Participants:
Series Code: LI
Program Code: LI000377B
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00:04 Welcome back to the Liberty Insider.
00:07 Before the break with guest Christopher Steed, 00:10 and son, and heir, 00:12 and as I joke with him, not just heir, hair. 00:16 We were talking about... 00:20 I envy your hair, son. 00:22 I used to have it. 00:23 We were talking about religious liberty, 00:25 of course, and you'd given 00:27 even your personal testimony on that. 00:28 But I want to go back to something 00:30 that we should have covered. 00:32 We just alluded to the religious liberty, 00:36 of course, it doesn't matter what the government says, 00:39 what laws provided, 00:40 its basis is from God, isn't it? 00:44 And there's something 00:45 that you've heard me talk about, 00:46 but I just want to drop in that discussion, 00:49 the fact that the very first time, 00:52 maybe you think about it, 00:54 what was the first time Jesus spoke to a group 00:57 as He began His ministry? 01:00 What was one of the first? 01:02 One of first as I can remember from back 01:05 when I was reading it or from when first... 01:07 This is a test. 01:09 From one of the first ones that I remember Him 01:12 actually speaking to a crowd, in my opinion, 01:16 was at the wedding feast 01:18 when He turned the water to wine, 01:20 afterwards I believe, if I remember correctly... 01:22 Well, that is. 01:23 He didn't really speak so much, He provided the wine. 01:26 Then the other occasion, 01:27 but it's more important for His ministry 01:30 is when He was... 01:32 He came as a young man 01:33 at the beginning of His ministry 01:34 with the few followers to the synagogue 01:37 and the priest gave Him the Bible to read, 01:39 you remember that? 01:40 I do remember that. 01:42 What book did he give Him, do you remember that? 01:43 I don't remember that. 01:44 He gave Him the scroll, 01:46 they didn't have printed books bound like now, 01:48 they were a long roll. 01:50 And since we couldn't have a huge roll 01:52 for the whole Bible that have roll for each book. 01:55 Sometimes several rolls if it was a long book. 01:58 He was given the scroll of Isaiah, 02:00 Old Testament book. 02:02 And it says He chose chapter 61. 02:06 And it says, 02:08 "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me," 02:10 and He took it for Himself. 02:11 He says, "This is fulfilled." 02:12 He says, "The Spirit of the Lord 02:14 is upon me 02:15 because He has anointed me 02:17 to preach good news to the captives," 02:19 and then at the end it says, 02:20 "To set up liberty, those who are oppressed." 02:25 Now, that's the gospel, 02:26 but it's also a pretty good description 02:29 of what it means to have religious liberty. 02:31 It is. 02:32 Freedom, freedom from sin and all of the negatives 02:36 that come from it, 02:37 and religious liberty is using 02:39 that freedom and proclaiming that freedom. 02:43 You do that wherever you are. 02:46 You could do it just as well in a communist country 02:49 or in a free country, couldn't you? 02:50 You could. 02:52 I mean, maybe not practice as well, 02:54 but it wouldn't determine whether you do it, 02:58 but it's a nice plus in the United States 03:01 where the constitution sort of affirms 03:03 your right to do that. 03:05 I heard people walk up to me in Walmart or when I worked 03:10 at Lowe's actually I had a lady... 03:12 And I was loading her car, 03:13 she bought, I believe she bought a push miller 03:15 for her husband one that was all wheel drive, 03:18 and I was helping her and she asked me, 03:21 "You remind me a friend of mine who is a Seventh-day Adventist. 03:24 Are you a Seventh-day Adventist by the way?" 03:27 "Actually, yes, ma'am I am." 03:28 And she is like, "Well, I mean, my friend and I talk, 03:32 but she really doesn't tell me much, 03:34 is there anything that you can tell me 03:36 about like your church, your religion?" 03:39 I was like, 03:40 "Well, for me the Sabbath is the day of the rest, 03:42 you know, it's the day 03:43 where I don't have to worry about school, 03:45 where I don't have to worry about work, 03:46 where I don't have to really worry about anything. 03:48 I mean, I get up in the morning, 03:49 I go to church, I listen to the pastor." 03:53 We have a great pastor. 03:55 And she was like, "Well..." 03:57 He's not paying you to make it, didn't he? 03:59 He is not paying me to say that... 04:00 And don't they? 04:02 But, you know, our pastor is a very good pastor. 04:04 And I was like, 04:05 "You should come to our church one day." 04:06 And she said, "I'll think about that, 04:08 what church do you attend?" 