When the prophet
Isaiah foretold the advent of the Messiah centuries
before His birth, he proclaimed, "of the
increase of His government and of peace there
will be no end." Historic Christianity, the
kind practiced by the early Church and the Christians
of the Reformation was one of expectancy and hope.
They expected Christianity to take root and fill
the whole earth. They expected that every nation
would come under the lordship of Jesus Christ.
They had total confidence that God's kingdom would
come, and that His will would be done on earth
as it is in heaven. History was on their side
and Rome fell to the gospel. Europe was eventually
Christianized.
The growth of Christianity in the European countries
has been an amazing one. There are a few important
things we can observe from this quick overview
of the progress of Christianity. One of the most
obvious ones is that the Word of God not only
has power to conquer evil and overthrow oppression
politically - it has actually done so! Men and
women, nations and the entire world have been
affected by the progress of Christianity and the
proclamation of the gospel. Monarchies, dictatorships,
slavery, and human injustice of every kind have
been overturned by the gospel.
With the advent of the Reformers, the Catholic
Church came under attack and witnesses of Jesus
were burned at stake. Thousands were thrust into
prison, while their orphaned children begged in
the streets. Christian forces advanced with the
preaching and publishing of the truth. Columbus
had just discovered a New World. Christopher Columbus
wrote in his journal that when he set sail for
the New World, "he had been long convinced
that God had given him a special, almost mystical
mission: to carry the Light of Christ into the
darkness of undiscovered heathen lands, and to
bring the inhabitants of those lands to the holy
faith of Christianity." Columbus filled his
journal with quotations from Isaiah which indicated
that Christ's dominion in the nations would become
a reality.
In the preface to Thomas Shepard's The Clear
Sunshine of the Gospel Breaking Forth Upon the
Indians in New England, written in 1648, twelve
prominent Puritans address their words to Parliament.
They wrote:
"The utmost ends of the earth are designed
and promised to be in time the possessions of
Christ ... this little we see is something in
hand, an earnest to us of those things which are
in hope; when the ends of the earth shall see
His glory and the kingdoms of the world shall
become the kingdoms of the Lord and His Christ,
when He shall have dominion
"All the ends of the earth will remember
and turn to the Lord, and all the families of
the nations will worship before Thee ... He will
rule from sea to sea and from the river For the
early Christians, the Protestant Reformers, and
the Christians of America's first two centuries,
the goal was clear. Christianity meant dominion.
Historian Charles Coffin records: "Doctor
Luther goes back to his room in the convent, little
knowing what will come of his nailing up that
paper - that it is the beginning of a series of
events ... that thrones will be tumbled into the
dust; that kings will go down, empires be rent
asunder ... that there will be massacres and horrible
outrages against the lives and liberties of men.”
Jesus has also been hailed as, "The King
of kings and the Lord of lords." Thus the
message seems to be clear. The all powerful Word
of God will inevitably, as history progresses,
conquer every nation, and Jesus will be Lord and
King.
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