The evangelist, the pastor, and the church or group of churches will conduct evangelistic endeavors as if they were engaging in battle. They map out the city by quadrants and delegate their troops to all the sections they've marked. They train their foot soldiers in the method they're going to use and this method is their ammunition which they'll fire at the unbeliever. Usually this method is a scripted approach which comes with "If-they-say-this-then-you say-this" list of things to memorize.
Every battle has an objective and for the evangelistic campaign, the pastor sums it up: "We're going to take this city for Christ."
In order to seize the city, the troops must capture the mayor, the city council, other various officials, and the school board. (Good luck with that.)
After their rigorous training in the method of choice the troops move into the various quadrants that are their responsibility, many of them hoping against hope that no one answers the door when they knock. They're overwhelmed by the script and hope they don't get lost trying to remember the contents of pages 7-8, and they're so unnerved by the task and the fear of someone's arguing with them that their knees are knocking together.
There are many problems with this scenario, but let's focus on one: the pastor has set both an impossible and unbiblical goal for them, a goal so far out of reach that he may as well have told them to go to the shores of the Pacific and throw a rock all the way to Hawaii.
The Great Commission never tells us to take a city for Christ, nor offers the hope that we can. History shows us that Christ never took a city for Christ, in fact, He found opposition in His own home town to the extent that the citizens "were filled with rage and rose up and cast Him out of the city, and led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city had been built, in order to throw Him down the cliff" (Luke 4). Not exactly giving Him the key to the city.
Did Christ take Jerusalem, the capital city? No. In Jerusalem He heard the shouts of "Crucify Him! Crucify Him! We have no king but Caesar!
Did Paul win cities for Christ? No way. They stoned him in one town, ran him out of several, while the educated elites of Athens laughed at him. He sometimes shook the dust off his feet and left.
What did Paul say of his winning people to Christ? "I become all things to all men so that I might win some." He didn't set the unrealistic goal for himself of winning "all" and in no Scripture are we commanded to "take and hold a city for Christ." Paul never said, "I become all things to all men that I might win and control cities.
Yet, that's exactly what some are advocating. "Have you ever really considered taking your city and holding it for Jesus," a newsletter asks its readers. The church has no command to take and hold a city for Jesus, to rule over society, any society; we do have the command to give the gospel, to make disciples, but a command to take over cities? No.
Those in the let's-take-our-city-for-Christ-movement see themselves as the "architects of cultural change," which is their term for their desire: to reshape the society.
Back to Christ and Paul: did Christ change the culture of His home town of Nazareth? No. Did Christ change the culture of Jerusalem? No. Did Paul lead the charge up the Seven Hills of Rome and change the Roman Empire? No. Its leaders remained either corrupt and insane or both and its people imitated their leaders into the pit.
Fallen man has within him an egocentric power lust and this is the case with those who would tell us to take and hold cities for Christ. Listen to the words of their power lust: "God's people doing the will of God will take dominion over the power of Satan, paralyze parliaments, change legislation, and run the devil off the face of the earth. God's people doing the will of God will bring about God's purposes and God's reign [on earth]."
Really? Where, exactly, do we see these things happening? There's no country which is becoming Christian and there's not a single city in the world where Christ rules. Corrupt parliaments are alive and kicking, not paralyzed; Satan is still alive and well on the planet earth, and there's no nation baptizing any legislation into the Christian faith, so get let's get real.
We have such sin natures that even if it were possible for Christians to take and hold a city for Christ, that power would not only corrupt, but it would also corrupt absolutely. A dictatorship by any other name still smells the same.
By taking and holding a city for Christ, would they require everyone to go to church? (Which church?) Would they require all Jewish people to be baptized or face execution? Would their social architecture require everyone memorize John 3:16? Ban alcohol, books? Would the they arrest and execute those practicing the occult? Would the they arrest and execute homosexuals, blasphemers, adulterers, and those who lie under oath?
Don't laugh; some who want to take and hold your city for Christ are advocating such laws.
