Patrick of Ireland and Redemptive History

One of the divine mysteries of the Kingdom of God is how the Lord can take negative things and in His unique redemptive way turn them around and use them for good.  

 The cross is the ultimate example of how the enemy sought to destroy the Son of God, and yet from this horrible trial of the crucifixion, we see Kingdom Victory emerge as God brings redemption to those who believe on Christ through it.

 

The story of Joseph in the Book of Genesis is another example. He ultimately ends up in prison sometime after being sold off by his brothers who betrayed him. However, he is prepared in that trying situation to be a redemptive leader who actually ends up rescuing his brothers—the emerging nation of Israel—when he is brought up into a place of leadership in Egypt after the Lord lifts him out of his humbling situation.

 

Trials and tribulations are never enjoyable and shouldn’t be made light of; however, there can be redemption for them in God’s Kingdom, and this can breathe hope when we are having to endure difficult times.

 

Patrick of Ireland

 

Known popularly as St. Patrick, the historic missionary to Ireland also had to endure a unique and difficult situation. However, it ended up being used redemptively and became a time of important missionary training for him.

 

Patrick was taken prisoner to Ireland after being captured during a raid in Roman Britain by barbarians when he was in his later teens. 

 

While a slave—unfortunately, this fallen world’s long hard history is riddled with such oppression and Patrick points out that thousands of Britons were captured and enslaved—he was forced and immersed into learning about the culture, language and society of Ireland.

 

After some time in that land, forlorn and alone and being forced to take care of pigs, he called out to God and experienced a conversion to Christ. Though he had been raised in a Celtic Christian home, he did not come into his own saving relationship with Christ until this.

 

Sometime after his conversion, he was given a vision of how to escape, and was shown a ship sitting just off shore further down the coast. He hiked his way to it and was granted  passage if he’d take care of the dogs on board. He returned to Roman Britain and was welcomed as one who’d come back from the dead.

 

Sometime later on, he had another vision which would lead him back to the Emerald Isle as a missionary. Through this vision, the Lord called him to return as a minister of the Gospel. He heard the voice of the Irish calling him: “Come back oh holy youth and walk amongst us once more…” After some time of preparation he did return, this time as a missionary.

 

He had been prepared and trained through his earlier captivity, much like the account of Joseph we read in the Old Testament. His previous immersion amongst Ireland’s people, language, and culture, even though it was a severe trial, had actually prepared him to reach into that unique culture and effectively communicate the Gospel to that people group. 

 

The Lord took the evil imposed on him and turned it around and brought redemption out of it and used it for good. 

 

Patrick became a powerfully used historic evangelist to Ireland, leading many to Christ through signs and wonders, and starting many little churches. This, however, does not mean it was all easy going: he faced many trials, difficulties and persecutions, but the Gospel and the power of the Holy Spirit prevailed and his difficult earlier trials were redeemed! However, he never forgot his fallen sinful roots and the merciful redemption he received, and wrote in his confession during his latter years: “I am Patrick, a sinner, most unlearned, the least of all the faithful, and utterly despised by many…”. His words seem to echo Paul’s, as he himself wrote in his later epistles: “I am the worst of sinners…” (1 Tim 1:15)  Even though Paul was used powerfully by God, he never forgot that it is by sheer grace and mercy he was saved, and all the glory goes to the Lord!

 

 More Celtic Examples 

 

Patrick helped establish the Celtic Church in Ireland, which was instrumental in reaching out to other people groups, and it is important to note that Patrick was not Roman Catholic. 

"Patrick and Columcille [the missionary later inspired by him] were both Celtic believers and had no direct ties to the Roman Church"  says Ruth Tucker, who has a PhD in History, in her missionary history tome From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya. She shared on this subject at Fuller Theological Seminary when I was a student there and was an impressive speaker.

It was many centuries later when Roman Catholicism was imposed on the Emerald  Island. It was actually the Pope and the King of England—Ole Blighty always seeking to rule over its northern neighbors back then—who conspired together to impose Catholicism on Ireland as a way to hold sway over the land and its people. Ireland’s original Christian roots are thus not Roman Catholic but rather of the Celtic Christian faith.

 

Celtic Christians were distinct from Roman Catholicism and were at times actually at odds with them:  Celtic Missionaries didn't pay heed to the parish system in Catholicism and were seen by them as loose canons going wherever they pleased to evangelize. Celtic Christians, furthermore, believed in justification by faith through grace, regularly studied the Scriptures, and ministers were not forced to be celibate but were free to marry or not, depending on their own choice; they were missionary-minded and focused, and sought to evangelize and minister the Gospel. This is in contrast to Catholicism, which developed an unbiblical  system of penance and works for salvation, and would sometimes convert via the sword along with politically imposing their will on other people groups.

