Participants:
Series Code: LI
Program Code: LI180417B
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00:04 Welcome back to the Liberty Insider,
00:07 and before the break with guest John Ashmeade, 00:10 we were having a final time 00:12 talking about conspiracy theories 00:14 and debunking them at least in theory. 00:17 But they're not going to go away that easy 00:19 either on the internet 00:20 or even within our church structure in particular, 00:25 we're both Seventh-day Adventists. 00:28 You know, that's worth remembering 00:29 Jesus said that there'll be a false Christ, and people say, 00:32 "Go out into the desert, and he is not there." 00:34 He was talking about conspiracy theories, 00:35 and delusions, and false information. 00:40 And this is closely tied up I believe 00:42 with what the president has spoken 00:45 with his own agenda on it, 00:47 you know, fake news. 00:49 Not everything that passes for information is really true, 00:52 is it? 00:53 So, you know, I think as Adventist 00:56 because these are the people I'm primarily concerned with. 00:59 You know, we can outline a framework 01:02 from which to assess these issues. 01:06 You know, we have an understanding 01:08 of the Book of Daniel. 01:10 Daniel Chapter 2, 01:11 Daniel Chapter 2 talks about four great world empires. 01:15 And the next empire that follows is what? 01:19 Is the kingdom of God, right? 01:21 No. 01:22 You have the four world empires, 01:24 then you have the fourth breaking down into 10... 01:27 Which is in perfect union of the empire. 01:30 Which is conflict. 01:31 That's where we are. 01:32 Right, so it goes from the four world empires 01:34 to the breaking down into 10, 01:36 and the representing clay and iron, 01:39 and then following that we don't see. 01:42 We see God's kingdom coming in, 01:43 and that's the basic framework that we examine these issues. 01:47 So there are four world great... 01:49 Four world empires, and then the kingdom of God. 01:52 We don't have a fifth world empire that's mentioned. 01:56 And we see the pattern followed in Daniel Chapter 7. 02:00 And even when we go 02:02 to Revelation Chapter 12 and 13, 02:05 we see the similar pattern. 02:07 And so if we examine the issues from that framework, 02:11 we know, automatically, 02:12 there isn't a coming world empire. 02:15 That's the foundation. 02:17 And so I think if as an Adventist, 02:21 we follow that we, 02:23 that we can steer clear of all the crazy ideas 02:26 floating out there about, 02:28 you know, a global government 02:30 that is either going to be run by the communists 02:32 or either run by the Muslim. 02:34 I don't know it changes 02:36 or the, you know, or the atheists, 02:39 they're coming up with their own system. 02:41 You know, we know that at the end of time 02:44 there will be an uptick in religious fervor, 02:47 and, you know, the challenges that we face 02:50 will be largely driven by Christians who will... 02:54 At least in the Christian world. 02:55 In the Christian world who will begin, 02:57 you know, reinterpreting our constitution, 02:59 and, you know, you know, trying to break down that wall 03:03 between the separation of church and state. 03:06 So in other words, the present writ large 03:08 because we're already there, that there are... 03:11 We've had public officials even saying lately 03:13 they don't believe in the separation 03:15 of church and state. 03:16 Many religious leaders say the same thing. 03:18 They want special treatment for their version of religion. 03:21 But we're only at the beginning stages of that, 03:23 but the Bible predicts basically religious compulsion 03:27 writ large throughout, what? 03:29 A master Christendom. Right. 03:31 And, you know, 03:32 we can't ignore this phenomenon of fake news 03:36 that has really come out, 03:39 you know, we no longer have a sense of what's true 03:42 and what isn't. 03:43 As long as it sort of 03:44 fits within the framework of our thinking, 03:46 we run with a story without vetting it. 03:48 If there, if a negative story comes out 03:51 about the party that we don't agree with, 03:53 we just accept it, post it, and our friends like it, 03:57 and they believe it. 03:59 And we don't think... 