Don't laugh, history says that they would enact such laws. The governments of France forced conversions in 626 AD; Italy did the same in 661 AD, as did Spain in 616 AD, Rome, ditto.
In 1648, the Massachusetts Bay Colony in America instituted fines for anyone caught working on a Sunday. The authorities hauled some members of the congregation into court for the crime of sleeping in church. (The jails must have been full!)
In Colonial Virginia, Governor Thomas Dale forced everyone to attend church or face severe penalties. If you dared to disparage a minister, the fine was 500 pounds of tobacco and an apology. Hey, that law doesn't sound so bad. :)
In Colonial Virginia, a minister, by law, had preach Anglican doctrine or be punished.
Massachusetts arrested, tried, and banished the expecting Anne Hutchinson for challenging its Calvinism. For her "crimes" against the state, they threw her out in the snow to leave on foot.
Massachusetts sent Roger Williams into exile from Salem for "disseminating dangerous information" and saying that the Indians should be paid for the land taken from them, and that's how we have Rhode Island today.
We've all stood in our churches and sung a hymn which reflects this capture-your-city-idea. Listen to it:
We've a story to tell to the nations,
that shall turn their hearts to the right,
a story of truth and mercy,
a story of peace and light,
a story of peace and light.
For the darkness shall turn to dawning,
and the dawning to noonday bright;
and Christ's great kingdom shall come on earth,
the kingdom of love and light.
We've a song to be sung to the nations,
that shall lift their hearts to the Lord,
a song that shall conquer evil
and shatter the spear and sword,
and shatter the spear and sword.
We've a Savior to show to the nations,
who the path of sorrow hath trod,
that all of the world's great peoples
might come to the truth of God,
might come to the truth of God.
This hymn is blatant in its advocacy of postmillennialism. It's saying that the church will bring the kingdom of Christ to earth by its efforts. Taking and holding a city for Christ are part of those efforts. One author writes, "I’ve come to believe it is wrong to sing lyrics that express theology with which you strongly disagree. It seems dishonest–IF you think that singing a hymn or song is something serious and not frivolous."
Song writers pen hymns to teach doctrine; we should only sing songs that are true to the Word of God and not mindlessly warble anything with a catchy tune. We are thankful at the Hangar Bible Fellowship; our song leader evaluates every song we sing by the Bible. The hymn must pass the test or we don't sing it.
We do have a story to tell to the nations--Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died for our sins, rose from the dead. The payment He made was a finished one, a perfect one, a complete one. There is no work we can add to it; it's finished. There is no sin to give up; it's finished. There is no promise to try to be better to be made; it's finished. It's on the basis of that complete and perfect work that God promises everlasting life to anyone who trusts Christ alone for it.
But the idea that our telling that story will result in nations shattering their spears and swords and that by our telling the story nations will come to the truth of God and then Christ's great kingdom will come to earth isn't going to happen.
Read this morning's newspaper, any newspaper, and you'll see one story after another that there is no "Christian nation" on the earth today as witness this recent headline from our own capital: "Teen thugs in D. C. Run Wild--Even While Wearing GPS Ankle Bracelets."
As the Bible says, "Evil men . . . will get worse and worse" as time goes on. Our task is that, by telling the story of Christ and Him crucified, we will win some, we will disciple some.
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Dr. Mike Halsey is the chancellor of Grace Biblical Seminary, a Bible teacher at the Hangar Bible Fellowship, and the author of Truthspeak. A copy of his book, Microbes in the Bloodstream of the Church, is also available on Amazon.com. If you would like to a receive a copy of his weekly Bible studies and other articles of biblical teaching and application, you can do so by writing sue.bove@gmail.com and requesting "The Hangar Bible Journal."
If you would like to contribute to his ministry according to the principle of II Corinthians 9:7, you may do so by making your check out to Hangar Bible Fellowship and mailing it to 65 Teal Ct., Locust Grove, GA 30248. All donations are tax deductible.
Other recommended grace-oriented websites are:
notbyworks.org
literaltruth.org
gracebiblicalseminary.org
duluthbible.org
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