I was looking for an article in some old United Brethren magazines when a teaser on the cover of the May 1988 issue grabbed my attention: “Can Evangelicals Regain Integrity?” The article was by Dr. Paul Fetters. I vaguely remembered publishing that article 30 years ago, when I was the editor. I reread it, and found it uncomfortably relevant to today.

At the time, Christians were reeling from affairs by high-profile televangelists Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart. Fetters wrote, “During the past year, the Christian church has suffered an enormous loss of integrity. But we didn’t lose integrity overnight. I see three elements which have contributed to it.”

All three points were excellent, as were his three points for regaining integrity. But it’s the first point I’ll cite here: replacing a God of Holiness for a God of Love. He wrote:

“A Holy God is more demanding than a God of Love. In fact, my understanding is that God COMMANDS us to love, but he DEMANDS that we be holy. The problem is, we don’t want anyone to demand anything of us. We love ourselves and others, our objects and objectives, more than we love a God who says, ‘I am holy and jealous, and I will not share the supreme devotion in your life with any other.

“In the past 25-30 years, we have smothered the earth with ‘God is love.’ What would happen if, in the next 25 years, we blitzed the world with, ‘God is holy’?”

Well, it’s more than 25 years. I would say we’ve drifted much further away from a God of Holiness, and have become increasingly infatuated with a God of Love, who will accept and forgive just about anything.