Why Destroying Christian Symbols Won't Work
God wants
His people to have strong encouragement. Particularly, when the mission of the
church to spread the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus is met with aggressive
hostility, God wants His people to know for certain that He has got this. His
resolve remains unchanged. His plan will not fail. Our hope for the future is
rock solid.
The church,
historically, has gone through extensive periods of hardship and opposition.
Right from the get-go, it was understood that the way of Jesus was going to be
radically counter to the patterns and priorities of every culture into which
Christianity would be sent. We would not get a warm welcome. Our Christian
mission began with these words of Jesus: "In this world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have
overcome the world."[1]
Jesus told his disciples quite frankly, "If the world hates you, know that it hated me before it hated you. If
you were of the world, the world would love you as its own but because you are
not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates
you."[2]
In the past
few weeks, the media has been showing pictures of the radical Islamist group,
ISIS, tearing down ancient Christian monuments in Iraq
and Syria
(monuments
destroyed). Their agenda is to rid their "caliphate" of any
vestiges of what they consider idolatry. I have friends who have lived and
worked in Syria
and I am sure that it pains them deeply to see the challenges that now face
their Christian brethren who continue to live there. Of course, in their own
way, secularists have been doing the same thing in the Western world for a few
decades now. Any public symbols of the Christian faith have been progressively
and systematically removed from the public square by the proponents of a
religion-less secular philosophy. Christian presence is increasingly unwelcome
in institutions of higher education and in public discourse about morality and
justice.
The big
mistake that is made in all of this, of course, is that promoting the destruction of the
symbols of the Christian faith is akin to seeking to stop the effects of the
sun by burning every painting of it that you can find. When you have destroyed
every art gallery and melted down every brass sculpture of the brightest light
in the heavens, you will still get up the next morning to its rising. The power
of the Christian faith lies not in its symbols but in the risen and reigning Son of God. That Son reigns
on behalf of His people. He lives and rules safe and secure in the heavens far
beyond the reach of His enemies and far above every power on earth,
philosophical, political, military, or religious.
For any
religion or any anti-Christian philosophy to attempt to destroy the church of Christ fully and finally, it would have
to do several things. It would have to persuade God Himself to turn on His
people and to break the covenant that He made with Abraham to bless Him, to make
him a mighty nation and through His descendant, to bless all the nations of the
earth. This is impossible because God cannot break His Word. He will not lie. The
faulty notion that many people have is that the church is merely a human
creation. It is, in fact, the handiwork of God Himself. It exists because of
His will and by His doing and to the praise of the glory of His grace.
Secondly, they
would have to climb up to heaven and destroy Jesus who has been appointed by
God to rule and to reign on behalf of all those who have put their faith in
Him. That, of course, would be difficult for many reasons. First, you can't get
there from here. Well, you can, but the only road to heaven is through death. Then,
according to the Scriptures, if you were
to die, you would be judged by Jesus on the grounds of whether or not you put
your faith in Him. That is one of His main post-resurrection responsibilities. The
Bible declares that "it is appointed once for a person to die and then to face
the judgment."[3] Also, if
theoretically, you could get there, you would have to destroy the very One who
has already triumphed over death. The Bible tells us that He has been raised to
an indestructible life by God because of His perfect obedience, even obedience
to death on a cross. In other words, He can't die. Therefore, you would simply
be a pesky arrogant gnat buzzing around the One whom God has given all
authority in heaven and in earth. So, you would be attacking almighty power and
offending almighty God. It is not wise to tick God off and there is nothing
that ticks God the Father off more than the dishonour of His Son.
The only
other thing, one might do is to try to persuade Jesus to abandon His position
of authority on behalf of the church and to persuade Him to come work for His
enemies. Aren't there more devout people who would show themselves far more
worthy of such a King? Could someone persuade Jesus to leave His post? Satan made
that offer before the crucifixion and He wouldn't take it then (see Matthew 4).
Why would He abandon those for whom He was willing to die and whom He purchased
with His blood on the cruel cross? Some
might argue that the church isn't worth it with all its flaws and failings. It
is sinful. It is corrupt. It is weak and unwell. Why stick with a sickly bride?
The answer is because He loves her and delights in her. Is it not clear how
much that He loves His church in the very fact that He died to make her His own?
Do we think that after He poured out His blood to make her white as snow that
He would take lightly any criticisms and insults about her flaws? Just to utter
the suggestion that He betray His bride would provoke a holy protective anger
that we could not begin to imagine. Jesus loves His church and will never leave
her nor forsake her.
I write this
for the encouragement of Christians as we see and continue to experience grave
threats and increasing hostility. There is far more than I have written here
that is meant to elevate our confidence in God's commitment to His church. God
will not and cannot abandon the church to its enemies. Jesus will not leave His
people or His post. The fuel for my reflection here came in part from Hebrews
6. There the Bible reads "So when
God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the
unchangeable character of His purpose, He guaranteed it with an oath, so that
by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who
have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope
set before us. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope
that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a
forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order
of Melchizedek."[4]
God's purpose is unchangeable. God's desire is that we would take strong
encouragement from the fact that He has made a promise and secured it through
Jesus. Jesus is our anchor, our guarantee and He has entered heaven on our
behalf. He ever lives to intercede for us.
When
the symbols of the history of Christianity fall all around us, and the enemies
of the church roar and rattle their sabers, we must always remember, they can't
bring the sun down from the sky and they won't bring the Son down from His
throne. As long as Jesus Christ lives and reigns, and as long as God is One who
never lies and always keeps His Word, His people are forever secure. Take
strong confidence in this.
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