Sir Charles Kingsley, in his book “The Roman and the Teuton”, reveals how Christendom triumphed over paganism in the dark forests of Germany. It took place after the fall of pagan Rome, in the rise of papal Rome.
The practice was for the Church to send a priest into a forest alone, where the pagans quickly killed him. They then sent in others who suffered the same fate. Priests who were sent in knew martyrdom awaited them. One priest, however, said to the chieftain: “You may kill me, but God will punish you.” He too was killed.
But there came a time when the wife or child of that chieftain fell ill and died, and the words of the dead priest played on his mind. He thought: Did my beloved die because I killed those priests? So, just in case, he allowed the next priest who entered the forest to live among his people and to practice his faith without interference. A sort of insurance, very likely.
Over time, the priest introduced medical knowledge and health practices, which lowered the death rate. This mixture of religious, fatalistic faith, and built-in superstition, over time caused chieftains to turn from idolatry to the priest’s God so that eventually, people in the forests were baptized as Christians.
Did they become Christians in name only? God alone knows. My point is that many German forests were Christianized by a mixture of faith, fatalism, and superstition. We’ll find out which, only when Jesus returns and judges everyone.
Until then, I bear in mind how ignorant those priests would have been about salvation through faith alone. I’m not sure as to the validity of such things, but they call to mind the attitude of the jailed apostle Paul, who wrote of the questionable motives of preachers who competed with him. Seeing the big picture, Paul writes, “Notwithstanding [their attitude] … Christ is preached.” (Philippians 1:18).
Some of those barbaric forest people may have come to know Jesus as their Saviour and received God’s forgiveness — and if so, some was better than none. And if those priests lacked scriptural knowledge, they certainly didn’t lack courage.