Sabbath School Today, Volume 9 - Paul E. Penno

May we plead with the Lord, in this time of the cleansing of the
sanctuary, to grant us the precious gift of corporate repentance--the
discernment to see how the sins of others would be our sins but for the grace
of a Saviour, to discern how they could be our sins if we were subjected to
the same pressures and temptations they have had to meet. We need Christ's
righteousness 100 percent, not less. When He has a people who can so
humble their hearts before heaven, He can begin to work.
The bottom-line issue is denominational repentance. The "bride" of
Christ is repeatedly declared to be His church. She has indeed been
unfaithful to her true Lover, but she can repent. Many in leadership have
maintained for decades that "we" do not need such repentance; other
despairing people have maintained that denominational repentance is needed
but is impossible. But Christ calls for it; His vindication requires it; our
history demonstrates the need for it; and prophecy assures it.
Does it seem impossible that a spirit of contrition shall be poured out on
a leadership congested by organizational complexity? The more involved the
church becomes with its multitudinous entities, the greater is the danger of
its huge collective self-choking the simple, direct promptings of the Holy
Spirit. Each individual catching a vision is tempted to feel that his hands are
tied--what can he do? The great organizational monolith, permeated with
formalism and lukewarmness, seems to move only at a snail's pace. Aside
from this "Spirit of grace and supplication," the nearer we come to the end of
time and the bigger the church becomes, the more complex and congested is
its movement, and the more remote appears the prospect of repentance.
But let us not overlook what the Bible says. We need to remember that
long before we developed our intricate systems of church organization, the
Lord created infinitely more complex systems of organization, and yet "the
spirit ... was in the wheels" (Ezek. 1:20). Our problem is not the complexity
221