Welcome back to
the Liberty Insider.
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Before the break, at
least me as a semi-oldie,
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my wife wouldn't allow
me to call myself an oldie
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and a mature gentleman,
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we were talking about
the young people in there,
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Italians with pseudo
knowledge on the internet so...
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Yes.
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But it does come to a
bigger question the internet
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and not just through the media
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and where we get
their information,
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where we get our news
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and it's sort
of a truism of late
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that large urban societies
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particularly are
not going to libraries,
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aren't studying for themselves
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and they sort of fed
the spoonfuls of information
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that may even be misinformation.
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And it's hard for
them to know reality
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and then you put in religion
which is a complex topic anyway
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and it can create
huge misperceptions
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I think the way it's presented.
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Absolutely and I'm
a very strong believer
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that a lot of times the
media will characterize various,
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you know,
individuals, people groups,
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whether it's minorities,
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whether it's the rich
versus the poor, Hispanic,
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the Hispanic community
and ultimately I believe
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that the way that we
should perceive all human,
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all, all of humanity is
through the eyes of scripture
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and that is we have a world
that is in need of a savior
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and we have this plague
of sin that every member
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of humanity is suffering from,
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so we need to
really understand that
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and not demonize people
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but really seek
to save the lost.
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Well, we need to have
a viewpoint or a filter,
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but quite the same that
we apply to all information,
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but there is probably
a thin line between that
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and presupposition
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that only accepts
information consistent with that
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and rejects troubling things.
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That's true.
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So the trick is to have
people that are open-minded
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and yet not
easily led us astray.
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That's a very good point,
I'm glad you mentioned that,
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that's solid point.
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But, you know, I
really think that rather than
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a lot of information
individually available,
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our society, our
culture and our world
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is more full of
information than ever before.
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I mean all the ages
before don't cumulatively add up
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to what is known right
now, but that doesn't mean
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you and I know it all...
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Absolutely.
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Even if we knew it
do we comprehend it?
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So in some ways I
think the individual
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is adrift in a sea of
competing information,
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confusing
information, just information.
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And I know you
have a burden on it,
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sometimes people
even tweet me with it,
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the conspiracy theory stuff...
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But I think the
protection against that
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is to refer for us
as Christian's reference
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that against our
biblical worldview.
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And it to me it's uncanny
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how much of what's
happening in the US
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and the larger
world in recent years
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tracks perfectly with
some of the last verses
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of Revelation
talks about an end time.
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I remember in 2008,
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I wrote an article
on the economic collapse
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that we're still living through.
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We really haven't
rebuilt from that.
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And of course, in
Revelation it says,
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"The merchants will cry
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and wonder that their
wealth's lost in one hour."
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That's the modern world
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and of course that's
not the full fulfillment.
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But when you see that stuff,
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you know the plans
to rebuild the economy
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and to deal with
the national debt,
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those need to be addressed
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and secular people
need to do the best they can
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but you and I know
that's not gonna win world.
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No.
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It's gonna end with the collapse
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of the world as we know it,
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and the establishment
of an eternal Kingdom.
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So we've got a template to
put over, over these things.
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That's right.
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But we also
can't allow ourselves
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to be characterized
by the secularists,
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it's just people
that don't care about
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what's happening here or worse
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that we're irrelevant yourselves
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what's happening here
because we can be discarded,
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and the pope in
his recent speech
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and a number of
people that have picked up
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from the sort of
stuff on the war on terror,
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they constantly decrying
fundamentalists and extremists.
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Are you willing to be
called a fundamentalist?
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No. You're not.
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Well, on one
level I'm not but yet...
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Yes.
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I have to be a fundamentalist,
it's fundamental to me
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what's God's holy word
says, I owe to my life.
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So just as with
gay, it used to be a word
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of that happy people and that,
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it's been subverted and
used to something different
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and I think there's a,
there's a, I think somewhere,
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somewhere they've
thought it through
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and it's being used consciously
to marginalize people of faith
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that differ
from if not a secular
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than a narrow
religious viewpoint...
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To demonize it, more
fundamentalist, extremists.
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Yes and I didn't
get your question but...
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Vegetarianism is
many people think
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that's an extremist viewpoint.
