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Daniel 2:44-And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.
Some years back, some of our brotherhood colleges and publications in the United States performed surveys of churches of Christ throughout America. The results were discouraging in many ways. One brother summarized it well:
“One old friend of mine preaches at the (used to be large) congregation in Houston where Foy Wallace preached in the famous Music Hall meetings in the forties. The last time I visited there, he told me they had about 40 in attendance, all elderly, and even they didn’t know the basics: the books of the New Testament, how to tell someone what to do to be saved, etc. He said it was nearly like teaching children’s classes. I’m afraid my elder friend was right. He and I were raised at a time when churches of Christ numbered about 18,000, and had three million members. I can remember in the fifties when it was said (denominationally) that we were the third largest religious group in the United States and the fastest growing. Modern almanacs set the figures at 15,000 congregations and two million members. The latest, most-detailed figures I’ve seen are in The Christian Chronicle of February 2006, in an article entitled, “A cappella membership drops as churches fail to keep pace with population growth,” giving 12,963 congregations and 1.267 million members. (Bobby Ross Jr., “A cappella membership drops as churches fail to keep pace with population growth,” The Christian Chronicle, February 1, 2006 [Oklahoma City, OK: Oklahoma Christian College].) You and I know that many, if not most, of those congregations are populated by a high percentage of elderly Christians, and short of younger ones. If these numbers are anywhere near right, churches of Christ have lost 58% of their members while the national population has approximately doubled!” (Samuel G. Dawson, What Is Wrong With Most Churches of Christ: and How They Can Avoid Extinction, 200-210 (Kindle Edition); Bowie, TX: SGD Press)
Some may read this and think that the church of Christ is in danger of extinction. But we can take heart, because our God has promised that His church will never be destroyed (Daniel 2:44)! I am actually reminded of a book written by Dr. Hans Grimm (and translated by Dr. H. L. Schug). It is entitled, Tradition and History of the Early Churches of Christ In Central Europe.
Let me tell you a little about it.
In the 1960’s, Roy Palmer and Otis Gatewood (both Gospel preachers and missionaries) met Mr. Grimm while doing mission work in Germany. There, they were amazed to find churches of Christ already in existence and some that could even be traced back to the days of the Apostles! They had no knowledge of the churches of Christ in America, nor of the American Restoration Movement which was calling believers from all denominations back to the Bible. Indeed, brother Grimm and others from that country had become concerned at the dwindling numbers of New Testament Christians due especially to horrible persecution.
Listen to what our brother says about meeting Palmer and Gatewood:
“1800-1955. The seed of the blood of the martyred churches had not been sowed in vain; God’s Word did not return again void. In all the Occident the survivors of the centuries of persecutions, without knowing it gave the decisive impulse to mighty movements of awakening. In England the remnants of the Leollard Christian churches, the Seekers, exerted a decisive influence upon the Puritans and Quakers; in Holland fugitive English Puritans found their way through the influence of Mennonite and Old Evangelic groups to the Congregational and Baptist movements. In Central Europe much of the essence of the old churches trickled into the fundamental teaching and constitutional systems of the Moravian Herrnhuters. Nevertheless, only in a few churches and numerically very small churches, was shown more evidently the survival of the New Testament pre-reformation wealth of thought: among the Sandimanians of Scotland for example; or the Kollegianten in Holland; or the Dunkards of Northwestern Germany, who later were to establish flourishing churches on the other side of the Atlantic. But in that very epoch when seemingly among these few struggling groups left in Europe and Asia the flame of apostolic faith was about to be put out, there arose on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, wholly independent of the churches of Europe and without the Europeans knowing about it, the great “Restoration Movement” calling for a return to the apostolic faith and practice. Their efforts were not directed to a continuation or even remaking of old customs and traditions but a finding of the purity of the New Testament church and a restoration of that. Coming to their own decisions quite independently of each other, the Methodist O’Kelly, the Baptist Abner Jones, the Presbyterian Barton Stone, and the two free church theologians, the Campbells father and son, just immigrated from Ireland, who were to put aside all humanly devised creeds, dogmas and catechisms, and to build the church of the New Covenant on the Cornerstone, which is Christ. Their message found far