Corporate Repentance - Robert J. Wieland

with the consequence of their own wrong course of
action (Letter, December 7, 1901; M-184, 1901).
Even so, it was not too late then to engage in an
experience of repentance. The Lord's messenger
did not write the phrase "denominational
repentance," but she expressed the principle. "All"
needed to participate:
But if all would only see and confess and
repent of their own course of action in departing
from the truth of God, and following human
devisings, then the Lord would pardon (Idem).
John the Baptist could have spent several
lifetimes trying to encompass all the needs for
reformation in his day. So we could spend decades
addressing each departure from the Lord's plan for
us. But John preferred to lay "the ax ... to the root
of the trees" (Matthew 3:10).
Would repenting of "our" rejection of the latter
rain lay the ax to the root of our present spiritual
problem? Yes, for that is indeed its root.
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