Coming Religious Persecution, and a
promotion for the film “Monumental”
Written by Scott Cooper
An often quoted verse from Romans – “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”
Ah – but let’s
read the context – then please continue below!
Romans 8:26 –
39:
“And in the
same way, the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as
we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for
words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is,
because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that God causes all things to
work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according
to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He
also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be
the first born among many brethren; and whom He predestined, these He also called;
and whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He
also glorified.
What then
shall we say to these things? If God is
for us, who is against us? He who did
not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also
with Him freely give us all things? Who
will bring a charge against God’s elect?
God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes rather who
was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who shall separate us from the love of
Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress,
or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written,
“For Thy
sake we are being put to death all day long.
We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
But in all
these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor
life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come,
nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able
to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
What started
my thoughts this morning was the thought, “Nothing shall be able to separate us
from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus.” So I did a search. This part of Romans was written to the church
that was being persecuted in ways unimaginable to us, yet Paul is writing these
words to encourage these believers to stand firm.
Persecution
is not new. It has been prevalent in
every civilization since the church was formed.
We have been blessed in America up until this point because we
understood that our republic was formed by people who had escaped Europe for religious
freedom. The Colonies in the new world
were started in a search for freedom.
People were driven to this continent because they were fleeing religious
persecution. Our forefathers were
faithful to educate the history of our founding up until about the 1960’s. It is true that each State, which had its own
religious denomination, bonded to together to fight for complete freedom from a tyrannical
government, that had oppressive taxes which was stifling their ability to
simply exist. However we must not forget
that most of our forefathers were driven to this continent primarily for religious
freedom.
Like our beginning being formed due to religious persecution,
the demise of our republic will end, as a result of a tyrannical government that
seeks to control everything, through taxes, fees, fines and the controlling of
our behavior – and this will ultimately lead back to a loss of religious
freedom, unless we stop this trend now and re-educate the American public about our past. Anyone who is paying attention
to the news and the rhetoric, who cannot see this – I believe is simply blinded
and incapable of seeing what is happening – but that does not change the fact
that religious persecution is coming to America at a rapid pace, and it is being
driven by a desire to fund an out of control government.
Many are
choosing to work diligently within the system to ensure Conservatives who understand
the philosophical principles of Plato, Thomas Moore, Thomas Hobbes and Karl
Marx which we are opposed to as well as the principles of John Locke, Charles
de Montesquieu and Alexis de Tocqueville to return our republic back to the
principles of limited government, the rule of law, individual rights, personal
responsibility and private property. It
was these principles of the second set of philosophers that led to the
prosperity in America that has been unprecedented in the history of man. Ultimately, failure to return us to these
principles will not only lead to the demise of The United States of America, it will lead to what tyrannical governments have done through the
centuries, religious persecution.
You can read
from others, as well as my previous blogs to find ideas of what needs to be
done in the civic arena. A great starter would be to attend
the one night viewing of “Monumental” on March 27, 2012.
It is my hope that you will not only attend this
movie, but that you will organize “your personal sphere of influence” to attend
this movie as well. Talk to your
friends, your co-workers, those who attend church with you, and those in any civic
organizations you belong to and organize large groups to attend this movie
nationwide on Tuesday March 27, 2012. It
will be in theaters one night only.
In order to
reclaim our future – we need to start by looking at our past!
Here is a
preview of the movie – Monumental:
To learn more about how Kirk Cameron and his team decided to produce this film, I encourage you to watch his interview with Glenn Beck.
