1
00:00:03,840 --> 00:00:08,916
EARTH IS A BATTLEFIELD
with Scott Christiansen

2
00:00:12,656 --> 00:00:16,656
SCOTT CHRISTIANSEN
Author, <i>Planet In Distress</i>

3
00:00:17,626 --> 00:00:21,332
I'm sitting beside the Sabbath
Trail, which is this really cool trail,

4
00:00:21,332 --> 00:00:25,082
that starts and ends at the Washington
Seventh-day Adventist Church,

5
00:00:25,082 --> 00:00:27,511
in Washington, New Hampshire,

6
00:00:27,511 --> 00:00:29,745
which is the first
Seventh-day Adventist church,

7
00:00:29,745 --> 00:00:31,669
the oldest Seventh-day Adventist church.

8
00:00:31,669 --> 00:00:34,737
And this is a trail that
winds through the woods

9
00:00:34,737 --> 00:00:37,936
for about a mile, it's got
twenty-two separate stops on it,

10
00:00:37,936 --> 00:00:43,567
each of which has a part in tracing the
Sabbath through the Bible, through the ages.

11
00:00:43,567 --> 00:00:46,478
If you ever get a chance to
visit, I highly recommend it.

12
00:00:46,478 --> 00:00:50,063
For our purposes, this trail 
is an ideal spot to continue

13
00:00:50,063 --> 00:00:53,046
our look at the selfishness paradigm.

14
00:00:53,046 --> 00:00:56,592
We have to wait to see a pure expression
of the loving-kindness paradigm,

15
00:00:56,592 --> 00:00:59,056
God's paradigm --
we won't see that until heaven.

16
00:00:59,056 --> 00:01:02,319
But today, even though Satan
has twisted things around severely,

17
00:01:02,319 --> 00:01:05,728
God, as master designer of
the earth, can still be seen.

18
00:01:06,578 --> 00:01:09,151
The author Ellen White, in
the book <i>Desire of Ages</i>,

19
00:01:09,151 --> 00:01:11,823
talks about how there's
both good and evil in the world,

20
00:01:11,823 --> 00:01:14,288
and we can see God in nature still.

21
00:01:14,288 --> 00:01:18,303
Where the only thing that is,
or can completely be, evil,

22
00:01:18,303 --> 00:01:22,351
is the hearts of those humans
who decide to be wholly evil.

23
00:01:22,351 --> 00:01:26,255
And here is what she says
on page twenty of her book:

24
00:01:26,255 --> 00:01:29,264
she says, "Now sin has
marred God's perfect work,

25
00:01:29,264 --> 00:01:30,944
yet that handwriting remains.

26
00:01:30,944 --> 00:01:34,320
Even now, all created things
declare the glory of His excellence.

27
00:01:34,320 --> 00:01:39,375
There is nothing, save the selfish
heart of man, that lives unto itself.

28
00:01:39,375 --> 00:01:43,055
No bird that cleaves the air, nor
animal that moves upon the ground,

29
00:01:43,055 --> 00:01:46,128
but ministers to some other life.

30
00:01:46,128 --> 00:01:50,176
There is no leaf of the forest, or lowly
blade of grass but has its ministry.

31
00:01:50,176 --> 00:01:54,079
Every tree and shrub and leaf
pours forth that element of life

32
00:01:54,079 --> 00:01:57,215
without which neither
man nor animal could live.

33
00:01:57,215 --> 00:02:02,773
And man and animal, in turn, minister to
the life of the tree and shrub and leaf.

34
00:02:02,773 --> 00:02:07,600
The flowers breathe fragrance and unfold
their beauty in blessing to the world,

35
00:02:07,600 --> 00:02:11,169
the sun sheds its light to
gladden a thousand worlds.

36
00:02:11,169 --> 00:02:15,137
The ocean, itself the source of
all of our springs and fountains,

37
00:02:15,137 --> 00:02:21,058
receives the streams from
every land, but takes to give.

38
00:02:21,058 --> 00:02:25,058
The mists ascending from its bosom
fall in showers to water the earth,

39
00:02:25,058 --> 00:02:27,810
that it may bring forth and bud."

40
00:02:27,810 --> 00:02:31,282
So, we can even still see God in His earth.

41
00:02:31,282 --> 00:02:36,040
And we can see Him, even in the soil,
if you'll remember video number one.

42
00:02:36,040 --> 00:02:39,923
The soil is full of micro-organisms, there
are probably literally billions of them

43
00:02:39,923 --> 00:02:41,276
in a handful.

44
00:02:41,276 --> 00:02:44,611
And while there is war
going on in our soil,

45
00:02:44,611 --> 00:02:46,706
and war going on at
every level all around us,

46
00:02:46,706 --> 00:02:51,261
so also is there a little cooperation, a
little sharing, a little passing of blessings.

47
00:02:51,261 --> 00:02:55,826
We see a little bit of that
paradigm -- God's paradigm.

