Welcome back to
the Liberty Insider.
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Before the break, we
were in a technological buzz.
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Deep discussion. Yeah.
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Let me tell you something,
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I haven't mentioned
on this program before.
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This is the moment to repeat it.
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I had an epiphany.
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A few decades ago
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when I came back from Australia
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to work at a publishing
house in Boise, Idaho,
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large publishing house
for the Adventist Church,
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a couple of hundred employees.
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They've moved under some duress,
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financial duress
from the Bay area
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near Silicon Valley.
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And things have
become so expensive.
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And after the
move, and I arrived,
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I think a week after
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they made it to the new
plan, things were in disarray,
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and the equipment
seemed to suddenly aged
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because of the move.
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I think, in some ways,
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the move did sort of
highlight the need to upgrade
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and they just
spent about 200,000
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to upgrade the
typesetting equipment
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and when we repackaged
it and put it together.
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It was ancient,
didn't have flexibility.
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It was on its way up.
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And we made a choice
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that we just had to
dump it start from scratch.
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And amazingly
for one whole year,
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we produced everything
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on a IBM basic home PC
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with 300 dot
Apple laser printer.
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And nobody sort of
noticed, it's amazing,
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but I remember the
type guys will get there.
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You know, they see
this like an ink splotch.
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So a number of
us had to go around
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and check on technology.
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And in the
middle of all of this,
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we decided to reprint the,
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I think 9 volumes of
the Ellen White Testimonies
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that had been done
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on hot metal
type decades earlier
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and was getting worn out.
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We need to go electronic,
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we're not up and
running on desktop.
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So we hunted
around and Ray Kurzweil,
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electronics guru,
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known by many of the
young people at the time
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was the guy that did
the music synthesizer,
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but he had
developed the tech scanner.
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And the first model was
something like $5 million,
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I think, a lot of money.
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And we debated
whether we would buy one
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because we needed to,
we couldn't typeset it
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and errors would
have been introduced.
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Well, we didn't have $5 million,
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but while we were
looking it went down to 500,000.
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Oh, it's pretty good,
but we decided in the end,
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we would contract with
a company that had one.
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And as I
remember we paid $30,000
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to have this
whole set scanned in.
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By the time we've done the job,
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a tech scanner
that was much better
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had been
developed by the Kurzweil
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that was down to about $5,000.
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And I'm telling you
today, if you go to Walmart,
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an inkjet not an inkjet...
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Yeah, an inkjet printer,
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will have a scanner
built in, and a tech scanner
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and a much better
one than we had back then
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maybe $30 to $50.
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I got news for you.
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I have an app on my phone
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that I can just
take the picture...
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That's true.
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And it will just copy the
text over right off the bat.
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So we've come and
now it'll mix fonts
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and even languages
and all the rest, right.
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Yeah, exactly.
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So I saw it firsthand
the logarithmic progression
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of this development.
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I've said it many
times, you know, in school,
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at least when I was in school,
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we used to study the
Industrial Revolution,
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which over about 100
years revolutionized the world
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settlement patterns, employment,
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social restructuring.
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We've gone through a
far more radical shift
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with the computer
revolution in a shorter time
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than the Industrial
Revolution and it's not stopped.
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And Ray Kurzweil
has become a futurist
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and I know he has a theory now.
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I'm sure he's wrong on the time
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that this curve
will reach infinity.
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In other words, it'll be a
vertical curve of development
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around the year 2035,
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I think this is year,
the point of singularity.
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Not sure will be,
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but the principle is
there and it's also a principle
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you can apply it
at the national debt,
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another things like that.
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But in actuality...
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Knowledge as the Bible
says is going to explode.
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It will, but
that's an understanding
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of knowledge of Bible prophecy,
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but technologically wise
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things are beginning
to plateau right now.
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On certain areas
like the silicon chip,
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they've reached
the physical limits...
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I mean, even iPhones,
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the latest
developments, they're not like,
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"Wow, got to have that."
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Drones for the drone technology.
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They have all this locked in,
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you know, when I fly that drone,
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there's 19
satellites I'm locked into,
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and there's certain fields.
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I was flying it last week
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through our big metropolis
of Jefferson of 2000 people
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and I couldn't
fly over the jail.
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I was downtown, it stopped me
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and it said that
there's a jail there.
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And I couldn't go there.
