by Dr. Vance Havner
C h r is t ia n s today may not be thrown to the lions or tied to the stake, yet for us each day life has Co losseum conflicts. Lately there has been a rash of books and films based on the historic clash of the Christians of the Cata combs with the Caesareans of the Colosseum. It was a great chapter when the blood of the martyrs was the seed of the church. Men had to choose between Caesar or Christ—for a man can have only one Lord at a time. This empire within an empire, this “ third race” that Toynbee calls “ creatures of an alien underground,” this heavenly commonwealth in the world but not of it, this scum of the earth made a theater to this world, this minority group in a pagan land, they had heard the call of Christ and therefore had no use for the cult of Cae sar. There was a price to pay and they paid it. Some were thrown to lions. Some were tied to the stake. Their burning bodies became literally the flaming torches which already they had been in spirit. But the persecutions could not stamp out this strange sect. It prospered instead for, like Brer Rabbit “ born and bred in a briar patch,” the church has thrived on trouble. Though secure in danger, the church is en dangered by security. Satan changed his tactics when persecution did not destroy the saints. What persecution could not accomplish popularity almost brought about. Constantine professed Christianity and made it fash ionable to be a church member. Multitudes of uncon verted pagans flocked into the churches. Christianity became the state religion. Old heathen feasts became church festivals. The Lord’s Supper became a sacrifice instead of a memorial. Preachers became priests. Or nate buildings and ostentatious ceremonies took the place of the simple worship of the catacombs. Instead of Christianity’s transforming the world, the world dominated Christianity. We have never recovered from that colossal tragedy. Today church members sit in comfortable theaters
and see modern movies of early saints who chose Christ instead of Caesar. They read modern novels about the Catacombs and the Colosseum. And most of them are blissfully unaware that the same story is being re peated in another form today. It is going on right here before our eyes. Christians in America are not being thrown to lions or burned on poles. But there are other ways of persecuting the saints. There are clever, digni fied, even religious ways of making it hard for the Mas ter’s minority today. Caesar is now dead; yet the choice is the same. It is Caesar or Christ. It is the choice that Pilate faced: “ If thou let this man go, thou are not Caesar’s friend: whosoever maketh himself a king speaketh against Caesar.” By and large the professing church today is a popular church in America. She enjoys the sanction o f Caesar. She is filled with baptized pagans. The world fills her pulpits. She is not at con trast with this age but at compromise with it. By Caesar I do not mean the government. Jesus said, “ Render unto Caesar the things which are Cae sar’s.” Christians have an obligation to government. Paul makes this clear in his Roman epistle. By Caesar I mean this age, this pagan world set-up, this modern order which is under the god of this age and which the Bible calls the world. With all its wealth, its culture, its magnificence, it is a tremendous thing to come up against. But the Christian does not belong to it. He has been saved out of it. He is in it but not of it. He is sent into it to win others out of it. N o ise , N ic k e l s a n d N oses I he Popular Church has come to terms with this age. She borrows its methods, she apes its techniques. She does not ask, “ How does God do it?” She asks, “How does Caesar do it?” How does the social world, the business world, the amusement world, do it?” She tunes in on Hollywood instead of heaven. She worships _
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THE KING'S BUSINESS
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