Alva Review-Courier -

Years ago, one of my instructors observed that “only a broken pendulum stops in the middle.” He was referring to the wide cultural swings that happen in society at large, and how they might affect the things we emphasize in preaching. For instance, 100 to 150 years ago, there was a wide swing toward emphasizing the wages of sin and the importance of Godly fear. The church permeated society. But by the 1980s, popular culture had carried the weight of the pendulum past dead center in a swing that may still be heading toward the opposite extreme. Culture now permeates the church.

Please understand. The scriptures being highlighted in pulpits across the nation are truly in the Book, as were the scriptures that held center stage in the 1920s. The problem lies with the messengers, not with the message. To overemphasize one part of the message, while downplaying or omitting others, leaves the listener with an impaired view of total truth. The Hebrew writer, in chapter 6, calls for the church to “leave behind the elementary things” (a role the modern preacher seems to relish) but warns of a terrible state in which the believer leaves the faith and denies the Lord.

Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, instruction about cleansing rites, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And God permitting, we will do so.

It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance. To their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace. Land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is farmed receives the blessing of God. But land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless and is in danger of being cursed. In the end it will be burned. (Hebrews 6:1-8, NIV)