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Corporate Repentance - Robert J. Wieland

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Chapter 12<br />

What Our Denominational<br />

History Tells Us<br />

The Bad News: We have lost some battles; the<br />

Good News: the war is not over.<br />

Does our denominational history give meaning<br />

to Christ's call for last-day repentance? There are<br />

several possible ways of looking at our history:<br />

1. We can view our past with pride like a sports<br />

team that almost never loses a game. This<br />

attitude is thought to be loyalty, for it<br />

assumes that God's blessings on the church<br />

are His approval of our spiritual condition.<br />

The result is apathy and pervasive<br />

lukewarmness. This is by far the most<br />

popular view of our history, but its spiritual<br />

pride is the opposite of New Testament faith<br />

which always includes the element of<br />

contrition.<br />

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