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So technology
today is, it's a benefit,
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but then at the same time,
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like with the latest
Apple 13.5 update, it is...
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That's an automatic
login when you do that
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that you're
logged in for this...
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Well, we're
clearly in this Kurzweil,
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I haven't read his
stuff in the last few months,
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but he's
probably regrouping of it
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because yeah,
because interrupted,
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it's not gone backwards,
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but there's a
consolidation stage.
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And clearly, the
chips in the computers
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have reached that
they need a new medium.
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The silicon chip has
reached almost the limit,
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although we're
already in multiple cores
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where they're getting
the same sort of thing.
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So one way or another,
there is an onward and upward
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and no one can predict,
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but it's what you
can safely predict
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it's massively
changing the norms of our life.
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Everyday.
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And so you can't counteract it,
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but I think it
needs to be factored in
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when we're talking about
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how a person of
faith reacts to a world.
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It's not the old world,
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you need to
realize the complications
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that are coming our
way and the oversight.
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And just like Daniel,
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you know, the king tricked,
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you know, lay down the law that,
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you know, if you pray to
anyone but him, you're dead,
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but Daniel goes into his
room and prays as normal.
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Fine, if that's your commitment,
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that's how you should act,
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but don't think
that the things are done
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in secret anymore.
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No.
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And for us, we've got to
be as bold as Daniel was,
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without having any fear, to
be able to just stand for...
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And that's really... Thank you.
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You've got it to my...
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I think this is the time
to really show your colors.
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Yeah, well, the real
Christian stand up today.
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Yes.
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And rather than
fade back in back to
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what in another
program really troubled me.
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This is not the
time for half-heartedness
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to sort of retreat and
think you can wait to that.
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But if you stand,
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then you're
being socially awkward.
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You're not being
normal, you're not complying.
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So is this really
the time to stand?
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Or is this still
the time to sit down
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and quietly stand?
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I think it's the time to stand.
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That's my bottom line,
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but everyone has
to move by conscience
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as they're compelled to,
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but I think in a
time of great stress,
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a time of great
falling away of faith,
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this is the time to rediscover
or discover God and faith,
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and then live up
to it in a maximum way
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not be half-hearted Christians.
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It's never been good,
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but I do believe
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and, you know, we speak
to people of all faiths,
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but speaking as a Christian
and what I read in the Bible,
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I can see that God is merciful,
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not willing that
any should perish.
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I think in easier times,
people of good intention,
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but not strong,
overly strong faith
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probably always have been saved,
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but I think in a
time of great stress,
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it will take a greater faith
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to not that God needs
a greater faith to road,
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but it will take a greater faith
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to give your
self some interference
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on these delusions,
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like even the health
message in the Adventism,
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you're not saved because you eat
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or don't eat certain foods,
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but if you eat certain bad food
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or indulge in
certain bad activities
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that dull your perception,
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you certainly can be lost
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because you can't
see the difference
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between truth and error.
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So you're saying that
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I can't eat my
way to heaven now.
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No. You know, I
had all this wrong.
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I am saying that.
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Yeah, that's exactly right.
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But a lot of people
haven't sort of grasp that.
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So yes, God's not
going to damn you for that,
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but you may damn yourself
in a very difficult time.
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When times get
straighter, the need is,
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as the Bible
over and over again,
00:09:07.74\00:09:09.08
Old and New Testament, it
says, this calls for perception.
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This calls for understanding.
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The onus is on
the person of faith
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to see the difference
between right and wrong,
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and the need for
action and interaction.
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It would be interesting to see
if you could actually look in
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and take a poll of
the thoughts of people
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during this shutdown
where everybody stayed at home.
00:09:26.86\00:09:30.07
Were they deeper
into the Word of God
00:09:30.10\00:09:33.34
or they deeper
into social media?
00:09:33.37\00:09:37.31
I think the latter, which,
00:09:37.34\00:09:39.74
and maybe we need to
have another program on it.
00:09:39.77\00:09:41.48
I think it's not coincidental
that social action activity
00:09:41.51\00:09:47.18
is that suddenly
is a desire to do that
00:09:47.22\00:09:51.35
rather than
spirituality and talk about God
00:09:51.39\00:09:54.46
and His wonderful love.
00:09:54.49\00:09:56.96
It's a Catch-22
00:09:56.99\00:09:58.33
because someone
that's highly motivated
00:09:58.36\00:10:00.23
for spiritual godly things
00:10:00.26\00:10:01.66
should have a
sensitivity to social action,
00:10:01.70\00:10:04.67
but that's not the main game.
