The American Soul
The American Soul
What Would Your Future Self Choose Today?
What evidence would convict you of being a follower of Christ? This question echoes throughout today's episode as we examine how our daily actions align with our professed faith.
The journey begins with a simple yet challenging inquiry: have you made time for God today? For your spouse? For what truly matters? Just as relationships require intentional investment, our spiritual lives demand consistent attention. We explore how Scripture provides unchanging direction in a world where societal values shift like sand beneath our feet. Rather than allowing external influences to dictate our relationships, we must choose to nurture what matters most.
Matthew 18 offers profound wisdom on forgiveness and community. While Christ calls us to forgive "seventy times seven," this doesn't mean subjecting ourselves to continued harm. True forgiveness frees our hearts without necessarily placing us back in harmful situations—a nuanced understanding that balances mercy with wisdom.
The historical portions of our discussion reveal America's spiritual foundations through the lives of Medal of Honor recipients and early settlers. John Winthrop's famous "city upon a hill" sermon reminds us that America was established with spiritual purpose—not just as a place of opportunity, but as a covenant community dedicated to justice, mercy, and humility before God. These early Americans, facing hardships we can barely imagine, still emphasized meekness, gentleness, and mutual care.
Stories from the early Christian martyrs provide sobering context for our faith journey. These believers faced torture and death rather than compromise their convictions, challenging us to consider what sacrifices we're willing to make for what we claim to believe.
As we close, the question remains: if accused of being a Christian, would your life provide enough evidence for conviction? Your answer might reveal more about your spiritual condition than a thousand prayers or church attendances. Join us as we explore what authentic faith looks like in both personal relationships and national identity.
The American Soul Podcast
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Hey folks, this is Jesse Cope, back with another episode of the American Soul Podcast. Hope y'all are doing well, wherever y'all are and whatever part of the day you're in. I sure do appreciate y'all joining me, giving me a little bit of your time and a little piece of your day. I will try and use it wisely. Hopefully it'll give us all some extra tools for our toolbox, as we used to say in the Marine Corps, and hopefully it will help us all to draw a little bit closer to God and Jesus Christ, both as individuals and as a nation, with others. Tell others about it. Thank you so much. Very, very grateful for that. For those of y'all who continue to pray for me and for the podcast, thank you. I definitely need those prayers and I'm very grateful for them. For those of y'all who have been around for a while I'm so glad that you've decided to come back over and over again. And for those of y'all who are new, hope you enjoy it, hope you get something out of it and I'm very glad that you're here. Father, thank you for today. Thank you for you, father, and your Son, Jesus Christ and your Holy Spirit. Thank you for your love and your mercy, your grace and your forgiveness of sins. Thank you for your guidance. Thank you for your patience. When we turn away from you over and over again, when we sin against you over and over again, give us wisdom to see what you want us to do. Give us the courage to act on it.
Speaker 1:Be with those who are listening today, wherever they are across the nation, whatever state, county, province, city they're in. Wherever they are around the world, father, whatever nation they're in around the world, be with them. Be with their families. Bless the marriages of those who are married. Help us to represent, father, that relationship between your Son Jesus Christ and the church. Bless those who have children. Help them to raise those children to know you and your son, jesus christ. Help us to worry about serving you, father, and not about serving men. Help us to fear you, father, and not men. Be with our leaders, president, vice president, admirals generals, senators, representatives, mayors, governors. Give them wisdom, judges at all levels, courage. Be with the leaders of those people around the world that are listening in their nation, father, please Be with our military and our law enforcement, our firefighters, our EMS, those people that come out in the dark of night and the rain and the snow and the cold. Protect us, protect them, keep their families safe. Father, please Help us to strive each day to follow the commands of your son, jesus Christ, most of all, to love him by following them with actions and not just words. To love you with our whole heart, mind, soul and strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. And please guide my words here, father. In the name of your son, jesus Christ, we ask and pray Amen.
Speaker 1:Have you made time for God today? Have you made time to read his word? Have you made time to pray, to talk to him, to develop that relationship, folks? And if you're married, have you made time for your spouse? Have you made time to develop that relationship, folks? You can't have this great relationship with God and with Jesus Christ if you're not willing to put the time in. You can't have this great relationship with your spouse if you're not willing to put the time in.
