Hollywood Studios To Evangelical Churches Produce Movies, Christmas Pageants With Common Mettle

Real Armor of God.Com’s Arsenal of Medieval Products Equip Believers And Non-Believers to Live by More Than the Sword!

MURPHY, TEXAS (PRWEB) November 15, 2005 -- A new voice is crying out in the online wilderness. Unlike a traditional preacher in a pulpit, online evangelist John Cooper, a Dallas-area marketing specialist, spreads his biblical insight through an impressive arsenal of Roman, medieval and renaissance products that include high-carbon steel swords of the spirit, shields of faith, breastplates of righteousness, helmets of salvation and leather shoes of readiness.

Similar to Paul in Ephesians 6, Cooper’s mission is literally to suit people up in the full of armor of God. Producers of Christmas and Easter pageants, parents celebrating a son’s ascent into manhood, men giving high-end groomsman gifts, and Hollywood studios making movies have been some of the most frequent visitors to his online store, www.RealArmorofGod.com. For example, the palace guards who will seize Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane during Prestonwood Baptist Church’s annual Dallas Christmas Festival—Dec. 1-4 & 7-11, 2005, http://www.dallaschristmasfestival.com--will showcase Cooper’s popular Roman soldier’s costume.

For Cooper, using props in evangelism is something of a family legacy. His father, a Christian ophthalmologist, used scripture verses on his reading eye charts. Cooper said of his unique evangelism style: “What a great way to start a conversation; begin with the sword, move to the full armor of God, and end up witnessing about Jesus!”

Cooper received his personal calling after his father-in-law gave him a Roman sword, the case of which was engraved with Hebrews 4:12—“The word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword…” After displaying the sword on the family room wall, Cooper and his wife Carolyn learned quickly that showing the sword to guests naturally segued into a presentation of the gospel.

About 10 years later, Cooper added the gift of a 12” statue wearing the full armor of God to his collection. Soon after in 2004, the Coopers opened RealArmorofGod.com as a part-time evening business, so Carolyn could stay home with their young children. Its broad selection of products would also supply churches with authentic armament for holiday plays and believers with “relationship-based witnessing” tools—a term the Coopers adopted from Bill Hybels’ influential book, Becoming a Contagious Christian. Most recently, his “witnessing coin” invention serves as a pocket-size reminder of the debt Christ paid for sins.

Since January of this year, RealArmorofGod.com has received 13 million hits from 96 countries. In its first quarter of 2005, the Coopers reached their sales goal for the entire year. Satisfied customers have written hundreds of testimonials on the website, not only about the impressive quality and variety of the swords, armor and costumes—that include Christian and popular movie themes, like Lord of the Rings, Brave Heart, and Gladiator—but also for the 28 historic and educational articles Cooper has compiled. One single mom who found a timely article on Christian knighting thanked Cooper: “I have been looking for a sound, biblical way to impart the meaning of manhood to my 12-year-old son…It is a constant struggle to teach them to be honorable men.”

“Every verse of the Bible is a sword of its own,” said Cooper about the valuable role spiritual swords play. To this end, Cooper has begun writing in depth articles to give a practical, biblical context to each piece of the full armor of God. “When dealing with a certain problem, recall a Bible verse or gospel hymn so you can combat temptation before it becomes sin. The devil will flee the battle as you praise, glorify or worship God…It’s surprising the average Christian doesn’t know the devil is real, and the spiritual battleground is found in the mind. Non-Christians don’t even know we are at war,” he added.

According to a recent Barna study, in 2005 six out of ten adults (60 percent) say that the devil, or Satan, is not a living being but is a symbol of evil, up from 58 percent in 2001.

The Coopers have three children, live in the Dallas area and worship at The Heights Baptist Church in Richardson, Texas. For more information, visit www.RealArmorofGod.com.

Media interested in coordinating interviews with RealArmorofGod.com President John Cooper should contact Gregg Wooding, president, I AM PR public relations, (972) 567-7660 via cell, (972) 429-0724 office.

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