04:00 Is this really the case? 04:02 We don't go back, you know, 04:03 and check online to see if this is true. 04:07 You know, I liken it to the fact, 04:09 you know, these fake celebrity obituaries 04:12 come out from time to time. 04:14 And before you know it someone's posted that 04:16 this person is dead, and then you go online, 04:18 you don't see anything about it 24 hours a lapse, 04:21 and you realize that this is fake. 04:23 We need to do a better job at vetting. 04:25 You immediately reminded me of Mark Twain, Samuel Clemens, 04:30 he says, "Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated." 04:34 This is, I remember, it was reported 04:36 once or twice he did that. 04:38 And we're caught in a bind in the modern world. 04:42 In self congratulatory mode, 04:45 much is often made of lot of information, 04:47 and young people know more than before. 04:49 There might be information floating around, 04:51 the certitudes of the past are gone, 04:52 and it's hard to prove that what you know is true, 04:56 plus, I think the digital age 04:59 has brought in intellectual laziness, 05:00 I don't believe that people really know 05:04 as much in their own head as they did before. 05:06 They have access to it, 05:08 but then when you go floating out 05:09 especially on the internet, 05:11 it's not playing unless you do a little investigation, 05:13 you know, one thing displays as good as another. 05:16 In fact, sometimes the most untrue things 05:19 display better. 05:20 They appear more spectacularly real 05:23 than just boring hard information. 05:26 And the Bible says, doesn't it, 05:28 "Even the very elect will be deceived at this age." 05:30 Right. Exactly, that's the problem. 05:31 And when you look at 05:33 what's taking place in our country, 05:36 you know, real information can come out, 05:39 but because it is unflattering of a party 05:43 that we don't agree with, we reject it out of hand as, 05:47 you know, a political attack of the other side. 05:49 And, you know, there is, you know, 05:52 we don't have a new source that we find reliable 05:56 and that's a real problem. 05:57 And so we don't know, 05:58 we really don't know what's going on, 06:00 we can't tell truth from error. 06:01 Let me run two things for you 06:03 before we run out of time eventually. 06:05 In this context of this discussion 06:08 on conspiracy theories, 06:09 where does the Russian manipulation 06:11 or election come in? 06:13 Right, wow, you know, 06:14 I think I want to wait until I see Mueller's report... 06:17 Very good answer, 06:19 you need to run for public office. 06:21 To offer any firm conclusions. 06:22 Obviously, you know, 06:25 as someone living in this country, 06:26 I've been on the internet, and I've been on Facebook, 06:29 and social media, and I've seen things there 06:32 that I just find incredible, 06:35 things published about our current president, 06:37 things published about Hillary Clinton 06:39 that I know to be not true. 06:41 But I see so many people around me, embracing them, 06:45 and accepting them, and running with them. 06:47 And, you know, I'm sort of a gadfly. 06:49 Whenever I see it, 06:50 I like to challenge and poke and say, 06:52 "Where did you get this? 06:53 How did you come to this conclusion?" 06:54 And, you know, 06:56 because I think that's what we need to do. 06:59 You know, but I have real questions about, 07:03 you know, how people came to their decisions 07:06 in terms of who to vote for 07:08 based on the information they got from the internet, 07:10 that's a real problem. 07:12 But I just don't know 07:13 what the Russians were able to do 07:15 until I see some sort of official report. 07:17 Yeah. 07:18 And it has never a lot directly to do with religious liberty, 07:20 but it has a lot to do with discerning 07:23 between truth and error. 07:25 And when your religious faith 07:31 is compromised, 07:32 you need to know the basis for it 07:33 or else you won't know the compromise. 07:35 Here's how this really presents a threat to religious freedom 07:38 and to liberty in general. 07:40 If we're able to slander a group or a person 07:45 by just posting fake news about them, 07:47 it makes it so much easier to persecute them. 07:49 And that's a real problem. 