There are far too many self-professing Christian church groups that have forgotten the basics of the gospel as taught by Jesus and His disciples. Recently the Moderator of the Church of Scotland,  Iain Greenshields, while accompanying Pope Francis on an ecumenical trip to South Sudan, said to journalists who wanted to talk about homosexuality “There is nowhere in my reading of the four Gospels where I see Jesus turning anyone away. There is nowhere in the four Gospels where I see anything other than Jesus expressing love to whoever he meets.” Perhaps Moderator Greenshields has forgotten what John the Baptist prophesied about the dual nature of Jesus’ ministry:

“As for me, I baptize you with water because of [your] repentance [that is, because you are willing to change your inner self—your old way of thinking, regret your sin and live a changed life], but He (the Messiah) who is coming after me is mightier [more powerful, more noble] than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to remove [even as His slave]; He will baptize you [who truly repent] with the Holy Spirit and [you who remain unrepentant] with fire (judgment),” Matthew 3:11 Amplified Bible.

Dr. Aaron Edwards, who taught theology at the Methodist Cliff College in Derbyshire, England, was recently fired by a purported “Bible” school after being accused by the administration of “bringing the college into disrepute” on social media when he tweeted, “Homosexuality is invading the church,” and that “this is a ‘Gospel issue,’ by the way. If sin is no longer sin, we no longer need a Savior.”

It seems Dr. Edwards’ tweets alarmed Cliff College’s staff and admin who held that such comments “could be extremely damaging” and “impact the college’s core work” and its “business plan.” 

Should being popular and well spoken of by the sinners of a corrupt, progressively degenerating culture be our first priority as Christians? Or rather, shouldn’t we  be much more concerned with what the Bible’s God thinks of us? So shouldn’t the Church’s first priority be converting the world to God’s righteous ways rather than being corrupted by the world’s unrighteous ways? The Apostle James clarified this issue for the Church a long time ago

Faithless apostates! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God. James 4:4 New Living Version

According to Jesus Christ the core work of the Church, its leaders, and its members is to transform the world—not to be corrupted by it!

This is the message [of God’s promised revelation] which we have heard from [Christ] and now announce to you, that God is Light [He is holy, His message is truthful, He is perfect in righteousness], and in Him there is no darkness at all [no sin, no wickedness, no imperfection].  If we say that we have fellowship with [Christ] and yet walk in the darkness [of sin], we lie and do not practice the truth.” 1 John 1:5-6 Amplified Bible