The Last Laugh
Psalm 2
The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers take counsel together,
against the Lord and against his Anointed (Christ) …
He who sits in the heavens laughs! —Psalm 2:2-4
“The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated,” Mark Twain quipped upon hearing that his obituary had been published in the New York Journal. I would say the same to those who report the death of the Church. G. K. Chesterton said, that “at least five times…the Church has to all appearance gone to the dogs. In each of these five cases it was the dog that died” (The Everlasting Man).
I read somewhere, though the details elude me, that the Roman emperor Diocletian raised a monument to himself on which he placed an inscription stating that he had “abolished the superstition of Christ." Some years later Diocletian abdicated, discouraged by the sad state of affairs in the empire and committed suicide. Rome fell to the Goths shortly thereafter. The Church exists and thrives today in every corner of the world. “The gates of hell (Hell’s best-laid counsels, schemes and strategies) shall not prevail against it,” Jesus said.
Peter Waldo, an early reformer, represented the history of Christianity with a picture of an anvil with a number of worn-out hammers lying around it. At the bottom of the picture there was a quote from 16th century French theologian Theadore Beza: “The Church is an anvil that has worn out many hammers.”
“The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed (Christ)…”
And peals of laughter rend the skies!
David Roper
10.3.19
