Participants: Lincoln Steed (Host), Scott Christiansen
Series Code: LI
Program Code: LI000171B
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00:02 Welcome back to the Liberty Insider.
00:04 Before the break, remember I was talking 00:07 with author, Scott Christensen 00:08 about his book, "Planet in Distress." 00:10 Yes, and I'm sure like all authors 00:13 you're ready to talk for hours and hours on this book. 00:15 We only have a few minutes to go, 00:17 even though half-hour program is not long. 00:19 But-- you know, 00:22 how can we pick this up again 00:24 on the significance of this collapse? 00:28 Where do you think this leaves 00:31 Christians and those that are really perceptive? 00:33 What can I do about it? 00:35 Well, you know, the bottom line message. 00:39 The bottom line message is that Jesus really is coming 00:42 and He really is coming very soon. 00:44 And for those who know what to look for, 00:46 we can see the signs. 00:47 It's very interesting to know 00:49 that thought leaders, scientists, 00:53 people that are very perceptive 00:54 around the world who aren't Christians, 00:55 have looked at what's going on in the world, 00:57 have seen the collapse of the systems 01:00 and its impact on society and they're panicking. 01:04 Men's hearts are failing them for fear. 01:05 Absolutely, right now 01:06 because people can see what's coming on the earth. 01:09 And it's slowly seeping 01:10 into the general consciousness, 01:11 but it's not seeping in from a Christian perspective. 01:14 I'll say this facetiously 01:15 because I actually agree with you, 01:17 but if you believe some of the popular person in the U.S. 01:20 seems at the moment one particular political party 01:23 having trouble seeing it. 01:24 Yeah. But I think they're in denial. 01:26 This will, you know, 01:28 there will always be the case of different perspectives 01:31 and people seeing-- What is the Bible say-- 01:33 It'll say that all things have continued 01:34 from the beginning of creation, 01:36 but clearly that's not so. 01:37 We're living in most unusual times. We are. 01:40 We're living in most unusual times. 01:42 But those that are looking at this know that 01:45 clearly something is happening and you're right. 01:47 I read a lot of the current events 01:49 and leaders are preparing for all sorts of contingencies. 01:52 Like for example at the moment one of our 01:55 camera crew here mentioned before we begin the program. 01:57 You know, I hope we don't attack Iran. 01:59 What's in about in Iran? 02:02 I don't think myself that is primarily 02:05 the panic and the rush to some sort of actions. 02:08 It's not primarily whether or not 02:09 Iran gets a bomb and destroys somebody. 02:13 I think it's all about this 02:15 geopolitical need to husband resources. 02:18 Right, to lock in the oil in this case 02:21 or to have a secure environment 02:23 where you can survive 02:25 as the time of stress comes even deeper. 02:28 You know, when I was young, 02:30 when I was 12 years old, all right. 02:32 The world changed overnight. 02:33 How many decades ago? Oh, I never mind that. 02:37 When I was young-- well, it's 1972, 02:38 so you could figure it out, you could do the math. 02:40 But when I was 12 years old, 02:43 there was the Arab Oil Embargo so called 02:45 that's what the media call it, the Arab Oil Embargo. 02:48 I remember that very well. I was a young man too. 02:49 Well, and-- you know the gas prices 02:52 skyrocket and people panicked. 02:54 And I lived in Loma Linda 02:55 at the time Southern California. 02:57 And I remember riding my bicycle home from school 02:59 and I rode passed the gas station 03:02 and I rode down the line of cars. 03:05 The line of cars had to be a half a mile long. 03:07 And back then what they did to try 03:09 and make it so that the gasoline 03:10 that was in the tanks lasted, 03:13 they would count off the number of cars in line 03:15 and they'd hang a little sign say, 03:16 last car in line they'd hang it 03:18 from the license plate-- 03:19 And I don't remember that. But that-- 03:20 Oh, no-- They had to. 03:21 Because without doing that I know there were cases 03:24 people would wait all day almost 03:26 and get there no gas and then a few people got violent. 03:29 There would be violence, there would be a lot of-- 03:31 But I stopped and what I saw shocked and scandalized me. 03:35 They were upstanding members of the community 03:37 and up standard members of the church 03:39 that pulled into the line 03:41 and furtively moved that tag to their license plate, 03:45 so that they were the last car in line. 03:47 And the point being that resource shortages 03:50 fundamentally changed the way humans and nations behave. 03:54 We are moving into a situation, 03:56 we're on a global basis, 03:57 we have a number of converging resource shortages, 04:00 and it's going to change 04:01 the behavior of nations and people. 