LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 2016, Page 119

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

(like the Rev. Gudina Tumsa) repeatedly imprisoned
or put to cruel deaths. Especially, it was a time when
many young people were atrociously tortured and
forced to face various trials, including being compelled to deny Christ. As I myself had been a partaker of these trials and sufferings, I testify to this as a
living witness.

God’s power. As the ancient saying goes, “The blood
of martyrs is the seed of the Gospel.” In a similar way,
through the seed sown during this horrible experience,
the church experienced a blooming growth and expansion. Statistical reports show the church demonstrated
tremendous numeric growth—some 1.1 million new
members—during those 17 years of persecution.

Nevertheless, all these horrible actions couldn’t and
didn’t stop the church from boldly declaring the
lordship of Christ. Although heavily challenged, the
survival of the church was certain because of Jesus’
promise. The persecution couldn’t move the church
an inch from her firm confession and witnessing
to the lordship of Jesus in public. The church was
counted worthy to suffer and to sacrifice for Jesus. All
these challenges and confrontations from the forces
of evil couldn’t prevail against this church, as Jesus
had promised. The words of Jesus, “the gates of hell
cannot prevail against it,” were demonstrated and
proved in the experiences the Church in Ethiopia
underwent. The severe persecution and test of faith
endured by the EECMY in those horrible days, while
shocking and rocking her foundation, did not move
her an inch from her firm confession.

Second, the experience of persecution contributed
greatly to the qualitative growth of the church—to the
spiritual formation of the church on both the individual
and community levels—enhancing the purity of faith.
Persecution detaches believers from the natural world
and attaches them to the supernatural world; it detaches them from the things of this world and attaches
them to the heavenly. It relegates the victims to the
experience of losing the things of this world in order
to gain Christ. Such a journey of faith draws believers
to the life of the cross, with its absolute dependency on
God. Paul beautifully described his support of this view
when sharing his own personal journey of faith to the
Philippians. Here he states that he sacrificed everything
for Christ in order to gain Him:

On the other hand, the experience of this atrocious
suffering made a great contribution toward the qualitative and quantitative growth of the church. In fact, the
persecution described above contributed to the growth
of the church in many aspects. First, it had a tremendous effect on the numerical growth of the church.
The experience of persecution invigorated Christian
witness. The testimony of heroes of faith during their
trials was a moving and powerful witnessing for Christ.
The words of the Rev. Tumsa, who was the General
Secretary of the EECMY, are worth mentioning: “We as
Christians cannot simply tolerate a bad situation and
keep quiet. It is our duty to act, to speak and even risk
our life. The power of the resurrection is experienced
only through death.” Such bold and powerful witness
has impacted many people and has drawn many, even
some of the persecuting cadres, to Christ.

9

10

11

But all those things that I might count as profit
I now reckon as loss for Christ’s sake. Not only
those things; I reckon everything as complete loss
for the sake of what is so much more valuable,
the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. For his
sake I have thrown everything away; I consider
it all as mere garbage, so that I may gain
Christ and be completely united with him.
(Phil. 3:7–9)
Third, persecution of faith contributes greatly to the
transformation of life. It purifies faith. In this regard,
it is important to consider the words of Peter to those
who were facing persecution. He states:
In this you rejoice, though now for a little
while, if necessary, you have been grieved by
various trials, so that the tested genuineness of

8

There were instances where the cadres sent to congregational services for spying and closing churches
ended up joining the church, having been touched by

Ibid., 266. “A different approach was used to close the Entotto Mekane Yesus
Church. During 1986 . . . A man from the Security office called the pastor, Qes
Belina Sarka, on the telephone and asked him to bring the keys of the church. Belina
answered that he had to come himself and close the church if he had an order to do
so. The security agent called three times, but Belina did not act. Finally, the man
came himself with the intention to get the keys of the church. Since the church was
packed with people, the agent had to wait for the end of the gathering. At the end of
the service, however, he decided to join the congregation.”

9

Gudina Tumsa, “Witness and Discipleship, Report on Church Growth in Ethiopia”
(Addis Ababa: Gudina Tumsa Foundation, 2007), 138.

10

Johannes Launhardt, Evangelicals in Addis Ababa (1919–1991): With Special
Reference to the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus and the Addis Ababa
Synod (Münster: Lit Verlag, 2004), 248.

8

“Rejoice—The Church Is Built on the Rock”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship, trans. by R. H. Fuller (New York:
MacMillon, 1949), 73.

11

U P O N T H I S R O C K • Essay

|

119