48
00:02:55,826 --> 00:02:59,674
We can see bacteria capturing nitrogen from
the air to make it available to plants,

49
00:02:59,674 --> 00:03:03,282
who then provide the bacteria with
nutrients, and fungus in the soil,

50
00:03:03,282 --> 00:03:06,882
the filaments of fungus cycle
nutrients and enhance plant life.

51
00:03:06,882 --> 00:03:10,565
Plants provide food to the
fungus; symbiotic relationships.

52
00:03:10,565 --> 00:03:13,685
So even though the tapestry of
creation is tattered and faded,

53
00:03:13,685 --> 00:03:16,645
we can still catch a glimpse
of God's paradigm in it.

54
00:03:16,645 --> 00:03:20,900
And in catching this glimpse, we can better
understand that He wants us to return

55
00:03:20,900 --> 00:03:25,898
to a much, much better world
than the one that we now live in.

56
00:03:25,898 --> 00:03:29,365
But, for now we're here, in the midst
of this war between Christ and Satan,

57
00:03:29,365 --> 00:03:33,227
this pitched battle, which started in
heaven and will soon end, praise the Lord,

58
00:03:33,227 --> 00:03:34,599
here on Earth.

59
00:03:34,599 --> 00:03:36,791
And this war has been
raging without pause.

60
00:03:36,791 --> 00:03:39,046
And we're going to look at
a couple of the skirmishes

61
00:03:39,046 --> 00:03:42,575
between these paradigms we've been
talking about, as recorded in the Bible.

62
00:03:42,575 --> 00:03:46,358
We'll start with the temptation of
Adam and Eve, in the garden of Eden,

63
00:03:46,358 --> 00:03:48,375
in Genesis 3:3 and 4.

64
00:03:48,375 --> 00:03:51,768
Satan cleverly offered to Adam
and Eve an alternate paradigm,

65
00:03:51,768 --> 00:03:53,656
disguised though it was.

66
00:03:53,656 --> 00:03:57,689
To this first couple, who had
everything, he offered more.

67
00:03:57,689 --> 00:04:00,071
He told them that God was a liar.

68
00:04:00,071 --> 00:04:03,991
And he told them that by disobeying Him,
they would receive the amazing thing

69
00:04:03,991 --> 00:04:07,008
He was keeping from them, and
that they would become like gods,

70
00:04:07,008 --> 00:04:08,648
knowing good and evil.

71
00:04:08,648 --> 00:04:12,808
Well, they fell for it. And they were
ashamed, they were appalled,

72
00:04:12,808 --> 00:04:15,110
and they were incredibly
sorrowful as a result.

73
00:04:15,110 --> 00:04:20,536
God then pronounced a broad-ranging
curse in Genesis 3:14 through 19.

74
00:04:20,536 --> 00:04:23,621
But within that curse, is
something very, very interesting.

75
00:04:23,621 --> 00:04:27,401
He put enmity between us and Satan.

76
00:04:27,401 --> 00:04:31,736
I read this to say in part, that God
gave us the ability to resist Satan,

77
00:04:31,736 --> 00:04:33,528
who had just conquered us.

78
00:04:33,528 --> 00:04:37,032
Our friend in Maine, Arnet Mathers,
who has studied this deeply,

79
00:04:37,032 --> 00:04:40,185
and he concludes that
Satan didn't see that coming.

80
00:04:40,185 --> 00:04:45,235
That our ability to resist him after he
conquered us, was a surprise to him.

81
00:04:45,235 --> 00:04:49,519
That perspective gives us a sense
of just how dynamic this war was,

82
00:04:49,519 --> 00:04:51,160
and is.

83
00:04:51,160 --> 00:04:55,936
Next, going to the book of Job, we
see Satan claiming that Job serves God

84
00:04:55,936 --> 00:04:59,845
only through selfishness, and
asserting that Job follows God

85
00:04:59,845 --> 00:05:03,418
only because God has
blessed him, and protected him.

86
00:05:03,418 --> 00:05:10,169
Note that Satan is accusing God of employing
the selfishness paradigm to get followers.

87
00:05:10,169 --> 00:05:11,561
Wow!

88
00:05:11,561 --> 00:05:15,322
God responds by saying that He
will remove His protection from Job.

89
00:05:15,322 --> 00:05:19,946
And eventually, Satan takes
everything from Job except his life.

90
00:05:19,946 --> 00:05:24,745
But even though Job regrets his
being born, he does not curse God.

91
00:05:24,745 --> 00:05:28,441
Satan and his paradigm
were defeated, soundly,

92
00:05:28,441 --> 00:05:31,162
and God restored to Job what he had lost.

93
00:05:31,162 --> 00:05:35,468
But the Bible's ultimate hand to hand
combat between Christ and Satan,

94
00:05:35,468 --> 00:05:37,954
the ultimate clash of paradigms?

95
00:05:37,954 --> 00:05:42,491
That's what we're going to look at in
the next and last video in this series.

96
00:05:42,491 --> 00:05:44,219
It's fascinating.

97
00:05:44,219 --> 00:05:45,664
Join me.