Welcome back to
the Liberty Insider.
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Before the break with
guest Christopher Steed,
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and son, and heir,
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and as I joke with
him, not just heir, hair.
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We were talking about...
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I envy your hair, son.
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I used to have it.
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We were talking
about religious liberty,
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of course, and you'd given
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even your
personal testimony on that.
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But I want to go
back to something
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that we should have covered.
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We just alluded to
the religious liberty,
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of course, it doesn't
matter what the government says,
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what laws provided,
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its basis is from God, isn't it?
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And there's something
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that you've heard me talk about,
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but I just want to
drop in that discussion,
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the fact that
the very first time,
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maybe you think about it,
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what was the first
time Jesus spoke to a group
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as He began His ministry?
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What was one of the first?
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One of first as I
can remember from back
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when I was reading
it or from when first...
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This is a test.
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From one of the first
ones that I remember Him
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actually speaking to
a crowd, in my opinion,
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was at the wedding feast
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when He turned
the water to wine,
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afterwards I believe,
if I remember correctly...
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Well, that is.
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He didn't really speak so
much, He provided the wine.
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Then the other occasion,
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but it's more
important for His ministry
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is when He was...
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He came as a young man
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at the beginning of His ministry
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with the few
followers to the synagogue
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and the priest gave
Him the Bible to read,
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you remember that?
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I do remember that.
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What book did he give
Him, do you remember that?
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I don't remember that.
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He gave Him the scroll,
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they didn't have
printed books bound like now,
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they were a long roll.
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And since we
couldn't have a huge roll
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for the whole Bible
that have roll for each book.
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Sometimes several
rolls if it was a long book.
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He was given the
scroll of Isaiah,
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Old Testament book.
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And it says He chose chapter 61.
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And it says,
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"The Spirit of
the Lord is upon me,"
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and He took it for Himself.
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He says, "This is fulfilled."
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He says, "The Spirit of the Lord
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is upon me
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because He has anointed me
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to preach good
news to the captives,"
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and then at the end it says,
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"To set up liberty,
those who are oppressed."
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Now, that's the gospel,
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but it's also a
pretty good description
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of what it means to
have religious liberty.
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It is.
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Freedom, freedom from
sin and all of the negatives
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that come from it,
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and religious liberty is using
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that freedom and
proclaiming that freedom.
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You do that wherever you are.
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You could do it just as
well in a communist country
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or in a free
country, couldn't you?
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You could.
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I mean, maybe
not practice as well,
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but it wouldn't
determine whether you do it,
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but it's a nice
plus in the United States
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where the
constitution sort of affirms
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your right to do that.
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I heard people walk up to
me in Walmart or when I worked
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at Lowe's
actually I had a lady...
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And I was loading her car,
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she bought, I believe
she bought a push miller
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for her husband one
that was all wheel drive,
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and I was helping
her and she asked me,
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"You remind me a friend of mine
who is a Seventh-day Adventist.
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Are you a Seventh-day
Adventist by the way?"
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"Actually, yes, ma'am I am."
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And she is like, "Well, I
mean, my friend and I talk,
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but she really
doesn't tell me much,
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is there anything
that you can tell me
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about like your
church, your religion?"
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I was like,
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"Well, for me the
Sabbath is the day of the rest,
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you know, it's the day
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where I don't have
to worry about school,
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where I don't have
to worry about work,
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where I don't have to
really worry about anything.
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I mean, I get up in the morning,
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I go to church, I
listen to the pastor."
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We have a great pastor.
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And she was like, "Well..."
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He's not paying you
to make it, didn't he?
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He is not paying
me to say that...
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And don't they?
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But, you know, our
pastor is a very good pastor.
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And I was like,
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"You should come to
our church one day."
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And she said,
"I'll think about that,
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what church do you attend?"
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I said, "Well, I go to,
there's a few that I go to,
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but the main one I go
to is Willowbrook Church."
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And she's like,
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"Isn't that out near
the Pittsburg High School?"
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I was like, "Yeah,
it's close by, yeah."
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And she is like,
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"I'll see you
next time over there."
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I said, "All
right, see you then."
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I think it was
the either the week
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after that or the, a
few weeks after that,
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I see her at the church
and after church she came to me
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and, she's like,
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"I don't know what to say,
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I've never been to a church
like this before, it's amazing.
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I'm going to come again."
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And last time I was
there, I saw her again,
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and she thanked me.
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Well, that's good.
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That was a nice
chance to witness
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using your religious freedom.
