Participants:
Series Code: LI
Program Code: LI210512A
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00:27 Welcome to the Liberty Insider.
00:29 This is a program consciously designed 00:32 to clarify things for you on religious liberty. 00:36 While we often feature events in the United States, 00:39 it's a global concern. 00:41 My name is Lincoln Steed, 00:43 for 22 years editor of Liberty magazine, 00:46 and nearly as long as the host of this show, 00:49 and those of you 00:50 that have regularly watched this know 00:52 that our normal setup is for me 00:54 to have a guest and to dialogue with them. 00:56 But on this program and several others, 00:58 I intend to just talk directly to you. 01:03 I'm sure over the years you've heard me 01:06 mention the book, The Great Controversy. 01:09 And for Seventh-day Adventists, 01:10 this is a rather important book. 01:12 It was written by Ellen White, 01:15 who together with her husband James White 01:17 were in essence the co-founders 01:19 of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. 01:21 They and others of their era 01:24 had gone through what was known as The Great Disappointment. 01:27 They had followed 01:29 a Bible teacher and leader, William Miller, 01:35 who was studying prophecy and became convinced 01:37 that 1844 was to be the return, literal return of Jesus Christ. 01:42 Obviously, they had their numbers wrong. 01:44 And even before 01:46 the Adventist Church was formed, 01:47 Ellen and James White and others saw this 01:50 at first on a bitter experience of standing, waiting 01:54 at the moment that it was predicted 01:56 that didn't happen. 01:58 And then in looking more closely 02:00 at how prophecies to be interpreted, 02:02 she realized that I think 02:04 all honest Christians see now that as Jesus said, 02:08 "It's not given to you to know the day and the hour." 02:12 He says, "He will come like a thief 02:13 in the night." 02:14 But it is given to us as the upbraid of the Pharisees 02:17 for not understanding the time of His appearance. 02:20 He says, "You study the seasons, 02:22 you should know the appropriate time 02:24 for the fulfillment of these events." 02:26 And I think it's arguable that we are living 02:29 in the end times portrayed in the Bible, 02:32 and in particular in the Book of Revelation. 02:35 And Ellen White wrote Great Controversy 02:39 at a very interesting time in US history 02:42 and in Adventist history. 02:45 In the year 1888, 02:48 the Adventist Church was very small, 02:51 was only a few tens of thousands of members. 02:54 It was growing quickly. 02:55 And today it's many millions of people, 02:57 I think, somewhere around 15 million worldwide. 03:00 But it was very small back then. 03:03 They had just established a religious liberty work, 03:06 and Alonzo T. Jones, AT 03:10 which used to be the style 03:13 and someone that was powerful, 03:15 you know, just have their initials AT Jones 03:18 was editing that magazine, the Liberty precursor. 03:22 And suddenly religious liberty 03:24 which had always been important for a group 03:26 that had come through the ridicule 03:28 of the failed expectation 03:30 who had been injected from their churches, 03:33 many of them because they believe things 03:35 that were objectionable, 03:37 who had been harassed by authorities 03:39 for disobeying the blue laws, 03:42 which were common back then 03:43 and are still on the books 03:44 in about 20 states blue laws that, 03:46 that find criminalized on occasion work 03:51 and different activities on Sunday, 03:53 the nominal Lord's Day of the society, 03:56 never biblically correct 03:59 and certainly not legally appropriate 04:03 since the First Amendment grants religious freedom, 04:06 but the states back then were penalizing people 04:09 that didn't worship on the Sunday. 04:12 So Seventh-day Adventists had this long concern, 04:15 but in 1888, 04:17 something quite galvanizing happened. 04:20 There was a proposal in the Senate 04:24 for a national Sunday law and not a blue law 04:27 that might find you for doing this 04:29 and that and the other. 04:30 A law that overtly said that that day was to be... 04:33 It was under pain of loyal forbidden 04:35 from doing any commercial or regular secular activities. 04:40 And you were to worship on the... 04:43 As I said the Lord's Day. 04:45 It was a Sunday law which Adventists 04:48 already by studying prophecy had said, 04:53 "A strong push to enforce a false day of worship." 