Speaker 1:I saw a couple of posts on X from some people that I've followed for a long time, and they were great for different reasons. One of them was talking about different needs between husband and wife in a marriage and they were saying how society has basically gone along with one set of needs and made them okay. And it was a woman talking about a wife's needs, but they've made the other side not okay to talk about. And it doesn't really matter, folks. The point which side is being met and which side is not. According to society, the point is that if you look to society to see how you're supposed to act as a husband and wife, it's going to get messed up. It just is. It might take a little while, it might take a long time, but it's going to get messed up. It just is. It might take a little while, it might take a long time, but it's going to get messed up. It's why it's so important to read scripture each day. It's why it's so important to look to that as to how we ought to act. Whether you're married or not, student, junior, high, high school, college, 30 years old, 80 years old read the Bible every day. That's where we get our unchanging direction right.
Speaker 1:The other one was talking about the fact that in a marriage, if you don't have desire, then the marriage is going to struggle, and that's true. But, folks, we make a lot of our own desire, right? You? You talk about, like coffee, black coffee, right? That's an acquired taste for most people. There's not very many of us that get up in the morning and say you know what? I just really am going to going to drink this wine, alcohol in a different sense. There's a lot of things that we choose to acquire a taste for. Choose to acquire a taste for your spouse. Don't let the world dictate or direct your feelings, your desires. Choose for that person to be the person that you are attracted to, that you desire Right, and at the end of the day, probably, folks just do what you're supposed to do and the feelings will follow along with that, at least in my experience. All right, matthew, matthew, matthew. All right, matthew, matthew, matthew. All right.
Speaker 1:Matthew 18, I think I hope Rank in the kingdom. At that time, the disciples came to Jesus and said who then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And he called a child to himself and set him before them and said Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me. But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it would have been better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea, stumbling Blocks. Woe to the world because of its stumbling blocks, for it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come, but woe to that man through whom the stumbling block comes. If your hand or your foot cause you to stumble, cut it off and throw it from you. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than to have two hands or two feet and to be cast into the eternal fire. If your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and throw it from you. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and to be cast into the fiery hell. See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven continually see the face of my Father, who is in heaven, for the Son of man has come to save that which was lost, 99 plus 1. What do you think If any man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go and search for that one that is straying? If it turns out that he finds it, truly I say to you he rejoices over it more than over ninety-nine which have not gone astray. So it is not the will of your Father, who is in heaven, that one of these little ones perish.
Speaker 1:Discipline and prayer. If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private. If he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses, every fact may be confirmed. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven. Again, I say to you that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by my Father, who is in heaven, for where two or three have gathered together in my name, I am there in their midst.
Speaker 1:Forgiveness. Then Peter came and said to him Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me? And I forgive him? Up to seven times, jesus said to him. I do not say to you up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven. For this reason, the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. When he had begun to settle them, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. But since he did not have the means to repay, his lord commanded him to be sold, along with his wife and children and all that he had in repayment to be made. So the slave fell to the ground and prostrated himself before him, saying have patience with me and I will repay you everything. And the lord of that slave felt compassion and released him and forgave him the debt. But that slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii and seized him and began to choke him, saying Pay back what you owe. So his fellow slave fell to the ground and began to plead with him, saying Pay back what you owe. So his fellow slave fell to the ground and began to plead with him, saying have patience with me and I will repay you. But he was unwilling and went and threw him in prison until he should pay back what was owed. So when his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were deeply grieved and came and reported to their lord all that had happened. Then, summoning him, his lord said to him there's a ton here.
Speaker 1:We could spend quite a bit of time as per normal. A couple things. One forgiveness. Jesus Christ died on a cross for us. Think of all the sins that you've committed. You don't have to focus on them in depth today listening to this podcast, but think about just a few of them and you ought to realize and I'm talking to myself here, at least as much, if not more, than to y'all I ought to realize how much he forgave me, how great a debt of sin I have on my back, a burden that I just simply can't carry, and he forgave me all that. So when I look at people in this life who have wronged me, look at people in this life who have wronged me and my master, my savior, my Lord, god and Jesus Christ forgave me. It's kind of hard to find an excuse, to find a reason not to forgive them. A little caveat here. My pastor says this often. I've heard it from multiple pastors over the years that I have a lot of respect for, and I just want to make sure we're on the same page, folks.
