In the film Monumental, Kirk Cameron investigates the principles upon which the United States of America was founded. While researching the history of the English Pilgrims, Cameron discovered the depth of the hardships the Pilgrims faced. As Cameron relates:

1. The Church of England had as its head the Monarch of England. Leaving the Church, which is what the Pilgrims desired to do, was tantamount to treason.
2. Roughly 100 Pilgrims, led by Pastor John Robinson, hired a ship to sail to Holland in search of religious freedom. Unbeknownst to the Pilgrims, the ship’s captain betrayed them to the English authorities. They were captured and thrown into prison.
3. Once freed from jail, the Pilgrims hired another ship to sail to Holland. Knowing that they were being watched, the men separated from the women and children, planning to rendezvous at a particular location so that they all might sail together safely. The women and children were captured, however, forcing the men to sail to Holland without their families. It took over a year for the families to reunite in Holland.
4. The Pilgrims desired to sow the seeds of the Gospel in England, so they printed pamphlets in Holland and shipped them to England for distribution. After about a year and half of printing and distributing these pamphlets, the English authorities tracked the Pilgrims down and destroyed their operation in Holland.
5. The Pilgrims returned to England and hired two ships to sail to the New World. One of the ships sprung a leak just a short distance off of the English coast, forcing both ships back to harbor. Pastor Robinson and his congregation decided that half of the Pilgrims would continue the journey on The Mayflower; the other half would remain behind.
6. The Mayflower’s three-week journey to the New World lasted eight weeks. The tiny Mayflower was tossed to and fro in tempestuous seas, and living conditions were horrid as the Pilgrims were forced to travel in a small, enclosed ship where vomit, feces, and urine were everywhere.
7. During the trip the main support post of the Mayflower cracked, signaling the inevitable end of all life on the ship. Providentially, the Pilgrims had brought along a large support screw, similar to the type of jack one would use to shore up a building with a faulty foundation, and they used that to support the beam.
8. After arriving in the New World, most of the woman and men died during the first winter. Most of the children survived, many doing so because their mothers would lay on top of them, acting as human blankets, to keep them warm.

As Cameron relates, time and time again it appeared that doors were being slammed shut on the Pilgrims. But with each adversity, their resolve hardened. Why? The Pilgrims were on a mission to bring religious freedom to England and to the world, and they saw themselves as the foundational stepping stones of a multi-generational effort to accomplish this mission. They were clear about what God wanted them to do, so they saw their adversities not as God closing doors but as Satan trying to stop them. History has proven they were right in their interpretation of their adversities, and their commitment to God’s mission birthed a nation founded on religious freedom and Christian principles.

Does God “close doors?” Sure He does. One such example is found in Acts 16:6, when the Holy Spirit forbids Paul and Silas from preaching in Asia. But, too often, we interpret any and all adversity to be a “closed door” from God when oftentimes it is the devil, not God, trying to stop our forward progress. The key to correctly understanding who is trying to stop you with a “closed door” is this: a deep, rich, obedient relationship with God. The hearts and minds of the Pilgrims were saturated with the Word of God and, as a result, they had wisdom, defined in Colossians 1:9 as “comprehensive insight into the ways and purposes of God.” If we want the same wisdom, we need to be saturated in a relationship with God as well. Otherwise, the “closed door theorem” could lead us to avoid God’s will rather than pursue it.