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Yeah. I don't
necessarily think so.
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Would my faith causes people
to call me a fundamentalist
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and I'd be happy to be
called a fundamentalist.
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The way I took your question
once more in the sense of,
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you know, the
connotation of fundamentalist
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as it's used in
secular society...
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Oh, no, I set you up for it.
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Is one bad, it
doesn't use their brain,
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and you know,
they're very close minded
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in that kind of thing.
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and I believe that
we need to be informed
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as Bible believing Christians,
we need to be informed,
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we need to know what's going
on and taking place in the world
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even outside of
the prophetic context
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just because if we're
seeking to reach the world,
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we need to know
what, what their fears are,
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what they're thinking about
and I believe that can also be
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entering wedge into a discussion
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where we can
reach hearts and minds.
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I can give you a
strange example of someone
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that was
clearly a fundamentalist
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and a thinking person
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and some may even
raise eyebrows on it
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because it's not the
example you'd expect.
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But Thomas Moore
who is a patron saint
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of the Catholic Church,
who is the defender of the pope
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in the king's great
issue of Henry VIII.
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So, you know, in
the larger debate,
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I might have
taken the other side,
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but as a human being,
being true to his principles,
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there's a lot to
recommend Thomas Moore.
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He was a
fundamentalist but he was,
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he thought it through,
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he gave an admirable
defense of his faith.
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He was not a
natural in his affections
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and his
interrelationships he wasn't...
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He wouldn't sent
he will lose his head,
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he wouldn't go to the
gallows I think he was,
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he said was cut up
but he didn't go there
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because he made himself
obnoxious to other people,
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but at the end principle
was so important that rationally
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and in a very
calculated principled way
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he took the consequence.
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That's really what I see
as a true fundamentalist.
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And I think he stood
for fundamental principles.
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Like I say, you know,
other things in the context
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historically, you
know, works against it,
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but just as a model of
how that individual reacted.
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Absolutely.
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I hope that I
could be the same way,
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but we don't want to be bigoted,
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we don't want to
be a narrow-minded.
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We don't want
to be pejorative...
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act pejoratively
toward other people
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but if we believe something,
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we've really got to stick to it.
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And I think that's the
mistake of the modern world
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and certainly
the political world,
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people flip-flopping
these candidates at the moment,
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it's almost dizzying.
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It is...
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In some regards what
did they say yesterday,
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well, today, oh, it
stands for this today,
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and the very least all
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I could think of
is George Orwell.
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Yes.
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Well, you know, in
the journalistic world
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they have this, and you know,
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you're familiar with
the term the term spin.
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You know you can
take... I call it lying.
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Yes, that would be
another word for it,
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you see so much spin
taking place today by,
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by politicians
and world leaders,
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church leaders
that that it's hard
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to really
believe anything anymore.
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And so I think this is...
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What does the Bible say,
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"Deceive it if
possible the very elect."
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That's right.
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And it's an epidemic
that we're seeing in society
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where lying is
just so normalized
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that politicians are not
even called out for it anymore.
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And if they are it's
not that big of a deal.
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Well, I remember reading
about one candidate they said,
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that they don't know
that he consciously lies.
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It's just that
when he says something
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that he wishes were true,
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he comes to believe that's true.
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Yes.
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Well, we're all capable of that,
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but you don't want that...
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We're all capable
of that, I'm not saying
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that I operate that way,
but you don't want to slide
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into that sort
of moral ambiguity.
00:10:01.56\00:10:03.57
Absolutely.
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I mean that that's the way
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that seems right
unto a man it leads.
00:10:06.57\00:10:09.30
The end thereof is death.
00:10:09.34\00:10:11.17
Well, I was gonna put
a secular interpretation
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but I hesitated,
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doesn't come
out well in the end.
00:10:15.98\00:10:17.31
No, it doesn't.
00:10:17.35\00:10:18.68
And for
politicians sooner or later
00:10:18.71\00:10:20.95
they will be caught out.
00:10:20.98\00:10:22.85
Although when we talk
about religious liberty
00:10:22.88\00:10:26.05
and consequences the
danger then is very often
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and we see this happen now.