Speaker 1:Forgiveness from your heart doesn't mean that you have to go back and ask for more pain. If there's somebody in your life who is wronging you and continuing to do that over and over again, you need to remove yourself from that situation. We still have a responsibility to forgive that person, but we don't have any responsibility to continue to set ourselves up for that person to hurt us. Huge distinction there it's. It's like the difference between eternal salvation, eternal forgiveness, and earthly consequences. Right, it's kind of along the same lines. We can have eternal forgiveness through Jesus Christ, but that doesn't mean that if we rob a bank we're not going to go to jail. That doesn't mean if we commit adultery we're not going to end up divorced and alone, Right, okay, other things that just kind of a couple, things that just kind of stumbled Verse 20, where two or three have gathered together in my name.
Speaker 1:I am there in their midst, right. And then talking about verse 17,. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church, and if he refuses to listen to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector, for whatever reason. This morning, reading through Matthew 18 here, both of those struck me as a perfect example of the fact that there is no denomination on this planet that has the ability to claim that they're the only way to salvation. That's just. They're not telling you the truth, folks. If there was going to be a particular denomination listed here, it would be listed here, but it's not. There's no Catholic or Orthodox or Protestant denomination listed here. It's the church universal Catholic, small c, right.
Speaker 1:And again the other verse talking about where two or three are gathered. You don't have to be in a church to talk to God, folks. You don't have to be in a church in order to gather with other believers. And so this idea that you have to belong to a church, that you have to go in to talk to a priest or a pastor in order for God to hear you, it's not scriptural. God doesn't say where two or three, including a priest, or two or three, including a pastor, are gathered, then I'm there with you. He just says two or three and, as my pastor has said for the last few years, and I'm sure others have said, wherever you are and the Holy Spirit's there with you, because you choose God, you choose Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, then there's two you and the Holy Spirit. So just, any time, folks, there's nothing special in the sense like you don't have to be in the right building or the right spot, just talk to God and the Holy Spirit is there and he'll help you out.
Speaker 1:I wrote this down I won't take a long time here A few days ago, maybe a couple of weeks ago, and I just never went back and talked about it. But Proverbs 5, chapter 5, is a really important chapter. I think, folks, I would recommend that you go and read it every so often. Really, if you're doing the Proverbs, you know once a day you'll read it once a month, but if you get the chance, read through it again. I can tell you from personal experience, folks, that when you choose to disregard instruction and you'll see that part of it in the Proverbs or choose to disregard the instruction of those who are trying to lead you down the path God has for you, or when you choose to ignore God's word on your own which those things are basically one and the same right, because if they're leading you down God's path, they're leading you to Scripture when you ignore those things, you invite destruction and chaos into your life. And I'm telling you firsthand, folks, firsthand experience you're inviting chaos and pain and destruction into your life, into your life.
Speaker 1:Try to think about what you, 10 or 15 years from now, would want you to decide now. What would yourself right, you in the future, 10 years, 15 years from now, when you start to make a decision today, think about what that person then, what decision they would want you to make now, right, especially when you're talking about the big things. Right, what would they want you to do? What would they want you to be watching, listening to, who would they want you to be hanging out with? What are the things that are going to make that person 10 or 15 years from now? Are the things that are going to make that person, 10 or 15 years from now, the best version of yourself?
Speaker 1:And if you've already passed some of those points and you've made some poor decisions some really poor decisions, as I have in my life, try at least to be a warning to others who are younger and have more life in front of them. You don't even have to tell them your exact story, folks. Just sit down and talk to them when you can and try and explain how much you wish that you could go back and make better decisions that were in line with what God wanted. And that doesn't mean your life would have been perfect, folks. Life's not perfect. My grandmother used to say life's not fair, it's just life right. It's not going to be perfect until we get to heaven. That's one of the reasons. You know, the socialist, communist, leftist trap about utopia is just a bunch of Bravo Sierra. There's nothing's going to be perfect until we get to heaven with God and Jesus Christ. But we bring so much it to heaven with God and Jesus Christ. But we bring so much unnecessary heartache into our lives by ignoring God and his commands and those who would lead us along those paths to God and Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. We bring so much pain and so much heartache unnecessarily into our lives that we don't have to have there. Proverbs chapter five. Read through it. Highly recommend it. I think it'll make sense with what we just talked about. All right.
