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CHURCH
How
can you believe anything the church says when it is so full of scandal and
hypocrisy ?
The quick answer to this question is that - Yes! the church is full of hypocrites - But there is always room for just one more!
However, there is also a longer answer.
When we talk about the church we are talking about a collection of individuals who share a common experience and a new reality in their lives. The Bible teaches that people become members of a church not through a series of rituals but via a transformation called the New Birth.
We know from experience that people everywhere have a tendency to be self-centred, resentful, untruthful and hypocritical. However, when someone is born again two things basically happen:
Firstly, they are forgiven for those self centred actions, thoughts and attitudes which have offended God. Secondly, a new Eternal and Divine nature is created in their lives and a whole new facet to their lives is brought to life. They suddenly understand spiritual realities, they see things in a clearer way, they have a new source of strength and they have a new destination.From that time on there is a battle in which the old nature (which is morally compromised) begins to conflict with the new nature (which is morally upright) and the person begins to change.
A picture of this can be seen in the story of the Etruscan King as described by Virgil (Aeneid, viii, 485ff) who tied his living captives to decomposing corpses. A Christian is someone who has been uniquely made alive but still drags around an old unchanged nature. The conflict between the old and new nature never stops as long as a person lives, but the battle is being won and the new nature, very gradually, starts to dominate. As the battle is won then the person enters into his or her new nature and becomes the person that they "really" are.Therefore a Christian is not somebody who never sins, but they are people who sin less and when they do sin - it hurts more!.
So, in answer to the question. If you see a local church which is really full of scandal, and hypocrisy run from it! But if you see a local church which is full of people who, whilst living with failure, are gradually changing and revealing a new nature, then maybe you should investigate deeper.
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