Wiregrass Church
The Church is remarkable. And against all odds, it changed the world. There is still a great deal that needs changing. By God’s grace and with your help, perhaps we can be a small part of bringing about that change.
The Church is remarkable.
City of Rome -- AD 82
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| --- Titus
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Vespasian - -
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| --- Domitian
What is the state of...
The Roman Empire of the 21st Century
"Your Excellency, to understand the future of Rome, I must first rehearse a bit of
recent history."
"The Roman gods are no gods at all."
"How can this be?"
During the reign of Emperor Tiberius Caesar, in the land of Judea, a man came out of the wilderness named John, and he proclaimed that the Jewish god was about to do something in the world for the world.
Jesus of Nazareth
Senator Tacitus
(Tacitus) can confirm under Pontius Pilate, Jesus suffered the most severe kind of punishment. He can also confirm the fact that what should have been an end was actually a beginning.
The kingdom of God has come!
The cross will no longer represent the ruthlessness or the power of Rome. But in the 21st century, it will represent the power and the love of God
A Jewish rabbi, dead for 50 years, worshipped by the empire that executed him?
Caesar Augustus
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As a footnote in the story of the birth of the Jewish king - Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth will be the most influential and revered man who ever lived.
Rome is not eternal. But there is a god who reigns eternal.
It was His temple that your brother destroyed.
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It was His Son your governor crucified.
it was His sovereign purpose that your empire advanced.
"Brilliant, brilliant! You had me believing you right up to the end of your tale."
"I must know what the future holds for our glorious empire, and for this, our Eternal City."
What happened - not what was believed, - what happened was absolutely inconceivable.
Matthew 16:18 NIV
"Christianity achieved the well-nigh impossible. The Christian doctrine elevated the
individual soul, placing slave and master...
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Jordan B. Peterson - 12 Rules For Life
and commoner and nobleman alike on the same metaphysical footing, rendering
them equal before God and the law.
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Jordan B. Peterson - 12 Rules For Life
...the implicit transcendent worth of each and every
soul established itself against impossible odds...
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Jordan B. Peterson - 12 Rules For Life
It is in fact nothing short of a miracle that the hierarchical, slave-based societies of our ancestors reorganized themselves,
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Jordan B. Peterson - 12 Rules For Life
under the sway of an ethical/religious revelation such that the ownership and absolute domination of another person came to be viewed as wrong.
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Jordan B. Peterson - 12 Rules For Life
We forget that the opposite was self-evident throughout most of human history.
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Jordan B. Peterson - 12 Rules For Life
What made perfect sense was that might made right. The one with the gold makes the rules.
The society produced by Christianity was far less barbaric than the pagan - even the Roman - ones it replaced.
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Jordan B. Peterson - 12 Rules For Life
It objected to infanticide, to prostitution, to the principle that might means right. It insisted that women were as valuable as men.
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Jordan B. Peterson - 12 Rules For Life
It demanded that even a society's enemies be regarded as human.
All of this was asking the impossible: but it happened."
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Jordan B. Peterson - 12 Rules For Life
INCONCEIVABLE
Thriving church
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Great nation
Even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.
Matthew 5:13 NIV
Matthew 5:14 NIV
Matthew 5:16 NIV
You is we. You is us.
We will take from it what we can get from it...
or will we engage with it.
Against all odds, the church changed the world once.
1 Corinthians 15:58 NIV
So for all of you, engage and stay engaged. We have been given the opportunity of a lifetime.