Speaker 1:Medal of honors William Anderson, interim period 1871 to 1899. Rank coxwayne. Command, uss. Action. Date June 28, 1878. Place USS Poitin at sea Citation. On board the USS Poitin 28 June 1878, acting courageously, anderson rescued from drowning WH Moffat, first class boy. Moffat, first class boy Accredited to New York, not awarded posthumously. Born 1852 in Sweden. Died March 11, 1908, brooklyn, new York, united States. Buried Holy Cross Cemetery, brooklyn, new York, united States.
Speaker 1:William Anderson, john Andrews, also known as James Andrews, korean Campaign 1871. Rank Ordinary Seaman. Uss Venetia, us Navy. 9 June 1871, korean Forts, korea. On board the USS Benicia in action against Korean Forts on 9 and 10 June 1871, stationed at the lead in passing the forts, andrews stood on the gun wall on the Benicia's launch lashed to the ridge rope. He remained unflinchingly in this dangerous position and gave his soundings with coolness and accuracy under a heavy fire. Accredited to Maryland, not awarded posthumously. Born 1846, philadelphia, philadelphia County, pennsylvania. Died unknown. Location of Metal Naval Historical Center Washington Navy Yard, washington DC. John Andrews Korean campaign isn't that interesting. We'd be back in Korea a little less than 100 years later.
Speaker 1:John Angling, also known as John Anglin, cabin boy, highest rank cabin boy, first class. Us Civil War. Uss Pontusik, us Navy. December 24, 1864 through January 22, 1865, medal of Honor Action Place Fort Fisher and Wilmington, north Carolina, usa. Served on board the USS Pontusik during the capture of Fort Fisher and Wilmington, 24 December 1864 to 22 January 1865. 24 December 1864 to 22 January 1865, carrying out his duties faithfully during this period, cb Angling was recommended for.
Speaker 1:Born October 6, 1850, portland, cumberland County, maine, united States. Died September 6, 1905. Buried Cavalry Cemetery MHH, tech 13, portland. John Angling so 1864 to 1865, if I'm doing my math right, this young boy was 14 to 15 years old. I can tell you right now I was not acting in as responsible a manner, sacrificing for my country, as this young gentleman. Just some names to remember again, folks John Angling, john Andrews, william Anderson.
Speaker 1:So we're going to do a little bit of history today. I guess that's kind of what we do every day, but we're going to do a little bit of history outside of the Fox's Book of the Martyrs and Miss Warren's book on the American Revolution. And we're going to talk a little bit about John Winthrop. John Winthrop was the founder and the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He was elected consecutively 12 times. He was elected consecutively 12 times Successful lawyer back in England and Oliver Cromwell actually asked him to stay, but he declined, wanting to leave for the freedom to worship Jesus Christ not under the thumb of the state-sponsored church.
Speaker 1:In 1630, he gave a sermon aboard the Arabella before disembarking in New England, and this is just a quote out of it. This is out of America's God and Country Encyclopedia of Quotations by William J Federer. For the persons. We are, a company professing ourselves fellow members of Christ. For the work we have in hand, it is by a mutual consent, through a special overruling providence and a more than an ordinary approbation of the churches of Christ, to seek out a place of cohabitation and concertship under a due form of government, both civil and ecclesiastical. He worked on a pamphlet book, something called A Model of Christian Charity, something called A Model of Christian Charity. There's a little bit of it, quoted also in the American Patriots Bible edited by Dr Richard Lee. This is a longer excerpt from that, again out of America's God and Country Encyclopedia of Quotes.
