to the healing power of the Holy Spirit. The laughter of the world is superficial and quickly turns to despair under trial. “Not as the world gives” is the joy of Christ, consistent with His being a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief (see John 14:27; Isaiah 53:3). As the remnant church ministers amidst the tragic disintegration of human life that will characterize the last days, that deep unfailing joy of the Lord will emerge from a realistic contrition. A closer walk with the “man of sorrows” will enable God’s people to help the homeless and hungry, those dying with AIDS, and those weeping over their broken homes.

Repentance for the individual is perceptive afterthought, a change of mind that views personal character and history in the light of Calvary. What was previously unrealized in the life becomes known. The deep-seated selfishness of the soul, the corruption of the motives, all are viewed in the light that streams from the cross.

Repentance for the church body is the same perceptive afterthought, but it views denominational history from the perspective of Calvary. What was previously unrealized within history becomes known. Movements and developments that were mysterious at the time are seen in their larger, truer significance. Pentecost forever defines this glorious reality of repentance.

The “Why” of Apostolic Success

The secret of the early church’s success was an understanding that “you crucified Christ,” after which true repentance followed naturally. Christ crucified became the central appeal of all the apostles’ ministry. The Book of Acts would never have been written unless the members of the early church had realized their involvement through the joyful experience of appropriate repentance.

From Acts 10 onwards we read of how others besides Jews partook of the same experience. The apostles marvelled that the Gentiles should experience the same profound response to the cross that the believing Jews did, and thus receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 10:44-47). The Holy Spirit sent the truth closer home than the apostles expected. Their contrite hearers identified themselves with the Jews and recognized their share of the guilt. In other words the Gentiles experienced a corporate repentance.

Nothing in Scripture indicates that the full reception of the Holy Spirit in the last days will be any different.

Read Chapter 12 —What Our Denominational History Tells Us
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