In July of 2010 I had the privilege of driving Kirk Cameron and his film crew around Holland during the European leg of their filming schedule for Kirk's new movie project called Monumental. Amidst the many goals that Kirk had in making this movie, it was readily apparent that telling the truth about history and having that impact upon how we live our lives today, lay at the epicenter of this project. I am looking forward to the release of this movie, not only to see if designated drivers in foreign countries are included in the credits, but also because Kirk's journey parallels mine in many ways.
Ray Comfort once said that "the only thing we learn from history is that we don’t learn from history!" And when I grew up I had zero interest in history. I didn’t care one bit – and my father was a history teacher! But years after God saved me I really discovered and embraced the doctrine of God’s Sovereignty. And that is when I began to see that history is His story. God has been at work all through history working all things together for His glory and when we start to see God’s Sovereign hand at work history becomes exciting. And a failure to learn history becomes deadly.
The book of Judges is one of the saddest darkest books in the Bible. I can remember the first time I read Judges and it was very distressing for me because some of the stories are so evil it is shocking. I also read Judges the way I approach any story (actually I wasn’t a reader so I should say movie) and I always understood stories as something that has a good guy and a bad guy – and here I was reading Judges as a new Christian trying to figure out who exactly are the good guys in this book? But the key to understanding the book of Judges is that there aren’t really any good guys. The phrase that appears over and over again in Judges is the same as the verse that closes the whole book:
In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. (Judges 21:25)
But what does the book of Judges have to do with not learning history? Go back to chapter 2 verse 7 and we will see exactly where things went wrong:
And the people served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work that the LORD had done for Israel. And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died at the age of 110 years. And they buried him within the boundaries of his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of the mountain of Gaash. And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the LORD or the work that he had done for Israel. (Judges 2:7-10)
The people of Israel did not know what happened in their past. They knew nothing of God’s mighty works in saving Israel out of Egypt. They did not teach history, they did not learn His Story. We need to be a people and a church that knows our history, especially in response to the aggressive historical revisionism going on right now determined to secularize and sanitize a history rich with Divine Providence.
One of the most tragic modern examples of this is due to the concerted attempts of American secularists to bury all facets of the role Christianity played in the founding and prosperity of the USA, along with a gross perversion of the original meaning and intent of "separation of church and state". This is not an attempt to make some outlandish claim that everyone involved in America's heritage was a born again Christian. But neither should we deny that a lot of the pioneers and founders were Christians whose theological convictions played a major role in the establishment of the "New World".
So here's the trailer . . .
Find out details on when to see it, where to see it, and how to get your tickets by clicking here.
3 comments:
I like Kirk, but if he does not address in his film the rise of fiat debt based central banking and the elimination of Silver and Gold as Sound Money in both the USA and the rest of the world over the last 100 years then he is totally clueless both as a Christian and also an American Libiterian. The reason I say this is this one central fraud has been the root of all the evil and wars that have emanated out of western democracy for the last 100 years and is about to destroy everything our forefathers worked for. Furthermore, if he doesn't himself be obedient to scripture and use honest weights and measures as a store of monetary value he will be swept away himself in the coming hyperinflation with everyone else who is just as clueless on these matters. Mark my words I speak the truth.
Regds
Dav0
I know this is a bit off-topic, but do you know by which rationale does Kirk Cameron air a show on TBN?
I mean his program runs on the same channel as Copeland, Dollar, Hagee and others false teachers, not to forget Jakes.
Gandalf, you raise a question which I have personally raised with the Way of the Master guys in the past. The amazing thing is that their show airs on TBN because several episodes have been severely critical of prosperity theology. I don't have a problem with it because the Gospel gets out and it clearly tells the truth in contrast to the many false teachers on TBN. Kirk has also hosted TBN - again something which can be troubling. But if you look around on youtube you will see that Kirk's guests have included Paul Washer, John Macarthur, Tedd Tripp, Todd Friel, and Ray Comfort. I think that Kirks interview with Macarthur is a great moment in television history and can be watched on youtube. When Kirk hosts and when WOTM screens on TBN the Gospel is proclaimed and false teachers are never endorsed (the opposite in fact). I understand if someone disagrees with this approach but I also understand what they are doing and why they do it. Kirk does not appear on stage with false teachers and he does not compromise the truth - so I have no problem with it. I rejoice in fact.
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