Christians are accused of being angry. They are even suspected of holy violence. But even if Christians are succumbing to horizontal outrage we need to recalibrate our artillery higher. Holy violence isn’t what you think. Our artillery should be aimed at heaven.
Aiming At God
The English poet George Herbert (1593-1633) described prayer in a series of phrases, and one of them clarified this blasting impulse we have. He called prayer an “engine against th’ Almighty”. What he meant was that prayer was like a medieval siege engine. It was a catapult or trebuchet by which a towering wall was assaulted and a breach was made. This picture is almost sacrilegious if you ever thought God was thin-skinned. But God is strong enough to receive our siege, since he welcomes the prayer, and has given us the Spirit in whom the siege is made (Eph 6:18). Herbert thought that prayer at it’s most basic level was like a cannon aimed at God.
Heaven Taken By Storm
If you are still uncomfortable with the idea of employing such a violent image to express the prayer of the heart, then think about what Jesus said in the eleventh chapter of Matthew:
From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.
Matt 11:12
There are various interpretations of this passage, but an older view was held by Thomas Watson (1620-1686). He summarized the emphasis as “heaven taken by storm”. In other words, heaven was to be assaulted and pressed into by believing prayer. In this way, “the violent take it by force”. Watson said:
The more violence we have used for Heaven, the sweeter Heaven will be when we come there…For a Christian to think, such a day I spent in examining my heart; such a day I was weeping for sin; when others were at their sport, I was at my prayers: and now, have I lost anything by this violence? My tears are wiped away, and the wine of paradise cheers my heart. I now enjoy him whom my soul loves; I now have the crown and white robes I so longed for. O how pleasant will it be to think, this is the Heaven my Savior bled for, and I sweat for.
Heaven taken by storm, or, The holy violence a Christian is to put forth in the pursuit after glory (1670).
Another Puritan, John Bunyan depicted one of his characters in the Pilgrim’s Progress in the same way. When Christian was being shown around the Interpreter’s house, one of the pictures was of a man “of very stout countenance” who wished to enter a palace. Many refused to sign up and enter for fear of armed guards. But Christian observed the stout man who said boldly:
“Set down my name, sir”; the which when he had done, he saw the man draw his sword, and put a helmet upon his head, and rush toward the door upon the armed men, who laid upon him with deadly force; but the man not at all discouraged, fell to cutting and hacking most fiercely. So, after he had received and given many wounds to those that attempted to keep him out, he cut his way through them all, and pressed forward into the palace; at which there was a pleasant voice heard from those that were within even of those that walked upon the top of the palace, saying,
“Come in! Come in!
Pilgrim’s Progress (1678)
Eternal glory thou shalt win.”
Bunyan knew how important it was to cultivate a vigorous, aggressive even violent assault on heaven. “Cutting and hacking” through the resistance around us was the prescribed action given by Jesus himself.
When compared to the outrage and aggression which social media can foster, devotion and spiritual desire toward God in heaven differs a lot. Imagine if Christians gathered together to aim their artillery, not at each other, but toward heaven?
Holy Violence at the Prayer Meeting
If there is one place where we need some holy violence it’s at the prayer meeting. The reason prayer meetings are poorly attended these days is that there is so little vigour for ‘heaven taken by storm’!
Imagine if your church’s prayer meeting resembled a series of artillery pieces, lined up to fire in succession towards heaven. That kind of prayer meeting would be different than the drowsy, half-believing, unexpectant gatherings which we all continue to suffer through. The problem isn’t the prayer, rather its the elevation.
When Charles Spurgeon witnessed the awakening at the New Park Street church he noticed this holy violence employed in prayer to God. Iain Murray records what Spurgeon said about the new holy violence:
What a change took place in othe prayer meetings! Now instead of the old, dull prayers, ‘Every man seemed like a crusader besieging the New Jerusalem, each one appeared determined to storm the Celestial City by the might of intercession; and soon the blessing came upon us in such abundance that we had not room to recieve it.”
Quoted in The Forgotten Spurgeon, 36.
We may not feel like our prayers are the artillery pieces that Spurgeon had in his church. We may feel like our siege engine is more of a pop-gun. But we can pray that God would redirect our perpetual outrage at the horizontal, and make us those who vigorously plead with God on the vertical.
Let us start with asking God to give us a bigger bore and a greater calibre to turn our appeals, supplications, laments, cries, and prayers toward Him in heaven itself. That’s where our holy violence ought to be directed.
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