The Church Under Attack: What Can We Do?

THE CHURCH UNDER ATTACK What Can We Do?The wicked ... set their arrows ... to shoot ... at the upright in heart. When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do?Psalm 11:2-3 Attacks on the Church are not new. They’ve been happening since its foundation was established – “the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the chief cornerstone” (Eph. 2:20 niv). The Sanhedrin tried to stop the growth of the Church by persecuting the righteous who refused to stop preaching Christ. But even though men like Saul ravaged the young Church after Stephen was martyred, the scattered believers spread the Word wherever they went (Acts 8:1-4). Throughout history, the wicked have aimed “their arrows” at the Church. But each time, God intervened. In the Middle Ages, when corruption infiltrated the Church and it looked like the wicked had succeeded, God brought in the Reformation. During the 18th century’s Age of Reason, when so-called enlightened rationalism replaced simple, biblical truth in Church teaching and preaching, God countered with the Great Awakening. In the 20th century, when existentialism led to a liberal theology that drained so much life out of the Church that the wicked declared that God was dead, God responded with the evangelical and fundamental movements that revived the Church by watering the roots of faith. Before we respond to today’s attacks on the Church by crying “What can the righteous do?” we must look at the end of Psalm 11. There we discover that God still rules and promises that “upright men will see His face” (Ps. 11:7). Reminded of this, the answer to our question is obvious. What can we do? We can trust the Lord, knowing that He will not only sustain His Church, but reward each faithful one, just as He did Stephen who saw his Savior’s face just before wicked men stoned him (Acts 7:57). By Larry Ondrejack