Speaker 1:This love among Christians is a real thing, not imaginary, as absolutely necessary to the well-being of the body of Christ, as the sinews and other ligaments of the natural body are to the well-being of that body. We are a company professing ourselves fellow members of Christ, and thus we ought to account ourselves, knit together by this bond of love. Thus stands the cause between God and us. We are entered into covenant with him. For this work we have taken out a commission. The Lord hath given us leave to draw out, to draw our own articles. Us leave to draw out to draw our own articles. If the Lord shall please to hear us and bring us in peace to the place we desire, then hath he ratified this covenant and sealed our commission and will expect a strict performance of the articles. The Lord will surely break out in wrath against us Now.
Speaker 1:The only way to avoid this shipwreck and to provide for our posterity is to follow the counsel of Micah, to do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God. For this end we must be knit together in this work as one man. We must hold a familiar commerce together in each other, in all meekness, gentleness, patience and liberality. We must delight in each other, make one another's condition our own, rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together, always having before our eyes our commission and community in this work as members of the same body. So shall we keep the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. We shall find that the God of Israel is among us when ten of us shall be able to resist a thousand of our enemies, when he shall make us a praise and glory that men of succeeding plantations shall say the Lord, make it like that of New England, for we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us, so that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken and so cause him to withdraw his present help from us, we shall be made a story and a byword through the world. Jeez, there's a ton there, folks. You see the comment city upon a hill referenced by Reagan and many others over the succeeding centuries and you have to wonder.
Speaker 1:Well, the first thing is how many of us who claim to be Christian get up each day with the intent to follow the commands there in Micah, to act justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly before God. Right, do you pray that? If you're listening to this podcast right now and you claim to be a follower of Christ, do you strive to do that? Do we even read Scripture enough to know those references? Read Scripture enough to know those references when you read this? As Christians, do we read Scripture enough? Are we familiar with these references when he's talking about them? And if you are great good, we used to be as a nation. How many people in the nation do you think it's not just good enough to look at ourselves, folks, right? So I recognize Micah. You recognize Micah Great. What percentage of the American population recognizes Micah and that verse and those instructions?
Speaker 1:This is the point where relativism, which we've talked about so often on the podcast, really rears its head. Folks, we look at ourselves and we go. Well, I know it, I'm doing my part and that's where we stop. That's where we stop. Or, if we do go further, a lot of times it's like well, let me help these heathens over here. You know I don't really want to, but I'm going to because I'm a good guy, I'm a good girl, I'm going to help them. I'm going to help them. We have so much that we need to do for the rest of our nation, for our community, for our churches, for our schools, for our children. How many of us?
Speaker 1:You talk about these people, folks, they went off into the middle of the wilderness. These were tough people, tough people and this was a hard life and this was still a time when it was really hard just to be alive, pain suffering. They didn't have the modern conveniences. They didn't have clean water. They could just turn on a faucet. They didn't have electricity that they could just flip a switch or a car that would drive them down the road, and yet you see Winthrop here talking about we must hold a familiar commerce together in each other, in all meekness, gentleness, patience and liberality. You have these people that are arguably so much tougher than we were and yet they're sitting here talking about the need to be meek, gentle, patient, so much braver, honestly, than a huge chunk of us, so much more willing to sacrifice for others. That's another thing, that's probably the most important part of all this, when somebody tells you that the people that came over and settled in this land were just all out for greed and rape and pillage and plunder. Read history. You know that's not true. You know that's absolutely not true. Was everybody great? No, were there some bad apples? Absolutely Bad apples. Absolutely. Was coming over here to be able to worship Jesus Christ and to spread the gospel a driving, primary driving factor for a number of them? Absolutely.
Speaker 1:How many of us look around our community, our church and strive to delight in each other, to make one another's condition our own, to rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together? Do we celebrate, do we truly celebrate, when our neighbors have success, our friends and our family, or are we jealous and bitter resentful? Do we truly mourn together when someone else suffers, when they lose a parent or a child, a spouse? Are we there when they're sick, when they need comfort? Do we work together? We worked together.