04:04 Now is the time-- 04:05 Even more than now because already-- 04:07 Much, much more. Oh, this is-- 04:08 They already seen the change. 04:09 And we've seen nothing so far, yeah. 04:12 You know, we're told in Prophecy 04:13 and we're told in Spirit of Prophecy 04:15 that there will be chaos in the cities. 04:17 When you get a bunch of people together 04:19 that that rely on tremendous amounts 04:21 of inputs, food, energy, 04:23 all these other things that are now at the tipping point 04:27 and beginning to decline precipitously-- 04:29 Yeah. It's a very significant. 04:32 We flew not on the same flight coming for this program, 04:36 but we flew pretty much the same time. 04:38 But on my fly, we flew across the Mississippi River 04:42 on the way to St. Louis 04:43 and then drove the other direction, 04:45 that's another story. 04:46 This place should be little closer to civilization. 04:49 But we flew across that 04:51 and it's fair amount of water this year, 04:53 but I flown across the Mississippi 04:54 when it was essentially dry 04:56 and the badges were sitting up on sandbanks. 05:00 That was shocking. 05:01 But with all of these system breakdowns, 05:04 sort of getting worse and worse, 05:06 when something like that happens 05:07 which happens cyclically anyhow. 05:09 The effect of that could cascade very rapidly. 05:13 And a huge shortfall in corn production in the U.S. 05:16 now has effects on curiously enough 05:19 even on gasoline prices, 05:21 cereal prices, and food prices. 05:23 There will be riots in third world countries 05:26 where we ship excess grain. 05:28 So these things just snowball now. 05:31 They always have to some degree 05:32 but now it's much more extreme 05:33 when this crisis will intersect with another one, 05:36 global warming, perhaps in other country, 05:39 they're in a drought already, and then we have problems. 05:42 You know, what you say is so true 05:44 and most people don't realize it. 05:45 There were rice riots only two years ago in Asia. 05:48 Yeah, a small short fallen production 05:50 leads to a big shortfall in people's basic needs-- 05:53 You know, what cause that one? 05:55 I heard the article there was rice speculation. 05:57 Well, there's, well there's-- 05:58 And it was India as I remember 06:02 changed the government plan on the number of-- 06:04 the amount of rice that they would have in reserves, 06:06 so they brought up the rice, ran the price up. 06:09 And then in countries where people are subsistence, 06:12 the rice price propelled and went up double 06:15 and so there was mass starvation, 06:17 there was speculation that just-- 06:19 It really was not a crisis 06:20 that was directed to a crop shortfall, 06:22 but some at the best times we have these things now. 06:25 Then if you did have at the same time is that 06:27 a real shortage could be unstoppable. 06:32 And one of the interesting things about system decline 06:35 is that any decline in one system-- 06:38 Affects the other. Affects all the others. 06:41 And right now we have a declining-- 06:43 downward spiral that-- 06:46 the impact of which cannot be overstated, 06:49 because it fulfills prophecy. 06:51 Now I mentioned before, 06:54 I don't want to be like a college professor here. 06:55 But I do remember studying 06:58 back in high school about Thomas Malthus' 07:01 theories of food production and population. 07:03 And most people if they know about it 07:06 think that he's being proved wrong. 07:08 He really wasn't. 07:09 What he couldn't have known 07:11 where a modern technology and superphosphates 07:15 and other things that up the food production 07:18 way above historic norms very quickly. 07:20 Yeah, but generally speaking, 07:22 things like acreage of farm production goes on, 07:26 you know, you might add 10% this year 07:28 and another 10% that year. 07:29 You can't just double it instantly 07:31 and then double that four times, 07:33 which would be the next year. 07:34 But population works that way. Right. 07:37 You know, population can be doubled in this period, 07:39 it could be doubled that again 07:40 which is now four times so goes up and up very quick 07:43 where food production is on a flatter cycle. 07:46 But it works in reverse. It works in reverse-- 07:48 That's what we're soon to discover-- 07:50 When you go over the peak. 07:51 Once you get over the peak, 07:53 the problem that may have been a long time coming 07:55 will accelerate in intensity very, very quickly, 07:59 basically on a logarithmic curve. 08:01 Yeah. Yeah. 08:02 The last of ends will come suddenly we know that. 08:05 That's--where have I read that-- where have we? 08:08 Once you go over, it's like a roller coaster. 08:11 Once you go over that peak, you go downhill very quickly. 08:14 It was dealt with Ellen White writing 08:15 to Seventh-day Adventist said many years ago. 08:16 That is exactly what Ellen White said. 08:18 The last movements will be rapid ones. 08:20 It will be very rapid ones. 08:21 And you know, it's very interesting what you say 08:22 because what you refer to it 08:24 something called the green revolution. 