Do Our Church Testimonies Empower Satan?

I think personal testimonies, as part of Christian worship, are a good thing to do. And I think we need more of them. I wonder, though, if sometimes our testimonies might unintentionally empower Satan rather than combat him.

By a “testimony,” of course, I mean a believer’s sharing of the story of how he or she came to faith in Christ. Almost all evangelical churches have something along these lines. If not a verbal testimony from behind the pulpit, these stories still tend to show up. Sometimes they’re in a video shown during the offering or in an illustration in the pastor’s preaching. Sometimes they’re in our evangelical magazines or websites. And, of course, we perhaps most often find our testimonies in what we sing together (from “Amazing Grace” right on down).

The problem is, though, that we often choose to highlight those testimonies that we deem to be “dramatic.” We feature the testimony of the ex-alcoholic who says “Since I met Jesus, I never drink” or the ex-gambling addict who notes that he never missed the poker table. Conversions like this happen sometimes and we ought to give praise to God when they do.

But these kinds of liberation are no more miraculous than the far more typical testimony of the repentant drunk who says, “Every time I hear a clink of ice in a glass I tremble with desire, but God is faithful in keeping me sober.”

Now, I know why we shy away from such seemingly tentative testimonies. After all, the whole point is to give hope to those who are struggling. We don’t want the drunk out there to see his future as, potentially, a lifelong grappling with the temptation to drink. Isn’t it far more freeing for him to hear the testimony of the one who says, with the old gospel song, “It was there by faith I received my sight, and now I am happy all the day”?

The Christ life never promises freedom from temptation. The Christ life promises freedom from slavery to sin, and from the condemnation that comes with it. This is presented in the gospel as a skirmish, from now until resurrection from the dead. If the Scriptures are this honest, we should be too.

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