Welcome back to
the Liberty Insider.
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Before the break with Andy,
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we were talking about the world
and the need to protect it.
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And the pope of
Rome, the bishop of Rome's
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encyclical on the
environment Laudato si'.
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Most of it very
good, right? Mm-hmm.
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But I think you
and I agreed that
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in putting this as the
matter of human survival
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and then injecting
his theological twist
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toward the papal Sunday
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which has a long
historical tradition,
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but really no
solid biblical basis...
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Mm-hmm.
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The biblical
basis they acknowledge
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in Dominus Dies another document
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and indeed here
is the seventh day
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Saturday Sabbath.
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But he then applies it
figuratively to Sunday.
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Well, that's fine to do but
that's not a biblical mandate.
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Mm-hmm.
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But with that accomplished,
there's so much at stake
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because the likelihood is that
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they will be
some global initiative
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to follow through on this
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and require this global rest
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as a matter of
sort of a daylight
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saving of energy and resources.
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Mm-hmm.
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And so religious
liberty I think is relevant here
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because you're
looking at some compulsion
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for people on a
particular religious viewpoint.
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Mm-hmm.
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Yeah, and I think
he's bringing together
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many groups of
people that perhaps
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you wouldn't typically
identify as being religious,
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for example the
environment, anti materialism,
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capitalism what have you, those,
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those sentiments are typically
associated with the Left,
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and so he really is
bringing together ideologies
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that are very broad
in their scope and reach,
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and bringing them together
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and unifying them
under a religious garb.
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Yeah.
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I don't even fully
understand it but historically
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there has been a connection
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between Roman Catholicism
and leftist tendencies...
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Mm-hmm.
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Even in Italy itself,
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their constitutional government
had a constant flirtation
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with the left wing politics,
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so it seems to me
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and I don't even know quite why
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the Catholic
theology and structure,
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and governance breeds leftism
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and indeed even communism...
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Mm-hmm.
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If you look at the world map,
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communism sprung up in a lot of,
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not Russia, of
course a big exception
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but in a lot of the
communist, the Catholic areas.
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Even Vietnam,
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that was a
communist regime there
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with the French
Catholic influence.
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That's right.
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And Rome doesn't like it.
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So I'm not...
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inappropriately identifying it.
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Rome has fought against it
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but there seems to be
yin and yang effect there,
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but do Christians do
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as world citizens need to
be environmentally concerned.
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Seems to me we should. Yes.
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The Bible calls us toward it.
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And I've always thought so but
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many of our fellow Adventists
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don't see keeping
the Sabbath is more than
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just a sort of
religious observance.
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But it was intended to be
in the cycle of work, and rest,
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and through the Jubilee
principle to be part of this
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natural fellow
period that precedes
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the continuing fertility.
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Mm-hmm.
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Yeah, I think, you know,
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it's the environment
so politically charged
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simply because, you know,
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you have a lot of interest that
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want to run their businesses
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even at the
expense of the environment.
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And I think it's
very fascinating to me
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because a lot of what
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the pope is
stating is not necessarily
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in agreement with
traditional American values.
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And, you know,
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and specifically
some on the right.
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For example,
issues like pro-business,
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pro-natural fuel
corporations and so forth.
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And so there is...
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You have the pope speaking out
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in the ways
that are in some ways
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antagonistic to some
of the American ideals
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and it's very interesting to see
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what's going to
transpire in the months ahead.
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Well, there's a
huge shift taking place
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and goodness knows the
west and America is the epitome
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that the west is in need
of spiritual rejuvenation.
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Mm-hmm.
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But structurally it troubles me
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because I love history.
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Mm-hmm.
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And the commerce and the cap,
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"capitalism" in its best sense
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mercantile dynamic
mercantile interest,
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that all
flourished, and expanded,
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and blossomed in a
way hitherto unimagined
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under the
Protestant Reformation.
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It was a byproduct of it, right?
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And Rome was opposed to it,
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and the United States
in its early days as it,
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as it
exemplified these Protestant
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tendencies and tinges
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but it was never a
Protestant government.
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It also had a deep
seed of suspicion of popery
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as they called it, papism.
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And they saw and I
think with some good cause,
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the papal system was
really the antithesis
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of what they
were developing here.
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And during the
civil war when America is,
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modern America as
we know was emerging
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in the battle
between north and south.
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The pope of Rome
took a very antagonistic
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cause to the north.
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Did you notice if
you've studied this speech,
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he gives a three way sign to...
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And in reality
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it seems that Rome has noticed
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that the Protestant nature
now of America's disappeared
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as Senator
Santorum said recently,
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Protestantism is
absent in America.
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Catholicism has
the right to exist,
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you and I know that,
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but
historically anti-Catholicism
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would have free reign in America
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which correctly at the
time so it is the antithesis
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of this new
social and economical,
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political experiment.
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Mm-hmm.
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So and lot is at play
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when the present
pope of Rome sort of comes
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and criticizes
America and so on.