07:51 You know, if something, you know, 07:54 bad happens with the Adventist Church, 07:56 and then someone takes that story, 07:57 and they're able to manipulate it in a way 08:00 to make the church look even worse, 08:01 then we look, 08:03 then we become a pariah to society. 08:05 Well, you're getting to the second point 08:06 I was going to make. 08:07 Okay, we're thinking alike, that's good. 08:09 And I was listening 08:10 to a radio program the other day, 08:12 I listened to many religious, different religious groups, 08:14 this particular one related to... 08:18 It was from a Roman Catholic point of view. 08:20 And they've been giving good Bible answers to things. 08:23 And one of their callers 08:24 said that the Seventh-day Adventist, 08:26 that they were familiar with, 08:28 had made a claim that they were only so many souls 08:31 made originally by God. 08:33 And he was just providing buddies for them, 08:35 that God had limited Himself. 08:37 And, of course, 08:38 they dismissed that and prohibited. 08:40 To me, that was fake news. 08:41 Adventists don't believe such a thing. 08:43 I don't know who made it up. 08:45 I don't think the program did. 08:47 It's possible the person that called in 08:49 had an agenda or was misrepresenting. 08:52 It's possible, 08:53 it's just a plain misunderstanding, 08:55 but the net effect was clearly both fake news 08:59 and leading to conspiracy. 09:01 Conspiracist view of our church. 09:02 Right. 09:04 And, you know, the fact of the matter is, 09:05 you know, if we go back to an early discussion 09:09 we had about the Muslim ban, 09:11 you know, the big fear that many Christians have 09:14 in this country is that 09:15 Sharia law is about to be imposed, 09:18 and that's driving a lot of the fear 09:20 that we have with Muslim. 09:22 It's fake news, 09:23 we're nowhere near that, it's not happening, 09:25 but it's a conspiracy theory that's out there. 09:28 And, you know, it's really problematic. 09:30 And the root cause of that conspiracy theory 09:34 apart from free-floating fear, 09:36 many close-knit Muslim immigrant communities 09:40 would like such a thing. 09:41 Right. That's to be expected. 09:44 But as long as our system holds true, 09:46 it's not going to do that. 09:48 And as you know, what muddies are little too 09:51 in certain closed Jewish communities, 09:53 they allow them to have Jewish church law, 09:57 but it doesn't supersede civil law. 09:59 It just, it's sort of a localized application 10:04 that they let that community apply that. 10:06 So... 10:07 And that's consistent with religious freedom. 10:09 Yeah. 10:10 So, you know, from your views, 10:12 you were happy to talk about conspiracies, where's it going? 10:16 What's the conspiracy thought? 10:18 I don't know where it's going, 10:19 but I think it's going to create 10:21 a whole host of problems for us going forward. 10:24 If we don't have, you know, a new source 10:29 that we find reliable, we are in trouble. 10:35 It's recorded 10:36 that Jesus' disciples came to Him, 10:39 I'm sure on more than one occasion, 10:41 and they said, "Tell us, when will these things be?" 10:44 It's a natural question. 10:45 And Jesus gave quite a long answer, 10:48 a litany of last day events 10:50 might as well be the headlines for today. 10:52 But He says, "The end is not yet." 10:54 Because before the end comes, 10:56 there needs to be a great persecution, 10:58 there needs to be a great falling away, 11:00 there needs to be every man against his brother, 11:04 a total meltdown, 11:06 and a total revelation of God's character. 11:09 It's worth keeping that in mind 11:11 as we live through these 11:12 cataclysmic 21st century events. 11:15 I think it's arguably one minute to midnight. 11:19 But time is with the Lord, 11:21 and how long that minute truly last, we will yet see. 11:24 But let's make it our business to make sure 11:27 that God is truly with us, 11:28 and that we're inspired by His Spirit, 11:30 and strengthened to endure those days, 11:33 otherwise through which no flesh will survive. 11:38 This is Lincoln Steed for Liberty Insider. |
Revised 2019-01-14