Welcome to Liberty Insider.
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Not too long ago,
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I sat down with
Elder Ted Wilson,
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president of the
Seventh-day Adventist Church
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and discussed a
number of things,
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but most
particularly, the Reformation.
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Elder Wilson, I'm
sure you are aware
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that 2017
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is the 500th anniversary
of the Protestant Reformation.
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You're the head
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of the
Seventh-day Adventist Church,
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elected to that
position, few more years to go,
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four more years I
think in this current term.
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How do you and do you think
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the Seventh-day Adventist Church
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as a group, how do we
look at the Reformation,
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now that we're 500 years away?
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Is it really in the
past or future for us?
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Well, that's a great question
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and I'm very
happy to answer that
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because the
Reformation continues.
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In fact, we're given counsel
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in the Spirit of
Prophecy that indicates
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that the Protestant
Reformation should continue
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until the Lord comes.
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And that we, of all people,
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ought to be very
focused on helping the world
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to understand
the very basic return
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to the true worship of God
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using scripture, only scripture.
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It's the catchcry
of the Reformation,
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Sola scriptura.
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Only by grace are we saved.
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The powerful impact of
the Protestant Reformation
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is what helped to form
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a new perspective
and understanding of
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how the Christian church
should move ahead in an age,
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especially culminating in
the great mission outreach
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of the Church several 100
years after the Reformation
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and that has to continue.
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If, in some way,
this is diminished,
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it takes away
the underpinnings of
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why we as Seventh-day Adventists
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are even here at
this very end of time.
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Now, you mentioned
the Spirit of Prophecy
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and some of our
viewers may not be familiar,
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Seventh-day Adventists,
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our pioneers in the mid-1800s
included Ellen G. White,
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in fact, a major figure.
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She and her
husband, James White,
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let out and she wrote
and said many things that,
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we have clear
evidence, were inspired.
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Exactly.
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Spoke prophetically
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and, yes, she did make
these clear statements,
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and I guess in a way
we are going over that
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but talking to you,
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you believe the
Seventh-day Adventist church
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is in the
continuum of the Reformation.
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Is that what you
are saying? Absolutely.
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Directly, not just in principle.
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We can track our principles
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and the progress
of Christianity truth.
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Our roots, our connection,
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we come out of
that beautiful stream
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and it has to continue.
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Everyone ought to
be focusing upon Christ
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and His righteousness.
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Really, what the
Seventh-day Adventist Church
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is to be doing
is to be proclaiming
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the righteousness of Christ,
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which is
embodied in what we call
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the Three Angels'
Messages of Revelation 14,
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and in those messages,
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it is a return to
a focus upon Christ
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and not upon self,
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an
understanding that we're saved
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through His righteousness
not that of our own
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which is
essentially the basis of every
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or many other
religious organizations.
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It's true.
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It's the central point really
that Martin Luther discovered
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and re-readied the Bible,
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and even as I'm listening to you
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say these things
which I know too.
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I'm a Seventh-day
Adventist, of course.
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Even as I hear this,
you know, I think prophecy,
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and I don't think
many people remembering
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the Reformation not realize
the role the prophecy played
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in that movement.
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Even Henry VIII,
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you know, blasted by
history is just being concerned
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about an heir and how many wives
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he could have.
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He wrote himself
expositions on prophecy.
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Martin Luther also.
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So you definitely see
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the Seventh-day Adventist Church
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is driven by a
prophetic mandate.
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Totally,
prophecy and the unfolding
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of what God has indicated
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the Seventh-day Adventist church
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and others who are
joining us in proclaiming truly
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the righteousness of
Christ and the principles
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of the Protestant Reformation,
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truly that is the fruition
at the very end of time.
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We are not
futurists or preterits,
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we are historicists.
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We understand the
very direct enunciation
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of prophetic instruction
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that God has
given in the Word of God
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as something which will
unfold and will take place.
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I mean, you take, for instance,
the classic example in Daniel 2
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of all the kingdoms
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and, you know, we're
focusing on religious liberty
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and all of this kind of thing...
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Starting from Babylon down
to Rome in the later day world.
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Exactly.
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And when you take
that particular prophecy
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and you understand
the play out of that,
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and then the very
end of the experience
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with the feet and the toes,
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mixed of iron and clay
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recognizing that
in Europe itself,
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which is what it represents,
and the 10 kingdoms...
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A weak union
sounds like Brexit to me.
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And that's exactly
right. It simply will not work.
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The next event
after that we're told.
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Stone without,
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cut out without man's
hand, the kingdom of God.
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Coming down the kingdom of God.
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So we are living in the very end
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of the tips of
the toes, so to speak,
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of that statue of Daniel 2
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and what a
marvelous time to be alive.
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What a marvelous time
to proclaim the truths
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of the Protestant Reformation.
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What a
marvelous time to proclaim
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the righteousness of Christ,
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the centrality of
Christ, not our own works,
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but what Christ is doing for us,
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has done, and will do.
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Not only just for us
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and we have
nothing to do with it,
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but how we then enter into that
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through the power
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of the Holy
Spirit working in us,
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so that's
justification, sanctification,
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which is Christ's righteousness.
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That's right, very
solid spiritual basis
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for Seventh-day Adventism
and then, of course, prophetic.
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You dropped the term
that when I tried to explain
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because I know that
a lot of the viewers
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are not just not
Seventh-day Adventists
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but even some of our own
people may not know the terms.
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You said preterism,
preterits. What's that?
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Well, an understanding
that it was something
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that took place in
a very old age time,
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something that
essentially doesn't really apply
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to a future application.
