Participants:
Series Code: LI
Program Code: LI210512B
|
00:07 Welcome back to the Liberty Insider.
00:09 Before the break, I'd promised to read 00:11 a few passages from Great Controversy. 00:14 And I'll start with one that's sharply in agreement 00:17 with what I just said about the rise of Rome. 00:21 This is on page 578, big book. 00:25 People don't read War and Peace 00:28 or this length book much anymore, 00:30 but they should. 00:31 Otherwise you just get superficial. 00:33 But this is what it says, 00:35 "The prophecy of Revelation 13 declares 00:39 that the power represented by the beast 00:41 with lamblike horns shall cause 'the earth and them 00:46 which dwell therein' to worship the papacy, 00:49 there represented or symbolized by the beast 00:52 'like unto a leopard.' 00:54 The beast with two horns is also to say 00:57 'to them that dwell on the earth, 00:59 that they should make an image to the beast, ' 01:01 or a copy, and, furthermore, 01:04 it is to command all, 'both small and great, 01:08 rich and poor, free and bond, ' 01:10 to receive the mark of the beast.'" 01:13 A lot of people think 01:14 that the COVID injection or inoculation 01:18 is the mark of the beast, it's not. 01:21 But there will be a mark or a sign of adherence 01:25 to this power to come. 01:27 And it says, "It has been shown 01:28 that the United States is the power 01:31 represented by the beast with lamblike horns, 01:35 and that this prophecy will be fulfilled 01:39 when the United States shall enforce 01:41 Sunday observance, 01:43 which Rome claims as the special acknowledgment 01:46 of her supremacy." 01:49 And I can just quote one document from Rome 01:51 that I think claims that. 01:54 In the Dies Domini document on the Lord's Day, 01:59 the day to worship the Lord. 02:00 It says this specifically, 02:01 "While the early believers 02:04 had no direct command from the Lord, 02:07 they felt that they had the authority 02:09 to change the day." 02:11 Well, let's talk about the believers. 02:13 That was what the Catholic Church claims 02:15 as their prerogative, 02:17 that continuum of the Church Fathers 02:19 through to the papacy itself. 02:23 And it says here... 02:29 "The power represented by with the lamblike horns, 02:31 and that this prophecy will be fulfilled 02:32 when the United States shall enforce 02:34 Sunday observance, which Rome claims. 02:36 But in this homage to the papacy 02:38 the United States will not be alone. 02:41 The influence of Rome in the countries 02:43 that once acknowledged her dominion is far 02:46 from being destroyed." 02:48 And it's amazing to me, 02:50 how papal Rome has been reestablished 02:55 in a dominant position, 02:58 mostly as a religious leader, 03:00 but also as a political leader. 03:01 And, you know, they have every right to exist, 03:04 as I said, but just as a fact of history. 03:07 How has pagan Rome, 03:10 the Roman Empire that existed for hundreds of years, 03:12 that fully collapsed, moved to Constantinople, 03:16 established by Constantine as the new capital, 03:20 but then it fell, 03:22 but before it fell old Rome fell into disrepair, 03:26 was pillaged by the Germanic tribes. 03:29 And so it's long gone. 03:32 It tried to reestablish itself through the Holy Roman Empire, 03:35 which is one way extremist, nor the holy nor Roman. 03:38 But how come 03:40 after all these hundreds of years, 03:42 we have the Church of Rome in the Vatican, 03:46 which, if you look at it closely, 03:48 is really like a ghost of the Roman Empire, 03:51 a ghost of the paganism that existed there, 03:54 and all the symbols 03:55 and the monstrance of the sun worship, 03:58 and it just on and on. 04:01 And even the Latin that they've clung to, 04:03 it is basically yesteryear story. 04:06 And so the mystery of the ages to me 04:09 is how this leftover element of an imperial past 04:14 has rejuvenated itself before our very eyes, 04:18 and is the dominant religious political, 04:21 religio-political force in the world today. 04:23 It's quite amazing. 04:26 But the world we live in imagined itself 04:29 as a little more than religious. 04:31 You know, it's not spiritual in its outlook. 04:34 This is a secular world with real problems, 04:36 and what are those problems? 04:42 Ellen White wrote this, she says, 04:43 "In accidents and in calamities by sea, 04:47 by land, in great conflagrations, 04:50 in fierce tornadoes and terrific hailstorms, 04:55 in tempests, floods, cyclones, tidal waves, and earthquakes, 04:59 in every place and in a thousand forms, 05:02 Satan is exercising his power." 05:06 I think it's quite abundant by now 05:09 even though it was written ahead of time, 05:10 that the world we live in is being brought to attention 05:14 by just an absolute continuum of disasters. 05:19 Of course, the evacuation from Afghanistan 05:22 catches everyone's attention 05:23 and as a stark reminder of the fall of empire. 05:26 But beyond that, very troubling 05:29 are these continuing fires on the West Coast, 05:31 storms on the East Coast, tornadoes in the Middle, 05:35 you know, you could go on and on. 05:37 And they're not just alarms. 05:39 These are debilitating costs from the National Treasury. 05:44 Life can barely be sustained 05:46 when the pace picks up on these things. 