Admitting affair, Tullian Tchividjian resigns as pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian

Wouldn’t it be better if our own consciences were so sensitive to sin that confrontation from a third person wasn’t necessary to bring us to confession and repentance?

But that isn’t reality, is it?

Don makes a good and important point. If the only genuine repentance is that of those who confess entirely on their own, we would not have commands like the ones we see in Matt 18, Gal 6, and Heb 3. We all need confrontation sometimes.

[Don Johnson]

But that isn’t reality, is it?

Even the man after God’s own heart had to be confronted by Nathan:

Then David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man, and he said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die, and he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.”

Nathan said to David, “You are the man! Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul. And I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your arms and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah. And if this were too little, I would add to you as much more. Why have you despised the word of the Lord, to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’ Thus says the Lord, ‘Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house. And I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun.’” David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die. Nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly scorned the Lord, the child who is born to you shall die.” Then Nathan went to his house”. (II Samuel 12:5-15)

For whatever it’s worth, this is front page news on Bing.com today - in the news feed bar at the bottom of the page. Here’s the direct link.

I would agree that it was tacky for him to put her under the bus in that particular announcement, but if the church values her spiritual life, she was bound to have “tire treads” on her forehead at some point.

And, I must say, probably on her husband’s forehead, even if he hadn’t fallen into adultery. Her response to her husband’s comments indicates that things are really, really, broken, and that her husband is heavily involved in whatever led to her sin. I would not be surprised if her reasoning was similar to that of Anna Stanley (the former Mrs. Rev. Charles Stanley); “he had his priorities, and I was not one of them.”

It doesn’t excuse either person’s sin, but I think we’re foolish if we don’t get a handle on the steps that many marriages take towards the rocks.

Are we doing enough to encourage and allow (by giving) evangelists and missionaries to travel with their wives and families instead of leaving them at home?
What else are we doing to help pastors and those in traveling ministries to keep strong family relationships and avoid sins in this area? What might we be doing that is hindering or discouraging them?

[Don Johnson]

But that isn’t reality, is it?

Here’s another attempt to explain myself:

Genuine repentance can be produced by either confrontation or conviction of the conscience by the Holy Spirit without an outside agent.

To put in bluntly, if you or I were unfaithful to our wives, what does it say about us if it takes a Nathan to point out our sin and bring us to repentance?

[Ron Bean]

Don Johnson wrote:

But that isn’t reality, is it?

Here’s another attempt to explain myself:

Genuine repentance can be produced by either confrontation or conviction of the conscience by the Holy Spirit without an outside agent.

To put in bluntly, if you or I were unfaithful to our wives, what does it say about us if it takes a Nathan to point out our sin and bring us to repentance?

It would say that our hearts are hardened so that it takes the rebuke of man to get us to respond to the prompting of God, no?

[Ron Bean]

To put in bluntly, if you or I were unfaithful to our wives, what does it say about us if it takes a Nathan to point out our sin and bring us to repentance?

I would say it would make us normal. I think you can over-analyze this. Let him that is without sin cast the first stone.

I will also say that I make no judgement with respect to Tullian and his repentance or not. Time alone will reveal the sincerity of his repentance. I feel pretty terrible for him and his family. It is a sad situation and the nattering of outside observers regarding him and his wife are less than helpful. We would do better to observe in sad silence and keep our mouths shut.

I guess it’s just me. If I committed some outrageous sin like adultery, getting drunk, embezzlement; I would be so overcome with guilt that I couldn’t sleep until I made things right. But I guess I’m from that tender-hearted bunch that would drive back to Chick-fil-A if they gave me too much change back.

I wouldn’t presume on the darkness of your own heart, until, God forbid, you should find yourself in this situation. You really can’t tell what you would do. David wrote Psalm 23 before his incident with Bathsheba and subsequent cover-up occurred. I am sure he would have protested against his own future behaviour if someone would have prophesied otherwise.

Regeneration doesn’t change the human tendency to hide. The fact is that most of us will not confess without confrontation (especially about the ‘big’ sins). Even then, denial, obfuscation, cover-up is usually the initial response (or at least the instinctive response).

The articles I read make it seem like he is stepping down after coming forth himself. He was not outed like David by Nathan.

[Mark_Smith]

The articles I read make it seem like he is stepping down after coming forth himself. He was not outed like David by Nathan.

That’s my understanding as well. I was sensing that some people were assuming he’d been outed because that seems to be what it usually takes.

Last week I was approached by our church leaders and they asked me about my own affair. I admitted to it and it was decided that the best course of action would be for me to resign.

Don’t think he came forward with the admission until confronted.