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It's his right to criticize
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but there's a huge
historical shift in America,
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Protestant America
should be on its guard,
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not to restrict the pope
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but to restrict
its own responses
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and attitudes in certain areas,
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because we're
vulnerable to many things
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including the poison pill
that Rome long ago embraced
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that it's okay to
force religious activity.
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Mm-hmm.
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That's what I think it play
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in this whole
discussion of the environment.
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We should be environmentalist,
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I think the Three
Angles' Messages is that
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Seventh-day Adventist,
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you and I speak
about and exemplify
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and proclaim all the time.
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That's a wonderful
message of soon coming Christ
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but it's a call to
one of the creative god
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implicit in that should be
a concern for the environment.
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That's right. That's right.
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But it should be on those terms
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not on a gender to
control and to bring us
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a conformity to
another religious viewpoint.
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Mm-hmm.
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Well, and what's
also interesting is
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how this
conformity, the incentive,
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I might touch upon
this earlier is financial.
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And when we look at
Revelation Chapter 13,
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the issue of worship revolves
around buying or selling.
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And so you're seeing, you know,
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movements taking place today
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where if the government
doesn't like what you're doing,
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they'll use economic
sanctions on other countries
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as well as upon our
own American institutions.
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Well, he just said,
he held up the coin,
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his face is on this...
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That's right.
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This is a Rome's
currency and this is not Rome
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but in the United
States the money is only money
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because the government says it.
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You're playing
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in the
government's neighborhood.
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There is no value in that money.
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It's only money
because the government
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authorizes that
you use on interchange
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and if the government
withholds that authorization,
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you can't buy or sell.
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That's right.
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It's very plain
and apart from prophecy
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we're clearly
coming to a dynamic.
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And it's well known
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by many magazines, and articles,
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and commentators
have looked at it.
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We're coming to
a cashless society
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sooner or rather than later,
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we're coming to embedded chips
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where you don't
even have a credit card,
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you just scan...
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And if your DNA
is de-authorized,
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you don't get that grain of rice
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either embedded or to eat.
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That's right. That's right.
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Interesting times
that we're living in
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but the
environment is very important.
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God created it.
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We are to be
custodians I'm thinking.
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And true, good
religious practice
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on old true faith not,
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you know, you and I can see
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the Bible as the locus of truth
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and focus for Jesus Christ.
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But I think
whether it's Buddhism,
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Hinduism or even Islam
in its most benign form
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a true religion, it
should respect his fellows
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and protect the common
environment that we live in.
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That should be
inherent in good religion
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and without interference
from other religions
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or from faith
leaders that compel us.
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That's right.
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You know, Matthew
Chapter 24 speaks that
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or it states that
even the very elect
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there's the
potential for deception.
00:11:31.32\00:11:33.89
And even though
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the pope and church
leaders are endorsing
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things that we as Christians
agreed on like the environment,
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anti-materialistic values,
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we need to remember
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that deception is very real
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and we need to
stand on the word of God.
00:11:48.30\00:11:51.57
There was an old spiritual
00:11:51.61\00:11:52.94
that used to go
something like this,
00:11:52.97\00:11:54.74
there's a man going
around taking names.
00:11:54.78\00:11:58.58
Now you might think
in our current context
00:11:58.61\00:12:01.52
that someone for registration
00:12:01.55\00:12:03.49
but I think the old
song was talking about
00:12:03.52\00:12:06.25
something more like
Revelation where it says,
00:12:06.29\00:12:09.32
"The books in heaven were opened
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and people's
lives were examined."
00:12:11.36\00:12:14.00
Of course in the
great scheme of things
00:12:14.03\00:12:17.53
what we do and every action
00:12:17.57\00:12:19.93
and every development of
human history is registered
00:12:19.97\00:12:23.77
and is knowable.
00:12:23.81\00:12:25.21
Unfortunately for us
with the computer era
00:12:25.24\00:12:29.04
and explosion of "knowledge"
00:12:29.08\00:12:32.01
but in reality just an
explosion of information
00:12:32.05\00:12:35.35
slash disinformation is
becoming harder and harder
00:12:35.38\00:12:39.55
for any one to
really arrive at truth.
00:12:39.59\00:12:42.89
But it is imperative
00:12:42.92\00:12:45.33
that each of us in seeking truth
00:12:45.36\00:12:48.23
and from a
religious liberty perspective
00:12:48.26\00:12:50.43
knowing what is
true religious liberty,
00:12:50.47\00:12:53.30
what is a challenge to it
00:12:53.34\00:12:55.37
and how we maintain
our religious liberty.
00:12:55.40\00:12:58.51
We need to adhere to the facts,
00:12:58.54\00:13:00.64
seek out the facts,
00:13:00.68\00:13:02.51
look for
knowledge, true knowledge,
00:13:02.54\00:13:05.35
and apply it in a way
that will guarantee our freedom
00:13:05.38\00:13:09.85
and the freedom
of those around us.
00:13:09.88\00:13:12.05