 

Celtic Christians and the

Conversion of the Scandinavians

 

Vikings later began to raid the shores of Ireland and the British Isles, and Celtic Christians, as well as monks and ministers, were often taken captive back to Scandinavia.

 

This oppressive situation was also turned around redemptively as the Celtic believers in turn began witnessing to, and evangelizing their captors, and converting the Scandinavians to Christianity even while being held captive by them, much in the same way that early believers in the Roman Empire, including slaves and other low people of society, often witnessed and won over their captors and more distinguished hearers, demonstrating the verse "...the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength" (1 Cor. 1:25).   Meaning, as Paul says, the Lord often uses the weak things of the world to paradoxically carry out his purposes.

 

Since the Scandinavians saw no political threat from these Celtic Christians, as they would from the Roman Catholic Church whose forced conversions often coincided with taking over lands, the Scandinavians were open to the Gospel message from the Celtic believers and many were converted this way, as historian Ruth Tucker notes as well.

 

Viking King Converted

 

A Viking king set about raiding the Celtic regions. He heard there was a fortune teller of some kind on one of the Scilly islands off the coast of the British Isles. He set out to find this fortune teller and find out about his future.

 

However, the so-called fortune teller was actually a prophetic Christian minister of Celtic stock who was off the coast of Cornwall. 

 

Olaf Tryggvason received a prophecy upon his visit which told him he would be wounded in battle, carried back to his ship on his shield by his soldiers, and then would call out to God and turn to Christ, and take the Gospel back to Norway.

 

After it all turned out just as it had been foretold to him, Tryggvason once again visited the prophet, who then baptized and sent him back to Norway to share the Gospel.

 

He was a Viking warrior who may not have ridded himself of all his warrior ways right off to our modern, more advanced liking, but it was a different more violent age with countries that fought savagely with one another back then—oh yeah, nothing’s changed and we are not more advanced, that stuff still goes on today, doesn’t it, even at this very moment—nevertheless, he helped stem idolatry and furthered the spread of Christianity back home.

 

Retrospective 

 

The Holy Spirit was the power furthering the Gospel’s spread through history regardless of the imperfections at times of the people and of difficult faith-testing situations. If God didn’t use imperfect people, he’d have no one to use. Sinners saved by grace is the redemptive thread weaving through the historic narrative of Christ’s redemption throughout time. Though saved, the yet-abiding human weaknesses are overshadowed by the redemption and power that flows from on high to those that open their hearts to Jesus. 

Indeed, he IS ABLE to redeem difficult and trying situations and this can give us hope when we endure trials.

 

The Apostle Paul, who endured plenty of trials himself, says in Romans 15:13: 

“I pray that God, who gives hope, will bless you with complete joy and peace because of your faith, and the power of the Holy Spirit fill you with hope.”

 

———

More of our Resources on the Celtic Christian Legacy:

 

• The Real St Patrick: Get the real story versus the fables that have only obscured his legacy. 

• Celtic Cry: A video we made with an original song and music I wrote. The video includes scenes and surf through Ireland. 

• Columcille - Missionary to Iona: Story of the Irish missionary who was inspired by Patrick and went to reach the Picts in Scotland. 

• Celtic Christian Legacy and Treasures: Some valuable history of early Celtic Christians as well as important Christian artifacts from that era in Ireland. 

• The Conversion of the Vikings: The story of how these once-feared Norsemen came to belief and faith in Christ. 

 

• A Visit to Lindisfarne: Also known as Holy Island, Lindisfarne is associated with early Celtic Christianity. It is considered one of the first places the Vikings raided and from which they took captives. These kidnapped Celtic Christians ended up helping reach the Vikings with the Gospel. 

• Driving Through The Irish Countryside: From being followed by a cloud to finding surf in Ireland’s most remote stretch of coast.

 

*The Legacy of the True Historical Patrick by Richard Bennet, who is a former Catholic priest. Commentary and notes on the theft of Patrick’s historic legacy by the Catholic Church.

 

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day to you!

Brief Update

We’ve been ministering in Canada, doing some meetings in Victoria and Vancouver, and have been blessed to be experiencing the Holy Spirit moving powerfully! It is always such a huge blessing to experience the Lord pour out His presence in such a way!!