00:10:04.70\00:10:06.47
Jesus said, "The poor you
will have with you always."
00:10:06.50\00:10:08.57
Yeah.
00:10:08.60\00:10:09.94
And that's not the
actual nature of people
00:10:09.97\00:10:12.67
to want to do that too.
00:10:12.71\00:10:14.51
Right.
00:10:14.54\00:10:15.88
Interesting times,
00:10:15.91\00:10:17.25
but I thought of
anybody that I know
00:10:17.28\00:10:19.28
to talk technology
with you would make sense.
00:10:19.31\00:10:21.35
And I know you see it,
now I haven't even realized,
00:10:21.38\00:10:23.89
as you said, with
your, with the drone that
00:10:23.92\00:10:26.82
now it's got its
own inbuilt inhibition
00:10:26.86\00:10:29.36
against going certain places
00:10:29.39\00:10:30.93
interacting with other software.
00:10:30.96\00:10:34.10
And it's all put in
there by the manufacturers
00:10:34.13\00:10:37.47
that even airports.
00:10:37.50\00:10:38.83
If there's an airport
nearby, you can't go up so high,
00:10:38.87\00:10:41.47
you can't even
go near that field.
00:10:41.50\00:10:44.14
It's...
00:10:44.17\00:10:45.51
So the days of the
guy caught at 30,000 feet
00:10:45.54\00:10:48.64
in His lawn chair with balloons,
00:10:48.68\00:10:50.31
remember that story?
00:10:50.35\00:10:51.68
Those are over.
Those are the analog days.
00:10:51.71\00:10:54.05
You could still do
that by popping a balloon.
00:10:54.08\00:10:56.22
Yeah.
00:10:56.25\00:10:57.59
Well, so where do you
go with your drone now
00:10:57.62\00:11:01.49
and with your faith,
what do you think is the next?
00:11:01.52\00:11:04.69
I mean, I have to
00:11:04.73\00:11:06.06
during this time
period that we have right now,
00:11:06.09\00:11:08.33
you've got to be focused in.
00:11:08.36\00:11:10.63
For me, I have to study more.
00:11:10.67\00:11:12.97
I have to know
00:11:13.00\00:11:14.34
because in order
to be able to stand,
00:11:14.37\00:11:16.10
you got to be able to
know what you believe,
00:11:16.14\00:11:18.34
to be able to stand.
00:11:18.37\00:11:22.11
A few years ago,
00:11:22.14\00:11:23.55
as part of a
presidential election,
00:11:23.58\00:11:26.55
a fairly well-known
comedian decided to run
00:11:26.58\00:11:30.05
as a gag
candidacy for President.
00:11:30.09\00:11:33.29
And I will
remember him standing up
00:11:33.32\00:11:35.49
as part of the preliminaries
on television on a comedy show,
00:11:35.52\00:11:40.10
but still it was
a pseudo campaign.
00:11:40.13\00:11:42.86
And he said with
a very serious face,
00:11:42.90\00:11:44.87
which he normally
had anyway, and he said,
00:11:44.90\00:11:49.50
"Lies have been going around,
00:11:49.54\00:11:52.34
rumors have been going around,
00:11:52.37\00:11:53.98
rumors of the very worst kind,
00:11:54.01\00:11:58.25
true ones."
00:11:58.28\00:12:00.32
We live in a time
of misinformation.
00:12:00.35\00:12:03.02
And yet ironically,
00:12:03.05\00:12:04.39
we live in a
time when information
00:12:04.42\00:12:07.09
and facts and
figures and descriptions
00:12:07.12\00:12:09.86
are just flowing around
us as the water in a stream.
00:12:09.89\00:12:14.30
As the Bible said,
"Knowledge will be increased
00:12:14.33\00:12:16.87
and men run to and fro."
00:12:16.90\00:12:19.00
What we need to make sure
00:12:19.03\00:12:20.74
in this time of electronic
over information is that
00:12:20.77\00:12:24.34
we are connected with the divine
00:12:24.37\00:12:26.47
and that we operate
with integrity and honesty
00:12:26.51\00:12:29.74
in all that we do.
00:12:29.78\00:12:32.21
For Liberty Insider,
this is Lincoln Steed.
00:12:32.25\00:12:35.08