Christianity Today has a short article challenging Tertullian’s famous statement about Christian martyrs: “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” Does persecution really cause Christianity to grow? According to one study, the answer is no. Here’s an excerpt:
According to the Pew Research Center, 74 percent of the world’s population live in a country where social hostilities involving religion are high, and 64 percent live where government restrictions on religion are high. Does this explain why Christianity is likewise growing worldwide?
Not necessarily, says missiologist Justin Long, who recently compared Pew’s latest tally of religious freedom restrictions to Operation World’s latest tally of Christian growth (see chart). His conclusion: Church growth is “not strongly” correlated with either governmental or societal persecution. However, Christianity “tends loosely” to change more rapidly (grow or shrink) when governmental restriction is high, and stays relatively stable when such pressure is low.
This isn’t the last word on this question, but you should read the rest of it anyway. Three quick thoughts in response:
1. We should be mindful of and prayerful for the persecuted church across the world. We rightly admire the courage of brothers and sisters being faithful through horrendous suffering, and we should pray that their suffering would end and that God would break the teeth of the wicked (Psalm 58:6).
2. We should remember that there are some places in the world where persecution threatens to exile or extinguish Christian communities. For these brothers and sisters, persecution is not a strategy for growth—at least not one that they would choose. It may providentially strengthen them in some ways, but that is not a reason to hope for evil that good may come (Romans 3:8).
3. We should be careful about glib statements about persecution in our own context. I have heard people say things like, “What we need in the American church is a good persecution.” Usually, a line like that is spoken by someone who wants to see genuine spiritual renewal in our land. But still, it’s spoken like a true American—one for whom real bodily suffering is a theoretical thing rather than a reality. No one who is shedding their blood for the gospel talks like this. They pray for deliverance, and we should too. Here’s a better way to pray for and think about potential persecution in our own context:
“I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, in order that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.” -1 Timothy 2:1-2