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It took place simply at a
particular time in history
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and has no
relevance to us in the future.
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And the futurists, of course,
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place things far beyond anything
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that is in our time
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and it's very
ethereal kind of thing.
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We believe that the
Bible very clearly enunciates
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exactly what is going to happen.
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Now, not everything,
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but certainly
enough to help us realize
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that God is in control
and ultimately God's kingdom
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will truly be
the ultimate answer
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to all the
challenges that we are facing.
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Yeah.
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What comes to mind
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since I'm on the
Reformation mindset now,
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as I understand that
preterism was really a concept
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that was if it did exist,
before it was very low key,
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but that was brought
up as part of an answer
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to the Reformation, in
the counter Reformation,
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as I said, because
a lot of the reformers
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had this prophetic
viewpoint of events soon to come
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and with a protestant cast on it
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and so preterism was
a way to pull it away
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from them and say,
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"Well, these
prophetic predictions
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really already happened,
they were in the past,"
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so it denatured the Reformation
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in many practical ways, I think.
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Precisely and it takes...
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And that's why,
and I agree with,
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I think that's why Adventists
can legitimately see themselves
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as the heirs to the Reformation
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or at least one
of the main heirs,
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we're not the only ones
but we're so fixated on this
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that it has to describe
Adventists very particularly.
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And these erroneous applications
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of prophetic understanding
take away the very core
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of how we understand ourselves
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to be God's agents of
good for the very end of time
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because the Lord's
coming, I believe, is imminent.
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We don't know when
the Lord is returning,
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the Bible says
only the Father knows
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but we've been given signs,
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I mean Matthew 24
and so many other places,
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I believe,
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the coming of the
Lord is very soon.
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I'm sure you've noticed
these and preached on it,
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speaks of the fullness of time.
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Exactly.
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Everything is, the
conditions are ripe for
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what was predicted.
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And I think Christ
could have come 100 years ago
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just to pick one
time out of thin air,
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the conditions
were ripe enough then,
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when Liberty magazine was bigger
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and, of course,
that's my fixation.
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Sure.
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Our church has had a very strong
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religious liberty emphasis
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and there were
several reasons for it,
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but a prime one was
110 years or so ago,
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it looked like these events,
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that immediately
preceded the return of Christ,
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were about to happen.
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Coercive religious edicts,
like before the reformation,
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even perhaps a Sunday law
even in the United States,
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even in the middle of Western
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liberal democracies.
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I know you've
been very supportive
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of Liberty magazine
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and this program will
be shown about the time
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that we are
promoting it in particular
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with our own church
members, and through 3ABN,
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and hope to a larger audience,
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but apart from
financial support,
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which we need, I know
you will agree with me.
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We need to get the word
out that religious freedom,
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of course, is for
everybody to believe in and act
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whatever their
conscience guides them toward,
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but as Seventh-day Adventists
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we hope and pray
that that leads them
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toward an
understanding of Christ
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and where we live in the
stream of history, right?
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Absolutely.
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And religious
liberty is so vital
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to a Christian's experience
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and to our ability
to be able to proclaim
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the precious relationship
that we have with people,
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pointing them to
the second coming
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of Jesus Christ.
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Without religious liberty,
without freedom of conscience,
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and the ability
for an individual
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to truly choose,
00:11:06.23\00:11:09.00
society is
closed, it is locked down.
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That's why we ought to thank God
00:11:14.44\00:11:16.67
in every country
where at least some modicum
00:11:16.71\00:11:20.34
of religious
freedom is provided.
00:11:20.38\00:11:23.51
We ought to thank him for
that and use it to the hilt
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and not get to the point
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where things are
really in very bad shape
00:11:28.75\00:11:31.65
and then say oh, oh, oh,
yeah, no, no, I remember now,
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I'm supposed to
be trying to help
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religious liberty, you see...
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That's human nature to wait
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until it's almost too
late and then do something.
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I mean...
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This is the time to be active.
00:11:41.83\00:11:43.16
The freedom of conscience
and religious liberty,
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as we all know,
requires constant vigilance.
00:11:45.90\00:11:49.20
That's why I'm so
glad you have this program
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and other ways
of alerting people
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to the very great
importance of individuals taking
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that
responsibility on themselves,
00:11:58.75\00:12:01.35
not just leaving
it to Lincoln Steed
00:12:01.38\00:12:03.49
or to some attorney or...
00:12:03.52\00:12:04.85
Or with a
magazine just some proxy.
00:12:04.89\00:12:07.09
Everybody needs to be involved
in helping to preserve that
00:12:07.12\00:12:11.26
and the best way to do
that is to share with others
00:12:11.29\00:12:14.50
the need for
that beautiful right
00:12:14.53\00:12:18.47
that God gave to us,
00:12:18.50\00:12:19.83
a blessing of the
freedom of choice.
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Absolutely.
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And, you know,
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God is still
offering that to people,
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and that's why
you have this program.
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Amen.
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That's why you
have Liberty Magazine.
00:12:30.81\00:12:32.15
I agree with that fully.
00:12:32.18\00:12:33.52
We need to take a
break now and we'll be back.
00:12:33.55\00:12:34.88
Stay with us.
00:12:34.92\00:12:36.25
We'll be back
shortly to continue
00:12:36.28\00:12:37.62
this discussion
with Elder Ted Wilson,
00:12:37.65\00:12:38.99
president of the...
00:12:39.02\00:12:40.36
world president
00:12:40.39\00:12:41.72
of the
Seventh-day Adventist church.
00:12:41.76\00:12:43.09