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And you didn't think...
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I'm responding this way
because the state says I can.
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You are responding
that way because...
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'Cause I can.
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And you love Jesus Christ. I do.
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And what's in the Bible, right?
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So that's the
compulsion you're under.
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And this is what I try
to get through to people.
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It's nice as well as
that, that you have a state
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that isn't going to
fight you as you do that.
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That's right.
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But a true Christian,
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even if they're in a
difficult circumstance,
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you would like to think...
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In fact, I think
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that truest Christian
will still share their faith,
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obviously in a more careful way.
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Of course.
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I remember reading a story,
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once in North Korea,
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there was a case of
few Christians were meeting
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in a home, reading their Bibles,
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and there was a
knock at the door.
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And they
immediately hid the Bibles
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and made that like
they were just socializing,
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and some of the
officials came in and they said,
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"We've gotten reports
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that there are Christians here."
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Now, it could mean
your life in North Korea.
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You know, they
just acted innocent,
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and so the
officials went through
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and searched the house
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and one of the
worshippers soar with horror,
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they had forgotten to
put one of their Bibles away.
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And they saw
this official go-by,
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and he looked straight
at it, and just kept going.
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And I thought, man,
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you know, has God made him born.
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And then they left, they said,
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"Well, you know,
we've got this report
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but don't you do
anything like that."
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And a few
minutes after they left
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there was another
knock at the door,
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that was that same official,
and he said, "I saw the Bible."
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He says, "I'm a
fellow Christian."
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He says,
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"I'm glad
you're worshiping God."
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And then they shared a bit.
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You know, that's not secretive
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to the point of
denying your faith,
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that's the
protection that has to happen.
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But in any circumstance,
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I believe this
freedom that Christ gave us
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the wonderful hope
of the future life,
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but a hope for the
better life in your mind now.
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You might suffer persecution,
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but you have mental fulfillment.
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You know, that drives us
on, doesn't it to worship?
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It does.
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And you felt good
telling that person, I'm sure...
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Yeah, when I saw her at church
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and when she
thanked me for inviting her,
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I felt this warm bubbly
feeling right here, like,
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"Well, I did something good."
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But I've also had
neighbors in the neighborhood,
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I remember one in particular,
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it was this
elderly lady that lives.
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I believe it's like
four to five houses down
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around the corner from us,
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I noticed she got
this massive package
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that was just
sitting in front of a door.
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And so I was visiting
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'cause her grandson is
one of my best friends,
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and he was there
and I knock on the door,
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and I see this
generous package and I was like,
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"Do you want me to
bring this inside for you?"
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And she looks
down and she's like,
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"Oh, it's here finally."
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And when I took it inside,
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she opened it
up, and she was like,
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"Could you
organize these for me?"
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And it was the entire,
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there was the Great
Controversy books in there...
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The Conflicts of the
Ages series it's called.
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Yes, the Conflicts
of the Ages series,
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plus some other.
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There was a few Bibles in there,
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few other
things, and she is like,
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"I'm going to
start a home ministry,
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from right here in
my home for the..."
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She has a book club
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that gets together
at her house every,
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I believe she told
me every week or two.
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And one week she introduced
the Great Controversy to them,
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just the one book.
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And they read through it,
and a few other ladies decided
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to get back
together every Friday evening
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and have their own Bible study.
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And that's a very practical
way to share your faith
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and to exercise
your religious freedom.
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And at the beginning
of the program I believe,
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I made an allusion
to the reformation.
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You did.
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Phenomenon of the reformation
especially as it first began,
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there were official burnings
of Martin Luther's writings.
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Those that oppose
the truth and the...
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By definition the
religious liberty of those
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that differ from them,
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often try to restrict
it by destroying the Word.
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Yep.
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We don't see that much
anymore, but we're in a new era,
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we're on the
internet and all there is.
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But I think we're going to see
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with
particularly religious views
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that some people don't like,
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attempts to block
different channels
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that amounts to the same.
00:09:05.51\00:09:06.94
Not only block
different channels,
00:09:06.98\00:09:08.38
but change the
wording of certain things
00:09:08.41\00:09:12.01
to make it sound like,
like a different thing,
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like, I was on
Facebook a few nights ago
00:09:14.48\00:09:17.85
and I was just going through,
you know, looking at pictures,
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and I see this one
article and it said,
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"God is dead,
Satan is the only one."
00:09:24.23\00:09:27.36
And so I clicked on
it, like, interested, like,
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why would someone
put this out there?