04:59 And I must tell you, on religious liberty, 05:01 by definition, 05:03 any enforced day of worship is false. 05:05 Biblically, the seventh day Sabbath 05:07 is the day given under the Ten Commandments 05:10 and no direct command 05:13 as the papal document Dies Domini says, 05:15 "There's no direct command of the Lord to change it." 05:18 I mean, they did. 05:20 And the early Christians, some of them felt free to, 05:22 but there was no command. 05:24 So it's a binding day, 05:25 but from the principle of religious liberty, 05:29 if the United States 05:30 or any country would bring in a law, 05:32 compelling worship on the seventh day Sabbath, 05:36 it would be wrong, because that is not the way 05:40 that God ever worked with man to compel them 05:43 against their will, 05:44 to worship Him in the way 05:47 He would find acceptable, 05:48 because it even says in the Old Testament, 05:50 you know, I find no pleasure in the sacrifice of animals, 05:54 you know, He wanted heart worship. 05:57 But still, 05:58 to add further insult to the wrong dynamic, 06:01 it was on a Sunday, a false day, 06:05 and AT Jones was quite involved in challenging this legally. 06:09 He gave testimony 06:11 before a congressional committee. 06:14 And then spoke many, many times to the Adventist community 06:17 about the danger of this and the prophetic significance 06:22 that it signaled the very imminent 06:24 return of Christ. 06:26 So in that context, 06:27 Ellen White wrote this book Great Controversy, 06:31 which tells the great sweep of human events 06:35 and God's dealings with humans, 06:37 really from the earliest times 06:39 right through till His appearance, 06:43 tell the story of the reformation 06:44 of efforts to restrict liberty of conscience. 06:47 It tells in advance, and we believe 06:50 it was divinely explicated to her, 06:53 tell us in advance how even in the United States, 06:57 religious liberty will be restricted, 07:00 and people will turn against those 07:03 who persist in keeping the Lord's Day as Saturday 07:08 and honoring it. 07:09 I want to read you a couple of selections 07:12 from this book. 07:14 But before I do, 07:16 let me just tell you one example, 07:17 where I found it most illuminating 07:20 to be familiar with this book. 07:23 In 2015, I think it was, the Pope of Rome 07:27 came and addressed the joint session of Congress. 07:32 To me, that was a massive moment. 07:35 Massive historically, because up until that point, 07:38 no religious leader had ever spoken to a joint session. 07:43 The few that addressed legislators 07:46 were like Lafayette, 07:51 the Prime Minister of Israel a couple of times, 07:56 you know, major world figures, Winston Churchill, 07:58 I think twice, no religious leader. 08:01 And in fact, a few months before the pope came, 08:04 there was a suggestion that the Dalai Lama 08:07 might address Congress. 08:08 And that was quickly nixed, 08:10 because it was said he would be a divisive figure. 08:13 Why? I don't know. 08:15 I mean, I don't personally 08:17 go along with his whole Buddhist philosophy, 08:19 but he's certainly a benign grandfatherly figure. 08:22 But it would be wrong for such prominence to be given 08:28 to religious leader in Congress, 08:29 as it was wrong for the pope to speak, 08:33 but it was agreed and it was a historic moment. 08:38 As I say, no other religious leader 08:40 beyond that... 08:44 No Catholic in previous years 08:47 would have ever been let near Congress, 08:50 which was a sign of prejudice. 08:52 You can't endorse the previous attitudes. 08:56 But given that the United States society 08:58 was so overwhelmingly Protestant, 09:01 and at times violently, anti-Catholic, 09:05 the Ku Klux Klan was not just racist, 09:08 it was anti-Catholic and anti-Jew. 09:10 They wanted a white Protestant America. 09:13 Roman Catholics were persecuted 09:16 openly in New York City in the mid 1800s. 09:21 I remember reading about one crowd of several thousand 09:24 that rampaged for a whole weekend 09:26 through New York, 09:27 killing every Catholic like the lay their hands on. 09:31 Bad history. 09:32 But given all of that, 09:34 now the pope brought in as a conquering hero, 09:37 amazing. 09:39 So, and then from a Seventh-day Adventist perspective, 09:43 we are told that when Romanism, the Church of the Medieval Era, 09:49 which by its own accounting did things 09:53 that were horribly wrong. 