There is a great deal of compartmentalized thinking in the world, even among the saints of God. We have two or more compartments in our brain in which we put ideas. The ideas in one compartment do not agree with the ideas in the other compartment.

We Christians believe in righteousness. We know that without holiness no person will see the Lord. We believe the Bible to be a holy book that directs us to be clean morally, to tell the truth, to refrain from violence and covetousness, and so forth.

But our doctrine does not agree with this. Our doctrine tells us that Jesus did it all and if we will only believe, God will see our conduct only through Christ.

We are happy living in this illogical state but sooner or later we get into trouble. The individual who hears each Sunday about grace then goes off with a woman (sometimes another "grace-filled" believer) and leaves his wife and children.

The minister who preaches grace falls through lust. Then his associates and his congregation who cheered him on in his preaching of grace cry shame, shame, and he is barred from the ministry.

If God does not see the man's misbehavior but only the moral purity of Christ, who are we to cry shame, shame?

This inconsistency has not been so obvious in time past because our cultural mores have taken the place of sound doctrine from the pulpit. We know it is a shame to commit adultery, to lie, to steal. If the Lord Jesus or the Apostle Paul had been an adulterer, liar, or thief, we wouldn't pay attention to what they said.

But now the cultural mores have been corrupted. Satan has torn down our last defense against sin and we are left with the overemphasis on the grace of forgiveness (as though that were the only aspect of Divine grace). Any sociologist could have predicted the outcome—our nation is on the skids to Hell.

The Muslims and the Hindus put us to shame in the area of decent moral behavior. And we are the children of God?

The Spirit of God is crying for repentance in America. But our doctrine is not compatible with repentance. If we are perfect in Christ, if God sees us only through Christ, there is no real basis for repentance.

We need to hear from God! The fear of the Lord is gone from the American churches because we are overemphasizing God's love, mercy, and forgiveness. These abound for the truly repentant. We are setting forth the goodness of God but not His severity. If the balance between mercy and wrath is not restored the present generation of Christians will be of little use to the world as a moral light. Our only hope will be the children who are coming up.

God is good, loving, kind, merciful. He has given us Christ, not as an alternative to righteous behavior but as the means of acquiring righteous behavior. May God give us the mind of Christ until our whole body is full of light.