Persecution and Mission
By Thomas SchirrmacherNovember 2008
Persecution has often been related to the growth and mission of the Church. Tertullian’s famous words, “The blood of the martyrs is a seed of the Church,” forewarned the Roman emperors that their opposition would only enlarge the Church. Jesus, when warning his disciples of future persecution, had prophesied that it would turn them into his witnesses (Luke 21:13). Paul showed clearly that his imprisonment and suffering did not hinder the gospel—but instead, furthered it (Philippians 1:12-26).
Indeed, the first organized persecution of the first congregation in Jerusalem only led to the dispersal of Christians into the whole Roman Empire and the beginning of Christian missions to the Gentiles. The first Gentiles were converted in Antioch not by the apostles, but by “normal” Christians who had fled Jerusalem (Acts 7:54-8:8). During the 1974 Lausanne International Congress on World Evangelization it was said that “persecution is a storm that is permitted to scatter the seed of the Word, and disperse the sower and reaper over many fields. It is God’s way of extending his kingdom.”
So persecution often accompanies missions, for “missions lead to martyrdom, and martyrdom becomes missions.”1 Jesus warned his disciples that they were going out as sheep in the midst of wolves (Matthew 10:16; Luke 10:3). The universal spread of Christ’s Church has always been accompanied with the blood of the martyrs; world mission is “mission beneath the cross.”
Johan Candelin rightly observed, however, that persecution does not always produce church growth, although persecution grows because some of the fastest growing churches in the world exist in countries without religious liberty.2 According to Candelin, 300 million evangelicals worldwide live with the threat of physical persecution, and the vast majority belong to fast-growing evangelical communities like those found in China.
The collapse of international Communism and the fall of many dictators may have resulted in a decrease in direct persecution in some places. However, the expansion of Islamic fundamentalism, the growth of political Hinduism, and the rise of new dictatorships in Africa are all global factors giving rise to new growth in attacks on Christian churches and individuals.
Mission to Persecutors
Following Old Testament tradition (e.g., Job 31:29; 42:8-9), the New Testament exhorts us to pray for God’s grace for persecutors and to give testimony to them (Matthew 5:44, Luke 6:27-28; 1 Corinthians 4:12). The most impressive testimony is Jesus’ prayer that God will have mercy on his persecutors (Luke 23:34). The first Christian martyr, Stephen, prayed similarly (Acts 7:60). Both requests were heard, for some of the persecutors were later converted (the Roman officer in Luke 23:47; Paul in Acts 9:1-18). Church history contains many descriptions of dying Christians, such as Polycarp, who prayed for those tormenting them.
The modern Church has its own examples. In 1913, the Indonesian evangelist Petrus Octavianus described a missionary in the Toradya area in southern Celebes. Five tribe members wanted to kill the missionary, but permitted him to pray first. He prayed aloud that they would be saved. Three of the murderers were banned to Java, were converted in prison, and returned to Toradya, where they founded a church which later (1971) became the fourth largest church in Indonesia. Let us also not forget the five missionaries shot to death by the Aucas in Equador in the 1960s. Several of the murderers later became pillars of the Aucan church.
Many who began as persecutors of Christians later became believers themselves. The best known is Paul, who frequently referred to his former persecution of the Church (see 1 Corinthians 15:9; Galatians 1:13, 23-24; Philippians 3:6; 1 Timothy 1:13; Acts 9:4-5, 22: 4, 7-8; 16:11, 14-15).
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Dr. Thomas Schirrmacher is professor of ethics and sociology of religion in Germany and Turkey. He is also president of Martin Bucer Theological Seminary, spokesman for human rights of the World Evangelical Alliance, and director of the International Institute for Religious Freedom (Bonn, Cape Town, Colombo). Schirrmacher has four doctorates (theology, cultural anthropology, ethics, and sociology of religions). |