09:55 Now there's a document that Rome came out 09:57 with called Memory and Reconciliation, 10:00 where they apologized for the Inquisition, 10:04 for the persecution of the Jews and on and on. 10:07 Unfortunately, they kept the magisterium intact, 10:11 their sign of authority, their right to do that, 10:14 but they apologized for what they did. 10:16 But the point is, 10:18 there's no defense of what happened then. 10:20 And this was the mainline church 10:22 and Protestantism separated from it 10:25 for problems of doctrinal disharmony 10:29 or disturbances, false day of worship and so on. 10:34 And also because of its corruption 10:38 and paganism. 10:40 So for the United States, 10:45 once Protestant country to then 10:46 think very benignly on Romanism. 10:49 Seventh-day Adventists felt, 10:51 and are convinced is a fulfillment of prophecy. 10:55 In Revelation it's, and in Daniel it speaks about 10:59 a power that has been wounded, 11:01 and speaking against the Most High 11:03 and changing times and seasons, 11:05 all markers of false Sabbaths and so on, 11:08 that it will, the whole world will wonder after it, 11:11 and it will be reinstated. 11:13 And Seventh-day Adventist see in the elevation 11:15 of the modern papacy, 11:17 which has every right to exist. 11:20 All religions, and on this whole spectrum 11:23 under the principle of religious liberty 11:25 absolutely should be allowed to function. 11:28 You restrict any religion, 11:30 and you're struck against the principle 11:31 of religious freedom. 11:33 But from an Adventist perspective, 11:34 looking at truth and error and prophetic developments, 11:38 this was very problematic. 11:40 And I can remember on that day 11:42 after I went and heard the pope speech, 11:45 that pope's speech 11:46 which was benign on the face of it, 11:49 but he was lecturing the legislators. 11:52 And when I came back to the office, 11:54 we had a board meeting. 11:57 And I was quite excited 11:58 that I'd heard this historic moment 12:01 for the United States and this prophetic moment 12:03 for a Seventh-day Adventist. 12:05 And as I was talking about it, 12:08 two of the lawyers that were in that group, 12:11 and I won't name them for their protection 12:13 and not to embarrass them. 12:15 They started mocking me and they said, "Big deal. 12:18 He's not bringing the Sunday law." 12:21 And I said, well, I didn't say that. 12:25 But I said, "You haven't read The Great Controversy, 12:28 have you?" 12:29 And no answer. 12:31 And I realized in a moment 12:33 that it's likely that they hadn't, 12:36 and it's certain that many of my fellow members 12:39 haven't read it. 12:40 And it's equally certain that not enough 12:42 of the general populace have been exposed to this book 12:45 that's been sold door to door for 100 years. 12:49 It does lay it out very well. 12:51 And I want to share with you after the break, 12:55 just a little bit that's in the book. 12:57 I mean, it's hundreds of pages, 12:59 but just to give you a flavor of it, 13:01 but we are living through momentous times. 13:05 And on this program before I've mentioned 13:08 a comment made by ex-President Adams 13:12 in his dialogue by mail with Thomas Jefferson, 13:16 interesting characters of yesteryear 13:19 and the battles that they had, 13:20 bitter political enemies, 13:22 even though Jefferson had been vice president under Adams. 13:27 But they were opposite spectrums, politically. 13:30 But they wrote letters 13:31 until they died on the very same day, 13:33 50 years after the Declaration of Independence. 13:36 And as he died, Adams cried out, he says, 13:39 "But he still lives." 13:42 And unknown to him, Jefferson had preceded him 13:44 by some time a couple of hours. 13:48 In their dialogue, they debated at one point 13:51 whether or not Christianity would survive 13:54 in the United States. 13:55 An interesting question. 13:59 Jefferson didn't think it would. 14:04 But Adams said, "Yes, it will survive." 14:06 But he said, "First, for it to survive, 14:08 he says that Hindu cabbalistic system 14:11 known as Roman Catholicism must pass away." 14:16 But he says, "At present it has a mortal wound, 14:19 but such is its strength 14:20 that it may last 200 years yet." 14:23 He was repeating the outline from the Bible, 14:27 from the Book of Daniel, and the Protestant concept 14:30 of the role of the Roman Catholic Church. 14:33 And we're here 200 years later, 14:35 of course, Rome is dominant, 14:38 far more dominant than any single 14:40 Protestant organization. 14:43 Stay with me and after the break, 14:44 I'll share a few words with you. |
Revised 2021-11-29