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The Kingdom Of God And Religion Today

Category Articles
Date February 21, 2006

Several years ago I attended a huge rally at a Baptist church in Calgary, Canada. Tony Campolo was the main attraction. I had heard one of his humorous CDs but hardly knew the man. I figured he was your typical “evan” and was prepared for an evening of humourous fundamentalism. To great applause Campolo came on stage. Almost every evangelical, and not a few Reformed churches, now have a stage not a pulpit. He literally bellowed out what was to be the theme of the rally, “The Kingdom of God is a Party.” He repeated it until the entire audience, with their arms raised, bellowed it out with him. “The Kingdom of God is a PAAARTEEE!!” Then he shared how he had just come back from Hawaii and had spent his time there, not in churches, but in bars, drinking with prostitutes, pimps, alcoholics and druggies. And it had been so much more edifying than spending time with all those uptight Christians who wouldn’t welcome sinners if their lives depended on it. The sinners he had spent time with in Hawaii and elsewhere since then, are, he contends, largely rejected by the church because of its bigotry, not because they reject Christ. The church is not sinner friendly enough. After all, “The Kingdom of God is a PAAARTEEE!” isn’t it?

That rally was, I now know, a turning point for Campolo. He was at one time a solidly conservative evangelical who was now moving towards liberalism with a heavy emphasis on good works and tolerance of sin instead of on the gospel message. And he has taken a good many evangelicals with him. Worship in their churches and you’ll see.

“THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS A PAAARTEEE!”

Tell that to the five underground church leaders who were recently told by North Korean authorities to lie down on the pavement so they could be publicly executed by being run over by a steamroller. Tell it to their wives, children and fellow church members who, forced to witness this evil, heard the popping sound of their skulls exploding under the pressure.

Or tell it to the young woman who was washing her clothes by the Tumin River in North Korea when a Bible accidentally fell out of her laundry where she had hidden it. For the crime of having a Bible she and her father were interrogated for three months, subjected to a brief public show trial and, then executed on the spot in front of schoolchildren, no doubt as a lesson to them.

A party? According to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, North Korea has created a reign of tenor to crush any religious belief. People are being tortured to death and if they do not succumb to torture they are summarily executed. North Korean Christians will not be partying this year.

A couple of years ago I received a call from someone with the Calgary Evangelical Ministerial Association. Texas televangelist, John Hagee was coming to Calgary for a crusade and had requested a meeting with me after one of the services. I couldn’t figure out why he’d made that request but I said I’d meet him. So my husband Jack and I, who normally would never attend anything of the sort, went down to the Roundup Centre and joined several thousand Calgarians to hear what Hagee had to say. I knew, from occasionally watching his television program, that he was unabashedly pro-life and pro-family. I thought that might be the reason for his request. I knew nothing about his pre-millennialism or his commitment to the “health and wealth” gospel. We learned about those aspects of his theology that night. He launched into an impassioned tirade about Israel and its place in history, in current affairs and in end times. After about half an hour he literally bounded off the stage, to a table piled high with books and other paraphernalia. He picked up a Bible and, holding it high, said, “We have these special Bibles for sale tonight. For just $29.95 you can get one of these Bibles. For $39.95 you can have it signed by me. I have personally prayed over these Bibles and you will receive a special blessing from God if you purchase one tonight.” Then he moved on, lifting a woven shawl up for us to see. “This shawl is a prayer shawl from Israel. Again, I’ve personally prayed over these shawls and if you pray wearing these shawls you will receive many blessings. God does not want you to be poor. He wants prosperity for you and your families. Purchase one of these special shawls and you will prosper.” And we have an objection to Rome? Jack and I looked at each other and quietly slipped out the back door. I still don’t know why Hagee wanted to see me but I knew why I didn’t want or need to see him.

THE KINGDOM OF GOD MEANS PROSPERITY

Tell that to a friend of my sister, a Sudanese woman who had a husband and five children when the rebel soldiers entered their village in the southern Sudan a few years ago. They rounded up all the men and loaded them on an army plane. Above the village they forced the men to jump to their deaths as their wives and children looked on. The women hoped the troops would fly away but it was not to be. They landed and came back. When they saw she was carrying a baby, in a Herodian display of diabolical evil, they ripped the child from her arms and cut off her breasts. She survived but, over the course of several days, the child, without her sustenance, slowly starved to death as she watched helplessly. Prosperity? Their source of income is gone. One of her children is dead. She is hopelessly disfigured. But she still has Christ and He can relate to her plight. He, too, was disfigured for her sake. It is all she has. She will tell you it is all she needs.

The famous passage, Hebrews 11 on the perseverance of the saints of old under harsh persecution, can strengthen our faith and our resolve to live for Christ. However, we often see it as a litany exclusively about those persecuted in the Biblical age. Read it again and realize there isn’t a thing in it that isn’t happening to someone, somewhere in our time. Ridicule, stoning, floggings, torture, chains, it’s all there and it’s as up to date as today.

The writer of Hebrews states, “The world was not worthy of them.” That’s true today also. Is the flabby, self absorbed, materialistic church in the western world today worthy of the martyrs of our time? Are we, you and I, worthy of them? At the very least, our Christmas celebrations should be sober and fitting a world where so many suffer so horrendously for confessing the one whose birth we celebrate unassailed.

Taken with permission from Christian Renewal, December 14, 2005

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