The Indomitable Church

Do you mind if I quote a passage from Dostoyevsky's "Brother's Karamazov"?

"'You've got it all wrong, sir,' Father Paissy said severely. 'It is not the Church that is transformed into the State. Please understand that. That is Rome and its dream. That is the third temptation of the devil. On the contrary, the State is transformed into the Church, it rises to it and becomes a Church all over the world-which is the complete opposite of Ultramontanism and Rome and your interpretation of it, and is only the great predetermined destiny of the Orthodox Church on earth. This star will shine in the east!'" - Fyodor Dostoyevsky, "The Brother's Karamazov"

For reasons that escape me, it has become vogue to describe the church in America as "cold," "ineffective," and "lukewarm." If one relegates himself to a narrow slice of history, no doubt this would be the case. However, what every Christian ought to be aware of is exactly what Father Paissy was aware of, namely, that the Church of Christ is indomitable. Father Paissy brings up a very important bit of ecclesiology that poignantly illustrates the indomitability of the Church. 

The Church and The State

Perhaps the tendency to label the American church such things as "ineffective" and "lukewarm" arises from the American ideal of "separation of Church and State." The American ideal consisted of a demarcation between matters of religion and matters of governance. However nicely this ideal has been in stemming the tide of persecution, it must only exist as a legal formality. No true Christian ought to think that the government really is separate from the Church. This isn't to say that the Church should become the government. Romans 13 does not present this as the Christian ideal. The Christian ideal is to subsume rather than subdue. The Church was never meant to govern men; She existed to turn men into something governable. The Church was never meant to make moral laws; She existed to make moral men. Moral men make moral laws. This is the great and indomitable goal of the Church of Christ. This is the "star that will shine in the east." 

Perhaps the reason many are quick to label American Christianity as "a thing in decline" is because Christian morality seems to be slipping from American government. It is true that in recent times we've seen a vicious streak of immorality steep into the legal books. However, we go wrong in thinking that the solution is to revert back to "the way things used to be." No matter how we look at the issue, the American government is not indomitable. It can and will disappear like every other great civilization. What will persist is what has always persisted, Christ's Church. Just as Jesus says to Peter in Matthew 16:18:

 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.  - Matthew 16:18[ESV]

The Church is indomitable because Christ has promised to build it. It is the only institution known to man that has a divine promise baked into its very walls. The State has no such promise. The Christian view of the Church and the State is not that both must remain separate or that one should become the other, it is that one should be subsumed by the other. And yet, in this verse, Christ makes one more promise.

The Church and The World

Our Lord promises that the gates of Hell cannot stand against His Church. But what are the gates of Hell? Does this mean that the Church will stand against the powers of Satan? It does mean that but it also means something more. "Gates" are not offensive fixtures. You do not use gates to attack something. Gates are defensive fixtures. In other words, Christ is not only saying the Church will prevail against Hell, He is also saying Hell cannot prevail against the Church. The Church will be leading an attack against Hell.

What I am here describing is the moment when Heaven touches Hell and it is Hell that shatters. The army of people ransomed by the blood of the Lamb grasping the double-edged Word of God and cleaving Satan in two. Against such a people, Hell cannot stand. It's like playing for the winning team. Christ has promised and secured victory for His Church. 

But what does such a victory look like? To me, it seems that the Church is victorious in three respects, Her persistence, Her influence, and Her saints. That the Church is victorious is evident from the fact that the Church exists. She has stood against every force that wished to destroy Her. She sticks out of the continuity of history almost as a taunt to the haughtiness of men that wished to outlast Her. As Charles Spurgeon once said:

“Never was the victory of patience more complete than in the early church. The anvil broke the hammer by bearing all the blows that the hammer could place upon it. The patience of the saints was stronger than the cruelty of tyrants.” - C.H. Spurgeon

Secondly, that the Church is victorious is evident from Her influence. Even in the 1st century of the Church, we are told that some of Her members "had turned the world upside down" (Acts 17:6). The Church brought the world from the ancient to the medieval to the modern. She carried Rome through her waning years and built a New Jerusalem once Rome did finally fall. Under the sign of the cross, countless kings were coronated. And through the sign of the cross, more were made holy. This is what an indomitable Church did.

The final evidence of victory is in Her saints. Never has the world witnessed a more transforming power than the one found in the Gospel of Christ given to His Church. The Church has raised men who could walk among mice in their meekness. The Church has also raised men fiercer than lions. The martyrs of the Church pierce history with their patience, grace, and courage. The monk feeding the poor and the knight at war come from the same source, Christ fashioned both. The Church produced men and women "of whom the world was not worthy." 

It is of course not from the strength of Her members that the Church is indomitable, it is from the divine power of Christ. It was Christ who promised to build an indomitable Church. It is Christ who is responsible for Her success now and in the future. It is as the hymn goes,

The Church shall never perish!
Her dear Lord to defend,
To guide, sustain, and cherish,
Is with her to the end:
Though there be those who hate her,
And false sons in her pale,
Against both foe and traitor
She ever shall prevail.