WHAT HAPPENED?

The Church history records three very sad incidents on this day, the 1st of July, in three different times, which help us see that something terribly had gone wrong with the Church in Europe. There is clear evidence of people courageously following the LORD Jesus, right from the times of the apostles, despite persecution and death. Such courageous faith of simple and ordinary people led Christianity to become the largest “religion” in Europe.

On 01 July 1523, first Lutheran martyrs of the Reformation are burned alive in Brussels. Johann Esch (Johann van den Esschen) and Heinrich Voes (Hendrick Voss), young Augustinians at Antwerp, followers of Luther, had been forced to choose between recantation or death. They chose death over denial.

The second incident is on 01 July 1555, where Gentle John Bradford is burned to death as a heretic during the reign of Mary Tudor, of UK. As he is led to his death, crowds line up the way, weeping and praying for him. In the Tower of London, he had ministered to criminals.

The third incident is on 01 July 1765, where a nineteen-year-old Chevalier de la Barre is decapitated and burned at Abbeville, France, for mutilating a figure of Christ that stood on the bridge of that town, an offence regarded as blasphemy. On the scaffold, awaiting his death, de la Barre remarks calmly, “I did not believe they could have taken the life of a young man for so small a matter.”

Now to the present situation, which has a definite connection to the changing winds of 1765 in France, and other such places in Europe. “According to the 2019 Eurobarometer survey about Religiosity in the European Union, Christianity is the largest religion in the European Union accounting 64% of the EU population, down from 72% in 2012.”

This is not the full picture. The results of a survey by Pew Research, done in 2017, in 15 countries in Europe, are a terrible and truer reflection of the reality of a land, that chose to die, instead of denying the LORD Jesus Christ. They survey says, 91% are baptised; 81% are raised Christian; 71% identify themselves as a Christian; and only 22% attend Church services monthly or more. The strangest thing is that, according to the survey, among those who identify themselves as Christians, many don’t believe in the God of the Bible.

There is a question, a warning, and a prayer request for all of us today.
QUESTION – How did a land who loved the LORD so much, become so anti-Christian?
WARNING – If this has happened in Europe, it can happen everywhere.
A PRAYER REQUEST – If we don’t earnestly seek God for our brothers and sisters in Europe, and also for ourselves, we would be doing great disservice to the LORD, and His kingdom.
May the LORD help us.