08:26 Now the green revolution, 08:27 there were back in the 60s and early 70s to some degree, 08:31 people were panicked. 08:32 Because it was obvious 08:33 there wasn't enough food to feed the world 08:35 and we had a much smaller population then by the way. 08:37 And so very bright people came together 08:39 and they created or they engineered 08:43 new strains of plants 08:45 and what they really did was? 08:47 They massively increased fertilizer use 08:49 all over the planet 08:50 and suddenly there was a lot more food. 08:53 But here's the problem. 08:55 We by use of so many 08:57 fertilizers and pesticides on the land, 08:59 we've really poisoned our soil. 09:01 There have been a build up of salts over the years. 09:04 And what we're actually seen is declining production. 09:06 And we've also got crops that require 09:08 that-- We have to-- 09:10 These are not the genetic originals 09:11 that could sort of cripple on with normal nutrition. 09:13 Right, right. 09:15 These hybrids required that and without it, 09:20 I think they might be worse than the regular crops. 09:22 Well, the amazing thing is 09:23 because we had so much food for a period of time, 09:26 our population grew. 09:27 It's something like a natural law. 09:29 You know, if you have a bowl full of bread flour-- 09:33 I don't know why, but that makes me to think 09:34 of wars and rumors of wars. 09:35 Well. I think that's what will come. 09:37 Whenever there is a population stress, 09:40 I think partly is a matter of planning 09:42 and partly just this happen stands to the upset. 09:44 There will be wars and population cutback. 09:47 Countries and you see them positioning themselves now. 09:51 Countries that have resource strengths 09:53 and we're talking everything. 09:54 We're talking oil. Our production has peaked. 09:57 We're talking food. We're talking fresh water. 10:00 There are number of countries 10:02 that we expect to see freshwater conflicts on. 10:05 But countries position themselves for conflict 10:07 when they enter resource shortage scenario. 10:10 And why, we're running out of time, 10:12 we'll have to have another program on this. 10:14 But you know, why do I, as you say these things 10:16 I think waterboarding torture, these are all expedients, 10:21 these are that sort of bubble up naturally 10:22 where we're in this, this greater sense of stress. 10:25 I think it diminishes the hold on civility 10:30 that even the western world has. 10:32 Exactly, upstanding Christians, 10:35 cheating their way into a gas line. 10:37 Right, that's a good example. 10:39 You know, it's a small thing but behavior of nations 10:42 and people changes. 10:44 So civil liberties, religious liberty--Absolutely. 10:46 We know it's threatened. 10:47 I was in a conference recently where there everyone agreed. 10:50 Religious liberty is in worse shape 10:51 this year than the last. 10:52 But what you're saying about system degradation? 10:55 I think it's very, very true. 10:56 You know, we will come to the point 10:59 where we will wish that we had taken advantage 11:04 of the time and resources that we had. 11:06 So that we could witness for Christ, 11:08 so that we could proclaim Christ 11:10 to our neighbors and friends, 11:12 when it was easy to do so. 11:14 It's harder to do so today than it was yesterday. 11:18 It'll be harder to do so next year, next month, 11:21 and next year than it is now. 11:23 This is a wakeup call, we need to witness for Christ, 11:26 we need to know the Bible 11:28 and we need to grow close to Christ. 11:32 As this surely a "Planet in Distress." 11:35 Many years ago, I remember reading a book 11:38 called "Planet in Rebellion." 11:40 And in some ways there is a common theme 11:41 because its sin that set us rebellion against God and sin 11:45 that started this global system 11:48 meltdown that we part of. 11:50 This program talks and focuses on religious liberty. 11:54 And when I look at global system decline, 11:57 I know already from experience, 11:59 but projecting forward I know that this is going to be 12:03 a severe test for those that want to remain true 12:07 to their conscience and true to what 12:09 God is led out in His word. 12:11 Another words, we are looking at 12:13 global religious liberty meltdown. 12:16 I think, it's very important for all who value these 12:19 most important freedoms to realize 12:21 that it is not just something that exist in a vacuum. 12:25 All that happens in this swirling cacophony 12:28 of a world situation based on our ability 12:32 to not just to remain faithful, 12:35 but to recognize the situation from what it is. 12:38 It's a confusing maelstrom of collapse 12:42 to use a mixed metaphor. 12:46 For Liberty Insider, this is Lincoln Steed. |
Revised 2014-12-17