Willie Robertson

Yeah.

I mean, you know they thought they did.

A fierce persecution broke out against the church, and the church ran and scattered.

And not knowing that it was that persecution that actually led to the expansion of the church and the church finally going out into Samaria, Judea, and the ends of the earth, that happened when Stephen was martyred.

And so I think that that's the crazy thing about God's kingdom.

And I think that was what Jesus meant when he said the gates of hell aren't going to prevail.

Yeah, they might kill a prophet here or there.

They might stamp out a house church.

They may persecute a group of believers, a whole big... But you know what?

They cannot...

They cannot stop the kingdom.

And I got so much encouragement when the lecture moved into the story about Justin Martyr, or who later became known as Justin the Martyr, of how he came to Christ.

Because, Al, we've been to that Roman Colossum where they persecuted Christians, and we've done kind of a deep dive on that, and we're immersed in that experience.

And I cannot imagine how intimidating, as a believer in Jesus,

How intimidating it would be to be in that Roman Colosseum and to see a people group martyred in such a way.

To me, I hope that wouldn't crush my faith, right?

And then it was that very thing that Justin Martyr saw.

He saw these Christians going to death.

for what they believed to be true and just brutally murdered.

And he said, this has to be true.