C.S. Lewis: is pain really God’s megaphone to us?

Let’s attempt two risky things in one article: first, we’re going to delve into the detail of the book of Revelation and, second, we’re going to disagree with C.S. Lewis.

Lewis famously said: ‘God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.’ There is some truth in that, of course. Suffering screams at us and it might be a big part of how you came to faith.

The world’s response to suffering

And yet, the book of Revelation tells a slightly different story. God’s plans for His world are contained in the scroll presented to the Lamb in chapter 5. Revelation 6 describes the opening of its seals, which offers a foretaste of what it contains in a sequence of judgments on the world and which climaxes with the seventh seal in 8:1-5.

That same story seems to be retold in Revelation 8-9 where judgment comes to the earth in the blowing of seven trumpets (fans of Joshua will expect a city to fall, and it will later in John’s vision). In graphic imagery those chapters describe suffering on the earth, but what we must notice is the response in 9:20-21:

‘The rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshipping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood – idols that cannot see or hear or walk. Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality, or their thefts.’

So, with all due respect to C.S. Lewis, suffering does not rouse a deaf world here. It has produced no repentance and they have not turned from their idols.

But hope is not lost. The seventh trumpet hasn’t yet been blown, and before it is (in 11:15-19) we will meet God’s megaphone: the church.

The church’s ministry in the world

Admittedly, the church isn’t easy to spot in Revelation 10-11, but it is there. First, we see John being commissioned as a prophet in 10:9-11 (fans of Ezekiel will spot echoes of Ezek. 3) and then we see that he is not alone.

There are two lampstands (fans of Revelation will remember that lampstands represent churches in 1:20). Those lampstands are also described as two witnesses who testify before a hostile world (11:1-6), suffer and are killed as their Lord was (11:7-10) and are raised up as He was (11:11-12).

Taken together, these are pictures of the church’s ministry, for all believers are called to witness, testifying before the world (see e.g. Rev. 6:9, 12:11, 17, 17:6, 20:4). We follow the Lamb wherever He goes (14:4) and that includes holding out God’s word to a hostile world, even as it takes us into death and through to resurrection.

The world is roused

But how can we say the church is God’s megaphone to rouse a deaf world if they suffer and die? The answer is that through their faithful witness and suffering they will see people turn to God. Notice the response to their ministry in 11:13: ‘The survivors were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.’ That’s very different to the refusal to repent at the end of chapter 9.

The numbers should encourage us here too. The seven seals bring judgment on a quarter of the world (6:8), the trumpets on a third (8:7-12) – it’s getting worse – but after the testimony of the witnesses only a tenth of the city collapses. (Fans of Elijah might also remember that in his day only 7,000 out of the whole nation are faithful to God – 1 Kings 19:18; here the proportions are reversed – it is only 7,000 who are lost in 11:13; the rest give glory to God).

So nestled here in some of the hardest chapters in Revelation is an enormous encouragement. The church’s ministry won’t be glamorous, it will often look like defeat and death, it will call for tremendous, Spirit-enabled perseverance, but it is God’s means to rouse a deaf world.