Revival's Golden Key (3 page)

One of my graphic artists married a woman whose Christian husband died of cancer, leaving her to raise five kids. The marriage was fine until she ran off with another man. She left my friend with the one child that was his. Sometime after that, someone broke into his home and beat him to a pulp. He had to be rushed to the hospital for treatment.

One other friend found his beloved wife dead, in utterly tragic circumstances I am not at liberty to print.

On June 19, 2000, five trainees with New Tribes Missions pitched a tent during a violent storm in Mississippi. Jenny Knapp, an attractive twenty-year-old, noticed that rain was causing the roof to cave in, so she lifted the tent pole to raise the height of the roof. Suddenly, a bolt of lightning struck the pole and tore through her body, giving her second-degree bums on her face, arm, and back. Her friends resuscitated her lifeless body and rushed her to the hospital where she was placed in the intensive care unit. The young missionary recovered, but is terribly scarred and partly blind. It is a sad fact of life, but in the real world, lightning falls on the just and the unjust.

At least one church I know of may have noticed the paradox. They were called “The Happy Church,” but recently decided, for some reason, to change their name.

I think that if we still want to cling to “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life,” we had better hide
Foxe’s Book of Martyrs
from the eyes of sinners. Speaking of martyrdom, have you ever thought of what it would be like to be huddling together as a family, as hungry and ferocious lions rush into a Roman arena? Have you ever considered what it would be like to be eaten by lions? I have. My fertile imagination runs wild. What do you give the lion to eat first—your arm? How long would you remain conscious as he gnawed on it?

The Way Out of Problems

Can you imagine the feelings you would have if you had led your loved ones in a sinner’s prayer using the
wonderful plan
hook? Suppose you had read to them from a booklet by one well-known and respected man of God in which he said, “Everyone is seeking happiness. Why, then, are more people not experiencing this happiness? According to the Bible, true happiness can be found only through God’s way.” What would you tell your beloved family as you look into their terrified eyes? How could you reconcile the word “wonderful” with having the fierce teeth of a lion rip you apart, limb from limb?

These are terrible thoughts, but they are not merely my fantasies. Multitudes of martyrs have suffered unspeakable torture for the name of Jesus Christ. It shouldn’t have been a surprise to the early Church when persecution hit them. Jesus warned them of the fact that they may have to give their lives for His name’s sake. He even said, “Brother will deliver up brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. And you will be hated by all men for My name’s sake” (Matthew
10
:
21
,
22
).

History tells us the fate of the apostles:

■    Philip: Crucified, Phrygia,
A.D.
54

■    Barnabas: Burned to death, Cyprus,
A.D.
64

■    Peter: Crucified, Rome,
A.D.
69

■    Paul: Beheaded, Rome,
A.D.
66

■    Andrew: Crucified, Achaia,
A.D.
70

■    Matthew: Beheaded, Ethiopia,
A.D.
60

■    Luke: Hanged, Athens,
A.D.
93

■    Thomas: Speared to death,
Calamina
,
A.D.
70

■    Mark: Dragged to death, Alexandria,
A.D.
64

■    James (the Less): Clubbed to death, Jerusalem,

A.D. 66

Persecution has always been the portion of the godly. According to Scripture, they have been “tortured
,...
had trial of
mockings
and
scourgings
, yes, and of chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted,
were
slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented —of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth” (Hebrews 11:35-38).

Perhaps some may argue that the Christian life is a wonderful plan because God works all things out for the good of those who love Him (Romans 8:28). That fact is wonderful in the truest sense of the word. No matter what happens to a Christian, he can rejoice because of that promise.

In 1995, in Mainland China when Li De Xian was
ar
-rested for his faith, he no doubt knew that God would work all things together for his good. When he was beaten with a heavy club, kicked in the groin and stomach
until he vomited blood, then beaten in the face with his Bible and left bleeding on the floor, the promise remained steadfast.

In 1413, John Huss was summoned to appear before the Roman church council in Constance. When he was thrown into a prison for nineteen months awaiting trial for his faith, he no doubt knew that God would work things out for his good. When he was burned alive at the stake and his charred, lifeless body fell among the ashes, the wonderful promise remained
unwavering
that God would work such an unspeakable horror out for his good.

