https://youtu.be/IaNgKzmE9QI
2Tim 3:12-13; Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.13 and evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.
We've noted how these evil people and imposters are working to turn God's client nation into a totalitarian state and they call anyone who opposes them insurrectionists and traitors.
But God is using the wrath of man to praise Him Psa 78:10 because the truth cannot be denied 2Cor 13:10; and working the entire mess together for the benefit of those who love Him. Rom 8:28; those who wait patiently for Him Isa 40:31;
Psa 34:19; Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the Lord delivers him out of them all.
2Cor 12:9-10; He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.
10 Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong
2Cor 4:17-18; For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, 18 while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
In our study on the judgment of Christ last time we were noting the a fortiori approach to the reward of ruling with God found in Rom 5:17; and 2Tim 2:12-13;
17 "For if by the transgression of one (Adam's original sin) spiritual death ruled through that one; much more they who receive in life the surplus from grace (the exploitation of logistical grace is parleyed into supergrace or surplus of grace) and the gift of righteousness (imputed righteousness), much more they shall rule through that one, Jesus Christ."
12 If we endure, we will also reign with Him; If we refuse Him, He also will refuse us;
13 If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.
Those who exploit logistical grace inside God's spiritual power system and deploy God's power toward their suffering in time are going to rule with Christ.
The conveyance of supergrace in time is the actual basis of Christian privilege that carnal cosmic losers call "white privilege." In the Church Age there is no such thing as gender, racial or socio-economic privilege but there is the Christian privilege of being an heir according to the promise. Gal 3:28-29;
Paul uses a sarcastic approach to describe ruling in 1Cor 4:8; where he says to the carnal cosmic Corinthian believers who are living in satan's cosmic system: "You are already filled, you already have become rich, you have become kings without us: (and then he adds sarcastically) how I wish you really had become kings, so that we also might rule with you."
Now the truth of the matter and source of that sarcasm is very simple. The choices the Corinthian believers had made and were continuing to make, were not going result in any rulership in heaven for them, but Paul is going to be one of the greatest of rulers there.
The Corinthian believers he was addressing were just as snarky as today's carnal cosmic democrat snowflake, blm, and antifa loudmouths. These people think they are going to rule but they are actually losers who will never rule unless they change their thinking starting with believing in TLJC.
There is also an approach from the standpoint of eternal security, 2Tim 2:12: "If we endure (residence and function in God's power system) we shall also rule (has to do with reward at the judgment seat of Christ)."
From the standpoint of the exit resurrection, Rev 5:10, "And you have made them a kingdom, even priests to our God, and they will rule on earth."
In addition to this there are rewards related to historical trends for those who had maximum impact to historical up trends in their life in God's power system and the resultant momentum.
We have just noted the crown of life in Rev 2:10; that is a reward related to historical trends. Momentum testing is related to historical trends in the client nation. As a result of passing persecution testing mature believers prepared the way for one of the greatest missionary movements in all of human history.
Then there is the hidden manna and the white stone with a new title on it. Rev 2:17;
There are certain historical trends that are parallel between Rome as a client nation to God and the USA as a client nation to God.
For example, Rome started out as a city on the seven hills and the amalgamation of the two races that lived on four of those hills, the Villanovans and the Sabines.
From there the amalgamation included the Etruscans who came along. Rome was initially a city and then it began to reach out and grab the races around it: the Italic people, the Latins as they are sometimes called, and the Gauls.
In other words, as Rome became a nation it was an amalgamation of races, it was never one race. It was actually held together by its culture of law and order. People wanted to become Roman citizens because it was an improvement in their situation in life.
Law and order is truth that creates freedom that results in prosperity and happiness.
The new people left their own cultures behind and adopted the Roman culture that was based on law and order similar to Divine establishment. Rom 2:14; Later on Rome would adopt Greek culture and that would become the basis for all of western European civilization.
It was not Greece that brought us western European civilization; it was Rome with its law and order.
Eventually, Roman citizens came from every race and kind of person, but the thing that pulled them all together and held them together was their respect for Roman law, their respect for Roman free enterprise economy, and their respect for Rome's administration of the law.
They had one culture, and out of one culture eventually came Christianity. There were many religions in the Roman Empire but Christianity eventually dominated as the most important because, after all, without Christianity there really is no true civilization.