Irish History

Well, a little Irish history here for St Patrick's day: The Irish city of Dublin was actually named by the Vikings who during their invasions called it Dubhlind meaning “black pool” due to that dark-looking water with all the peat moss runoff in it. The Romans had avoided going north to Ireland in their day and had labeled Ireland Hybernia, which means “land of endless winter.” Well, it does rain an awful lot, so they weren't that far off! Anyways, Ireland didn't have the defenses built by Roman infrastructure of the past like many other parts of Europe, and it made it more vulnerable to invasion.

The British Isles’ history is quite intertwined with the Vikings. The Vikings’ first invasions began in Lindisfarne, aka Holy Island, which was an outpost of Celtic monks in Northumberland, in AD 793, and thus began the Viking age. The Vikings soon after began to invade Ireland.

Some of the Celtic monks were being taken captive back to Scandinavia. As the Scriptures say: “The weakness of God is greater than man’s strength.” (1 Cor 1: 25) Like their great spiritual ancestor Patrick, however, they relied on God in their position of weakness and eventually spiritually overcame their captors by leading many of the Vikings to Christ in a land few missionaries dared to go. As captives amongst the dreaded Norsemen, they overcame in their weakness by relying on the power of the Holy Spirit.

We have a few videos on these topics, including:

The Real St. Patrick Page on our website

The Celtic Christian Legacy and Treasures

The Real St Patrick

The Conversion of the Vikings

A Visit to Lindisfarne Island

Check them out and Happy St Patrick's Day to you!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! - The Christian Celtic Legacy

There is no doubt that the spiritual legacy of Celtic Christian pioneers like Patrick and Columcille inspired missions in their successors. And it was indeed those Celtic Christians who would have a hand in converting one of the most brutal people Europe has ever known, in a way they would never expect.

Some of the most unlikely converts to Christianity were those people who were collectively known as the Scourge of Europe and even of Christendom itself. Threatening the whole of European civilized society with their brutal raids, ransacking, and wholesale destruction of the towns and villages they plundered, the Vikings were eventually undone by some of the very people whom they settled amongst and enslaved in their crushing conquests.

The Viking Age officially began in 793/4 AD when Lindisfarne, a small island off the coast of Northumberland, England, that served as one of the main centers of Celtic Christianity that was birthed through missionaries coming from Iona, Scotland, was suddenly attacked. Marauding Norsemen hit the small island near the Scottish border with an early form of shock and awe, devastating its inhabitants with overwhelming force as they came ashore in their strange-looking boats.

Ransacking and looting the small island, which was inhabited by Celtic Christians involved in study and prayer, they carried off many of its treasures and took captives as slaves back to Scandinavia. As the Vikings continued their attacks in England, Scotland, and Ireland, and began to establish settlements throughout those lands, a strange thing happened: “Under contacts with the peoples they were attacking, the inherited religion of the Vikings was disintegrating and they were adopting both the faith and much of the culture of those they conquered.” (Latourette, A History of Christianity)

Here we can see the amazing paradox of the verse: “…The weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength,” (1 Cor. 1:25) played out through real-life events. God used those in a position of military weakness, Celtic Christians, to reach those Vikings who were, militarily and politically speaking, much stronger than themselves. The One crucified in weakness on a cross would, through the power of the Gospel, be the beginning of the undoing of the Viking’s violent culture. Missionaries, who themselves would go willingly to Scandinavia later, would help complete the process God had begun in such a paradoxical fashion. Much like the Roman Empire itself which was conquered by the Christians whom the Romans spent so long persecuting.

Lindisfarne

We had the privilege of visiting the beautiful little Island of Lindisfarne on our last trip—all via divine appointment, more on that in a future post—it was not a place we were originally planning to go. However, God hooked us up with some awesome families in the North of England and our friend Al insisted on taking us up for a visit that we were more than glad to do!

Walking along the shores of Lindisfarne we reflected upon what a significant place of history we were standing on. Lindisfarne became over time one of the main centers of Celtic Christianity in its day. It was also where the infamy of the first Viking raid marked the official beginning of the Viking Age. It was an incredible moment to walk on a place so rich in history, and reflect on that great cloud of witnesses who went before us—such triumph and suffering—seen so radically in one spot.

Celtic Christianity had spread throughout Ireland, Scotland, and the British Isles, and Lindisfarne had become a center for missionary training and Bible Scholarship. Missionaries had come directly from Iona, Scotland to establish a center there. Pioneers of the faith like Patrick and Columcille had inspired succeeding waves of missionaries and mission activity that had carried the purer form of the faith (*see footnote below) well into lands on the lower part of the continent of Europe as well.

