Live Coal: Vanguard of an Invasion Force

“And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? then is the offence of the cross ceased. “

Galatians 5:11

Don Richardson, in a memorial service for two martyred missionaries in West Irian, asked this question: “Why is it that people who are loyal to Jesus Christ, who endeavour to be as He was: holy, harmless, undefiled– people whose desire is to live and teach the ethic of Heaven itself– why should they be, in every age, the objects of such furious hatred?”

The Reason is the Season.

There are, perhaps, many reasons. I will name what I believe is the main one. The ungodly of this world persecute the body of Christ because they instinctively recognize that body as the vanguard of an invasion from another world, a world diametrically opposed to this one. The ungodly are fighting to hold this planet against this invasion, even though it is an invasion by the greatest love and goodness that ever was. The ungodly want to keep this planet a place where they can practice independent meaning in rebellion against God, even though the penalty for for that rebellion is death itself, and so they resent every encroachment from that other world where the rule is that men practice dependent meaning in submission to God.

Some imaginative men have speculated about the possibility that this world may some day be invaded from outside itself. Little do they realize than an invasion of this world occurred two thousand years ago, an invasion far more subtle, far more sophisticated, far more certain of success than anything that the wildest flight of man’s imagination could conceive.

The incarnation of Jesus Christ was that invasion.

The incarnation of Jesus Christ was that invasion and He is still carrying on His conquest, not by bringing armies to suppress the earth, but by transforming His enemies into citizens of His kingdom through His Gospel. (Helen Manning)

Selected and edited From “KNEELING WE TRIUMPH” compiled by E.F & L. Harvey, Harvey Christian Publishers, 1982

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