Participants:
Series Code: LI
Program Code: LI210508B
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00:06 Welcome back to the Liberty Insider.
00:08 Before the break, I was sharing 00:11 an editorial from 2013 00:15 that was taking a little longer than I thought to read. 00:18 Although none of them are long, they're only 1200 words 00:21 which words come and go pretty quick for most of us, 00:24 but it was inspired by the Second Coming, 00:28 which we had a picture on the cover, 00:30 those of you that missed it, 00:32 trying to signal at the time of disappointed 00:37 apocalyptic predictions and apocalyptic like 00:41 storm on the east coast of the US. 00:43 People were thinking about, what's going on? 00:45 So I'll pick it up at the beginning 00:47 of the paragraph that I was last reading. 00:52 An author that everyone knows, Lewis Carroll, 00:55 Alice in Wonderland, not everyone's read it, 00:58 but we know of that. 00:59 It's a good kid story, 01:00 but a little bit more than that. 01:02 He was deeply symbolic because he was a mathematician. 01:06 And I wrote here that Lewis Carroll 01:10 of the Alice in Wonderland fantasy, 01:13 but actually an accomplished mathematician, 01:16 wrote that, "If you don't know where you're going, 01:20 any road will take you there. 01:23 Too many of the roads up ahead signal trouble for us. 01:27 We need to know where we are going, 01:30 not necessarily whether the world will end one day. 01:34 I often tell seminar attendees that I can my, 01:37 stake my life on one prediction. 01:41 The world as we know it is about to pass away. 01:46 That I'm setting off, 01:48 whether it's the end of the world 01:50 or the beginning of Christ's eternal kingdom 01:51 that's not given to us to know. 01:54 Beyond this present world construct is likely 01:57 a time of runaway technological control 02:01 and dislocation. 02:03 Beyond is shore to be a time of declining resources 02:06 and more wars for access. 02:09 It will be a time of more natural disasters 02:12 caused by such things as unnatural global warming. 02:17 And I can already sense 02:19 a paradoxical swing towards 02:23 mass faith expression, 02:25 even as many will come to regard minority faith views 02:30 as a luxury that species survival cannot afford. 02:36 More than 100 years ago 02:37 the people who eventually began to publish Liberty Magazine 02:41 got into quite a debate about 02:43 how religious liberty should be projected 02:46 to the nation's thought leaders. 02:49 Some wanted to keep the argument 02:51 to historical and legal points. 02:53 Another group insisted on the necessity 02:56 of giving these arguments together 02:59 with a biblical framework. 03:02 They insisted that religious freedom 03:04 in the United States must be linked 03:07 to biblical faith and eschatology. 03:10 And in particular 03:12 they mentioned the Bible Sabbath, 03:14 a matter of much debate within Christendom, even today, 03:18 and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, 03:20 a central teaching of Jesus, 03:21 without which one would have little more 03:24 than the wise sayings 03:25 that Jefferson redacted from the Gospels. 03:29 This magazine that I edited, Liberty Magazine, 03:32 continued that second approach. 03:35 We know that the Second Coming of Jesus Christ 03:38 is the only perfect solution to all that ails the world 03:43 and nation of the United States. 03:47 And we sense that it may be soon. 03:52 But as the Apostle Paul wrote, "That day will not come, 03:57 unless the rebellion comes first, 04:00 and the man of lawlessness is revealed." 04:03 That's from 2 Thessalonians 2:3. 04:07 There might come a day, I write, 04:10 when the basic tenets of the Constitution 04:14 are practically put aside: 04:16 that certainly will be a time of crisis 04:19 for religious freedom, 04:21 but we defend the Constitution 04:23 because that day can be pushed back. 04:27 There may be uncertain times ahead 04:30 for social cohesion. 04:32 There may be stormy days more blustery 04:36 than any mega-storm yet seen on the East Coast. 04:40 But keep an eye on the horizon. 04:46 Poet Gerald Manley Hopkins 04:49 wrote how at such a time 04:52 "Morning, at the brown brink eastwards, springs." 04:58 We must be watchers for that event. 05:02 We must not be easily daunted 05:05 by ill-informed end of the world prognosticators 05:09 and, worse, their solutions. 05:12 Keep freedom alive in your hearts 05:15 and in your actions, 05:16 and the break in the clouds will come. 05:21 Was exciting stuff living through those days 05:24 and privilege for me to be able to write to it. 05:27 But you know, seven years, eight years down from that, 05:31 I can say it with a vengeance. 