Persecution: The Lifeblood of the Church

And Saul approved of his execution. And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him. But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison. Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word. (Acts 8:1-4)

The church of Christ has often faced persecution. It has generally led to true revival (not scheduling an evangelist and renting a tent revival, but a real revival). In the time of the book of Acts, the Jewish leadership rose up against the church and their attack dog Saul led the charge, scattering the early church. Instead of killing the infant Christian church, the church spread by the very means used to destroy it. Instead of 100 Christians centered in Jerusalem, 100 Christians went to 100 different cities and in the places they were scattered, they preached the Word. Saul himself was broken on the road to Damascus and became one of the greatest of the apostles. The Jews meant it for ill, but God used it for His glory.

In 1517, a monk dared question the papist system and unlike many, many predecessors he survived and was used mightily of God. The church was in great darkness of false teachings, but as one of my t-shirts reads: Post Tenebrus Lux, which is translated "out of darkness, light".

I got a kick out of this story of new megachurches being built in predominantly Muslim Indonesia. The radical muslim extremists burn down church after church, so the Christians in that country just build bigger churches...

Indonesia's sprinkling of small churches have periodically been raided, burned down or bombed by angry mobs. It would seem to be a good place for Christians to keep a low profile.

Instead, some wealthy Christian leaders in the predominantly Muslim nation have embarked on a bold and possibly provocative strategy: building megachurches as an assertion of their faith.

At least four multimillion-dollar churches that can seat thousands of people -- patterned on the evangelical colossi of the U.S. -- are nearing completion around Jakarta, the capital, and others are cropping up elsewhere.

The striking edifices are one way Christians -- who make up about 8% of Indonesia's population of 230 million -- are dealing with what some say is a rise in anti-Christian sentiment in Asia. They are an emblem of how the church here, financed by prominent businesspeople, is determined to make its presence known after a decade of persecution.

Despite the heightened persecution, the church continues to grow and flourish in Asia in the midst of what should be the most unlikely conditions...

The population of Christians in Asia and the Middle East grew to 350 million in 2005, or 9%, from about 100 million in 1970, or 5% of the total population, according to a 2006 study on Asian Christianity by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, a project of the Pew Research Center.

Praise God!

But the church still needs prayer and support. The story of what is happening in India to our brothers and sisters is heart wrenching. You can get a sampling of it at this post from the Pyromaniacs. But in the midst of the church amusing itself into irrelevance in America and being reviled and killed overseas, we know this: God is sovereign and in the midst of the greatest darkness, God has again and again used that very persecution to grow His church. Let's pray that when we look back at these dark times in so many places that we will have the grace to see the hand of God working to redeem His people in His persecuted church.