Speaker 1:I tell you what my wife and I had to rebuild an old family farmhouse years ago and we had I can't even tell you, and we did the majority of the work. But I can't even tell you how many people, particularly from our church, but Christians, not even from our church that showed up and worked for hours and hours and hours on different projects helping us build this house. They didn't ask for any money. It was hot, it was sweaty, we didn't have any AC at the time. It's Texas, it's nasty weather and they showed up. I can remember one of my all-time closest friends, brothers, being here working with me in the winter when we had no electricity at that point at least, no heat right. And it was in the winter and it was freezing. And we're sitting there pulling nails out of flooring, old flooring, so that we can reuse it. He was there, he was laboring beside me. He didn't get anything out of that.
Speaker 1:I'm certainly not pretty enough to induce the company of anyone. Do we act like that with people in our community? And then perhaps the thing that makes me the most nervous here and we'll move on for today, if so that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken and so caused him to withdraw his present help from us, we shall be made a story and a byword through the world. It's hard, hard for me not to see folks, and I'm sure for many of y'all not to see that we have dealt falsely with God, god that gave us all these blessings in this nation, and we have rejected him. We have pretended in the vanity of our own hearts that we did all this. We have pretended in the vanity of our own hearts that we did all this. We have supported evil of just almost every kind, and to think that we're just going to keep on going down the road to normal, it just doesn't make any sense, it's not logical.
Speaker 1:And so what I would encourage you, what I encourage myself here to do, is it's not enough for us to be doing what weah to do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly. It's not enough. We have to encourage that in those around us. You go back to that quote by Patrick Henry and he tells us you know, wherever you are, reader, practice virtue in your own life and then, and those in your sphere of influence, encourage them to do the same. We need to, as much as possible, encourage people to follow the commands of Jesus Christ in America, because that's the only way our nation is going to be a shining city upon a hill. That's the only hope we have is God and Jesus Christ hill. That's the only hope we have is God and Jesus Christ. And going back to my time in the Marine Corps, how do you lead best? By example, by example. We could talk a lot more about that, folks.
Speaker 1:The only other little caveat I'll give you here is just another analogy and maybe something that you need to hear in some relationship in your life. We need to start to use logic a lot more. And the analogy for us rejecting God is if you look at a marriage and you see one spouse that continually ignores or treats with a lukewarm attitude or rejects their spouse or doesn't seem to really care, doesn't put any effort in right and I'm not talking about words, but actual actions, at some point everybody knows from the outside looking in that that marriage is headed for a train wreck, maybe even the spouse that's really trying to save it on the inside even knows. The only one that doesn't seem to know is the spouse that's doing the wrong, that doesn't seem to care one whit whether the marriage survives or not. Right, and that's a lot like us in America today. The only people that really don't seem to understand that we're headed to a train wreck are the people that don't really seem to care about us heading toward a train wreck. And we need to do everything we can to try and open the eyes up of those around us to where our nation started, to how tied we are to God and how desperately we have to have him at the center of everything in order for our country to continue to function well function well. So we might talk about Winthrop a little bit more on the next podcast. There was actually another quote from a different gentleman that I stumbled across, looking at that from Winthrop that I wanted to read through. But we're going to get back into Fox's Book of the Martyrs and this is still under the seventh persecution, under Decius AD 249, I believe, and we'll just pick up where we left off. You think about these people too, when we're reading this kind of the same line of reasoning about Winthrop and all those people who were so brave and so strong and suffered so much in the wilderness, you think about some of these martyrs that suffered showing such fortitude.
Speaker 1:After Gordian's death in the reign of Decius, that emperor came to Antioch where, having a desire to visit an assembly of Christians, babylus opposed him and absolutely refused to let him come in. The emperor dissembled his anger at that time but soon sending for the bishop, he sharply reproved him for his insolence. But soon sending for the bishop, he sharply reproved him for his insolence and then ordered him to sacrifice to the pagan deities as an expiation for his offense. This being refused, he was committed to prison, loaded with chains, treated with great severities and then beheaded together with three young men who had been his pupils, ad 251. Alexander, bishop of Jerusalem about this time, was cast into prison on account of his religion, where he died through the severity of his confinement. Julianus, an old man, lame with gout, and Cronion, another Christian, who were bound on the backs of camels, severely scourged and then thrown into a fire and consumed. Also, 40 virgins at Antioch, after being imprisoned and scourged, were burnt In the year of our Lord 251, the emperor Decius having erected a pagan temple at Ephesus, he commanded all who were in that city to sacrifice to the idols.