05:49 And as Ellen White says, Satan is causing them, 05:52 at least evil influences and Satan works through people 05:57 and corrupt mechanisms. 06:00 Even the weather is corrupted by bad actions 06:04 of a fallen race pillaging the earth. 06:07 And she says, "He sweeps away the ripening harvest, 06:11 and famine and distress follow. 06:13 He imparts to the air a deadly taint." 06:16 I don't know what she had in mind 06:17 when she wrote that. 06:18 Jesus had said, "Pestilence and famine 06:20 will follow at the end of time." 06:22 But a deadly taint sounds dangerously 06:24 close to what we're discovering with COVID 06:26 that it's literally in the air. 06:31 He imparts to the air a deadly taint 06:32 and thousands perish by the pestilence. 06:36 These visitations 06:37 are to become more and more frequent and disastrous." 06:41 Destruction will be upon both man and beast, 06:45 "The earth mourneth and fadeth away, 06:48 the haughty people do languish, 06:50 the earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof, 06:53 because they have transgressed the laws, 06:54 changed the ordinance, 06:56 broken the everlasting covenant." 06:57 That's from Isaiah, Chapter 24. 07:00 And she says, "And then, 07:02 the great deceiver will persuade men, 07:05 that those who serve God are causing these evils." 07:09 And I don't know that it's a direct parallel. 07:12 But it comes to mind 07:13 that in the Black Death that swept Europe, 07:17 and very often the Jewish communities 07:20 were not quite as badly affected 07:23 because of some of the Old Testament 07:26 cleanliness laws and so on 07:28 that they were following, 07:29 even though many of them died from, 07:31 from the plague like anyone else. 07:33 But during that period, crowds turned on these 07:39 that were keeping a different faith 07:40 and blame them for it. 07:42 And there were massacres 07:44 of thousands at a time on occasion. 07:47 And so that's human nature. 07:48 And here Ellen White is saying this will happen. 07:53 "The class that have provoked the displeasure of heaven 07:55 will charge all their troubles upon those 07:58 whose obedience to God's commandments 08:00 is a perpetual reproof to transgressors. 08:04 It will be declared that men are defending God 08:07 by the violation of the Sunday Sabbath." 08:11 I am sure this is about to break on us. 08:14 Even after 9/11, a few, now this, 08:17 one now deceased televangelist 08:20 went very publicly saying this had come upon America, 08:23 because of its advancement of homosexuality. 08:26 Well, he was half correct. 08:28 But the idea 08:30 that this is a direct punishment of God 08:32 is not quite right. 08:34 These are natural consequences, 08:36 often very diffused in their effect 08:38 of just breaking the laws 08:40 and the behavior protocols that God has set. 08:44 There's always a consequence, just like you eat junk food, 08:47 you get sick, you act badly 08:51 and are bad custodians of the earth pillages 08:54 instead of caretakers and bad things will happen. 08:58 And she says, "It will be declared 09:00 that men are offending God, 09:01 that this sin has brought calamities 09:04 which will not cease until Sunday observance 09:07 shall be strictly enforced, 09:08 and that those who present the claims 09:10 of the fourth commandment, 09:11 thus destroying reverence for Sunday, 09:13 are troublers of the people. 09:16 Thus deserving, 09:18 thus destroying reverence for Sunday, 09:20 and thus preventing their restoration 09:23 to divine favor and temporal prosperity." 09:27 There's historical precedent to this, 09:29 but Ellen White is picking up on biblical prophecy 09:32 in making these claims. 09:34 And looking ahead as I need to do now, 09:37 always with this program, looking ahead, 09:40 I just should warn people, 09:42 that the human behavioral norms 09:45 that preceded persecutions in the past 09:47 are probably just ahead of us. 09:50 COVID is an opening salvo in the disturbances 09:54 to all the natural order by global climate change 09:59 and political disturbance. 10:02 And the end result, I think, 10:04 if not quite the purge of the movie out of Hollywood, 10:08 it will be a turning against those 10:10 that are indeed troubling Israel. 10:17 Nobody knows what tomorrow will bring directly, 10:21 but we do know what the future will bring in due course. 10:25 And all of us, I think, 10:26 during these COVID times are well aware 10:28 that we're heading toward a great testing 10:31 of Western civilization, 10:33 and perhaps for each of us a testing of our faith. 10:36 These are difficult times, but if we remain faithful, 10:41 if we keep our eyes fixed on the prize, 10:45 we can avoid deceptions. 10:48 The Middle Ages, for example, a time of great despair, 10:51 the Dark Ages, it was called figuratively. 10:54 As far as civilization, it was not always that dark, 10:57 but the darkness of faith was palpable. 11:00 We too are living in a New Dark Age. 11:04 Misinformation is on every hand. 11:06 We need to be true 11:07 to what we've been given and told 11:10 and we've inherited in God's Word, 11:12 through the record of history, 11:13 the faithful of the ages, 11:15 and determined to be faithful no matter what. 11:19 For Liberty Insider, this is Lincoln Steed. |
Revised 2021-11-29