From the January-March 2008 Issue
Northern Ireland news
Tom McKendry
Just recently Michael Grant passed on to me some old materials relating to EMF from the past, many of these going back some thirty-plus years. This material consisted of receipt books, letters of one kind or another, old copies of Vision of Europe and various other bits and pieces. Michael suggested that I look through this stuff and decide what should be kept and discard the rest.
In the course of this work I was reminded (not that a lot of reminding is necessary) of the spiritual decline that is in progress in our country. Church membership has suffered very significant decline in the last thirty years. This is evident right across the denominations, where some would have boasted hundreds a quarter of a century ago, but now have only a few dozen in attendance. Here in Northern Ireland a past generation witnessed a great many Mission Halls run by such bodies as the Faith Mission and the Christian Workers’ Union, as well as independent works run by individuals who sought to maintain a Gospel witness in areas where there was none. Sadly, so many of these no longer exist.
It is so easy to accept such a situation as simply a sign of the times. But the question is: ‘Is such acceptance really acceptable?’ Can we say with any real measure of justification, that this current decline is simply the result of the general secularization and godlessness of Western Europe, which we just have to accept as what is prophesied of the last days? It seems to me that such a view is, to say the least, contrary to the biblical principle of godly perseverance. Biblical perseverance should not be thought of merely in terms of riding out the storm, as would seem to be the case in the thinking of some, but rather as aggressive advancement in personal holiness, and the Church taking the fight to the enemy.
In my recent devotions I read the book of Esther. What I found was a situation of extreme hardship that was faced with amazing faithfulness and fortitude. Mordecai could have so easily bowed to egotistic Haman and lived reasonably. Esther need not have jeopardised her life in going before the king. Neither Mordecai nor Esther knew what the outcome of their actions would be; as we have recorded in Mordecai’s honourable resolve in the face of human uncertainty: “…and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14b), and Esther’s courageous response “…and so will I go in unto the king, which is not lawful: and if I perish, I perish” (Esther 4:16b). Such abandonment to God in the face of such potentially dangerous consequences is truly virtuous, and therefore demanding of our close attention and willing obedience.
The God of Mordecai and Esther, the unchangeable Lord, is our God, who does what he pleases in the affairs of men, who sets up kingdoms and pulls down kingdoms. His works of providence are truly mysterious, but who can read the book of Esther and doubt His good purpose of active engagement in the lives of those He loves? In order to have their way, those who peddle falsehood and error may seek to rid the world of God and His Church, but like Haman their failure is certain.
And so at a time when God has been forgotten by so many and forsaken by others, and where coldness appears on the increase, when evangelism in the form of foolishness and novelty is gaining in popularity, it ought to be the concern of God’s true Church to witness to Christ’s all sufficiency, and to His sovereign government over all creation. We should know that the golden calf of sinful human ingenuity with its evil agenda will have its moment of glory, and then become dust, but for the true Church of Christ there will be the eternal glory.
May the industry of true faith be driven by these words: “Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain” (Psalm 127:1). May our inspiration come from this: “I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18).