Speaker 1:This order was nobly refused by seven of his own soldiers Maximanus, martianus, joannes, malchus, dionysius, therion and Constantinus. The emperor, wishing to win these soldiers to renounce their faith by his entreaties and lenity, gave them a considerable respite till he returned from an expedition. During the emperor's absence, they escaped and hid themselves in a cavern, which, the emperor being informed of at his return, the mouth of the cave was closed up and they all perished with hunger. Theodora, a beautiful young lady of Antioch, on refusing to sacrifice to the Roman idols, was condemned to the stews that her virtue might be sacrificed to the brutality of lust. Didymus, a Christian, disguised himself in the habit of a Roman soldier, went to the house, informed Theodora who he was and advised her to make her escape in his clothes. This being effected, and a man found in the brothel instead of a beautiful lady, didymus was taken before the president to whom, confessing the truth and owing that he was a Christian, the sentence of death was immediately pronounced against him. Theodora, hearing that her deliverer was likely to suffer, came to the judge threw herself at his feet and begged that the sentence might fall on her as the guilty person. But, deaf to the cries of the innocent and insensible to the calls of justice, the inflexible judge condemned both when they were executed accordingly, being first beheaded and their bodies afterwards burnt. Secundinus, having been accused as a Christian, was conveyed to prison by some soldiers On the way. Berianus and Marcellinus said where are you carrying the innocent? This interrogatory occasioned them to be seized and all three, after having been tortured, were hanged and decapitated. This sentence here.
Speaker 1:Having been accused as a Christian. We talk about this on the podcast every once in a while, folks, but if somebody accused you of being a follower of Christ, if they accused me today, asking myself here would there be enough evidence to convict me? If somebody looked at my life and I couldn't say anything, they just looked at the actions of my day-to-day life, the way I interact with my wife, my children, friends, family, strangers, what I do in my time, what I give my time to, would there be enough evidence to convict someone, to convince them that I truly was, to convict me of being a Christian? What about you? Is there enough evidence in your life, on a day-to-day basis, that if somebody accused you of being a Christian, there would be enough evidence to convict you.
Speaker 1:Origen, the celebrated presbyter and catechist of Alexandria, at the age of 64, was seized, thrown into a loathsome prison laden with fetters, his feet placed in the socks and his legs extended to the utmost. For several successive days, he was threatened with fire and tormented by every lingering means the most infernal imaginations could suggest. During this cruel temporizing, the emperor Decius died and Gallus, who succeeded him, engaging in a war with the Goths, the Christians met with a respite. In this interim, origen obtained his enlargement and, retiring Tyre, he there remained till his death, which happened when he was in the 69th year of his age. Gallus the emperor having concluded his wars, a plague broke out in the empire, sacrifices to the pagan deities were ordered by the emperor and persecution spread from the interior to the extreme parts of the empire, and many martyrs fell to the impetuosity of the rabble as well as the prejudice of the magistrates. Among these were Cornelius, the Christian bishop of Rome, and Lucius, his successor, in 253.
Speaker 1:Most of the errors which crept into the church at this time arose from placing human reason in competition with revelation, but the fallacy of such arguments being proved by the most able diviners. The opinions they had created vanished away like the stars before the sun. They had created vanished away like the stars before the sun. Scripture is always going to trump human reason. Folks, maybe we don't understand it well enough. Maybe you need somebody that's a better speaker. You know, moses was so concerned about his inability to be an effectual speaker. That's why his brother Aaron had to go along.
Speaker 1:But scripture is always going to trump man-made doctrine, human reason, if we'll just trust it. Maybe we're not the one in that moment to explain it, maybe we don't understand it well enough ourselves, but somebody out there does. Folks, and that's just part of trust and obey. Right, the old hymn, church hymns just trust and obey. That's our job and I need to work on that because sometimes that's pretty hard when we can't see the reasons for pain or suffering or loss or what's going on in our life. God bless you, god bless your families, god bless your marriages If you're married. God bless America and God bless your nation, wherever you are around the world. Listen, folks here to appreciate y'all joining me. We'll talk to y'all again real soon, looking forward to it.