05:33 All of the signs of social, economic, financial, 05:38 and military storms are with us. 05:40 In fact, as I study history, in the long haul, 05:44 you can say the same thing. 05:46 But in the short haul, 05:47 we're only here by the mercy of God. 05:49 There is no logic that in the nuclear age, 05:55 with thousands of nuclear bombs stored up 05:59 by several major powers 06:01 and no end of aggravations between them. 06:04 There's no logic that we have lived this long. 06:08 Man is self-destructive, self-willed, 06:11 short imagined in all of his plans, 06:16 and they're going wrong at the speed of light. 06:19 But I think it's a privilege. 06:20 When we talk about religious liberty, 06:22 we're talking about a civil element, 06:27 you know, freedom of speech, freedom of thought, 06:29 these are civil rights. 06:31 But applying it to religion, 06:34 this is the most cherished aspect of our life, 06:37 the right to think beyond the storm, 06:40 beyond the troubles, beyond the immediate threat, 06:43 and to fix our gaze on a coming redemption. 06:47 You know, how could it be any better in our state? 06:53 For a year or two, sometime back, 06:56 I remember spending an inordinate amount of time 06:59 watching the debates on YouTube, 07:02 but they were given in different locations, 07:05 usually on college campuses, between Christopher Hitchens, 07:10 an avowed atheist, an enemy of all religions, 07:13 not just Christianity, and a great student of history. 07:15 I watched him 07:17 because he was a brilliant writer and historian, 07:19 and wordsmith. 07:21 And it was fascinating to watch his arguments 07:24 and to see him literally destroy many people 07:27 that thought their faith was intact. 07:29 And, you know, in the New Testament, 07:31 it tells a story 07:33 of the disciples trying to perform miracles 07:35 without the true faith in God and magician, 07:38 set the devil's upon them and says, 07:40 "You know, Paul, I know and so and so I know, 07:42 but who are you?" 07:43 You know, don't speak for God unless 07:45 you're really honestly wanting to be on God's side. 07:49 You know, just an assumed quackery religion 07:52 isn't going to cut it. 07:53 But I noticed that toward the end of his life 07:55 as Hitchens died painfully of cancer, unrepentant 07:59 of his anti-God stance. 08:04 He one occasion shortly before he died, he said, 08:08 "I've come to believe 08:09 that this world is basically a prison house 08:12 for the universe." 08:14 And how right he was, but how forgetful 08:18 or unknowing he was also, 08:21 that in this prison house, redemption is promised, 08:24 release is coming very, very shortly. 08:29 And that's the privilege in talking about 08:30 religious liberty. 08:32 It's not just a civil construct that helps people 08:35 that have this faith that's important to them, 08:37 not necessary to the whole, can carry forward. 08:40 No, it's how, as the Bible says, 08:43 this blessed hope can be protected in advance 08:46 toward that blessed eternal moment, 08:49 the moment of the ages when the skies part, 08:53 the storm fades away, 08:55 and the brilliant light of an eternal smile 08:58 from the deity is fixed on us. 09:01 That's the hope of the ages. 09:03 That's what this cover was hinting at. 09:06 The sky is not to be dark always, 09:09 it's to be bright with the glory of God. 09:15 When I was much younger and probably 09:17 more impressionable on the wrong things, 09:20 I had a dream of the Second Coming. 09:23 And my dream was incredibly mechanical. 09:26 There was a little kazoo type trumpet 09:29 that was elevated and then beeped out its message 09:33 and then I could see rollers on the side of the sky 09:36 and the sky was rolled back. 09:38 And there the heavenly group came 09:41 and they were like cardboard cutouts. 09:44 That is not how it's going to be, I'm quite sure. 09:47 CS Lewis writing on the event said it's like 09:51 a sudden end where a brick is thrown at the curtain 09:54 or the lamp and smashes it out. 09:57 It's a violent or at least a radical shifting 10:01 of the present reality. 10:04 That moment is something grand and imminent. 10:09 And I think it's a privilege for all of us 10:11 living in these declining days, 10:13 not of the Roman Empire, 10:15 not even of the American Empire, 10:17 but these declining days of the empire of man, 10:20 soon to be replaced by the eternal 10:23 empire and kingdom of God for the redeemed. 10:26 We can all be there. 10:28 We can all be expectant. 10:30 We can all know as we read God's Word 10:32 and read the seasons, 10:34 as the Pharisees will want not to do. 10:36 Christ is coming. 10:38 For Liberty Insider, this is Lincoln Steed. |
Revised 2021-11-29