Welcome back to
the Liberty Insider.
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Before the break, we
were into some heavy stuff,
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thinking about what
should be our motivation
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or what we should be
motivated to do to participate
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in answering great
injustices and so on.
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And I was giving the example,
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remember of the Seventh-day
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Adventist Church and its leader,
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co-leader Ellen
White at that time,
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most moved by the
problem down south
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that helped precipitate
the civil war of slavery,
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huge injustice that
will be a ghost haunting
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this country till the
end of time, I'm positive.
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It's the original sin.
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But the Adventist Church
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while it included many people
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involved in the
Underground Railroad,
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there were many abolitionists.
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Ellen White
herself had a huge affinity
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for the work in
the south of the...
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at least to say
the colored people.
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I mean, that's what she said,
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they worked for
the color people.
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And to this day,
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the Seventh-day Adventist Church
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has structures set up
for black communities,
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separate conferences.
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But yet, right at that time,
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they decided to
be non combatants,
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not to fight in that war.
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And I can only extrapolate
it for our time that,
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you know, on a certain level
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we need to help and
support such things.
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But our charters
what Ellen White says,
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carry present
truth, and present truth
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is to warn a
world of coming judgment
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of the coming
kingdom of glory of the Lord,
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and warn the world
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that this is the
time to get yourself
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and your personal
house in order spiritually
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to prepare for that moment.
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The grand moment of
the ages is upon us.
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You know, as I
was driving up here,
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I spent some time reflecting
on this in this long drive.
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And, you know, the
focus today is very much
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about Black Lives Matters
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and all those other things
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and then you have
Other Lives Matters.
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But to me as I pondered this,
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I think one of the
reasons that we're not supposed
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to get focused in on this
is because all lives matters.
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Well, of course.
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And because all lives matters,
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our focus is not just
on one particular race,
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one particular color,
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but our focus is
on a global scale,
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that there's a world
that's dying out there.
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And if we just
hone in on one niche
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of the whole thing,
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we're missing out
on the opportunity
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to proclaim that
gospel message to everybody.
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And this is the time period,
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and Satan is
using orchestratively,
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he's using this time
period right now to sow focus
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and take all our energies,
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take all our
focus and everything
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and throw it out somewhere else,
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so that we can't be
about our Father's business.
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Right.
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And you say focus,
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but part of what I see him
doing is divide and conquer.
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That too. Like right now.
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Yeah, within... In
some countries in...
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Usually Muslim parts of Africa,
there's actual slavery still.
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I mean, what
happened here was desperate
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and we bearing the consequences.
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But I don't see
these people going on about
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the literal slavery
in certain countries,
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that's justified by in
some of those countries,
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both by the government
and the religious leaders.
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There has been a
concern about human trafficking,
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which is, you know,
all that slavery in term.
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It's the same sort of thing.
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I mean, there's
horrible human abuses
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all over the world
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and you can see
how a Creator God
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at a distance would be
weeping over the whole,
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toward retail, but, you know,
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what's near at
hand, that's ours,
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but people are
dying by the minute
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from one thing or another,
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whether it's abuse
from humans or starvation.
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You know, we are worried
about whether it's enough
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in our supermarkets, not
as much as it used to be,
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but there's places in the world,
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if rice goes up
a couple of cents,
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people die.
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So somehow, yes,
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we need to have
an increased affinity
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and sympathy and on occasions,
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even assistance for this thing,
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but that's not our singular aim.
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And, you know, I look a lot at
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the ministry of
Jesus Christ and, you know,
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on one level we're called to be
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exemplars or
imitators of Christ.
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He called Herod a fox,
so he had no political fear.
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But he wasn't trying
to solve the situation.
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They were under
horrible occupation,
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weren't they with the Romans?
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I mean, we forget
what the Romans were like.
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I mean, crucifixion for Jesus.
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Yes, they crucified
people pretty commonly.
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Roman...
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The Romans weren't
unhinged barbarians,
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but they were
the cruelest most...
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What's the word?
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At the moment anti-fascist.
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The Roman regime was
fascist to the limit.
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The iron fist of the
state, inflexible law
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and especially if
you ran afoul of it,
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it will walk all over you,
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cut your head off, put
it on the pike in the town,
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all of that, in
the name of integrity
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and supporting the state.
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Jesus didn't challenge that.
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I can't see it all,
He challenged the abuse
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of spiritual prerogatives,
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threw the money
changers out of the temple.
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But, you know, what do we do?
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We can't sit idly by
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but what should
we be active about?
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What's your prescription, Alden?
