I was again listening to a sermon by Alistair Begg. I don’t know what his theme was but as he spoke he said that the church grew in the first four centuries without any mass evangelism and no buildings. Even though it was not a new thought to me it started my mind working.
We are so locked into our modern materialism and technology. We think we need a nice building to attract people to Jesus. We think if we can just make use of the newest social media to spread the gospel the world will respond. We either get frantic or give up depending on our mood and personality.
Why do we panic at the thought of losing our building? It is going to happen. Accept it. The day is coming when churches will lose their tax exempt status and non-profit tax write-offs. That will be one strike. Keep in mind that saying that "the power to tax is the power to destroy." Destroying the church is one goal of modern society.
Islam is on the attack. I would not be surprised to see physical attacks on Christian places of worship like we don’t hear about in Egypt. Just because you don’t hear about it does not mean it is not happening. Murder and rape are common expectations of Christians in Muslim countries around the world. When it comes here it could be a second strike.
The third strike? Ultimately we will be shut down if we are preaching the word of God because it will not be tolerated by the tolerant. We will be labeled as terrorists and haters. What do I mean “will be?” That is an is no matter what the meaning of “is” is. The umpire is calling us out while the pitch is still on its way.
Relax. It is nothing new. We are not playing baseball, we are in a spiritual battle. In the first three centuries the church was forced to hide in basements and sneak around. It thrived. Two thousand years later the Roman Empire is a vague memory but the church is still around.
So relax if you want the church to grow. It will come. The ones who need to get up tight are the ones who want to destroy the church. They might make the mistake of making it hard to be a Christian and have to deal with serious believers for a change.
homo unius libri
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Comments are welcome. Feel free to agree or disagree but keep it clean, courteous and short. I heard some shorthand on a podcast: TLDR, Too long, didn't read.