Paul, An Apostle of Christ movie take away

[Jo S]

Have any of you guys seen the movie, "Paul, an Apostle of Christ"? I saw it the other day and had a take away from it that I wanted to share with you all. I'd like to hear your thoughts as well.

I'm not going to comment on the cultural accuracy of the film but there was one historical aspect presented in the movie that particularly stood out to me.

If you didn't see the movie, basically it took place in Rome during the time Paul was imprisoned there shortly before his martyrdom.

This was also at a time Emperor Nero was brutally persecuting the Christian church.

There were scenes in the movie where it portrayed how Christians would all gather together in hiding to a specific place within the city in attempts to avoid being caught and executed by the Romans.

*Now as a side note, I'm somewhat familiar with the LC's teachings on locality but you guys would definitely know better than me however I understand it's basic premise.

Anyway, the climate in which these early churches met particularly stood out to me and I thought, "You know what? The LC is missing one major and particularly bitter ingredient in it's teachings on biblical locality......persecution"

I couldn't help but to notice how the elements of basic survival played a role in the gathering of the early churches. Safety in numbers....

The formation of the early churches just make more sense to me when you factor into the equation a necessity for presevation in a time where the very existence of the faith was challenged to the extreme. It may not be a pleasant variable but it was there nonetheless.

Compare this with the LC's move of the formation of local churches today. It seems based more on business strategy and the will of man rather than the elements that were present in early Christianity.

With that said, let me share with you an analogy;

I compare Christ's church to a precious stone. A diamond is beautiful but that beauty doesn't come easy. It takes tremendous amounts of heat and pressure over a long period of time to give a natural diamond the beauty and resilience it's known for.

On the other hand, take a synthetic diamond made in a laboratory. They are made in controlled enviroments to have the same chemical and physical characteristics that organic diamonds have but they only take a very short amount of time and fewer steps to achieve those same properties. However there's one thing that gives a fake diamond away; microscopic metallic inclusions left over from the manufacturing process.

I compare the LC and all other fleeting man-made movements to establish a "pure" Christianity on earth to synthetic diamonds. They are all formed over a short period of time and took only few processes to establish. To the naked eye, they look to be the real thing but upon closer examination you'll find the tell tale signs that show them to be false. In the end they won't retain any real value.

What makes a real diamond precious is not only it's rarity but the many organic processes and unique conditions that were present throughout it's formation.

Only the Lord can know how to form his church. Like many others here, I grow tired from seeing the condition of this world and cannot wait for the Lord's return, however, when we turn ourselves into a force with the intent to quicken his return historically nothing good has become of those movements.

"Here is a call for the patient endurance of the saints."

So to all those that pray for the body of believers to come together, as in biblical times, I say be aware of exactly what it is you are pray for. Nevertheless the Lord's will be done.