04:09 I said, "Well, I go to, there's a few that I go to, 04:10 but the main one I go to is Willowbrook Church." 04:12 And she's like, 04:14 "Isn't that out near the Pittsburg High School?" 04:17 I was like, "Yeah, it's close by, yeah." 04:19 And she is like, 04:21 "I'll see you next time over there." 04:22 I said, "All right, see you then." 04:24 I think it was the either the week 04:26 after that or the, a few weeks after that, 04:28 I see her at the church and after church she came to me 04:31 and, she's like, 04:33 "I don't know what to say, 04:34 I've never been to a church like this before, it's amazing. 04:38 I'm going to come again." 04:39 And last time I was there, I saw her again, 04:44 and she thanked me. 04:45 Well, that's good. 04:46 That was a nice chance to witness 04:48 using your religious freedom. 04:51 And you didn't think... 04:53 I'm responding this way because the state says I can. 04:56 You are responding that way because... 04:58 'Cause I can. 05:00 And you love Jesus Christ. I do. 05:02 And what's in the Bible, right? 05:04 So that's the compulsion you're under. 05:06 And this is what I try to get through to people. 05:09 It's nice as well as that, that you have a state 05:12 that isn't going to fight you as you do that. 05:13 That's right. 05:15 But a true Christian, 05:16 even if they're in a difficult circumstance, 05:18 you would like to think... 05:19 In fact, I think 05:21 that truest Christian will still share their faith, 05:23 obviously in a more careful way. 05:25 Of course. 05:28 I remember reading a story, 05:31 once in North Korea, 05:35 there was a case of few Christians were meeting 05:37 in a home, reading their Bibles, 05:39 and there was a knock at the door. 05:41 And they immediately hid the Bibles 05:43 and made that like they were just socializing, 05:45 and some of the officials came in and they said, 05:48 "We've gotten reports 05:50 that there are Christians here." 05:51 Now, it could mean your life in North Korea. 05:55 You know, they just acted innocent, 05:57 and so the officials went through 05:58 and searched the house 06:00 and one of the worshippers soar with horror, 06:03 they had forgotten to put one of their Bibles away. 06:06 And they saw this official go-by, 06:08 and he looked straight at it, and just kept going. 06:11 And I thought, man, 06:12 you know, has God made him born. 06:14 And then they left, they said, 06:15 "Well, you know, we've got this report 06:17 but don't you do anything like that." 06:19 And a few minutes after they left 06:20 there was another knock at the door, 06:22 that was that same official, and he said, "I saw the Bible." 06:25 He says, "I'm a fellow Christian." 06:27 He says, 06:28 "I'm glad you're worshiping God." 06:30 And then they shared a bit. 06:31 You know, that's not secretive 06:34 to the point of denying your faith, 06:36 that's the protection that has to happen. 06:38 But in any circumstance, 06:40 I believe this freedom that Christ gave us 06:43 the wonderful hope of the future life, 06:46 but a hope for the better life in your mind now. 06:49 You might suffer persecution, 06:50 but you have mental fulfillment. 06:53 You know, that drives us on, doesn't it to worship? 06:56 It does. 06:57 And you felt good telling that person, I'm sure... 07:00 Yeah, when I saw her at church 07:01 and when she thanked me for inviting her, 07:04 I felt this warm bubbly feeling right here, like, 07:06 "Well, I did something good." 07:10 But I've also had neighbors in the neighborhood, 07:13 I remember one in particular, 07:15 it was this elderly lady that lives. 07:17 I believe it's like four to five houses down 07:19 around the corner from us, 07:21 I noticed she got this massive package 07:24 that was just sitting in front of a door. 07:27 And so I was visiting 07:28 'cause her grandson is one of my best friends, 07:30 and he was there and I knock on the door, 07:34 and I see this generous package and I was like, 07:36 "Do you want me to bring this inside for you?" 07:38 And she looks down and she's like, 07:39 "Oh, it's here finally." 07:42 And when I took it inside, 07:44 she opened it up, and she was like, 07:46 "Could you organize these for me?" 07:47 And it was the entire, 07:49 there was the Great Controversy books in there... 07:51 The Conflicts of the Ages series it's called. 07:53 Yes, the Conflicts of the Ages series, 07:55 plus some other. 