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And it said...
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They were quoting
the Bible, and it said,
00:09:33.37\00:09:35.80
"He laid in the tomb.
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And that was it."
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And I'm like, I know
there is more to this verse,
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like from reading it
and from hearing about it,
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there is more to this verse.
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Well, you might have
been seeing symptoms of people
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trying to restrict your faith,
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they're against your
religion and by definition
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they're probably
against religious liberty,
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but back to this
view of religious liberty
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being sort of an
open go for everyone,
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negative and positive views.
00:09:59.63\00:10:02.23
It's like free speech.
00:10:02.26\00:10:04.03
Free speech doesn't exist
00:10:04.07\00:10:05.40
unless you allow
uncomfortable speech
00:10:05.43\00:10:09.10
that you don't want.
00:10:09.14\00:10:10.87
Hate speech. Right.
00:10:10.91\00:10:12.27
Well, not hate speech.
00:10:12.31\00:10:13.64
No, a speech that
incites to criminality,
00:10:13.68\00:10:15.34
that's another question.
00:10:15.38\00:10:17.41
So on religious
liberty we have to allow
00:10:17.45\00:10:19.71
even people
opposing our religion.
00:10:19.75\00:10:22.32
We have to allow not
just our correct view,
00:10:22.35\00:10:25.15
but somebody else's view,
what they think is correct.
00:10:25.19\00:10:28.22
And that's an exciting dynamic.
00:10:28.26\00:10:30.23
And, yes, as a
young person online,
00:10:30.26\00:10:32.13
you're seeing this
worked out as I say,
00:10:32.16\00:10:34.76
was book burning in another era,
00:10:34.80\00:10:36.83
but now it's online.
00:10:36.87\00:10:38.20
Now it's online
stuff that people post.
00:10:38.23\00:10:41.37
I mean, even in
my own experiences
00:10:41.40\00:10:44.81
with dealing with
people, I've had people tell me,
00:10:44.84\00:10:48.64
"Well, you know, your
opinion is not correct,
00:10:48.68\00:10:52.51
I mean, I believe this,
00:10:52.55\00:10:55.35
and I don't believe
your opinion is right."
00:10:55.38\00:10:56.99
I mean, I had a conversation
with a young man around my age.
00:10:57.02\00:11:01.02
He was...
00:11:01.06\00:11:02.39
I believe he told
me he was an atheist.
00:11:02.42\00:11:03.89
And he tells me,
00:11:03.93\00:11:05.26
"I don't believe that
there is God of yours exists."
00:11:05.29\00:11:07.20
And I was like,
00:11:07.23\00:11:08.56
"Well, you want me
to help you believe?"
00:11:08.60\00:11:11.13
And he said, "I
don't want your help,
00:11:11.17\00:11:13.57
I just want to believe
what I want to believe."
00:11:13.60\00:11:15.60
And I was like,
"Well, that's your right."
00:11:15.64\00:11:19.87
It's very interesting
that at this point of history
00:11:19.91\00:11:24.28
when human survival
itself is at risk, at least,
00:11:24.31\00:11:29.28
I think that Pope of Rome
has come to that conclusion
00:11:29.32\00:11:31.89
in his document Laudato si.
00:11:31.92\00:11:34.29
He says, "The only
salvation of survival of mankind
00:11:34.32\00:11:38.53
is to protect the earth
before it destroys all of us."
00:11:38.56\00:11:41.86
Our lack of custody
00:11:41.90\00:11:43.47
and our depletion of
natural resources meant
00:11:43.50\00:11:45.87
that our survival is at stake.
00:11:45.90\00:11:48.44
So we're going
back to first things
00:11:48.47\00:11:51.04
because in that document,
he decides to create a God,
00:11:51.07\00:11:54.84
the creation of the
seventh day Sabbath,
00:11:54.88\00:11:57.05
and the need to
return to that first thing.
00:11:57.08\00:12:01.75
Similarly, the first
thing of God's message to man
00:12:01.78\00:12:05.75
through Jesus Christ
was religious freedom,
00:12:05.79\00:12:08.92
the liberation
from the destroying
00:12:08.96\00:12:12.53
stultifying power of sin
00:12:12.56\00:12:14.46
that is indeed the
message of religious liberty,
00:12:14.50\00:12:18.80
a first thing message.
00:12:18.83\00:12:21.80
For Liberty Insider,
this is Lincoln Steed.
00:12:21.84\00:12:24.77