WITNESSING
Healing does not always come about, nor is peace always restored, by sidestepping issues of conflict and wrongdoing. God knew that Adam's and Eve's restoration could not be accomplished by leaving them in the Garden of Eden and excusing their transgression on the grounds that they had underestimated the seriousness of deviating from His instruction. "After all," He might have said, "eating a piece of forbidden fruit is a relatively small matter. They meant no harm; they were just seeking for expanded consciousness and momentarily forgot their dependence on Me." Such permissiveness would have been fatal to the destiny of our world, for all sin, from that time forward, would have been rationalized as an experiment in alternative approaches to the Creator's instruction.
God's penalties were corrective and designed to deliver Adam and Eve through the plan of redemption (and all their descendants) from ultimate ruin. This plan would involve infinite sacrifice for God and definite discipline and obedience on the part of believing humanity.
In the context of this understanding, how should the church deal with members who
- (a) chronically gossip and criticize?
- (b) embezzle money from the church?
- (c) assail the doctrines of the church and demand an open hearing in Sabbath School and during worship service?
- (d) commit adultery and insist that "the church has no business poking into a person's private life"?
- (e) sexually seduce young Sabbath School students?
- (f) solicit money from members for their own independent ministry without approval from the church board?
Plainly, no single short answer is the one size that fits all. But does the church have a duty to forgive so unconditionally offenders and dividers that it never takes disciplinary or corrective measures, in order to avoid seeming judgmental and unchristlike? How does an atmosphere of permissiveness affect the witness and image of a church? How can discipline be restoratively applied in a manner consistent with the love Christ displayed on the cross?