Forgiveness As Evangelism

Posted on August 22, 2012 by Pastor Foley

I was teaching about proclaiming the gospel to our North Korean Underground University students in class this past weekend. I asked them if they recalled the official announcement of Kim Jong Il’s ascension to power and, if so, who made the announcement, where did they hear it (e.g., radio, television, meeting), and what were the specific words that were shared?

One by one the students recalled how they first heard the message. One student remembered the announcement being made triumphantly by a famous news announcer. Another shared about a cadre bellowing out the news in a communist party meeting in his village. They recalled the messengers using words like “Dear Leader” and “Beloved Father.”

I explained how the word “gospel” was a technical term that predated Jesus and meant the announcement of the ascension of a new leader. “August Caesar is Lord!” would be a typical formulation of the gospel (or “Kim Jing Il is the Dear Leader” in North Korea), to which those who heard the gospel would be expected to respond in kind, even bowing the knee in submission. This gives us new insight into Philippians 2:9-11 (NIV), where Paul says:

9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

That’s what a gospel proclamation looks like, and that’s how we’re called to respond when we hear one. In Rome, that meant publicly affirming that Jesus was Lord; in today’s North Korea it would mean publicly affirming that Jesus is the Dear Leader.

Our manner of evangelism suggests that we modern evangelical Christians understand the Jesus is Lord/Dear Leader part (I hope we understand that, anyway), but not the bending the knee.

Bending the knee is an unmistakable sign of submission, surrender, and fealty, and it is a key response to the proclamation of the gospel. Every culture has a different version of bending the knee, and no doubt every culture knows what that gesture of submission is. It reminds us that the Christian gospel is not only the announcement of a new leader but also the extension of forgiveness to those in rebellion. I like the phraseology of Dan Phillips of Biblical Christianity here, in a comment posted on Chris Brauns’ blog. Dan writes, “(A)bandon your case against God, repent, and humble yourself in genuine faith.” Preface that with Acts 17:30-31 (NIV) and you have yourself a pretty accurate and compelling presentation of the gospel:

30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”

For years, evangelism stressed the personal vision aspect of the gospel (“God has a wonderful plan for your life”). Now, narrative and testimony are big. But labeling rebellion as rebellion and issuing a call to lay down arms–“(A)bandon your case against God, repent, and humble yourself in genuine faith”–reveals a far deeper understanding of the authority issue that’s involved anytime a gospel is proclaimed.

Even new North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, son of Kim Jong Il, understands that. As the “gospel” of Kim Jong Un’s ascension is proclaimed, North Korea’s agents are spreading the word to North Korean defectors: Return home. All will be forgiven. Kim Jong Un Has a wonderful plan for your life.

“They went back to the North via China after being lured by the North’s promise not to punish them for deserting their country as well as new homes in Pyongyang and new jobs,” she said. “The number of North Korean defectors who returned to the North this year is estimated to top 100.”

Sum it up and say: any gospel proclamation that announces a new reign but does not invite a new repentance doesn’t understand life in North Korea or in the Kingdom of God.

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Persecuted Christians Struggle With Unforgiveness, Too

Posted on August 20, 2012 by Pastor Foley

As I travel around the world speaking about the North Korean underground church, one of the things I observe is that Christians in the West invariably love to hear stories about how persecuted Christians produce jaw-dropping, heart-warming forgiveness with the same frequency and ease with which McDonald’s produces french fries.

The one small problem with this is that it’s not true.

In my own experience, persecuted Christians struggle with unforgiveness at least as much as Christians in the West do. They may even struggle with unforgiveness more than we do, given the suffering their families, villages, and churches regularly experience. Persecuted Christians are sometimes some of the least forgiving and most bitter saints I meet.

I can recall a Voice of the Martyrs/US Conference years ago to which Mrs. Foley and I had brought a North Korean brother to speak. An American man and his five year old son came up to meet the North Korean after his presentation, and the American greeted our brother by saying, “This is my son, Little Timmy. He prays every night that God will open Kim Jong Il’s heart to accept the gospel.” Our North Korean brother turned to us and said, “Really? I just pray every night that God kills him.”

When we assume that forgiveness somehow flows spontaneously in a persecuted setting, we overlook the reality that forgiveness is described in Scripture as a spiritual discipline, not a miracle. It is learned, in other words, not latent. We learn how to extend forgiveness to those who commit big sins against us by first extending forgiveness to those who commit little sins against us. And when we fail to see the connection between extending little forgivenesses and extending big forgivenesses, we hyperspiritualize persecuted Christians, letting ourselves off the hook from growing in the grace of forgiveness and ignoring the reality that it doesn’t matter where you are a Christian; God is going to seek to grow you daily in the Work of Mercy of forgiving and reconciling.

