Participants:
Series Code: LI
Program Code: LI200477B
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00:01 Welcome back to Liberty Insider.
00:02 Before the break, 00:04 I was sharing some very pivotal information 00:07 from the book Great Controversy, 00:09 talking about the rise to power of the United States, 00:11 a lamblike beast with two horns. 00:14 And those horns, as I read, 00:18 can be seen as two characteristics 00:20 of Republicanism, 00:21 power from the people, and Protestantism, 00:25 which I can't say 00:26 is a direct characteristic anymore. 00:28 An interesting aside to this and I'm not going to read 00:31 or share it here other than the thought. 00:35 England has created waves in Europe 00:38 by separating from the European Union. 00:41 And I thought myself without a lot of evidence 00:45 that it's because 00:46 is distinctly Protestant entity. 00:48 It was a bad fit to a union 00:50 that includes some Protestant nations, 00:52 but is very Rome centric. 00:55 In fact, the Treaty of Rome established 00:57 and recently I read a long analytical statement 01:01 from Europe that said just as much 01:04 that the Protestant character of England has reacted badly 01:08 against the pervading influence of the Church of Rome, 01:12 through the European Union. 01:15 And so the US used to be characterized 01:17 by the Protestant sensibility is fading. 01:20 But listen to this, it says, "But the beast 01:22 with lamblike horns spake as a dragon." 01:25 And this is, quoting now Revelation. 01:27 "And he exercised all the power of the first beast before him, 01:31 and causes the earth and them 01:33 that dwell there in to worship the first beast 01:36 his deadly wound was healed saying to them 01:38 that dwell on the earth, 01:40 and that they should make an image to the beast 01:43 which had the wound by a sword and did live." 01:46 Pretty plain, a damage but resurgent power. 01:49 That's from Revelation 13. 01:51 "The lamblike beast and the dragon voice 01:55 of the symbol point to a striking contradiction 01:58 between the professions and the practice of the nation 02:02 thus represented." 02:03 And we live through this now. 02:06 The Constitution is a wonderfully etiological 02:11 and inspirational document. 02:13 But more and more there's a contradiction 02:15 between the Constitution 02:17 and how things are ordered 02:18 in the late imperial life of the United States. 02:24 And it says here, "The speaking of the nation 02:28 is the action of its legislative 02:30 and judicial authorities. 02:32 By such action it will give the lie 02:35 to those liberal and peaceful principles 02:37 which it has put forth 02:39 as the foundation of its policy. 02:41 The prediction that it will speak as a dragon 02:45 and exercise all the power of the first beast 02:49 plainly foretells a development 02:52 of the spirit of intolerance 02:54 and persecution that was manifested 02:57 by the nations represented by the dragon 03:01 and the leopardlike beast." 03:02 And who can doubt in this era, 03:05 this present administration to be more specific, 03:08 that the United States 03:09 is incapable of aggressive, dominant, 03:12 and even cruel actions. 03:14 Of course, we see it incipiently presented now. 03:17 And it says, "In the statement 03:19 that the beast with two horns causeth the earth 03:22 and them which dwell therein to worship 03:24 the first beast indicates 03:26 that the authority of this nation 03:29 is to be exercised in enforcing 03:31 some observance which shall be an act of homage to the papacy. 03:37 Such action would be directly contrary 03:39 to the principles of this government, 03:41 to the genius of its free institutions, 03:44 to the direct and solemn avowals 03:46 of the Declaration of Independence, 03:48 and to the Constitution." 03:49 Of course! 03:51 "The founders," it continues, 03:53 "of the nation wisely sought to guard 03:56 against the employment of secular power 03:58 on the part of the church, with the inevitable result, 04:02 intolerance and persecution. 04:04 The Constitution provides that, 04:07 and this is in quotes from the Constitution, 04:10 "Congress shall make no law 04:13 respecting an establishment of religion, 04:15 or preventing the free exercise thereof," 04:19 and that quote again from the Constitution, 04:23 "No religious test shall ever be required 04:27 as a qualification to any office 04:29 of public trust under the United States." 04:33 That's all that the Constitution 04:34 has to say about religion. 04:36 Only continuing, "Only in flagrant violation 04:40 of these safeguards to the nation's liberty 04:43 can any religious observance be enforced by civil authority. 04:49 But the inconsistency of such action 04:51 is no greater than is represented in the symbol. 04:54 It is the beast with lamb-like horns 04:58 in profession pure, gentle, and harmless 05:02 that speaks as a dragon." 05:04 We are living through that transformation, I believe. 