How Churches Might Repopulate

Good letters in the Sunday Star Tribune

..

from  Mark Waldeland:

..

The Sept. 23 commentary “What churches get wrong, and how to repopulate” was extraordinary in its misunderstanding of the purpose of churches. The author, Ron Way, builds the case that churches should become social/political advocacy institutions, and then more people will attend. While that may be important, it totally misses the primary purpose of church. The biblically stated purpose and mission is to help people build a stronger personal relationship with God. It’s called faith.

Research shows that Bible-teaching, faith-building churches are thriving. There are plenty of social/political advocacy organizations for people to become a part of, but there is only one organization that deals with one’s faith — one’s heart and soul — and that is the church. The churches that stick to that mission grow. Those that don’t, don’t.

Charles Wanous, Bloomington

Way asserts: “Bible stories were never meant as literal history.”

This is false. Bible stories were treated as literal history until the mid-19th century. They were considered to be so reliable that scientific greats like Isaac Newton and Lord Kelvin attempted to calculate the age of the Earth from biblical genealogies.

It was only when improvements in archaeology, paleontology and astronomy made the age of the world (and the universe surrounding it) apparent that religious leaders retreated to this notion of biblical stories as not literally true, but rather being parables, illustrating morality. Not coincidentally, church attendance began declining in the mid-19th century, and hasn’t recovered since.

Rohit Patnaik, Plymouth

As a pastor and theologian, I read with interest the comments made by critics of the Bible (Readers Write, Sept. 23) in response to “One man’s journey to reconcile creationism and evolution” (Opinion Exchange, Sept. 16). One letter writer related the stories of the Bible as “rubbish, pure and simple.” Meanwhile, Ron Way, in his Sept. 23 commentary, referred to the “ ‘troubling texts,” stating parenthetically that “parts of Leviticus and Deuteronomy promote felonies,” and asked: “What caring God would endorse such nonsense?” But the emphasis of his article had to do with the decline of the church.

Therefore, I decided to make a rebuttal regarding these two issues. First of all, the Bible has never been disproved historically, archaeologically and prophetically. The accounts given in the Old Testament merely reveal the depravity and sinfulness of all humanity in need of a savior. If you miss that message, you missed the whole emphasis of the Old Testament. From the earliest expression of the gospel in Genesis 3:15 to Revelation 22:20, the unifying focus is on Jesus Christ. In addition, the God of the Old Testament is the same God of the New Testament. For people to say that the God of the Old Testament is cruel and harsh and the God of the New Testament is loving simply does not hold truthfully in the unity of the Bible.

Second, the evangelical churches together that preach faithfully salvation in Jesus Christ alone (John 14:6), through repentance and being “born again” (John 3:3, 7), are growing in contrast to the decline of liberal churches. Many of these pastors faithfully apply God’s word to daily life and social issues, as God intends it to be. Even in other countries, this message of redemption in Jesus Christ is spreading and the number of conversions is growing immensely.

The problem with the articles, and others like them, is that unregenerate people (unbelievers) try to use their human wisdom to explain spiritual things, even God’s word. Yet, it does not work (1 Corinthians 2:10-14)!

The Rev. Merrill D. Olson, Isanti

The writer is a semiretired pastor.