At Seoul USA’s Underground University we train North Korean defectors to serve as missionaries wherever North Koreans are found. One of the ten curriculum tracks we teach is forgiveness. It may be the hardest track of all for the students, even more arduous and demanding than survival training and the constant Scripture memorization.

After teaching UU for four years, I can assure you that genuine, authentic, lasting forgiveness of the North Korean regime does not arise spontaneously in the hearts of North Korean Christians. It must be practiced–not because it’s a human effort but because it’s an act of surrender to the work of the Holy Spirit. Truth is, we don’t like where the consequences of forgiveness lead us, i.e., to the hard (and yes, Holy Spirit-powered) life of reconciled relationships.

In order to ensure that we grow in our practice of forgiveness each day, Jesus inserts into the Lord’s Prayer a daily petition that God’s forgiveness toward us be shaped by our forgiveness toward others. “Forgive me today in the same way I am forgiving others today, Lord.” That is humbling and stretching no matter in what nation God calls you to be his disciple. It is not an ounce easier in Nigeria than in North Dakota.

Yes, beautiful, breathtaking forgiveness does happen among persecuted Christians. But it happens among those who have daily kept their hearts tender before the Lord through far less breathtaking, far more mundane acts of forgiveness preceding the hurt. The most moving stories of forgiveness in places like North Korea and Pakistan and Eritrea are not ones where a persecuted Christian spontaneously extends forgiveness to those who harmed his family. The most moving stories are the ones where a persecuted Christian prepared for the major forgiveness he would need to offer by working daily through the mundane morass of underground church conflicts, fights with his wife, and spats at work with co-workers.

The miracle, in other words, is not the spontaneous extension of forgiveness but the hard-won battle quietly waged daily by the Holy Spirit to keep each of us from slipping into the sludge of bitterness, not at the hands of our worst enemies but rather our regular and closest companions.

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A Really Important Post on the Least Discussed Topic Related to Forgiveness

Posted on August 17, 2012 by Pastor Foley

My unofficial and unscientific review of Google and Amazon.com reveals the following frequency and prevalence of book topics related to forgiveness:

1. How to forgive others
2. How to forgive yourself
.
.
.
.
.
562. How to genuinely seek forgiveness from those you have wronged.

Sure, there are a decent number of websites and even a few books that cover, however briefly, the subject of how to make a good apology. But there’s really so little good,  Scripturally grounded material available on what to do when you’re the one who has truly messed up a relationship, and forgiveness and reconciliation are going to need to be an ongoing process when measured in either dog(house) years or human years.

That’s why I was so delighted to happen across Wisdomforlife’s Seven signs of true repentance. Consider these seven indicators that what you are offering is truly bone-deep repentance and not merely regret (we can deceive ourselves into mistaking the two, you know):

The offender:

1. Accepts full responsibility for his/her actions (instead of saying, ”Since you think I’ve done something wrong…” or “If have done anything to offend you…”).
2. Accepts accountability from others.
3. Does not continue in the behavior or anything associated with it.
4. Does not have a defensive attitude about being in the wrong.
5. Does not have a light attitude toward his or her hurtful behavior.
6. Does not resent doubts about his/her sincerity- nor the need to demonstrate sincerity. (Especially in cases involving repeated offenses)
7. Makes restitution wherever necessary.

My own editorial note, culled from no small amount of personal experience: If you try to effect any of these seven points on your own strength, you will fail. Miserably. But take heart: God never misses a good repentance. He’ll be present, if you are.

And lest you find yourself resenting the person who asks to see these changes in you as an outward manifestation of the inward change you’re professing, consider these wise words from Wisdomforlife:

Of course, only God can read hearts — we must evaluate actions. Jesus said, “By their fruit you will recognize them” (Matthew 7:16a).

I can recall leading a seminar for Peacemaker Ministries one time where a wife, during my presentation, asked me a question about sincerity and forgiveness and her husband, seated next to her, threw his hands in the air and bellowed, “OKAY, I’M SORRY!!!!!!” It was immediately apparent to all three hundred of us in the auditorium what might have prompted the woman to ask the question. Volume does not connote sincerity. Emotional intensity does not connote sincerity. Like Jesus says, keep your eye on the fruit. Fruit don’t lie.

And notice: The fruit of the Spirit can only be produced by the ___________ (go ahead–you fill in the blank). Repentance is either Spirit-led or it’s of the flesh. To the person you’ve wronged, the difference is readily discernible.

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