00:10:29.49\00:10:30.83
There is nothing current
but I mean in our modern world,
00:10:30.86\00:10:33.80
often politicians deflect
00:10:33.83\00:10:36.06
or political powers deflect
culpability to someone else.
00:10:36.10\00:10:39.23
Yeah.
00:10:39.27\00:10:40.64
And I do think in
this war on terror
00:10:40.67\00:10:44.64
which has strong
religious elements
00:10:44.67\00:10:47.94
that anybody that
holds out against it
00:10:47.98\00:10:49.94
may soon find themselves
00:10:49.98\00:10:51.58
being cast as an
enemy of the state
00:10:51.61\00:10:53.11
just because the state
can't deal with the issue
00:10:53.15\00:10:55.85
and you're a problem.
00:10:55.88\00:10:57.22
So just like the Emperor Nero,
00:10:57.25\00:11:03.16
supposedly with
the Christians in Rome.
00:11:03.19\00:11:04.86
That's right.
Blamed them for the fire.
00:11:04.89\00:11:06.39
That's right.
00:11:06.43\00:11:08.03
Whether or not he set the fire
00:11:08.06\00:11:09.50
is he materially
blamed them knowing not.
00:11:09.53\00:11:12.73
You know one of the
things that I want to,
00:11:12.77\00:11:15.14
want to mention in
the book Desire of Ages,
00:11:15.17\00:11:17.31
which is a
commentary on the life of Jesus.
00:11:17.34\00:11:20.24
It's mentioned there
that John the Baptist
00:11:20.28\00:11:22.34
with the student of humankind
00:11:22.38\00:11:25.31
and he studied
human nature and I...
00:11:25.35\00:11:28.45
I believe it's very important
for us to do the same thing
00:11:28.48\00:11:31.25
to study what's
taking place in our world
00:11:31.29\00:11:34.22
as I mentioned
earlier, so that what,
00:11:34.26\00:11:36.46
so that we can
be better informed
00:11:36.49\00:11:38.76
in reaching hearts and
minds, meeting their needs
00:11:38.79\00:11:41.63
where they're at
and engage in a debate
00:11:41.66\00:11:44.83
that will reach
humanity as a whole.
00:11:44.87\00:11:48.70
There was an old spiritual
00:11:48.74\00:11:50.31
that used to go
something like this,
00:11:50.34\00:11:51.97
there's a man going
around taking names.
00:11:52.01\00:11:55.94
Now you might think
in our current context
00:11:55.98\00:11:58.81
that someone for
voter registration
00:11:58.85\00:12:00.72
but I think the old
song was talking about
00:12:00.75\00:12:03.59
something more like
Revelation where it says,
00:12:03.62\00:12:06.72
"The books in heaven were opened
00:12:06.76\00:12:09.06
and people's
lives were examined."
00:12:09.09\00:12:11.56
Of course in the
great scheme of things
00:12:11.59\00:12:14.96
what we do and every action
00:12:15.00\00:12:17.50
and every development of
human history is registered
00:12:17.53\00:12:21.24
and is knowable.
00:12:21.27\00:12:22.80
Unfortunately for us
with the computer era
00:12:22.84\00:12:26.64
and explosion of "knowledge"
00:12:26.68\00:12:29.61
but in reality just an explosion
00:12:29.64\00:12:31.45
of information
slash disinformation
00:12:31.48\00:12:34.92
is becoming harder and harder
00:12:34.95\00:12:37.32
for any one to
really arrive at truth.
00:12:37.35\00:12:40.62
But it is imperative that
each of us in seeking truth
00:12:40.66\00:12:45.96
and from a religious
liberty perspective knowing
00:12:45.99\00:12:48.73
what is true religious liberty,
what is a challenge to it
00:12:48.76\00:12:53.03
and how we maintain
our religious liberty.
00:12:53.07\00:12:56.24
We need to adhere to the
facts, seek out the facts,
00:12:56.27\00:13:00.14
look for
knowledge, true knowledge,
00:13:00.18\00:13:03.14
and apply it in a way
that will guarantee our freedom
00:13:03.18\00:13:07.62
and the freedom
of those around us.
00:13:07.65\00:13:10.29
For Liberty
Insider, I am Lincoln Steed.
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