Matthew 24:35

 Thank you for your patience the posting was completed earlier than expected, thank you Jesus :-)

     I would have to say learning about the resiliency of the Word of God throughout history has had the most personal impact this week. Not just the fact that it has withstood the test of time, for there are many transcripts that have travelled through the ages to us, albeit none so pure and untainted, but that against intense opposition it not only continued but flourished. 

            The antics of biblical enemies such as Diocletian, the early Catholic Church and even modern day atheist, while horrendous, have not diminished the influence of the Bible on society but brought to light the power and saving words contained in it. Bible burning has run the gamut of despots in history most notably and relevant to our time would be the Muslim attack on Christianity and the Bible.

            In Gaza there is a small community of Christian believers who stand between the Islamic community and Jewish community as they struggle for proprietorship of the East Bank. In 2007 it was reported to the Jerusalem Post “Muslim gunmen used rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) to blow through the doors of the church and school, before burning Bibles and destroying every cross they could get their hands on.” This is just one dismal instance which highlights a much wider antagonism towards the Word of God.

But praise the Lord that “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound” (Rom 5:20) and while in parts of the world the Word is trampled it is working great wonders for His glory in all places. That there is a Christian community in Gaza alone stands as a testament of the power of the Word to bring life in the most treacherous environments.

            In 1949 Moa Zedong took the reins of China’s power and outlawed all Christian religions. Prior to his charge there had only been approximately one million Christians and many presumed, that through years of bloody oppression, that small group of believers had declined. In 2007 a trusted Chinese pollster group, Horizon, Ltd., performed an unbiased poll of a segment of the population and their results indicated that, even after the years of torture, terrorism and deaths, there were now approximately 34.5 million believing Christians in the country. That’s an increase of 33.5 million souls delivered by the resilient Word of God! And that number has only grown substantially in preceding years with the decline in government opposition. This is a modern day echo of the early churches persecution at the hands of Rome and like Rome it was not the Word that lost power but the enemies of its eternal Truth.

            It is a joy to see the power of God’s words written or living to deliver the lost and bound and destroy the powers of evil around the world. Many times I have heard the Holy Bible referred to as a “Living Word”. This concept has been exemplified in my own life through salvation in believing on the Word and the personal growth that has flourished in the light of the great Testaments. But having a predisposition to view things in a sociological spectrum I have been blessed this week to learn further about the personal impact the Word of God has on not only individual lives but its influence and growth through whole communities and societies in the face of Satan and the spirit of the anti-christ.

“Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.” (Mat 24:35)