05:07 It's not given to us to know the day and the hour 05:10 when, you know, 05:11 the growl of the beast is so loud, 05:14 it'll be patently obvious that even in the US, 05:17 the land of freedom, religious compulsion, 05:20 you know, is either imminent or upon you. 05:22 But I think any analytical person, 05:25 anyone vaguely familiar with prophecy 05:28 must see a distinct change 05:30 in the nature of the US generally 05:33 in administering laws and how it relates to others, 05:36 you know, from illegal aliens to aliens and other countries. 05:40 The growling, rumbling, threats of war, 05:44 and they've all existed in elements before 05:47 but it's overwhelming now. 05:50 And who cannot notice that the United States 05:54 while it's toyed with as far back as 1888 05:57 with religious legislation, the Sunday laws and 20 states 06:02 or so still have blue laws on their books. 06:05 You know, it's not totally behind us, 06:06 but who cannot see that with the present alliance 06:10 between politically active religious factions 06:16 and the direct presidential power, 06:18 that there is this hungering 06:20 for legislative support 06:23 of a not religious liberty generally, 06:26 they're not keen on supporting Muslims. 06:28 They're not keen on supporting 06:29 marginal aberrant religious views. 06:32 It's a mainline American 06:34 form of Protestantism/universal Catholicism, 06:40 which is sort of a contradiction 06:44 because Catholic means universal, 06:45 but you know, 06:47 there's an amalgamation of elements of Catholicism 06:50 and a debased Protestantism debased 06:53 in the sense of identity. 06:55 Protestantism is cajole, evangelicalism is cajole, 07:00 not even solely characterized, 07:03 but often represented 07:05 under the idea of the secret rapture 07:08 and you know, in a fanciful, 07:11 non-biblical view of a great conflict, 07:17 not the Great Controversy, 07:18 but the conflict between those who are assumed 07:20 to be swept away to heaven 07:21 and behind you know is a fight to the death 07:25 between others who come to God 07:27 and evil forces or evil, fanciful, 07:29 only equaled by what the Muslims 07:33 hold is sort of their end time 07:34 where the Jews and their satanic colleagues 07:38 will fight against the heavenly hosts 07:42 led by Muhammad and Jesus. 07:44 You know, there's an expectation 07:46 of a great conflict, 07:47 but only by looking at the Bible 07:49 can we see that it's over loyalty to God. 07:52 Can we see that the Sabbath observance 07:55 is probably as pure a sign 07:58 of whether you're for God 07:59 or against Him and the application of force 08:02 to accomplish that in is sort of the signature 08:06 of persecution through the ages now picked up 08:10 by a once democratically free 08:14 and benign force prepared now to get its way by force. 08:20 We're living in that day. 08:21 And I have a great burden that, of course, 08:23 Seventh-day Adventist who are particularly given 08:26 this well researched 08:28 and prophetically informed book, 08:31 but I have a burden that Adventist should read it, 08:34 we should circulate it to others 08:35 and the awareness that 08:37 it creates of us living in a stream of prophecy 08:41 needs to be communicated. 08:44 You know, these are not normal times 08:47 and in Liberty magazine and on this program, 08:49 I keep trying to tell people that. 08:53 Yes, other people have lived through 08:55 great historical dislocations. 08:57 I would have hated to have been in Europe 08:59 during the Black Death when the, you know, 09:01 the hand drawn carts were pulled 09:05 through the narrow streets 09:06 and the cry bring out your dead. 09:08 And you know, 09:09 maybe half of my family had already gone. 09:11 Those were times that to those living then, 09:14 they seem like the end of the world, 09:15 but we look back on it, 09:17 it was a quaint desperate time 09:18 but it's not the end of the world. 09:20 I would have hate to have lived even as recently 09:23 as World War II 09:24 when about 60 million people died, 09:27 not the hundred and some thousand 09:28 so far from COVID in this country 09:30 and a few hundred thousand more worldwide 09:32 which may be even larger but we're unlikely 09:36 in our present emergency to equal World War II. 09:39 Millions of people perished, 6 million or so, 09:43 most of them Jews 09:44 went systematically to the gas chambers. 09:47 Evil upon evil has been visited upon us 09:50 in the modern era and going back 09:52 into the distant past Genghis Khan 09:54 and others but here we are as Francis Fukuyama, 09:59 once, a historian said, 10:01 "We're almost at the end of history." 10:02 He was a bit wrong because he thought that 10:04 historical process had finished. 10:06 But we're by most people's lights, 10:09 the processes of democracy, of globalization 10:13 and so on are reaching their flash point something... 10:17 Let me quote Ellen White, she says, 10:18 "The rulers and statesman, 10:21 thinking men and women of all classes, 10:23 recognize that something great 10:26 and decisive is about to take place, 10:29 that the world is at the point of a great event." 10:35 And that great event, of course, 10:37 is the revelation of God's eternal kingdom. 10:40 But between then and now is a defining moment when, 10:45 as Joshua said to the people of God, 10:47 "Choose you this day, whom you will serve." |
Revised 2020-09-18