and wide a responsive echo in the hearts of thousands. God added to the churches not only countless individuals, but also hundreds of young preachers, yes, entire congregations abandoned the prisons of their separate churches and joined themselves to the movement of New Testament Christianity. In a few years there were hundreds of these churches on the American continent. May I speak of myself as a connecting link of the Central European churches of Christ and the brethren and sisters of the English-speaking restoration movement? Hitler’s henchmen in World War II tried to terminate the destruction of the Lord’s little flock. In 1933 all bishops and deacons of the churches of Christ on German soil were imprisoned in Konzentrationslager. In 1939 the adult members in East Prussia followed their shepherds into the prisons and hard-labor convoys, where they perished in 1944, and in 1942 the 11 Alsatian families were deported to Poland. There they were massacred by the advancing Red tankists in January, 1945. All died with the same heroism for their Lord as their ancestors did. I was born in 1899 at Sablon-les-Metz as a scion of one of the oldest Christian families between the Mosele and the Alps. My dear father was one of the last three bishops of the church of Christ in Strassburg, and I was immersed by my uncle in the icy waters of the Hanauer Weiher March 18, 1916. Trained in Strassburg, Konigsberg, and Hamburg Universities, I obtained a license in comparative history of religions. Imprisoned in 1933 by the Nazis for preaching the gospel in the face of a blasphemous government, I had to suffer almost two years in the concentration camps of Hammerstein and Lichtenburg hunger, thirst, and the uninterrupted thrashing of arms, shinbones, and head like all other political, religious or non-Aryan prisoners. Released, deaf in one ear and with crushed kidneys, I continued preaching like my ancestors in woods, hills, and swamps or in hiding places in the large cities. I had to sell my special library and furniture to manage to live. When World War II began I was commissioned as an interpreter with the army. Back in Leipzig on Christmas, 1945, I learned of my dear father’s death, from some survivors, the extermination of our churches in East Europe. I immediately took up the task of rebuilding the destroyed brotherhood, and I had to work hard as a proofreader, reporter, and lecturer to earn a living not only for me, but also for the old and sick brethern and sisters in Communist-ruled, famine-stricken and ravaged East Germany. I could say with the apostle: “These hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me” (Acts 20:34). Just at the beginning of a remarkable revival of young people in Leipzig, and three months after my wedding, I was arrested October 9, 1948, by the Communists and for four years imprisoned in the ill-famed jails of Leipzig, Waldheim and Graefentonna. The pretended reason: conspiracy against the Red government in religious circles. Released in the fall of 1952, I joined my dear wife in Western Germany. In March 1955, the protestant State Church of Kurhessen-Waldeck invited me to take over the office of president of the Evangelical Academy for Social Ethics in Kassel. I declined; I could not subscribe to the promise not to attack the teaching of the Confession of Augsburg. But in the same month I met for the first time in my life a member of the restored churches of Christ of America. What he had to tell me was not other than the faith of my ancestors which I had taught and practiced all my life. My grandfather had had contacts with Scottish (Haldane) Baptists and Sandemanians, yea, even with Christadelphians in Birmingham, but the American Restoration Movement had been totally unknown to us. And now the fact that the Lord had built up his church beyond the Atlantic, just in time, when his last followers in Europe dwindled, hit me like a thunderclap. The torch did not die out. God had kindled it again and put it on a lamp-stand and it gives light for everybody in the house. This was the fulfillment of Christ’s promise: I am going to build my church, and the powers of death will never prevail against it.” (Dr. Hans Grimm, translated by Dr. H. L. Schug, Tradition and History of the Early Churches of Christ In Central Europe, PDF version downloadable from http://www.netbiblestudy.net/history/new_page_9.htm)
I thought about shortening the above reference, but I want you to see the heroism and courage of some of our brothers and sisters. They faced difficult challenges, including personal weaknesses and sin, doctrinal troubles, and intense persecution from unbelievers. There were times when it seemed that the church would be snuffed out.
But in the midst of it all, God kept working!
So when you feel discouraged, take a deep breath and remember that the Lord is still working. The Gospel is powerful! We just have to keep on doing our part, even if it feels at times like we are the only ones doing it. Because we aren’t alone!
1 Kings 19:18-Yet I have reserved seven thousand in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.”
Lord, thank You for Your goodness and faithfulness. Encourage us and build us up in You. Amen.