Is the Blood of the Martyrs the Seed of the Church?

After a weekend filled with preaching and teaching, as well as working with young Kurdish leaders, we wrapped up our trip with a visit to Sidon and Tyre. I have always wanted to go to the south of Beirut, and this was my first trip into the region of Elijah and the widow of Zarephath, Jonah and Tarshish, and Jesus and the Canaanite woman. I did not realize there were also some key archeological sites, including a former temple to Ashtoreth, as well as a spectacular hippodrome inn Tyre (the same place they filmed Ben Hur). An old mare stood by, but I don’t think she was in the film.

The most sobering site was stopping at the church where Bonnie Witherall was murdered several years ago. She was a missionary who was ministering to nearby Palestinian refugees when she was gunned down one morning in her clinic. Standing outside the fence with her former colleagues, we listened as they took some time to share the pain this created in the broad ministry community of Lebanon.

Among the things that give them hope are the words of Tertullian, spoken years ago in Northern Africa, where the persecution of the church all but erased its witness: “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church”. The hope is that lives lost for the kingdom will eventually bear much fruit. But ever since I read Philip Jenkins latest book, in which he traces the devastation of certain outbreaks of persecution, I’ve wondered just how true this is. The reality is that North Africa has had seemingly little gospel witness for years. We recently sent a family to Tunesia, where ministry is very difficult. Some put the number of believers in Libya at sic. Here in Sidon, the church where Bonnie worked is closed, and there is little evidence of any remaining evangelical presence in the city. Nearby is a former burn pile where the Bibles were left to smolder.  

I’m not a missiologist, so I am not sure how to interpret these things. All I know is that I found myself asking—is the current lack of witness less about a triumph of Muslim extremists, and more about God’s responding judgment? Was Bonnie’s death, for example, the moment God said—it is enough? Traveling to Tyre, I was again reminded of a time in history this was a magnificent city, but in their arrogance, God finally said—you will have no more future (Isa 23). What was once a force ("you were the merchant of the nations”, is today a simple, crowded, rather dirty little coastal town of no real significance, with hardly a trace of evidence that there are any devoted followers of Jesus.

There have been these moments God’s mercy seems to be trumped by God’s severity (Matt 13:14-“Hearing, they will no longer hear”; Romans 1:24-“God gave them up”). When Jesus sent His disciples out, they were instructed to wipe the dust off their feet “against” the unreceptive (Luke 10:11). And He warned that certain regions, Chorazin, Bethsaida, Capernaum, had their chance, but woe to them now. Does this include Sidon and Tyre? As one of Jesus’ parables notes, there is only so much opportunity to take advantage of invitation extended to come to the banquet. And then it is gone.

It all served as a very interesting discussion on the ride home with Barebel, one of the most passionate evangelists I have met. She and her husband are among the most effective ambassadors of grace here in the Mideast, having been here twenty years. In fact, it is Barebel who quoted from Tertullian, that got me thinking. Though she believes his words are true, there is a bit of wonderment too at what God is doing. She and her husband once lived in Tripoli, but an attempt to take his life forced them out. Is God no longer at work in these regions? I don’t really know. But as the trip ends, I do know He is powerfully at work in small pockets throughout  Lebanon and Syria, in the Bekaa, up in the north of Syria, up in the mountains where the Druze live. The important thing is to go where it seems evident the wind of the Spirit is blowing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

[Ben S.]

This is well said. I've had similar thoughts and it makes a lot of sense to me having visited many parts of the world and interviewed many persecuted people. Perhaps the most we can say is that persecution makes the church deeper but not bigger? Certainly persecution culls out the non-committed. Some would say the "huge" growth of the Chinese church under severe restrictions/persecution illustrates the opposite, but we don't know what would have happened if there was freedom. Things to ponder, but to ponder while moving forward.