"Our picture of the underground church owes more to imagination than reality. As a result we can’t imagine preparing to join it. When we hear the phrase “underground church” we imagine a ragtag band in hiding, moving about furtively in darkness to evade detection by a mighty power capable of destroying it. We envision people sneaking out of their homes to attend worship services in the forest, or whispering hymns and reading the Bible by candlelight under blankets in their homes.
These images are not total fabrications. But neither is the underground church defined by its ragtaggedness, its furtiveness, or its proximity to destruction. The underground church does not owe its existence to persecution at all. Persecution only reveals the underground church; it cannot create it.
The underground church is the indissoluble structure of Christ’s work that is revealed when the public church can no longer sustain itself, either due to devastating attack or collapse from within. It is revealed under such circumstances, but it is created when Christians jointly submit to the Lord’s summons, “Except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abideth by itself alone; but if it die, it beareth much fruit.”"
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What is the Underground Church? (Introduction to Preparing for the Underground Church, Part V)
(Part V of VII of Pastor Foley’s introductory essay to Rev. Richard Wurmbrand’s Preparing for the Underground Church. To order a print or elect...