Sword & Trowel 2019: Issue 1
and in business and banking rested on a foundation laid in times when great numbers of people and pulpits were truly Christian. In the light of great triumphs in the past, have the gates of hell now prevailed? Not many years ago Western finan- cial experts were invited to Moscow, newly emerged from the Communist era following glasnost and perestroi- ka. They were asked how a market culture could be constructed follow- ing the Western pattern. The invited experts gave their counsel, but there was a factor they could do little about or had forgotten, and that was the Soviet lack of a biblical foundation of moral order and integrity. Without this, the Western advice proved inef- fective, Russia producing a mafia-like business culture. Western economic advisers no longer valued the moral engine that still to some extent main- tained order and trust in their own economic world. Where, then, do we see any sign that the gates of hell cannot prevail against the witness of Christ?
2THE BIBLICAL PERSPECTIVE
In reply, we note first that the tri- umph of the church of Christ is not measured in size or majority. The true church is drawn from the entire scope of human history and from every land and nation. Successive worldly ideologies and movements belong to relatively short periods, and even the greatest human empire covers only a portion of the world in its time. The church alone lasts for as long as the earth endures, conquering
hearts in every part of the globe. We should never forget this also, that the Lord warned us that his people would be ‘children of the little flock’. Although a vast number are saved from every land and nation, and every day and age, the fact is that on any date we will never be a majority on earth. ‘Fear not, little flock,’ said the Lord, ‘for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.’ ‘For many are called, but few are chosen.’ Even in times of revival and reformation and won- derful advance, there will never be a majority. There will be times of greater and times of smaller blessing, but we know that at the end of time all human empires will be seen to have been dwarfed by the worldwide ‘empire’ of the Lord Jesus Christ throughout time.
3TRIUMPHS OF THE CHURCH TODAY
The question remains: in our time, when godlessness seems to be supreme, are there evidences of the invincibility of the church? We may see it in the fact that the people of God are those who have been called out of an intensely hostile environ- ment. The conversion of people brainwashed and chained within an atheistic and antagonistic world is a special glory and authentication of Christ’s kingdom. We may reflect again on the
Puritan era when the Gospel was preached everywhere, and in the smallest villages the Bible would be opened and redemption proclaimed
Triumphs of the Church in an Atheistic Age page 27
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