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You know, for me, remember,
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during that time period
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as we mentioned
in previous shows,
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I was cycling across the country
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through all this 2,500 miles
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from San Diego to
St Augustine, Florida.
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And for me, I
took that time period
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to when I had the opportunity
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to actually meet somebody,
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I was always
witnessing with the people.
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Right.
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You know, when
you're on a bicycle,
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you're very limited
as to what you can carry.
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But I did carry a
few tracks with me,
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and I was able to pass them out,
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pray with the people.
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I mean, wherever we are today,
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no matter what
the circumstances,
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no matter even if
we're at war with people,
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there is still an opportunity
that the Lord gives us
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if we ask for that
each and every day,
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an opportunity to
be able to witness
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and share the good news.
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Remember, there is good news
in a very bad news world today.
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And that's what we have to do.
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As you talk about
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in the "Religious liberty area."
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There may be
strife, there may be famine,
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there may be
destruction all around us.
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But that should
not at all impact us
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or cause any fear
with us because Jesus says,
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I'll never leave you,
I'll never forsake you.
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So based on those promises,
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there's a work that
we have to do today,
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no matter what goes on,
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because all lives
matter in Jesus' eyes.
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Right. Absolutely.
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I was thinking of the statement,
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the Bible says,
perfect love casts out fear.
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So if we have...
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I mean, none of us
will have perfect love,
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but if we are as perfectly
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as we can oriented
toward heavenly things
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and emulating Christ,
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it will
diminish our fear factor.
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There's no question.
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But I think we need to be
sober minded in these times,
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not puritanically
permanent, you know,
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removed from the
world but, in fact,
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it seems to be religious
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or otherwise you're disconnected
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from reality if
you're not restrained
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by current
situation in the world.
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The world is...
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I wrote an
editorial a few years ago that
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I keep reminding myself
of, I called it Convergence.
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When I was a kid.
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The church was on a
prophetic evangelist
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as they still are,
would talk about prophecy
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and the great empires
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and the
resurgence of the worst parts
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of the Roman Catholic Church
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because, you know, many
wonderful Roman Catholics
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I've met over the years,
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but the Roman Catholic
Church had drifted away
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from doctrinal purity
from a biblical point of view
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and the Protestant revival,
of course, challenge that.
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But it...
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The Bible says that
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Rome will come to
power again, right?
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We see that.
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And I remember the
evangelists talking about it.
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And, you know, we
were always troubled
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about ecumenism and
so on that had its line.
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You could look as people
now as sort of consumed on,
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you could look at
ecological degradation.
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And the
Republicans in particular
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seem to hate the
idea of global warming.
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I think it's a
terminology problem.
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But global change is everywhere.
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Anywhere you go in the
world, the weather's wacky,
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it's never been
like this before.
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It's turmoil.
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You can look at
political collapse
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in formally solid countries
like the United States.
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We're clearly going
through a dicey political time.
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So, you know, individually,
you could argue against one
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or the other, but put together
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you got all these
lines of convergence
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and they're accelerating
and coming together.
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There's a flashpoint. Yes.
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A moment of truth,
who knows where it is,
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but it's not far ahead.
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And even if one or two
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of these lines
have crossed already,
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don't pan out, we're
going to have a conflict...
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Well, there was a
book Conflict of the Ages,
00:09:07.68\00:09:09.71
the Conflict of the
Ages is upon us and I...
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In afternoon meetings,
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I tell people
who like to set dates
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and our church
doesn't set dates, can't.
00:09:16.25\00:09:19.05
Ellen White says,
no date after 1844.
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That was a political mark.
00:09:21.52\00:09:22.86
I mean, a prophetic marker.
00:09:22.89\00:09:24.36
But I tell people,
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the world you know
is about to pass away.
00:09:25.76\00:09:29.06
I'm sure we're at
the end of an age.
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All you have to do
is read Matthew 24.
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Yeah.
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That'll tell you for sure
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where we are in
this time period.
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Yeah.
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A wonderful
beginning, a rough like...
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Well, Jesus says birth pangs,
these are the birth pangs.
00:09:42.48\00:09:44.91
Beginnings of it. Yeah.
00:09:44.95\00:09:46.28
And, you know, after
the birth, wonderful.
00:09:46.31\00:09:47.95
I mean, that's
the beginning of life.
00:09:47.98\00:09:49.48
But then He also goes on to say,
00:09:49.52\00:09:50.85
"You'll be hated because of Me."
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Yeah. And why
would people be hated?
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I think it's because
00:09:55.32\00:09:56.83
we're at a choosing time period.
00:09:56.86\00:09:58.19
People have to choose who...
