What do Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, Confucianism, and Hinduism have in common? They all began to spread through governmental support. Judaism began as a theocracy, of course, in the Old Testament. Buddhism began to spread when Ashoka the Great in India made Buddhism the state religion in the 3^rd century B.C. Hinduism grew out of the upper elites of India and reinforced the caste system. Confucianism has been referred to as the state cult of the Han dynasty in China. Islam was forged in political and military conquest.

It is fascinating to see how consistently major world religions have required the support of the state to succeed. In fact, there is only one significant exception. As author Glenn Sunshine notes in Slaying Leviathan, “Christianity is the only major world religion to begin and spread without government support.”

It is true that Christianity would enjoy widespread acceptance under emperor Constantine, but that would not take place until 300 years after the death of Christ. The Church had been spreading and prevailing against “the gates of hell” around the Mediterranean Sea and across people groups for three centuries, often in the face of violent persecution, the entire time. Though the Christian faith and governments have often been unnaturally combined at different points, to tragic effect, the success of the Gospel has never depended on the strength of a sword.

As we look at the trials of Jesus it is frustrating to see the entire religious and political apparatus come against Him in such flagrant injustice and abuse. It is hard not to suspect that even in our own day the potential for such injustice is not entirely fictitious. Certainly, this same hostility is regularly demonstrated against other saints around the globe, even as we read these words.

But that is sort of the point, isn’t it? The devil has been trying to stamp out these little lights of ours ever since he tried to stamp The Light of the world. And he has failed. With every onslaught of persecution, with every wave of slander, with every bloody atrocity perpetrated against the followers of Jesus, the Church has prevailed.

Let us similarly prevail. We must be similar not only in the fact of prevailing, but in the method and means of prevailing. To prepare for the season of testing which seems now almost certainly upon us, let each of us stock of our hearts and our homes. Do we love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, or do we confuse that with enjoying the comforts of vaguely Christian morality and American freedom? Do we speak the truth in love to our families, the saints, our neighbors, and to a fallen world – or do we parrot the spirit of our age with a thin veneer of churchy talk? Are we willing to suffer courageously when it is God’s will, or do we run and hide?

Just as we look to the past to take wisdom and instruction for how we ought to live in the present, so one day future generations will look to us to gain insight into how they should confront the challenges of their day. Let us leave them a thoughtful and compelling testimony that proves the pattern of Jesus is the enduring and ultimately most successful approach to overcoming the world. For today, let the nations fuss and rage. Tomorrow the kingdom of the world will become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever.