It Is Written

The Revolution Against Tyranny

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: John Bradshaw

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Series Code: IIW

Program Code: IIW001249


00:06 It has stood the test of time.
00:11 God4s book, the Bible
00:16 still relevant in today4s complex world.
00:25 It Is Written, sharing hope around the globe.
00:36 Thanks for joining me today.
00:38 In May of 2012 I had a very interesting experience.
00:42 I was here, in Paris,
00:44 France, to conduct some Bible lectures
00:46 around the city and it was while I was here that the
00:49 French presidential elections were being held.
00:52 The President of France at the time was Nicolas Sarkozy and
00:55 he was being challenged for the presidency by François
00:58 Hollande.
00:59 A week or two before the elections,
01:02 Sarcozy was trailing Messier Hollande by about 13 points in
01:05 the opinion polls.
01:06 But just before the elections, that gap had narrowed to about
01:11 six percent.
01:13 It was clear this was going to be a close race.
01:16 Now, unlike some parts of the
01:18 world, progress reports on election
01:20 results are not given throughout Election Day here
01:23 in France.
01:25 That means you don4t get to find out how the election is
01:27 going until you find out how the election has gone.
01:31 But that doesn't supports of presidential candidates making
01:34 preparations for big victory celebrations.
01:38 The Election Day was a Sunday and that Sunday morning I was
01:41 here, in the Place de la Bastille
01:43 and I noticed that the supporters of Messier Hollande
01:45 were making plans for a big victory celebration.
01:49 That night, France had elected itself a
01:52 new president.
01:53 After five years in office, Mr. Sarcozy had been voted out
01:57 of the presidency and Messier Hollande would be moving into
02:00 the presidential palace.
02:08 The scenes of jubilation here at the Place de la Bastille
02:12 were incredible.
02:13 The music blared.
02:15 The people cheered and shouted and chanted.
02:18 They waived their flags in the air.
02:21 I came down to witness what was going on and found myself
02:24 jammed into a massive humanity right here about 50 yards
02:27 behind me.
02:28 There were tens of thousands of people jammed into this
02:31 place.
02:32 People were clambering all over the monument,
02:34 something you just don4t see everyday.
02:37 But, the fact that people were
02:39 celebrating an election result here,
02:42 at the Place de la Bastille, is itself extremely
02:46 significant.
02:47 About 230 years ago, the Bastille or the Bastille
02:53 prison was stormed.
02:55 Revolutionaries made their way into that prison located,
02:58 it was located right behind me,
03:01 and the revolution was not so much born,
03:04 but propelled into prominence.
03:06 Now, there could be no going back
03:09 for France.
03:10 The Revolution was full on.
03:21 The French Revolution: One of the most incredible
03:26 revolutions in the last several hundred years.
03:28 It was a time of tremendous turmoil,
03:37 a time of terrible bloodshed and cruelty and a time when
03:43 God was told in no uncertain terms that he was
03:48 not welcome in France.
03:51 Many people don4t realize what some of the most remarkable
03:54 things were that happened in association with The French
03:57 Revolution.
03:58 On yes, we have heard about the
04:00 guillotines, but what about the story
04:02 behind the story.
04:04 Today we are going to take a look at this landmark period
04:07 in human history.
04:09 We are going to see that it is very closely related
04:11 to the Bible and we are going to find out that people
04:14 ought to be very careful what they ask for.
04:17 You know that Bible verse that essentially says
04:21 you reap what you sow?
04:22 That principle was graphically demonstrated during
04:25 the French Revolution.
04:26 The French people reaped what they had sown.
04:31 What they had sown was a rejection of God
04:36 and what they reaped was chaos, bloodshed at a terrible time
04:41 of intense misery.
04:43 [Music]
05:00 Let's go back, way back.
05:02 During the middle Ages, the medieval church kept the
05:05 Bible from the people and the people believed what they were
05:07 told to believe by a church whose leaders did not do a
05:11 very good job of modeling Biblical Christianity.
05:14 Rather than making God directly accessible
05:17 to the people, the church made God accessible
05:20 to the people through the church.
05:22 That is, through the traditions and the
05:24 sacraments of the church.
05:26 The priests were said to be God's representatives
05:29 here on earth.
05:30 Forgiveness was to be obtained by going to God through the
05:32 priests of the church.
05:34 The people were not encouraged to read the Bible.
05:37 As a matter of fact, those who had the Bible or
05:40 found to have the Bible or many times even suspected of
05:44 having the Bible or parts of the Bible,
05:46 were often sentenced to death.
05:48 Now, regarding salvation
05:51 and forgiveness, the people were told
05:53 that they could even purchase forgiveness of their sins,
05:56 that salvation could come from forgiveness of sins that was
05:59 obtained for a price.
06:01 In spite of the fact that the Bible said,
06:04 Jesus said whoever is thirsty; he can come and drink
06:08 of the water of life freely.
06:10 Jesus said, come to me all ye that labor
06:13 and are heavy-laden and I will give you rest.
06:16 We are told that we have an advocate with the Father and
06:19 that that is Jesus Christ, the righteous.
06:21 And when Paul wrote to Timothy,
06:23 he told them that there is one Mediator between God and men,
06:26 the Man, Christ Jesus.
06:28 This manmade, tradition-based religion could
06:32 not satisfy the longings of the human heart.
06:36 But then, light was found.
06:38 People discovered that God had said salvation came freely by
06:43 grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
06:46 When that sort of light was found,
06:48 it could not be kept hidden.
06:49 It was shared.
06:50 It was shared with others.
06:51 And the Protestant Reformation was born.
07:00 There were many others, of course,
07:02 but through Hus in Bohemia and later Luther,
07:04 in Germany and then Calvin and Zwingli,
07:07 and Wesley in England and Knox in Scotland,
07:10 the Reformation took off and thousands and thousands
07:14 of people were introduced to salvation by grace through
07:17 faith in Jesus Christ and not through a church,
07:21 a priest or a pope.
07:25 But what about France?
07:27 The Reformation struggled to take hold in France and as
07:30 long as the Reformation struggled to get
07:33 off the ground, the people were stuck
07:35 in tradition.
07:36 They were kept from the freeing truths of the Bible.
07:39 They were kept in darkness and ignorance and superstition.
07:46 Now, God did raise up a people who
07:48 would take hold of the Word of God here in France.
07:51 There were the Albigenses and the Huguenots,
07:54 a Bible-believing people who loved the Word of God.
07:59 There were, at times,
08:01 some people who sided with the Protestants,
08:03 even some in high places.
08:04 But generally, the Huguenots were
08:06 relentlessly persecuted and as many as 200,000
08:08 of them were hounded right out of France.
08:11 But as bad as that was, that was nothing compared to
08:15 what would happen in 1572.
08:17 It was in 1572 that the St. Bartholomew's
08:21 Day Massacre took place.
08:23 At the behest of the ruling church,
08:26 several thousand Huguenot Protestants were murdered in
08:30 one night.
08:31 Within a month, 25,000
08:34 Protestants were murdered here in Paris,
08:37 and tens of thousands of others were killed in other
08:40 parts of France.
08:42 The signal to start the massacre was the tolling
08:46 of church bells here in Paris.
08:48 [Music]
08:53 The news of the massacre was received with joy
08:55 in the Vatican.
08:57 In fact, there are three frescos in the
08:59 Vatican that detail the massacre.
09:01 The event is forever commemorated there.
09:05 [Music÷
09:15 France simply would not let the light shine.
09:17 The people were kept in the dark.
09:20 The darkness was not only welcomed,
09:22 but preserved, even defended,
09:24 and good things do not tend to happen when people
09:28 are kept in the dark.
09:29 The very large underclass in French society was forced to
09:34 bare the financial burden for the nation.
09:37 The nobility was not taxed but the lower class people;
09:42 the poor people were heavily taxed and contemptibly treated.
09:46 If you are familiar with Victor Hugo's book Les
09:48 Miserables, you understand that the
09:50 central protagonist in that book was a gentleman named
09:52 Jean Valjean, who was sentenced to 7 years
09:55 in squalor's prison for simply stealing a loaf of bread.
09:59 Then, because of various
10:01 infractions, his seven-year prison sentence
10:03 grew into a 19-year prison sentence.
10:06 Now, I understand that Les
10:08 Miserables is not a documentary,
10:10 it's a work of fiction, but it does represent how
10:13 French society operated at that time.
10:17 The French people started to develop intense resentment and
10:21 bitterness.
10:22 As a matter of fact, deep hatred for the ruling
10:25 class.
10:26 There came a time when the king realized that the poorer
10:29 people needed to have representation in the affairs
10:32 of the state.
10:33 But when the underclass was given that representation,
10:37 they simply wanted more, and more,
10:40 and more power.
10:44 An absolute title wave of anger was let loose across
10:49 France and the French Revolution was born.
10:53 [Music]
11:20 This is an incredible piece of architecture and it
11:24 also represents an incredible amount of arrogance on the
11:27 part of its builder.
11:28 It's the Palace of Versailles.
11:31 It was built by the Sun King, Luis XIV who was the King of
11:36 France for around 60 years.
11:39 During that time, France about went bankrupt.
11:42 Louis had several wars he was fighting,
11:45 but he also spent piles of money on excesses like this.
11:50 You can imagine how that went over with the people.
11:53 They resented what the wealthy class was doing while they
11:56 suffered so badly.
11:57 It was actually Luis XIV who sowed the seeds of the
12:02 Revolution.
12:05 [Music]
12:17 Now consider the factors that went into this.
12:20 You had a group of people who were starved of the Word of
12:23 God and, therefore,
12:25 had no real conception of the true character of God.
12:28 And this same group of people had been pushed down,
12:31 manipulated by the State, persecuted,
12:34 really.
12:35 When this group of people rose up,
12:37 they really rose up and what was going to happen wasn't
12:42 going to be pretty.
12:45 In Matthew 4:4 the Word of God says "It is written 'Man shall
12:49 not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out
12:53 of the mouth of God'."
12:55 Every Word is a one minute Bible-based daily devotional
12:59 presented by Pastor John Bradshaw and designed
13:02 especially for busy people like you.
13:05 Look for Every Word on selected networks or watch it
13:10 on-line everyday on our website itiswritten.com.
13:13 Receive a daily spiritual boost.
13:16 Watch Every Word.
13:17 You'll be glad you did.
13:19 I live in a country where people are free to believe
13:22 whatever they want to believe about God.
13:24 And I like it that way.
13:25 I like not being forced to believe something about God
13:29 that I might not necessarily choose to believe on my own.
13:32 I have noticed in recent years,
13:35 atheists have started to speak with a louder voice.
13:38 To be honest, in some cases,
13:40 I sympathize with atheists because the God that many
13:44 atheists don't believe in is a God that I don't believe in.
13:48 The argument from some atheists goes like this:
13:52 Because some of the things that Christians believe are
13:55 just so silly, therefore,
13:57 I don't believe in God.
13:59 Or, because the way many
14:01 Christians act is just so silly or repugnant,
14:05 therefore, I don't want to have anything
14:07 to do with God.
14:09 But history shows us that atheism isn't a great path
14:13 for people to follow, either as individuals
14:17 or as nations.
14:19 Think about the implications of atheism.
14:21 number 1 If there is no God, if there is no God who
14:25 purposely created this earth, then you and I are just the
14:28 results of a cosmic accident and we don't have any real
14:31 divine purpose to our being here.
14:34 Point number two If there was no creation,
14:36 if there is no God, then surely there is no
14:40 after life and then this earth is all you have.
14:43 After your life on earth, it's all over.
14:47 Is that an attractive thought; and Point number three
14:50 What happens to morals?
14:51 If there is no God, there is no absolute source of
14:54 right and wrong.
14:55 There is no final arbiter in these things other than you
14:58 and me.
15:00 Really?
15:01 You and I get to choose what is right and wrong about
15:04 everything?
15:06 It's hard to imagine that that's a good way
15:08 to approach life.
15:09 You know, we have examples of what
15:12 society would be like if there was no God.
15:17 [music] European communism in the 20th
15:22 Century was largely a Godless form of communism,
15:26 which led to the tyranny of the state-controlled Soviet
15:28 Union and dictatorships like that of the Romanian monster,
15:32 Nicolae Ceausescu ,
15:33 who was killed by his own people.
15:37 [Music] And here in France we
15:42 have a chilling example of what happens when a country
15:45 turns its back on God.
15:47 France did that, officially.
15:50 It turned its back on God and declared itself to be an
15:54 atheist state.
15:56 Let's discuss that.
16:02 [Music] The French Revolution
16:04 came about because of a variety of factors.
16:06 The working class had been ground down by the ruling
16:09 class and they came to the place where they decided...
16:12 the working class...
16:13 that they just weren't going
16:15 to take it any longer.
16:16 And so they rose up.
16:17 They took revenge against the ruling class killing anyone
16:20 who dared to stand in their way.
16:23 A national assembly was formed and this was an assembly that
16:27 gave voice to the people, not simply listening to the
16:29 nobility and the ruling classes.
16:32 Now the poverty and the exploitation being experienced
16:36 by the working class in Paris, France at the time was
16:40 phenomenal.
16:41 When I talk about poverty and exploitation,
16:44 I mean really, it was hard to imagine.
16:46 The difficult circumstances that the poorer classes went
16:49 through were absolutely amazing.
16:52 So, the TheBastille
16:53 was stormed, as a symbol of the protest of
16:57 the people.
16:58 The state prison, the Bastille was stormed.
