Another pundit predicts the demise of the church. The title of the article says, “Parishes will be lost for good.” Some make a living celebrating this thought. One exclaimed jubilantly, “Churches are toast.” This is not the first-time prognosticators have pronounced the death of the church. History reveals that God has often done his greatest work in the most challenging times.
As Saul wreaked havoc on the church, many of the first-century believers were scattered. Philip, one of the seven who had helped solve the food distribution crisis, landed in Samaria and preached the word. There God awakened the oft-despised Samaritans to spiritual life. Peter and John came down and prayed for the new believers. One in our day might have expected Philip to found a church there and become the pastor. But God moved him away from the crowd to a desert road from Jerusalem to Gaza. Seeing a royal official from Ethiopia reading Isaiah 53, Philip joined him in the chariot and told him the good news about Jesus.
Dwight McKissic preached at our convention down in McAllen this week. Using this text, he reminded us that many believe the Ethiopian was the joyful servant who first took the gospel to Africa. We know for certain that the gospel transformed his life as he became a disciple. Remember this story began with the death of Stephen and the arrest of other Christians.
Believers do not seek out persecution, but we know that when it comes, God’s hands are not bound by it. On the contrary, as Tertullian said, “The blood of the martyrs has been the seed of the church.” Or as Chesterton explained it, ”At least five times, therefore, with the Arian and the Albigensian, with the Humanist skeptic, after Voltaire and after Darwin, the Faith has to all appearance gone to the dogs. In each of these five cases, it was the dog that died.”
