Mr Wurtz,
So you are not at ease with the message of Leonard Ravenhill, one of the most well-renowned preachers presented at this site.
Are you comfortable with the fact that our Lord and Saviour is pictured with a sword in his mouth when correcting his Church?
It is indeed an interesting approach you present to a man “just popping in” as the counting department has it.
Have you been around too long, having lost sensibility and kindness?
I have been watching this site at a distance for a long time, hesitating to approach because of the tone represented by many of the regular writers in these threads. Perhaps I made a mistake, I should have stayed at listeners level.

Walk

Item presented in full:

REPENTANCE OBSOLETE?
By Leonard Ravenhill

Language is strained when one attempts to describe the Gospel as recorded by John the Apostle. Let me borrow some crutches here and use other men’s opinions. Herder, the crusading theologian of the eighteenth century, said, “It seems that John’s Gospel was written by the hand of an angel.”
Old Master Culness gets at it this way: “I believe that the writings of John have been blotted out by more penitents’ tears and have won more hearts for the Redeemer than all the rest put together.”
Let Dr. A. T. Pierson complete this triad: “Matthew corresponds to the court of Israel, Mark to the court of the priests, Luke to the court of the Gentiles. John leads us past the veil into the holy of holies. Here is the inmost temple filled with the glory of God.”

New interest in this Gospel of John was aroused in me in this way: I had preached at a certain conference, and the opinion was that there had been a real blessing. (This was gathered from the many expressions of the people.) Then came a letter. It read like this, “Dear Mr. Ravenhill, I heard you preach two nights and was very disappointed because you stressed repentance.” The writer added, “You should know that John’s Gospel was the last one written and that John never uses the word repentance once. This proves that there is no need of repentance.”

That argument is as useless as a swimming suit for a duck. If this letter writer knew that John wrote the last Gospel, he should have been well enough informed to know that John was also the human penman of The Revelation. That was John’s last message, and in it he uses the word repent seven times. Repentance surely must have come back into fashion again!
Let us suppose that the writer of this letter is right. Using what is called the argument of silence, he says, “Because repentance is not in the Gospel of John, it is not legitimate to use it.” Let us follow his argument for a few moments.

The word faith is used some 340 times in the New Testament, but never once is it used in John’s Gospel. So faith goes out of the window? I can’t preach on faith any more?
I am sure in my own mind that the brother who pilloried me for preaching repentance believes in hell. But does he know that not one of the terms used for hell (Gehenna, Tartarus, Hades) is ever used by John in his Gospel? So hell-fire preaching is out?

John’s Gospel has no demoniacs, is silent about lepers, seems never to have heard about children, omits all mention of scribes, ignores the publicans, lists no “Twelve,” has not a parable in the whole Gospel, gives no hint of a sect called the Sadducees, and does not seem to have ever heard of the Sermon on the Mount. So I cannot preach on these either?

On John’s own confession, he is writing “that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.” He uses the words believe or believed seventy-eight times in his Gospel. But note: What we would think essential to convincing people of the deity of Jesus, John leaves out. He says, “The Word was made flesh,” but he does not even mention the virgin birth! Shall I stop preaching this too?

John has no mention of the temptation of Christ, nor of His transfiguration, nor of His ascension. He makes nothing of the Lord’s baptism, and totally fails to mention the Gethsemane agony. The ministry of the Son of God lasted more than one thousand days. John records only about twenty of them. Am I out of order to preach on the unmentioned 980 days?
Dr. Edersheim, writing the life of Christ without direct inspiration, takes up no less than 1,524 pages, but John under direct inspiration, in the Revised Version takes only thirty! Is John to be charged with error because of omissions? There are a dozen vital things mentioned by the other Gospels that John omits. I, for one, will not quit preaching them.

John, then, has his own ministry. Ninety-two per cent of his Gospel is his own. Look at his matchless fifteenth chapter. Take the shoes off your feet and enter the seventeenth chapter. John’s business is to make majestically clear that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And he does it! Here is his very first verse: “In the beginning was the Word [eternity], and the Word was with God [equality], and the Word was God [deity].”

Let me finish with two things: praise for the revelation this Gospel gives (“Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift”), and a prayer for my letter critic, “Lord, open the young man’s eyes.”

END

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Cindy

Hi Walkington,

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Robert Wurtz II

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Diane

Hi Diane and ALL,

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Robert Wurtz II

do not preach if your not one with Christ, if you are not living the crucified life. what happends then is that people draw truth out from their feelings a lot of times. they judge by feelings and not truth. if not abiding in Him christians will get so caught up emotionally that it causes them to freak out on truth and others. as we come to that crucified life where we are truly dead to sin and to the world then brothers and sisters go on and preach. people like that will not be easily toss here and there but have learned to stand firmly on the word because they KNOW HIM. when we know Him we will become confident in the truth we speak. God puts that burning fire in us that causes us to stand boldly for Him speaking His truth with no apologies, but in great ferverent love for your fist Love! if your not sure what you are saying is true then don't say nothing at all because you can lead someone astray with your opinions. until you are one with Christ then will you be able to make righteose judgement. so many christians judge ourtwardly and because of that they have missed Christ. imagine the old prophets preaching today. what would many christians say to hosea? isaiah? surely God commanded them to do some wild things that seemed agaist word. surely these prophets spoke piercing spirit filled words to their own people that caused many to hate them and so some got killed. remember people have different gifts and are used different ways. i have to say real prophets is the most misunderstood and hard gift of them all. many take their messages as mean and very insentive, having no patience. i know that ravenhill wept much thru his preachings. someone asked one of his sons what they remembered about their dad. i think it was david that said what he remembered about his dad is that he always prayed, thats all he did and when friends would come over they would go off praying. wow! a man who really lived what he preached! when we become one with God we will better discerned. godly preachers words will bear with our spirit because we first heard it from God ourselves. their message would just confirmed the work that God have worked in our spirit.

i agree with robert, we must first judge ourself. if we are not dead to sin and the world we have no right to judge others or preach, or else we will be hypocrites. remeber, Jesus said He hates hypocrites. let that shake your bones! let us focus first on ourself, getting right with God then will we be better ministers for Him.

God bless

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Lisa

myfirstlove,
I hope you will give me the right and you have nothing against to quote you from other thread, because I think your post will perfectly fit in this thread:

"the men in the bible preached agaist sin, but they also were men broken before God. who did not easily want to cast out the lost but rather be blotted out that the lost would be won. are we weeping for the lost and the church? do we loose sleep because of dying souls? can God find in us one who will stand in the gap and plead for mercy for the lost to be shaken out of their comfort that they may be moved to repentance?

brothers and sisters we can preach the truth, but without love we sound like clanging cymbals to the world. without love it doesn't matter if we give our bodies to be burn.

love suffers, love endures,love is patient and kind, love HOPES.

moses spoke boldly. He spoke God's piercing words to a rebellouse people. but when God wanted to pour forth His judgement moses quickly ran and pleaded with God. because of moses God bestowed mercy on a rebellouse people giving them more time to repent.

the same with jeremiah. he even spoke the judgements on God's people, but still pleaded with God for more time for the people until he knew God will not grant anymore mercy.

yes, i know we will preach a piercing word, but are we willing to stand in the gap and plead for a rebllouse people that they will have more time to repent? are we willing to be blotted out for those we preach too? paul say he wish he was accurse for his brethrens (isreal).

yes, it is more easy to preach agaist sin then to stand in the gap and cryout to God for souls. souls are so precious and it seems so many of us forget that. when we are not filled with the love of God it is so easy to want to cast out the lost, call down fire, and wash our hands and say i'm innocent of this man's blood. i preached to him and he doesn't listen. yes, you preached to him, but did you pray and weep for his soul? did you love him more than your own life that you were willing to die if he would come to Life?

if we really believe that these lost souls will go to hell for eternity we would be more patient. we would really want to die that they may not have to suffer for eternity. we would be in our closet crying out for this generation. we would loose sleep over the reality of souls being damned for eternity. oh we would see it is only thru the power of God that many would be moved. we would become so desperate for His love to fill us that we may win many to His kingdom.

i say this to encourage all of us to examine our hearts, make sure that we are pleasing in the sight of God and that our preaching is filled with love. pray more than we preach. it will make a difference."

Amen.

Thank you.