1 Corinthians 4:11-13 “To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we answered kindly. Up to this moment we have become the scum of the earth, the refuse of the world.”
When we look back at the extension of the kingdom of God starting from that small obscure village in Palestine we realized that in the past 2000 years there have been the ups and downs. However, the scale goes slowly upwards throughout these past 2000 years. In other words, there were times when we saw the church declining in influence as well as outreach, but the general direction has been upwards.
The next season of time that we look at is what has been known as the “Dark Ages” from 400 to 800 A.D. Although modern historians have called the next 500 years of European history the dark ages in reality, this era saw truth and light piercing paganism and bringing conversion and cultural liberation to Europe.
The barbarians who had learned their lesson of debauchery from their Roman masters had now conquered the empire. This was also a time of great men/women with faith. A new army was being raised up. It was an army that did not conquer by sword and force, but through love. They laid the foundations of Western civilization, not with swords of steel, but with the sword of the Spirit and its truth, which promised to set the captives free.
It was during this time unknown to most that this new army was beginning to change society, culture, etc. one person at a time. We can compare these two armies. First, we have the pagan army that for 4000 years had accumulated all the wealth and had ruled with unprecedented power over these years. On the other hand, there is a small band of people who had no power, no wealth, but they went out and began to spread the faith one person at a time until their influence began to permeate society.
They were men like Severus who had control over 100 men and had charge to keep order in the Temple of Venus while the people worshiped this idol. Not being able to stand any longer the worship of this false idol he stood in the temple and proclaimed Jesus Christ as Lord. This was not a popular thing to do and sure enough it was reported to the people higher up and he was brought before Caesar and while being held by two men they cut off his head.
There were others like Theodorus who had angels visit him. It is said that because of his faith he was stretched out on a rack with his bones being pulled out of their sockets. He was asked how he could endure the pain and he said: “For a while I did feel pain, but then a young man stood by and was wiping the sweat off my face and refreshing me with cool water and so delighted me that I regretted being let down from the rack.” His bravery was so great that the authorities let him go and helped him to recuperate from his wounds.
Thaddeus was another Christian who was so enraged against the gladiatorial events in the arena, where even Christians would come after church, that he rushed into the midst of the two gladiators who were fighting and shouted: “STOP!” The crowd was so enraged that they shouted, “Down with him!” Sure enough one of the gladiators ran him through with a sword. All of a sudden there was silence. While he laid there in a puddle of blood the people began to leave one by one. That was the beginning of the end of the gladiatorial events. One man made a difference.
When I think of the cultural war of the 21st century that we are in – how we need to see men and women like Thaddeus raised up who will stand in the midst of the malaise that we live in and say: “Stop; enough is enough.”