The Kingdom Strikes Back - the meaning of “Sacking Rome”
In the Spring of 2002 I took a course called “Perspectives on World Missions“. It changed my life — though not at first. It is gradually affecting me more and more as we get closer to next year, when my wife and I will embark on a trip around the world. I have realized that I will need a mission as it is wasteful to spend so much time among other cultures without a clear purpose of benefitting them somehow. Anything else is pure consumerism and in the U.S. that is our sad speciality.
The head of the U.S. Center for World Missions, Ralph Winter (who I refer to below) is one of the most prolific writers in the modern American missions movement. An article that I read by him put into perspective for me almost 5,000 years of human history. His basic premise is that the God of the Bible is a missionary God, meaning that what He offers is not just for one group of people. He is determined to make His name known to all people, whether the people currently in “the fold” are on the wagon or not.
Winter makes the startling observation that the spread of Christianity throughout the world has demonstrated this pattern. It began in the Roman province of Judea (actually it began much earlier than that, but I’ll limit my discussion to the events after Christ) in the First Century A.D. Despite and because of intense persecution on behalf of the Romans, it spread to the Roman capital and eventually the entire empire was transformed.
Once the persecution ended, Christians began to cease their outward facing missions work. The Church and the Empire grew stagnant, as our coastal wetlands (in San Diego) do when there is no open channel back into the ocean. So the “pagans” from the North invaded and the Empire was destroyed. Rome was sacked. (This where the title of this website comes from - the birth of new life through the destruction of that which has grown cold - as a constant reminder to me of how I should be occupying my time)
God used the destruction of the Roman empire and the subsequent forced export of Roman culture into the barbaric lands to the North as the vehicle for moving the Gospel into those people groups. Involuntary missions - but as the centuries progressed, the European continent was transformed. Many of the dark practices of the ancient times remained and unfortunately there was also an intense amount of persecution by the Church.
But the spark was lit and it burst into flames during the Renaissance and the Reformation - leading to an incredible 500 years of unprecedented progress in the Arts, Medicine, Science, Technology, Navigation and Marine Technology, as well as the sad companions of such advances (warfare, weaponry, new exploitation of native peoples, expanded slavery, and colonization). Few would argue, however, that the Dark ages and the radically shortened lifespans of the Medieval times were preferrable to the comforts we now enjoy. This is a direct result of the birth that resulted in the death of the Roman Empire and accompanying spread of the Gospel. (I may be tying the advance of the Gospel to human progress - and if so, there may be some amount of truth to it, but any exaggeration is mine alone - the main point here is the spread of Christianity, not advances in technology)
So at the edge of the 21st century many have compared the U.S. to the Roman Empire. We are a nation blessed incredibly by natural resources, a strong economy, and basically good people. But an infection also lingers and is growing among our populace - amazing amounts of greed, envy, sexual exploitation, violence and many other ailments are becoming nightly news stories. Have we dropped the ball? Are we on the verge of being “sacked”?
There is hope - a new generation of Churches in the U.S. have developed out of the Jesus movement in the 1960’s and real revival is taking place. Slowly the incredible frailty of the American Evangelical Churches is being revealed to its own people, and people are starting to demand more than good theology and big Churches. Ken Blue spoke here in San Diego a few weeks ago. He said that the majority of American Churches are in a panic because this post-modern generation refuses to make decisions about believing in Christ because it’s “true” or that it can be argued “logically”.
Many in this generation are not interested in “truth”. They don’t believe it exists. Ken Blue, and others including myself, are ecstatic about this development. It forces the Church to be the Church. The Church is not to be a steadfast bastion of empty morality amidst a storm of immorality, arguing with great finesse and theological accuracy why it is wrong for people to have an abortion, have sex, or believe that we evolved from monkeys. The Church is about bringing the transforming power of God into people’s lives by engaging them in relationships, caring about them, and meeting them where they are. That’s why I am not overly concerned about the results of this year’s Presidential election. It’s frustrating to watch them carry on as if George Bush was the fourth member of the Trinity. Christians need to stop relying on politicians to carry out their moral agenda and begin forming relationships that transform, on a one-on-one basis.
Politicians are not going to ever do what we want anyway - they are not designed for that.
I personally already see the beginning of the Church moving onto other nations as the West continues to self-destruct. According to a 1997 survey, conservative estimates state that there are over 9 million Christians in China. High-end estimates speculate that there may be as many as 65 million Christians. The sheer number of potential believers in China, given the rate with which the Church is expanding in that country is staggering. Within 20 years, there may well be more Christians in one country than there are people in the U.S. and Europe combined. Clearly this would cause a shift in the “center of gravity” as one article put it in the balance of the Church. We may be seeing Chinese missionaries come here to preach the Gospel in a “dark land”.
The article by Winter is 19 pages, but it is well worth reading. This one article, out of all the readings in the Perspectives course changed my life more than anything else I read there.