Many of the far northern areas in Europe had been left unreached though, with the exceptions of some attempts by people like Anskar, who went to Scandinavia as a missionary. But because his mission work was never followed up on, Scandinavia, by and large, remained firmly in the pagan grip. And yet the weakness of God is greater than man’s strength…

When invading Vikings took captives from places like Lindisfarne in their raids and began to settle in Celtic lands, they unwittingly took captives home to be used as slaves, not realizing they were actually taking home those who’d be missionaries to them. Isn’t it divine irony that those they settled around and those they took home as slaves and captives would eventually end up evangelizing them.

It was, however, an incredible form of suffering to be endured for those who were invaded as well as captured: first witnessing the brutal destruction suddenly unleashed by these invading hordes come on shore in strange foreign ships along with the slaughter of friends and loved ones, then for some to be captured and taken from their lands and to be put into servitude like this. The utter devastation visited upon the land, which seemed shocking and unthinkable, was in the end redeemed by God and used as a means to bring forth the Gospel into the forsaken and frozen territories of the extreme north. The extreme north had bred extreme men in the Vikings, which required extreme means to bring forth God’s redemption.

The Extreme North

It is interesting to notice that the areas in the northern British Isles and Ireland lied outside what had been the boundaries of the former Roman Empire, consequently lacking some of the usual defenses the Romans would have built in earlier days. Lindisfarne, in fact, lies just an hour north of the huge defensive wall and other defenses built by emperor Hadrian during the Roman era in Britain.

Ireland, given the name of Hibernia (“land of endless winter”) by the Romans, had in fact been ignored altogether by the Romans who didn’t want to bother with the constant rain and cold there (those old Roman tunics didn’t repel rain like your North Face jacket—no Goretex back then.)

The Vikings, however, came from an even harsher climate and were an adept seafaring people who had the fastest boats in Europe. They swept in with speed and ferocity to these unprotected Celtic lands, plundering and looting as they went and making settlements and taking captives with them. They continued to expand their barbary further and further out throughout these lands.

Dublin itself, Ireland’s capital city, is in fact a Viking name given by its conquerors which means Blackpool, further indicating what an incredible imprint the Norsemen left upon the Celtic landscape.

The conquered Celts however, ended up causing the very demise of the Vikings’ savage violence, and the Celts left a deeper and longer-lasting imprint with the power of the Gospel than the Vikings ever did in all their ruthlessness and savagery. The weakness of God is greater than man’s strength. (It is worth noting that the Scandinavian lands once known for producing “The Scourge of Europe” later became, comparatively speaking, one of the more peaceful regions in all of Europe, thanks largely to the strong and lasting Christian permeation effected there).

Signs and Wonders

God also brought forth conversions to the Vikings through signs and wonders in some amazing ways to aid in bringing the Gospel back to Scandinavia.

A Viking leader named Olaf Trygvassen was on a raiding venture when he heard of a fortune-teller in the Isles of Scilly, which lie off the coast of Cornwall in Britain. Deciding to pay a visit, he ran upon what instead turned out to be a Christian prophet.

Olaf received a prophecy that he would be wounded in a mutinous battle and carried back to his boat on his shield by sailors faithful to him. He would lay seven days wounded, and then would recover, turn to Christ, and take the Gospel back to Norway.

After Olaf was wounded and survived just as the prophecy had foretold, he then visited the prophet again in amazement, who then led him to Christ, baptized him, and sent him back to Norway to proclaim the Gospel.

Olaf began to proclaim Christ, leading many to salvation throughout Norway, where he eventually became the first Christian King. Latourette says: “He converted many by persuasion, but sometimes by force when he saw neccessary.” He was, after all, a Viking trying to rule in an equally violent Viking land and this was a violent age; furthermore, believers not always acting exactly as they should after conversion is just part of the whole saga through and through in Christian history from beginning to end and what the Scriptures speak of as the remaining battle of the “old man.”

Another Christian King would also have a dramatic effect upon Norway’s process of conversion. Olaf Harraldson (lots of Olaf’s to keep straight here) was another Viking out “going a-viking,” meaning out pillaging and plundering more innocent victims throughout Europe, when he had a strange dream “of a great and important man saying ‘return home, you shall become king of Norway.’ ” Olaf had a conversion and did become King of Norway and proclaimed the Christan faith throughout the realm and built churches. Though he stood firm and strong against enemies, he preferred peace and law, and was used to spread the faith even more, as well as to further the process of dismantling the pagan stronghold in Scandinavia.

“The weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.” God worked through the conquered Celts as well as using signs and wonders to begin the process of converting some of the most ruthless and unlikely people Europe had known—the very scourge of Christendom—in bringing them to Christ.

*Footnote - Celtic Christianity was much more similar to later Protestant Christianity that held to justification by faith through grace and upholding scriptural authority while Catholicism at that time was descending into a spiritual and political morass.