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And people that
have made a choice,
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which we could say
is the wrong choice,
00:10:01.43\00:10:02.76
but made a choice,
00:10:02.80\00:10:04.30
and might have a
few second thoughts,
00:10:04.33\00:10:07.14
then we'll hate someone
00:10:07.17\00:10:08.50
that reminds them that
they made a bad choice.
00:10:08.54\00:10:10.74
It's a psychology that
I think we all understand.
00:10:10.77\00:10:12.97
It's not just in
spiritual matters.
00:10:13.01\00:10:14.34
Well, sure.
00:10:14.38\00:10:15.71
If you represent Christ,
and you're blaming Christ
00:10:15.74\00:10:19.11
for all the bad
things that have happened,
00:10:19.15\00:10:20.72
why people do
that, I don't know.
00:10:20.75\00:10:22.68
But where Christ
allows these things to happen.
00:10:22.72\00:10:26.02
Why?
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Because He's trying to
bring us closer to Him.
00:10:27.42\00:10:29.16
Yeah.
00:10:29.19\00:10:30.53
Well, that could be our prayer
00:10:30.56\00:10:31.96
and I hope all of those
00:10:31.99\00:10:33.40
that watch this
from time to time.
00:10:33.43\00:10:35.53
I hope you're just not
a onetime watcher, viewer.
00:10:35.56\00:10:38.27
I hope there's an
underlying message
00:10:38.30\00:10:41.07
that we have a
God that loves us,
00:10:41.10\00:10:43.54
there's another
world to be gained
00:10:43.57\00:10:46.47
and this world is not yet lost
00:10:46.51\00:10:48.04
because there are those seeking
00:10:48.08\00:10:49.61
and searching for God
and we can play a part
00:10:49.64\00:10:52.55
in spreading
God's love, a warning.
00:10:52.58\00:10:56.22
And, yes, religious
liberty is important,
00:10:56.25\00:10:57.99
but religious liberty is
the mechanism to proclaim
00:10:58.02\00:11:00.69
what we already
have, freedom and trust.
00:11:00.72\00:11:03.22
Proverbs 3:5, 6 tells us that,
00:11:03.26\00:11:06.90
"We are to trust the
Lord with all our heart
00:11:06.93\00:11:08.80
that we're not to lean
on our own understanding."
00:11:08.83\00:11:11.23
And then he also says,
00:11:11.27\00:11:13.07
"In all your
ways acknowledge Him
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and He will direct your path."
00:11:14.64\00:11:16.00
And I think in this time period
that we're living right now
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is our only trust
can be in Jesus Christ.
00:11:19.07\00:11:22.58
And with all the stuff
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that's happening
in the world today,
00:11:23.98\00:11:25.61
I ask you the
question, who do you trust?
00:11:25.65\00:11:28.08
Who are you living for today?
00:11:28.12\00:11:31.82
It's a little
ironic that in the COVID-19
00:11:31.85\00:11:35.06
period of isolation,
00:11:35.09\00:11:36.73
we've seen a
resurgence of demonstrations.
00:11:36.76\00:11:40.90
That's good because
we've come a long way I think,
00:11:40.93\00:11:43.77
since the George
Bush administration,
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when free speech
zones were roped off areas,
00:11:46.63\00:11:50.94
often miles from a
presidential cavalcade.
00:11:50.97\00:11:53.88
Now admittedly
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with the risk
of smoke, grenades,
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people can demonstrate
in front of the White House.
00:11:58.41\00:12:01.15
People are moved with
00:12:01.18\00:12:02.52
what they see as
moral imperatives.
00:12:02.55\00:12:05.42
But as Jesus said,
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the poor you will
always have with me.
00:12:06.82\00:12:08.62
Some of these besetting problems
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are a part of our condition.
00:12:10.36\00:12:12.09
And while we need to
be disturbed by them,
00:12:12.13\00:12:14.13
speak out against them.
00:12:14.16\00:12:15.53
We need to clearly advance
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with every energy
and fiber of our being,
00:12:18.17\00:12:20.77
the coming Kingdom of the Lord
00:12:20.80\00:12:22.57
and the ultimate fix
for all that ails us.
00:12:22.60\00:12:26.31
If we are an
activist in one area,
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we will by
definition ignore others.
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The singular area of focus
for the Christian is Christ.
00:12:32.75\00:12:36.62
And the singular
hope for the Christian
00:12:36.65\00:12:38.92
is an eternity of
bliss with Christ in heaven.
00:12:38.95\00:12:42.82
For Liberty Insider,
this is Lincoln Steed.
00:12:42.86\00:12:45.46