17:01 Now, there was only a few people in
17:03 there at the time as prisoners,
17:05 seven, as a matter of fact,
17:07 but they were liberated and the governor of the prison was
17:10 killed.
17:11 To demonstrate how serious they were,
17:13 the Bastille was destroyed.
17:15 Parts of it were taken around France and shown to the
17:18 citizens of France and this was a way for the
17:21 revolutionaries to say to the people of France: We are
17:24 serious about this.
17:26 The Revolution was in full swing.
17:29 The country was now being run by the people,
17:31 not the nobility.
17:33 And before long, a Bill of Rights was drafted.
17:42 [Music] And the Church, which had exercised such power
17:45 in France until this time, wasn't going to escape the
17:49 attention of the revolutionaries.
17:52 Its right to collect a tithe, a ten percent on income from
17:56 every citizen in France, was abolished.
18:03 In fact, it wasn't long and the church
18:05 itself would find itself in the cross hairs of the
18:08 revolutionaries.
18:09 The members of the clergy who remained loyal to the Pope
18:13 rather than to the national assembly,
18:15 and that was the majority, were considered to be traitors
18:18 and now many members of the clergy were themselves
18:22 persecuted.
18:24 Here is what you had.
18:25 An essentially godless group of people seizing power and
18:29 rebelling against not only the State that had persecuted
18:32 them, but against the Church that
18:34 had extorted and misused them.
18:36 And a group of people with that sort of power and with
18:40 that sort of bitterness, not guided by the Holy Spirit
18:43 or anything remotely resembling Christian
18:45 principles, were committed to revenge and
18:49 destruction, and this morphed into a
18:52 hellish period that became known as the Reign of Terror.
19:08 The Reign of Terror began in 1793 and it lasted for about
19:12 10 months.
19:13 During that time, 20,000 people were executed
19:15 by guillotine, thousands of them
19:19 here in Paris.
19:20 And tens of thousands of others were executed by other
19:22 means all over France.
19:25 Many of the executions happened right here,
19:27 in a place that is now known as the Place de la Concorde.
19:32 It is a fabulous place now.
19:33 [Music] In one direction is
19:41 the Louvre and the beautiful gardens that surround it.
19:44 And the other is the famous Champs-Elysées,
19:47 a magnificent boulevard that leads to the Arc de Triomphe.
19:51 The National Assembly Building is right there.
19:54 There is a stunning Obelisk that was given to France by
19:58 the Nation of Egypt in the 19th Century.
20:00 But before t here was an Obelisk here,
20:04 there was a guillotine and it was kept busy.
20:08 At that time, instead of being the Place de
20:15 la Concorde, or Concorde Square,
20:17 in other words, Getting along with each other
20:20 Square, it was called the Place de la
20:23 Revolution.
20:24 The executioners started wiping out the nobility.
20:28 King Louis XXI was executed here.
20:31 So was his wife, Marie Antoinette,
20:34 who incidentally probably didn't say,
20:37 "Let them eat cake", and seems to have been
20:39 executed simply because people didn't like her.
20:46 You know, the guillotines were actually
20:48 set up right here.
20:50 They were set up right here where this Obelisk now stands.
20:55 And when you think about it, what the revolutionaries were
20:57 really trying to do was execute God.
21:02 They were so fueled by their lack of Christianity,
21:05 so maddened by what they perceived to be the misdeeds
21:08 of the church, that they began this process
21:11 of banishing God from society.
21:13 What they did was initiate an intentional process of
21:17 de-Christianization, where God was pushed out of
21:20 society and not only was God pushed out of society,
21:23 but atheism was set up as a national religion.
21:27 Think about it.
21:28 In 1793, the world heard an educated,
21:32 civilized country declare in its national assembly
21:35 that there is no God and masses of people rejoiced.
21:41 [Music]
21:49 But it goes even further and gets even more
21:51 bizarre than that.
21:53 In a ceremony that now seems impossible to believe,
21:56 a woman was brought into France's National Assembly
22:00 building, placed right next to the
22:02 country's highest political leaders,
22:04 and declared to be the goddess of reason and the people were
22:09 told it was this woman that they would worship from now
22:13 on.
22:14 [music] Then,
22:20 unbelievably, she was taken here,
22:24 to Notre Dame Cathedral.
22:25 She was elevated before the people and was presented as an
22:29 object of worship, receiving the adoration of
22:33 everyone present.
22:37 The weekly day of rest was set aside and France installed
22:41 every 10th day as a festive day.
22:44 The institutions of the Bible were banned.
22:46 Baptism and communion were strictly prohibited.
22:50 A nation had declared that there was no God.
22:53 France had de-Christianized itself and installed a goddess
22:58 of reason.
22:59 A nation turned its back on God and essentially declared
23:03 itself atheist and look where that got it.
23:08 Having thrown off the restraining power of the Holy
23:10 Spirit, the leaders of this movement
23:13 left to their own devices, filled France with blood.
23:19 Godlessness never prospers an individual or a nation.
23:23 History shows us that.
23:25 Nobody can point to a place in the world where Godlessness
23:28 has turned out for the better and led to advancement or
23:31 prosperity.
23:32 And nobody will ever be able to do that,
23:34 because that sort of place has never existed and never will.
23:40 The Bible says, "The fool has said in his
23:42 heart there is no God."
23:44 Proverbs 14:34 says, "Righteousness exalts
23:48 a nation." Listen to this,
24:09 So what happens to a nation when God is left out of the
24:12 picture?
24:13 Well, it can't possibly go in a good
24:16 direction and history shows us that only too clearly.
24:20 But what happens to your life when God is left out of the
24:23 picture.
24:24 In the same way it cannot possibly go the way that God
24:27 wants it to go.
24:30 You know, I suppose it's one thing to
24:32 look at a nation and examine some of the sadder parts of
24:34 its history but it's altogether another thing and
24:37 most likely a far more important thing to examine our
24:41 own hearts and ask ourselves what is going on there.
24:45 Friend, what is going on in your hear
24:47 today?
24:48 You know, in Philippians 2:14 Paul
24:51 wrote, and he wrote this words,
24:53 he said: " It is God who works in you both to will and to do
24:56 for his good pleasure." When a nation asks God to leave and
25:00 says we don't want your help and we'll do things our own
25:03 way, a nation will reap what it
25:05 sows.
25:06 Same thing with a person.
25:08 When a person says I don't think I want God working in me
25:12 both to will and to do of his good pleasure,
25:14 what can God do?
25:15 But friend, today you can say,
25:17 Lord, whatever the circumstances of
25:19 my life, whatever my strengths or
25:21 weaknesses, whatever my ups and downs,
25:23 I would like you to live your life in me.
25:27 And when we make that request of God,
25:29 God honors that request, and God lives his life in you.
25:34 And then, you reap what you sow,
25:37 but you've sown good things and you will reap
25:41 everlasting life.
25:43 Revolutions are nothing new but many years ago,
25:47 a revolution occurred in heaven and the sin and
25:50 problems we see in the world today are the result of that
25:53 revolution.
25:54 There is a last-day battle going on.
25:56 A battle to see who will rule the earth in earth's final
25:59 days.
26:00 I want you to have a study we have prepared on this subject,
26:02 called The Battle for the Throne.
26:05 You will understand the beasts of Bible prophecy,
26:07 what they mean, and what they reveal about
26:10 earth's last days.
26:12 The Battle for the Throne.
26:13 In just a few pages, you will discover what the
26:15 Bible has to say about the beasts of Bible prophecy
26:19 and it is clearly explained.
26:20 You won't be guessing or wondering after you read
26:24 The Battle for the Throne.
26:25 And it's our free gift to you right now.
26:29 This informative and practical booklet is available free from
26:32 It Is Written.
26:34 Just call 1.800.253.3000 and ask for the Battle for the
26:37 Throne.
26:38 You can also request this study by writing to It Is
26:41 Written, Box O,
26:43 Thousand Oaks, CA 91359 and we will mail a
26:47 copy to your address in North America.
26:50 And be sure to visit our website,
26:52 itiswritten.com, where you will discover many
26:55 more helpful resources on a variety of life-changing
26:58 topics.
27:00 It Is Written is a faith-based outreach made possible by
27:03 viewers like you.
27:04 Thanks for your letters and emails and thank you for your
27:08 continued financial support.
27:09 Your support enables It is Written to share clear Bible
27:12 truth and impact lives around the world.
27:17 Our toll free number is 1.800.253.3000 and our web
27:22 address is itiswritten.com Thanks for joining me today.
27:27 Let's pray together.
27:28 Our Father in heaven, thank you for showing us that
27:31 things work better when you are in the center of a nation
27:36 and of an individual.
27:38 Lord, please be the center of our
27:40 lives that we might reap what we sow,
27:42 having sown the good, having sown Christ,
27:45 that we might reap everlasting life.
27:48 Be honored in our lives.
27:50 We pray and thank you in Jesus' name,
27:53 amen.
27:56 I look forward to seeing you again next time.
27:58 Until then, remember "It is written,
28:00 man shall not live by bread alone,
28:03 but by every word that proceeds from
28:05 the mouth of God.


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Revised 2015-02-06