07:56 There was a few Bibles in there, 07:57 few other things, and she is like, 07:59 "I'm going to start a home ministry, 08:01 from right here in my home for the..." 08:02 She has a book club 08:04 that gets together at her house every, 08:05 I believe she told me every week or two. 08:07 And one week she introduced the Great Controversy to them, 08:10 just the one book. 08:12 And they read through it, and a few other ladies decided 08:15 to get back together every Friday evening 08:18 and have their own Bible study. 08:20 And that's a very practical way to share your faith 08:23 and to exercise your religious freedom. 08:25 And at the beginning of the program I believe, 08:27 I made an allusion to the reformation. 08:30 You did. 08:31 Phenomenon of the reformation especially as it first began, 08:35 there were official burnings of Martin Luther's writings. 08:39 Those that oppose the truth and the... 08:41 By definition the religious liberty of those 08:43 that differ from them, 08:45 often try to restrict it by destroying the Word. 08:47 Yep. 08:50 We don't see that much anymore, but we're in a new era, 08:53 we're on the internet and all there is. 08:55 But I think we're going to see 08:58 with particularly religious views 09:01 that some people don't like, 09:03 attempts to block different channels 09:05 that amounts to the same. 09:06 Not only block different channels, 09:08 but change the wording of certain things 09:12 to make it sound like, like a different thing, 09:14 like, I was on Facebook a few nights ago 09:17 and I was just going through, you know, looking at pictures, 09:21 and I see this one article and it said, 09:24 "God is dead, Satan is the only one." 09:27 And so I clicked on it, like, interested, like, 09:29 why would someone put this out there? 09:31 And it said... 09:33 They were quoting the Bible, and it said, 09:35 "He laid in the tomb. 09:37 And that was it." 09:38 And I'm like, I know there is more to this verse, 09:41 like from reading it and from hearing about it, 09:43 there is more to this verse. 09:45 Well, you might have been seeing symptoms of people 09:47 trying to restrict your faith, 09:49 they're against your religion and by definition 09:52 they're probably against religious liberty, 09:54 but back to this view of religious liberty 09:56 being sort of an open go for everyone, 09:59 negative and positive views. 10:02 It's like free speech. 10:04 Free speech doesn't exist 10:05 unless you allow uncomfortable speech 10:09 that you don't want. 10:10 Hate speech. Right. 10:12 Well, not hate speech. 10:13 No, a speech that incites to criminality, 10:15 that's another question. 10:17 So on religious liberty we have to allow 10:19 even people opposing our religion. 10:22 We have to allow not just our correct view, 10:25 but somebody else's view, what they think is correct. 10:28 And that's an exciting dynamic. 10:30 And, yes, as a young person online, 10:32 you're seeing this worked out as I say, 10:34 was book burning in another era, 10:36 but now it's online. 10:38 Now it's online stuff that people post. 10:41 I mean, even in my own experiences 10:44 with dealing with people, I've had people tell me, 10:48 "Well, you know, your opinion is not correct, 10:52 I mean, I believe this, 10:55 and I don't believe your opinion is right." 10:57 I mean, I had a conversation with a young man around my age. 11:01 He was... 11:02 I believe he told me he was an atheist. 11:03 And he tells me, 11:05 "I don't believe that there is God of yours exists." 11:07 And I was like, 11:08 "Well, you want me to help you believe?" 11:11 And he said, "I don't want your help, 11:13 I just want to believe what I want to believe." 11:15 And I was like, "Well, that's your right." 11:19 It's very interesting that at this point of history 11:24 when human survival itself is at risk, at least, 11:29 I think that Pope of Rome has come to that conclusion 11:31 in his document Laudato si. 11:34 He says, "The only salvation of survival of mankind 11:38 is to protect the earth before it destroys all of us." 11:41 Our lack of custody 11:43 and our depletion of natural resources meant 11:45 that our survival is at stake. 11:48 So we're going back to first things 11:51 because in that document, he decides to create a God, 11:54 the creation of the seventh day Sabbath, 11:57 and the need to return to that first thing. 12:01 Similarly, the first thing of God's message to man 12:05 through Jesus Christ was religious freedom, 12:08 the liberation from the destroying 12:12 stultifying power of sin 12:14 that is indeed the message of religious liberty, 12:18 a first thing message. 12:21 For Liberty Insider, this is Lincoln Steed. |
Revised 2018-03-07