Witnessing in the Center of Global Power: Hope in the Face of Wrath

By P. Douglas Small
President, PRAYER AT THE HEART

When Paul wrote to the Romans, it was and had been for centuries, the center of global power. As a result, the nations had come to Rome. Some of the elite sneered at the diverse and foreign population that represented a cultural-linguistic cross-section of the world.

Some served as laborers – they came to the city for employment. Some had joined the mighty military force of Rome as mercenaries. The legions may have contained fewer Italians than recruits from other nations. Some were international advisors. Some came as advocates for their culture and people-group. Some were international business envoys. Some were tradesmen, and others were craftsmen. And out of a population of almost a million, 250,000, some say as many as a third of the city, were imported slaves. The native population knew that cultural diversity in the city, the high number of slaves, was the price of growth and expansion and of their prosperity. The emperors themselves had not always been natives, heralding from Spain to Syria.

No other city had the potential of impacting the globe as did Rome. A revival there would echo across Europe, Asia and down into Africa. Rome was a melting pot – a Greek city as much as a Latin one. The confluence of international influence had altered the city. African, Celtic, Egyptian, German, and Jewish populations made Rome home. Much of the city spoke a foreign language – Greek, not Latin, and many natives despised the practice. The customs of the city had become diverse, influenced by Greek culture and that of other populations and their influence.

That means that the book of Romans was more than a mere epistle. It was a call to the church of Rome to be a witness in the center of global power. Paul recognized that a missional church in that city, a microcosm of the globe, could spark an empire-wide surge of Christianity. The same is true of the United States today.

The church at Rome was already having an impact far beyond the city. Paul writes, “First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being proclaimed all over the world” (Romans 1:8). This should be the desire of every church in every city. From a city, that believers, led by their elders, touch the world. Every city should contemplate its capacity for and its call to global impact.

A Good News Message – A Bad News World: The Background  

Romans is the most complete theology of salvation in the Bible. It was Luther’s favorite book and a critical driving force of the last Reformation. It was valued in the Reformation era for its theology – meaning, a study (-ology) of God (-theos). “God” is the dominant character and idea of the book, not faith, or justification, as some might think.

The question follows – “How do we relate to this sovereign and holy God?” We have offended Him. We have transgressed His laws – to our own peril. We are on a planet led by dull-hearted, headstrong men in rebellion against Him.

What will we do with God? What will you do with Him? What is the disposition toward God of the city in which you live? He can neither be ignored nor treated as a teddy bear. There are certain kairos moments when God calls us to reckon with Him. We are in one of those moments. We dare not miss it.

The world is facing the wrath of God! But for a season, there is an offer of amnesty on table, one of grace, mercy and forgiveness. And the church is empowered to give this offer of peace with God.

I suggest that the book of Romans be valued now, not only for its capacity to re-center our theology (God-study and understanding) and as a grasp of the saving work of Jesus Christ against the coming wrath but also in terms of our consequent mission.

Paul begins the book by painting a panoramic picture of a coming global catastrophe – the discharge of God’s wrath against sin. The world, he claims, is facing a tsunamic of judgment, the consequence of its accumulating sin, and its escalating rebellion against God.

This is a hugely neglected Biblical idea in the Western church. Who talks about the wrath of God? We muzzle prophets, and most musicians and preachers feed the people with a buffet of affirming and inspiring messages.

Preaching, we should note, as a definition, is the unapologetic prophetic heralding of God’s word. It is not meant to be mean-spirited, and yet, it refuses to allow love to muzzle its truth. Its obligation is to deliver the message of truth – and love.  And to do so, without regard to the fear of man and with an eye on only pleasing God as the highest desire. It is plain and forthright, Biblical and decisive, enlightening and convicting. Preaching proclaims as a herald of truth; teaching is its explanation. What has been happening in many of our churches is neither preaching or teaching, but rather, inspirational speaking. Where are the preachers? The prophets? Where is the pure and simple declaration of “thus saith the Lord?”

We are so Blessed, that We are Blind

First, we live in a place of privilege. We have clean water, plentiful food, access to medical care, safe neighborhoods, sports-fields, pro-sports stadiums, malls, and shopping centers. Athletic activities for kids seem to be in greater abundance than moral training. Our mega-cities have multiplex movie theaters, themed restaurants, and our port cities offer cruise vacations. And then there are a myriad of vacation theme parks. A fallen world? It doesn’t feel like it here in the USA. We seem to have become convinced that with education and technology, the whole world can be such a paradise. Globalists are not so sure.

Globally, the median household income is $10,000. That means half the world is above this level and half below it. In some countries, the typical income is less than $1000 annually. There is no clean water. No medical care. No steady employment. Little or no education. No hope that things will improve. Much of the world has wandered a long way from paradise. In America, when the pandemic came, everyone got a stimulus check and still complained. We are blinded by prosperity, made soft by too much luxury and opulence. Compared to the rest of the world, the poor here are rich. And the rich, in a worst way, are poor.

Second, our desire to set forth a God of love, eclipses our view of God’s wrath, even against sin and its consequences. We forget that God, in Christ, is ‘truth.’ Unbending truth. In fact, Christ carries a double-edge sword of truth. Love cannot eclipse truth. It cannot silence it. True love must speak the truth, or it is a traitor to us. Yet wrath and judgment seem to be such Old Testament ideas. They are terrible Public Relations facts in our campaign to make God acceptable. The more the culture distances itself from God, the more we polish His image. But does that square with Scripture?

The term wrath occurs 197 times in the NKJV of the Bible. Forty-eight of those occurrences, about 25 percent, are in the New Testament. And 24 of those, half, are found in Romans (10) and Revelation (14).  That means we can expect, as we move into the last days, for the wrath of God to be increasingly revealed. It has been restrained, by design, to allow us to complete our obligation to the Great Commission. We are beginning to experience an overflow of the cup of iniquity. It is full to the brim (Matthew 24:12; Revelation 16:19; Gen. 15:16). As global rebellion and sin intensify, are we seeing a simultaneous escalation of God’s judicial activism?  As humanity’s crusade against Christ gains momentum, will we see a simultaneous rise in natural disasters – especially in Western nations?

When the sound of wars accelerates, and instability of nations intensify, and the dam breaks – there is good news. The gospel. An offer an amnesty is on the table. The window of time is undetermined. Today is the day of salvation.

Who needs the good news?