ITS: A Life-Giving Oasis

In the July 2016 issue of Tabletalk Magazine, Al Mohler, President of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, proffers a sobering assessment of the challenges facing the church in America.  He writes, “The Christian church in the West now faces a set of moral challenges that exceeds anything it has experienced in the past.”  Many pastors, theologians, and orthodox Christian thinkers would not disagree with Mohler.  It can be sobering and somewhat alarming to conclude that indeed the church no longer occupies a central place in the public square.  Are we a moral minority?  Perhaps not yet.  Nevertheless, the times we live in require much of us. 

Four Challenges Facing The Church

Mohler identifies four challenges facing the church:

1.      “The confessing church must now be willing to be a moral minority if that is what the times demand.”

2.      “The church has no right to follow the secular siren call toward moral revisionism and politically correct positions on the issues of the day.”

3.      “Whatever the issue, the church must speak as the church – that is, as the community of fallen but redeemed sinners who stand under divine authority.  The concern of the church is not to know its own mind, but to know and follow the mind of God. “  

4.      “The church must awaken to its status as a moral minority and hold fast to the gospel it has been entrusted to preach.  In so doing, the deep springs of permanent truth will reveal the church to be a life-giving oasis amid American’s moral desert.” 

Indianapolis Theological Seminary

It our hope that Indianapolis Theological Seminary will embrace all four of these challenges and so prove to be an “oasis in the moral desert.”  Come join us as we embrace these challenges to the glory of God.

ITS Distinctives, ApologeticsSteve Sandvig1 Comment