Trying to destroy the faith
The last command that Jesus gave His disciples before His ascension into heaven was, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matt. 28:18-20) It is, therefore, impossible to have Biblical Christianity without evangelism. A church which deliberately refrains from propagating the faith is, in that point at least, not Christian; it has departed from the instructions of the Lord.
We live in a society which doesn’t want Christians to obey their God. Whether they call evangelism hateful, or “ramming your beliefs down my throat,” or intolerant, or whatever, they want us to shut our mouths. That is, of course, intolerant, narrow-minded, bigoted, hateful, and whatnot. It is also a direct injunction to the effect that we must, in order for society to accept us, cease to be Christians.
A question for the student to ponder, while I make my points: How can it be wrong for Christians to seek to persuade others to voluntarily become Christians, but right for non-Christians to bully us into becoming non-Christians? If you’re reading this and want Christians to be silent, try to find a consistent answer. If you’re a conservative and a Christian – or even a conservative who’s not a Christian – you might try offering the question to the next liberal who wants to silence the voices of Christians.
And now, the points I wish to make. I have four, and while this isn’t a sermon, I’m going to number them just as I would if I were preaching.
I. When Christians proclaim the Gospel, we aren’t forcing anyone to do anything. I know from experience, both as a subject of evangelism, and an evangelizer, that there is no force involved in the Biblical proclamation of the Gospel of Christ. For the first time in my life, I began regularly attending a Christian church in December of 1982. And if I had never become a Christian, the people in that church would have cheerfully let me attend their services, and treated me well, forever; they never once tried to compel me to believe as they did. And in my turn I have never forced anyone to come to Christ, nor to listen to the Gospel. The most emphatic and pushy Christian evangelists I’ve ever encountered have not employed force; they may be the used car salesmen of the Christian church, but it’s words, and not blows, that they use.
Anyone who comes to Christ does so voluntarily. I’m calvinistic, meaning I accept the five points of the Calvinist TULIP without necessarily accepting all the rest – for instance, a heavy dependence on creeds – that constitutes Calvinism. As such, I believe in what they call “irresistible grace.” But the very definition of that doctrine asserts that those who are the objects of it come to Christ willingly – the Spirit’s work is not to force people into the kingdom of heaven, but to make them willing where before they were unwilling, and able where before they were unable. And that’s how someone comes to the Lord. There is no force, not on my part and not on God’s part. Someone who becomes a Christian does so because he wants to, and if he doesn’t want to, then he doesn’t, and no one can force him to change his mind.
II. If the church takes up the sword, then it is perverting the faith. I’m a great fan of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, and I love the recurring gag which goes:
I didn’t expect the Spanish Inquisition!
NOBODY expects the Spanish Inquisition!
The fact is that the Inquisition – whether it operated in all the blood and terror of the popular conception, or as mildly as various Catholics have solemnly instructed me – simply isn’t any part of Biblical Christianity. The church does not have any legitimate cause to use physical force on people. The Bible never authorizes such a thing, or even hints that it might be possible. When the Bible speaks of the church disciplining its own, it speaks only of expelling the offending member from the local congregation – with the goal of awakening him to his error and restoring him to fellowship. Jesus said that when someone has sinned you and refuses to listen to you, and then refuses to listen to you and two or three others, and finally refuses to listen to the church as a body, that person should “be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.” (Matt. 18:7) In other words, when the church finds no alternative but to withdraw fellowship from someone, that person immediately becomes a prospect for evangelism. Just as you loved him and witnessed to him before his conversion, so you love him and witness to him now that he’s out of the church.
The church doesn’t wield a sword. The church’s power isn’t in swords – or, today, guns. Paul said that “though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.” (2 Cor. 3 & 4) We persuade, we implore, “we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God” (2 Cor. 5:20), but we do not force anyone to do anything. And the minute the church attempts to use force, or any sort of duress, it is stepping aside from the way of Christ.
III. Then there is the United States Constitution – specifically, the first amendment to the Constitution. That amendment says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” The meaning here – as everywhere in the Constitution; the abstruse, impenetrable language of the US Code is something utterly foreign to the men who founded this country – is plain and clear. It is, however, worthwhile to offer one definition.
The amendment prohibits an “establishment of religion.” This is not a state church, where the church and the state are the same (as is the case in the Vatican City, where the national government is the government of the Catholic church). That would certainly be outside the intention of the framers of the Constitution, but they were separating themselves from Great Britain, where there is an established rather than a state church. The Church of England, today as then, is separate from the state, but receives official state support. For instance, the Church of England receives money from the British government - tax money. And the Constitution expressly prohibits Congress from setting up any church in that fashion.
What is equally important, though, is the free exercise clause. It is true that the government may not support one church over another. But it is also true that the government may not interfere in your religious life. According to the first amendment, if you want to pray before a football game, the government – in this case, a school district – can’t forbid it (school districts do, in fact, forbid such things, but if the Supreme Court would render decisions according to the Constitution, such a thing could never occur). If you want to meet on Sunday to handle snakes and drink poison in the name of the Lord, the government can’t stop you (it can, legitimately, enforce animal cruelty laws and statutes regarding hazardous materials). And if you want to go out on Sunday and invite people to visit your church, and proclaim the Gospel to them, the government can’t prevent you from doing so, or even make it difficult for you to do so.
IV. And finally, even if the preceding three arguments were invalid, or did not exist, our religion requires us to witness. It is a command of our God that we “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.” (Mark 16:15) We can no more disregard that command than a Muslim can flout the prohibition against eating pork, or an Orthodox Jew can reject the observance of the Sabbath, or a santero can set aside his sacrifices to the spirits of his religion. To ask us to quit proclaiming the Gospel is to ask us to defy our God. It is to demand that we eviscerate our religion, that we cut out part of our souls, that we discard part of what makes us Christians.
Would those who oppose Christian evangelism insist that American Muslims give up on ever making their pilgrimage to Makkah? Would they demand that Jews cease observing the Passover? Would they force Wiccans to give up dancing “skyclad” during their ceremonies? Of course not! The hajj, the seder, and “skyclad” rituals are part and parcel of Islam, Judaism, and Wicca. To force the abandonment of those things would be an infringement of religious freedom, and a clear violation of the first amendment. And on top of that, it would be requiring Muslims, Jews, and Wiccans to reject what they sincerely believe their God, or gods, have commanded them to do.
And it is just as much a violation of the first amendment, and just as much an infringement of religious liberty, to demand that Christians cease proclaiming the faith. It is just as much a demand that we reject the Word of our God.
And to put the conclusion bluntly, we refuse to obey men rather than God.
