If the individual Papua New Guinean changes there will be a total mindset change and behavioural change, says the PNG Council of Churches.
PNGCC General Secretary, Rev. Roger Joseph said this during a Press conference hosted by the Department for Community Development and Religion yesterday, 19 August, in preparation for the upcoming Day of Prayer and Repentance on Friday 26 August.
“We will start to see evil as evil, and build the culture of upright living. This kind of life starts with true repentance and the kind that will bring back Papua New Guinea. It is sad however to state now, that the 21st churches have lost the doctrine of repentance.
“I am not making an understatement here, because we can already see and experience that there is absence of repentance in personal ministry, because we have been surrounded by a new Christian message that promises hope without a transformed life, and a heaven without holiness.”
Reverend Joseph referred to the story of a certain judge and a widow in the Gospel of Luke, when Jesus asked the question, ‘But will the Son of Man find faith of earth when he comes?’
“The implications are for those who plan programmes to address poverty and injustice and yet claim high demands to pursue comfortable lifestyles.
“They are for us to preach sacrifice and generosity and yet spot out for luxury. The implications are for us who read the scriptures, celebrate the Eucharist, call ourselves Christians and yet shun the Samaritans of our day leaving discord, compete for positions and power and avoid or compromised confrontations with those who perpetrate in justice,” said Rev. Joseph.
He added that these are lived as experiences of religion without the Holy Ghost, Christianity without Christ, Forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration, politics without God and heaven without a hell.
Rev. Joseph emphasized further that there is no gospel of individual salvation without reference to the justice of the kingdom and there is no love of God unrelated to what our neighbours face around us each day.
“So the nation of Papua New Guinea, there is a need for a repentance day and that repentance day coming is very crucial. By repentance we are made clean, by compassion we are made ready and by yearning for God we are made worthy.”
Meanwhile the Day of Prayer in National Capital District will be held again at the Sir John Guise outdoor stadium.