According to a study by Regent University, in 1998 there were approximately 156,000 Christian martyrs throughout the world. The promise of God was also true for each and every one of these children of God.

When Moslems burst into churches in Rwanda in the late 1990s and hacked men, women, and children to death with razor-sharp machetes, if the many
who
bled to death loved God and were called according to His purpose, they too could claim this incredible promise.

If it is wonderful that our Creator does work all things out for good—that He brings good out of every agony suffered by our brethren—why then shouldn’t we use that truth as bait when fishing for men?
Simply because it’s not biblical to do so.
Go through the Book of Acts and see if you can find any of the disciples telling sinners that God loved them and had a wonderful plan for their lives. Instead, their hearers were guilty criminals —enemies of God who desperately needed righteousness, not to be told that they could enhance their lives with God’s wonderful plan. To a sinner, “wonderful” has
positive
connotations, not
negative
ones of machetes, hatred, persecution, beatings, and martyrdom. If they respond to the message only to improve their lives, when persecution comes, they will be disillusioned and fall away from the faith. This is because many respond
experimentally,
simply to see if the wonderful life promised by Christians is as good as they make it out to be.

Jesus didn’t shield the newly converted Saul of Tar-sus from what was in store for him as a Christian. He said, “I will show him
how many things he must suffer
for
My
name’s sake” (Acts 9:16, emphasis added). Stephen was cruelly stoned to death for his faith. James was murdered with a sword. John the Baptist also felt the sharp steel of persecution. Down through the ages, Christians have been hated, persecuted, thrown to lions, and, like Huss, even burned at the stake for the sake of the gospel.

In light of Christians being burned to death for their faith in central Africa in February 2000, perhaps the message “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life” applies only to the United States. That may have been the case right up until the shooting death of Cassie
Bernall
on April 20, 1999. Cassie was shot in the head in Littleton, Colorado, when she said, “Yes” to the question, “Do you believe in God?”

If persecution and hardship are the realities of the Christian life, why in the world would
anyone
in his right mind choose to become a Christian? What would bring someone to the Savior if it were not the promise of a wonderful new life in Christ? We will look at this in the next chapter.

CHAPTER 3

A LIFESTYLE WITHOUT A LIFE

T
here is perhaps a rational answer to the question, “Does Jesus really
solve
sinners
’
problems?” If those who say that “Jesus solves problems” were “converted” under the same gospel they propagate, and did not re-pent
themselves
, then there may be some truth in what they are saying. If they continue to live in lawlessness, then they don’t have a struggle with the world, the flesh, and the devil. They are friends of the world. They flow with it rather than against it, and therefore don’t have “tribulation” in it. Because they don’t “live godly in Christ Jesus,” they don’t “suffer persecution” (2 Timothy 3:12). They are not hated for His name’s sake because their lives are no different from those who are in the world. They live in the flesh, and therefore don’t struggle to deny the flesh.

Neither do they wrestle against the devil. In fact, he will be pleased with what he sees. They have “found religion,” and think that by going to church an hour on Sunday morning they are now all right with God, assuaging their nagging consciences. They joined the
feh
lowship
of the church; they enjoy the music, the social activities, the friendship, and the many other benefits of modern Christianity, including what they think
is
assurance of everlasting life. They
have
found happiness in their new lifestyle—but they haven’t found new life in Christ.

And here’s the double tragedy from such error. When the Church declares the message that “Jesus gives happiness,” it restricts its field of evangelistic
endeavor
to those in society who will be interested:
those who are not happy
—those with alcohol, drug, marriage, personal, and financial problems.

These “problem” people don’t hear the message of sin, righteousness, and judgment, with the command to repent and flee from the wrath that is to come. Instead they hear that Jesus is the answer to their marriage, alcohol, drug, personal, and financial problems. He is the One who can fill the God-shaped vacuum in their lives. They therefore fail to repent (because they haven’t been told to), have a false conversion (Mark 4:16
,17
), and don’t become new creatures in Christ. They do “name the name of Christ,” but they don’t “depart from iniquity” (2 Timothy 2:19). Rather, they bring their sins
and their problems
into the church. This has the following sad effects: