A Tale of Two Cities
By Rick Shrader
Every city has its own stories to
tell. Among them is the story of contrast between the old and new. To western
cities, that contrast is also one of the religious and the secular, from the
bygone days of fearing God to the present days of tolerating God. I don’t think
it can be doubted that cities (and civilizations) move almost “naturally” in
that direction and almost never in the reverse. Since true religion cannot be
inherited, at least not in the inward conviction, modern descendents are usually
glad for the change, and the faith of the fathers soon becomes a matter of
museum nostalgia.
We just returned from
our first extended visit to London and the UK. Truly, Great Britain is a land of
contrasts. Among this world leader of economics, military might and cultural
trend-setting rise ancient steeples and gothic spires, reminders of more
civilized and mannerly times that overcame the less civilized and darker times.
Indeed, the whole tourist industry itself survives on the attraction of ancient
churches, war memorials, college spires and chapels, palaces and royal
ceremonies, and the magnetizing effect of knowing that one is standing on
hundreds or thousands of years of history in almost any given spot.
The contrast between
the old and the new seemed obvious in a number of ways. The religious contrast
from old to new was stark. Huge and lavish cathedrals, solemn reminders of a
more faithful day, now stand cold, dark and lifeless. Where once there was a
need to build multiple religious structures, now whole congregations could
gather in a large house. The memory of the royalty and manners of a golden
Victorian age are now observed by a populace of slovenly dressed and rude
picture-takers reluctantly acknowledging their heritage. From the war memorials
to Churchill’s war room, the city of London remembers when it was truly the best
of times and the worst of times. Destroyed by German bombs merely a generation
ago, the city stood tall with blood, sweat and tears. Now an American visitor
must be careful not to mention current military politics for fear of immediate
reprisals upon Bush, Blair and all western military endeavors.
Yet one cannot help
but enjoy and appreciate the beauty, the history, the culture and the shear
magnitude of such a place. We were looking for our own Baptist history and we
found a lot. Usually we had to look diligently and were offered little help from
the locals, but it is there just the same. With the reader’s patience, I will
include this great Christian history within a few thoughts of contrast.
The City Encroaches
I have often repeated
the saying, “the wilderness encroaches.” By that is meant that we live in a
fallen world where we must keep cutting back the undergrowth or it will take
over and engulf us. If we don’t fight the “natural” tendency of the wilderness,
we will be overtaken by the wilderness. This is true in manners and morals as
well. As fallen creatures, we too easily become like the world around us and
rather than fighting to cut if back, it eventually overtakes us. If it doesn’t
get the first generation, it will keep encroaching until it can overtake the
second or third or fourth.
In the cities of Great
Britain, with their rich religious heritage, it is obvious that the wilderness
has encroached and taken over many churches and their influence. But ironically,
the wilderness is the city. After all, the Adamic fall was primarily in the
moral nature of Man himself, while the natural world was secondarily affected by
Man’s action. From the time of Babel, man’s fallen moral nature is nowhere seen
more than in the cities which he builds. God made His natural world for the
humans He created. The Bible is full of descriptions of nature and its pictorial
analogies of God’s handiwork. Though the natural world is truly affected by the
fall in its death and decay, a person left alone in that setting still beholds
God’s majesty and Godhead.
One can stand in a
city such as London and look in every direction, listen to the sounds, smell the
smells and (unless he looks directly up) never see anything of God’s natural
world. He experiences only what fallen man has made. One can even spend most of
the day in the subway (the “tube”) which is an underground world in itself. Now
it may be beautiful, in the way that art is beautiful, or it may be fantastic in
the sense of an engineering feat, but it has taken over people’s lives. The
natural world is gone, and with it a major avenue for discovering God. If nature
can be a help in preaching, the cities have reduced the gospel’s effect to the
spoken word alone.
The city has also
encroached on the testimonies of our faith. John Wesley’s church and grave
marker have a steel and glass walkway that spans the space directly overhead.
The jail where John Bunyan was imprisoned and where he wrote his great classics
is marked by a bronze plaque that people walk on without even noticing what it
says. In “The Dissenter’s Graveyard” lie the tombs of Susanna Wesley, John
Rippon, John Owen and John Gill but they are crowded into a small space between
new city buildings and are closed off by steel fences and gates and are not open
to the public. Nottingham boasts of Robin Hood, a fictional character, but no
one in town had even heard of William Carey or the Friar Lane Baptist Chapel.
The cities of long ago are lost under the wilderness of steel and concrete.
The Church Must Engage
The City Besides the
encroaching steel and concrete, the moral thistles are even more daunting. As in
any metropolis, the language is coarse, the dress is anywhere from weird to
lewd, the sounds are overbearing and animalistic, the billboards and ads are
almost R-rated, and manners are something that disappeared before Dickens.
Sadly, the churches are being forced to acquiesce or die. It is not surprising
to see St. Paul’s vesper service with about twenty people or Westminster Abbey
occupied mostly with tourists, because the gospel has never found life in such
mausoleums of religion. But it is sad to see true gospel preaching churches of
old either closed or overgrown by the world. What you see in the city is what
you eventually get in the churches!
In the midst of this
world-wide epidemic of worldly encroachment upon and within the churches, there
can always be Smyrnas among the Laodiceas. On Sunday morning, in a pouring rain,
we found the Metropolitan Tabernacle where Charles Spurgeon preached to
thousands. It is still there and still preaching the gospel. Peter Masters
preached on the condition of the world in the end times and our obligation to
remain faithful even when the Devil seems to be winning the war. He sounded like
a religious Winston Churchill encouraging the citizens to never surrender.
Services are still being held in John Bunyan’s church in Bedford, and the
elderly pastor who met us there spoke of his small flock and the blessing it is
to uphold such a rich heritage. A new Baptist church, currently meeting in an
apartment, was handing out tracts at Hyde Park, a place notorious for its public
airings. Two Baptist pastors were street-preaching outside the Tower of London,
the spot where many “dissenters” were beheaded for their faith in the days of
Bloody Mary and King James I. That ministry had been going on for years and was
begun by Spurgeon’s Tabernacle. I am reminded of the Lord’s words to the church
at Smyrna, I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty (but thou art rich).
Encroachment Is A Universal Plot
Even traveling in
London, one is reminded of being in a “foreign” country. The language is
English, but not my father’s English! You are constantly aware that you are the
one with an accent and you had better be careful what you say out loud! “Mind
the gap” means to watch out for the gap at your feet, and “mind your head” means
to watch out so you don’t bump your head. I think that “mind your manners”
though, is archaic in both countries! In fact, the same thistles of sin that
encroach upon America are plainly evident in England. And why not? Sin comes
from a common root.
Loud and obtrusive
music sounds the same in any country. Nakedness and indecency are the same in
any country. Swearing and cursing are recognizable in any language. There are
only so many ways to pierce one’s nose or ear or tongue (I think). Cigarette
smoke and alcohol smell the same no matter where you smell them. And if I see
another belly button of any nationality I think I’ll write a complaint to the
“navel” reserve! In any city in the world you immediately recognize: those
places you should avoid; the advertisements of a night life that is corrupting a
world of young people; or a film industry that is willing to sacrifice a whole
generation for a fast buck!
England is an example
of the influence Christianity can have on a nation, and also an example of how
quickly that influence can be lost. Part of the official title of the King or
Queen is to be a “protector of the faith.” There is still much Christian
language left in the official speaking and writing, but few seem to take notice
of its meaning any longer. The Victorian Age was a golden age for preaching and
spreading the gospel around the world, and its effects are still seen everywhere
in the country. But those effects have become mere relics in the form of words,
steeples, crosses and cemeteries. The average Brit on the street is as amoral
and nonreligious as anyone anywhere else in the world.
If there is one thing that is obvious, it is that Satan is the god of this
world, and he has blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of
the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them
(2 Cor 4:4). No generation or nationality or culture is exempt when it comes to
the expression of this common ancestry. Satan is the Pied Piper of lost souls,
and around this world they all march to the same old tunes without question and
without complaint. How sad it is to see this “death march” culture repeated in
every country (and too often danced to while Satan pipes within the churches).
The remedy for it is the gospel, and we should praise God for the faithful
voices that are still holding forth a light in the darkness.
God Uses Godly People To Stem The Tide
In a time of national crisis it took a Winston Churchill to stand tall and lead
a whole nation (if not most of the free world) against the encroachment of evil.
Visiting the War Rooms where his operation took place and plans were made to
defeat the enemy is a moving experience. How thankful we are that those
dedicated men and women made such a sacrifice to keep the world free. But our
enemy, the devil, is constantly working to overthrow nations, churches, families
and lives. Resistance in this arena calls for diligence as well.
Whether it was a John Bunyan or a John Gill, a Charles Spurgeon or a William
Carey, a Joseph Parker or an Alexander Maclaren, God has raised up men and women
to stem the world’s encroachment in every age. Sometimes I begin to doubt that
there is a John Bunyan today who could spend nineteen years in a one-room jail
cell and still affect the world to the extent that he did; or a William Carey
who will give his life to “mine for souls” in a dark continent while only a few
hold the ropes; or a Charles Spurgeon who will be willing to lose his standing
among his brethren for the truth of the gospel. But, of course, there are such
ones even today though you or I will not hear of them until we get to heaven, or
perhaps our grandchildren will know of them generations down the road. They are
not the movers and shakers of this world, but they are the movers and shakers of
heaven and heaven’s blessing. They have changed cities and countries with their
preaching and their prayers, and they asked no one for applause, a silent cloud
of witnesses being acknowledgement enough.
It doesn’t mean that because cities and countries finally are given over to the
encroachment of sin that such people failed. God’s purposes continue to move
toward the day of reckoning. But when the crowns are handed out, I think that I
will have found why what appeared to be first will be last, and what the world
thought was last will triumphantly be first.
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