Because It Works

How many movements can you think of that grew from about 20 followers to about 2.6 billion followers?

Wow! How, and why, did this happen?

I got some answers to these questions recently from reading Bible scholar Dr. Bart D. Ehrman’s book The Triumph of Christianity.

He talks about contributions from key people like the apostle Paul and Emperor Constantine. Constantine’s conversion in 312 CE brought the Roman empire into the Christian fold.

And he lists several other factors, such as the promise of eternal life, the fact that Christians offered superior health care and social safety networks, and the miraculous healings and positively changed lives that so many people saw.

I think those last factors are the most important. And I think you can sum them up in three words – “Because it works”.

I didn’t need Dr. Ehrman to tell me this. Through an undetected case of Lyme disease I spent seven years practically bedridden, considered a hopeless case by the medical community. Then, all of a sudden, I started to get better, with no other explanation than the prayers of many people.

For another example, you can look at the history of the Catch the Fire Church. It grew out of the Vineyard Fellowship, which in turn grew in considerable part out of the Jesus People movement of the early 1970s.

Many of the Jesus People were former hippies who through drug addiction had dug such a deep, life-threatening hole that only God could save them. And He did.

It is more than physical healing, though. When missionaries Joel and Becky Kennedy visited our church recently, I chatted with Joel, and he spoke about how many people in their last two mission fields, Quebec and France, have found richer lives because of Christianity.

He said that in these highly secular societies, scores of people have come to them looking for help and counsel, seeking the fruits of the Spirit like love, joy and peace they see in the Kennedy family. The fact that Christianity works so well is one of the main things that brings success to their missionary efforts, he said. 

Our church has been reading through the Book of Acts recently, which includes many examples of how Christianity works. 

You can start with Peter and John healing the crippled man at the Temple gate called Beautiful. ““Silver or gold I do not have,” Peter said. “But what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” Act 3:6. (NIV)

That was one of many miracles worked through Peter. Then there was Paul, whose handkerchiefs were passed around to cure those who touched them and to deliver those afflicted with evil spirits. Acts 19:11-12 (NIV)     

Things haven’t changed in the thousands of years since. Christianity still works wonderfully, fantastically today. It doesn’t always work fast. It doesn’t always work the way you thought it should work. But it works.