My first film post will be an overview of the sermon, "If Footmen Tire You, What Will Horses Do?" that was later developed into a film."If Footmen Tire You, What Will Horses Do?" started off as a sermon that Dr. Estus Pirkle preached at Camp Zion (more on this camp later) on Jan. 31, 1968. Dr. Pirkle felt very strongly about this message. So strongly that he said this in the intro of the sermon.
"I hope you will pray for me as you never have prayed before. I have never felt such pressure in all my life concerning any one message that the Lord has laid on my heart to preach [...] I hope it will so press in on us today that we can't get out from under it."
The sermon's scripture is taken from Jeremiah 12:1-13. The main passage is taken from verse 5 which states, "If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with the horses? and if in the land of peace, wherein thou trustedst, they wearied thee, then how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?"
From this verse the theme of the sermon is derived.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, if you and I can't serve God today, what will we do when the future begins to fall upon us. If you can't serve God now, what will you do when the communists take over? [...] My friend, if you can't serve God in a time of ease, what are you going to do when the communists take over?"
In his sermon the communists take on the role of the horsemen, while current oppositions to true Christianity are the footmen who will try to out run Christians. If the footmen outrun Christians on issues like sex, education, fashion, drugs, and entertainment, then how much more would horsemen out run and tire out Christian runners?
"We are running a race with some strong footmen today (their captain is Satan) They are running well. They are not letting up. They are not stopping. They are running faster than they ever have..."
Dr. Pirkle is contending that if you tire out and give up when you are competing against the "mini-skirt crowd [...] the evolution crowd." Then an atheistic communist regime would completely destroy your faith.
The sermon goes on to describe these various footmen (cultural and ethical issues) and then the horsemen (the communist government and their methods for Christian destruction)
In my next post I want to explore this sermon further and go into its development into a book and eventually into a motion picture.
For an outline of this sermon click here.
