Over the years many of us have wondered how a genuine biblically – informed revival can occur in the sort of cultural environment we in western countries find ourselves in today? Often, despite our protests, we truly fail to realize how unique are the circumstances of our time. Affluence is not a new thing, but what is new is the level of comfort, health and longevity enjoyed by the vast majority of people in a nation like Australia. Prosperity could not be like this until technology and peace were combined as they are for us in the present. Whilst widespread prosperity and godliness are not necessarily incompatible in principle, they tend to be so in practice.
Biblically, the great ancient empires, such as Babylon, Tyre and Rome, are severely criticized because of their careless luxury (Jer 50:1- 16; Ezek 28:2 -8; Rev 18). The Old Testament regularly connects prosperity and complacency: “Israel ate his fill; Jeshurun grew fat and kicked. You grew fat, bloated and gorged! He abandoned the God who made him.” (Deut 32:15), “When I fed them they were satisfied, and their heart was proud; therefore they forgot me.” (Hos 13:6).
We observe the same problem in the New Testament period. The churches in Ephesus and Laodicea are a case in point. “For you say, ‘I am rich, I have prospered and I need nothing.’ Do you not realize that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked.” (Rev 2: 17).
Historically, great Christians have observed this regularity. The New England seventeenth century Puritan father Cotton Mather commented on his times: “godliness has begotten prosperity and the daughter has devoured the mother.” John Wesley held very much the same view.
If this is the deliverance of scripture and history what strategy does the wisdom of God have for our prosperous and comfortable times? The answer, I believe, is transparent once it is seen.
A short while ago I was visiting a small group of Christians in a home. Almost to a person they had been in leadership or eldership positions in conventional churches or ministries, but over time had been deeply hurt. They were looking for some sort of “prophetic direction” to come from our meeting together. I was careful not to give this to them, lest they become dependent on my spirituality as they had previously allowed others to become mediators between them and Christ – much to their pain. Rather, I spoke to them at length about the way of the cross. We deliberated for some time on the New Testament teaching that it was only through suffering that Jesus could be matured (Heb 2:10; 5:8 – 9). If this is the case for Jesus then it necessarily follows that it must be so for the re-creation of the image of God in us. It is because suffering yielded to God makes us more like his Son, that Paul says he will glory in nothing but the cross (Gal 6:14). What has this to do with the way of God in revival?
As I was speaking to this group it suddenly dawned on me that they, along with many thousands of other believers in our time, were united with a great body of persecuted Christians whom God had used mightily to bring renewal in the church and salvation to the world. All the apostles except one were martyred for their faith. Hus, Luther, the Wesleys, Booth and many others found their greatest opposition from within organized Christianity. It therefore follows that if the Holy Spirit does not have the instrument of persecution from outside the church to refine a people to utter godliness he must necessarily use conflict within the body of Christ to acheive this. Paul intimates as much when he says: “Indeed, there have to be factions among you, for only so will it become clear who among you have God’s approval.” (1 Cor 11:19). In an age when we seem committed, at times, to a blind unity, this is a hard text to digest. Yet receive it we must.
If the Lord does not have at his sovereign disposal militant Moslems, Hindus, communists and others then his only alternative, for the sake of a perishing world, is to use the immaturity within the western church to issue in conflicts that purify those who are only after his own heart. These people will be free from aspirations and ambitions to do with power and privilege – they will simply not be interested in the praises of men but only the glory of God.
Whilst talking to the group above I had a very distinct if brutal impression “in the Spirit”. It was of a crucifixion scene of a different sort. This time the nails that were being driven in were not of iron, but God was sovereignly using believers as hammer and nails to crucify one another. This ugly but indispensable reality meant that some Christians were falling away from the institutional church, others were disillusioned with God, others were seeking new forms of spiritual expression and many were mindlessly conforming to control. A few will be deeply made holy, this is how Persecution in the Church is a Preparation for Revival. Why would God do this? Could it really be true that our gentle heavenly Father employs so brutal a method to bring about his ultimate will?
In general terms the New Testament sees suffering for the sake of Christ as a God – given privilege (Acts 5:41; Gal 6:17; Phil 1:29; James 1:2 etc.). We know that the expression of the second century church father Tertullian: “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church” has been proved true gain and again. It is beyond dispute that our suffering brothers and sisters in China, Nigeria, Columbia, Sri Lanka and many other nations are experiencing a presence of Christ of which we can only dream. All of this is only cumulative evidence for the point I am seeking to make, for it is only a small participation in the fellowship of the one crucial suffering, of Christ (Phil 3:10). Paul tells us: “I am now rejoicing in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am completing what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church.” (Phil 1:24).
The apostolic understanding is that sharing in the unfinished agony of Jesus is not only inevitable but indispensable for the accomplishment of the divine purposes. This is because there is no salvation outside of the work of the cross and this work is communicated through the voluntary suffering and submission of Jesus’ body upon the earth. As such, God has no other way, in our current and tolerant secular society, where our religious rights are protected by law, than to use the one site in our culture where genuine religious energy can be generated – that is, the church. Only in the church do we find enough regular conflict over the person of Christ and the will of God to generate a level of hostility and hurt that can deeply mature the saints.
In the midst of speaking with the group I have referred to above, I felt the Lord say to me, “I find it easier to write on tablets of stone than on the tablets of the human heart.” (2 Cor 3:3). “Nevertheless, my effort is worth it, for what is written on stone may be erased, but what is imparted to the human heart by my Spirit is indelible.” The indelible likeness of Jesus in all his glory: his love, joy, patience, kindness…..these are the things that are the desired fruit of the self – crucifixion of the church. Surely this is a part of the mysterious wisdom of the cross and why it has been so hard for us to see that Persecution in the Church is a Preparation for Revival.
One final conviction came to me out of the incident that led to this article. In the New Testament the work of the Spirit can be compared to the impact of drinking wine (Acts 2:13- 17; Eph 5:18 -0). I sensed that the Lord was saying that revival is a “heady” phenomenon, when the new wine is put in the new wineskin (Luke 5:38) only those whose minds have been sobered by the work of the cross will not be carried away into various forms of distorted spirituality and teaching (Col 2:18; 2 Tim 4:3- 4). Often, revival movements have broken down because the leadership became proud and elated over what God seemed to be doing through their lives (2 Cor 12:7). The jealous and true God is not going to allow this to happen in our time, hence the title of this article: Persecution in the Church is a Preparation for Revival.