Albert Mohler has said: Convictions are not merely beliefs we hold; they are those beliefs that hold us.
How to prepare for persecution, we have to have this in mind. We might know what beliefs Daniel held, but what beliefs held Daniel?
Reading Daniel 6:10 we discover that when Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem. Daniel didn’t suddenly change his beliefs and his lifestyle because the persecution document had been signed.
In fact, he continued on in his public witness, knowing that everyone would see him.
(When you’re with clients, or with team-mates, or with certain relatives, do you hesitate to pray openly before a meal, even though you always pray before a meal? )
You see Daniel had an ordered life. He had been regularly sharpened day in day out, three times a day, repeatedly, same time, same place— and the order of his life was put to the test at this moment.
If you are worried about the loss of cultural power or influence in society, you can calmly let go of your worry, and instead, prepare for being a Christian witness.
As David French wrote, “We want easy when Christ never promised easy. It’s time to learn to live with (somewhat) hard.”
The ability to be calm and free of anxiety when it’s hard will only come from this kind of orderly discipline of prayer.
Of course no one is calling for rote ritual. Mindless chants and euphoric mantras. This is not what is needed. Rather it is the discipline of the closet (Mat 6:6), that holds true no matter what is going on outside your door.
What you may realize is that the persecution, opposition or social shame isn’t as big of a deal as you initially feared. Or it may be significant and costly, but you will find that God has prepared you for it.
The preparation has nothing to do with political power, but everything to do with the power of the prayer closet.
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.
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,
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.”
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.
In an article by David French, he looked at the deconversions of prominent figures in the Christian world. First was Josh Harris the former megachurch pastor. Now is Marty Sampson, a songwriter with Hillsong. French made the point that the problem wasn’t catechesis but fortification.
What he meant was that people like these two men were informed about the Christian faith to a large extent (although I don’t think Hillsong’s Oneness Pentecostalism is orthodox). They had been taught lots, but they had not been tested that much. French said that they lacked the moral courage to withstand the cultural resistance all around them.
I think French is exactly right. And I’d like to expand on what this means for churches. I’m going to suggest three ways that churches can cultivate moral courage, not just checked boxes.
Fortify by Returning to Prayer
The first thing we can do is return to prayer. This is not to pit spirituality against doctrine. Instead, it is to cause our theology to have its end goal: doxology. I suggest that a return to prayer is the focal point because it includes worship, but has no danger of being co-opted by entertainment like so much of our worship currently is.
Prayer is pure supernaturalism because it is predicated on faith in the unseen. It is not a leap, because there is so much evidence God has revealed to us that we can rely upon (Rom 1:19-20; . Yet we “walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor 5:7). We are all used to visible affirmations in the form of likes and retweets. But if we are to gain moral courage, we will have to grow stronger in faith that doesn’t need social oxygen to breathe. Instead, faith respirates on the unseen promises, unseen character, and ultimately the unseen, yet true and living God. Prayer is the means for helping us gain that well-oxygenated courage.
Fortify by Reminding of Heaven
Part of this pursuit of the unseen God requires reminders about the day when we will see him. In other words, Christians require reminders of heaven. Such reminders feed our prayers. We can pray and be reminded once again that while we are groaning, we are “longing to put on the heavenly dwelling” (2 Cor 5:2).
Theologian Michael Allen follows James K.A. Smith and others in pointing out how ‘this-world’ oriented we’ve become. He calls even Reformed orientations, “Augustinian naturalism”. The Catholic philosopher Charles Murray said that our lenses are set within “an immanent frame”. The possible consequence for many people is that heaven lacks definition and recedes to a fuzzy background.
No one can dispute that we live in a world of immediacy. Fast food. Push notifications. Livestreaming. God calls us to resist this form of worldliness by setting our minds on things above where Christ is (Col 3:2), and to be “longing to put on our heavenly dwelling” (2 Cor 5:2).
Churches should remind themselves that they are sojourners travelling toward a heavenly city “whose designer and builder is God” (Heb 11:10). By reminding ourselves that we are “strangers and exiles on the earth (v.13), we can enjoy a narrowed focus upon heaven and the special presence of God. When our focus is narrowed to heaven, we will be far more resilient when the world demands that we cling to it.
Although we may ‘seek the peace of the city’ (Jer 29:7) as exiles on the earth, we need to remember that a different city is the one that God has prepared for us where God is not ashamed to be called our God (Heb 11:16).
Fortify by Repeating the Witness
Few things stir fear in Christians than sharing the gospel. They are embarrassed, scared, timid, and insecure. But bearing witness reflects the heart of being a disciple of Jesus Christ. So are we doomed to consign witnessing to the category of perpetual guilt inducement?
Maybe we should work on repeating our witness in both simple and complex ways. Too many Christians think that they have to be experts on apologetics, worldviews, world religions and so on. What they need to be experts on is the simple gospel. Following a basic pattern of God-Man-Sin-Christ-Response, or similar, Christians can learn to bear witness to the simple gospel.
Repeating our witness to the gospel in simple ways strengthens us to bear witness in complex situations. Sharing the gospel develops spiritual strength like repeated exercise creates muscle memory. Then when we are crowded onto lonely platforms, our spiritual reflexes can take over.
Of course, Jesus promised this. He knew that his disciples would be put on the spot. When they were, Jesus knew that the Holy Spirit would provide for them spiritual agility to remain steady in the face of crosswinds. He said:
And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.” Luke 12:11-12
These three emphases can help us fortify ourselves against the growing tide of opposition. If we ignore the wave and trust in our well-run programs or nuanced notions, then we shouldn’t be surprised when many people in our churches get swept out with the tide.
