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EARTH IS A BATTLEFIELD
with Scott Christiansen

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SCOTT CHRISTIANSEN
Author, <i>Planet In Distress</i>

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I'm sitting beside the Sabbath
Trail, which is this really cool trail,

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that starts and ends at the Washington
Seventh-day Adventist Church,

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in Washington, New Hampshire,

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which is the first
Seventh-day Adventist church,

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the oldest Seventh-day Adventist church.

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And this is a trail that
winds through the woods

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for about a mile, it's got
twenty-two separate stops on it,

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each of which has a part in tracing the
Sabbath through the Bible, through the ages.

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If you ever get a chance to
visit, I highly recommend it.

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For our purposes, this trail 
is an ideal spot to continue

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our look at the selfishness paradigm.

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We have to wait to see a pure expression
of the loving-kindness paradigm,

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God's paradigm --
we won't see that until heaven.

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But today, even though Satan
has twisted things around severely,

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God, as master designer of
the earth, can still be seen.

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The author Ellen White, in
the book <i>Desire of Ages</i>,

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talks about how there's
both good and evil in the world,

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and we can see God in nature still.

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Where the only thing that is,
or can completely be, evil,

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is the hearts of those humans
who decide to be wholly evil.

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And here is what she says
on page twenty of her book:

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she says, "Now sin has
marred God's perfect work,

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yet that handwriting remains.

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Even now, all created things
declare the glory of His excellence.

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There is nothing, save the selfish
heart of man, that lives unto itself.

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No bird that cleaves the air, nor
animal that moves upon the ground,

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but ministers to some other life.

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There is no leaf of the forest, or lowly
blade of grass but has its ministry.

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Every tree and shrub and leaf
pours forth that element of life

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without which neither
man nor animal could live.

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And man and animal, in turn, minister to
the life of the tree and shrub and leaf.

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The flowers breathe fragrance and unfold
their beauty in blessing to the world,

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the sun sheds its light to
gladden a thousand worlds.

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The ocean, itself the source of
all of our springs and fountains,

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receives the streams from
every land, but takes to give.

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The mists ascending from its bosom
fall in showers to water the earth,

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that it may bring forth and bud."

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So, we can even still see God in His earth.

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And we can see Him, even in the soil,
if you'll remember video number one.

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The soil is full of micro-organisms, there
are probably literally billions of them

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in a handful.

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And while there is war
going on in our soil,

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and war going on at
every level all around us,

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so also is there a little cooperation, a
little sharing, a little passing of blessings.

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We see a little bit of that
paradigm -- God's paradigm.

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We can see bacteria capturing nitrogen from
the air to make it available to plants,

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who then provide the bacteria with
nutrients, and fungus in the soil,

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the filaments of fungus cycle
nutrients and enhance plant life.

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Plants provide food to the
fungus; symbiotic relationships.

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So even though the tapestry of
creation is tattered and faded,

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we can still catch a glimpse
of God's paradigm in it.

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And in catching this glimpse, we can better
understand that He wants us to return

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to a much, much better world
than the one that we now live in.

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But, for now we're here, in the midst
of this war between Christ and Satan,

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this pitched battle, which started in
heaven and will soon end, praise the Lord,

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here on Earth.

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And this war has been
raging without pause.

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And we're going to look at
a couple of the skirmishes

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between these paradigms we've been
talking about, as recorded in the Bible.

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We'll start with the temptation of
Adam and Eve, in the garden of Eden,

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in Genesis 3:3 and 4.

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Satan cleverly offered to Adam
and Eve an alternate paradigm,

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disguised though it was.

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To this first couple, who had
everything, he offered more.

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He told them that God was a liar.

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And he told them that by disobeying Him,
they would receive the amazing thing

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He was keeping from them, and
that they would become like gods,

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knowing good and evil.

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Well, they fell for it. And they were
ashamed, they were appalled,

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and they were incredibly
sorrowful as a result.

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God then pronounced a broad-ranging
curse in Genesis 3:14 through 19.

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But within that curse, is
something very, very interesting.

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He put enmity between us and Satan.

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I read this to say in part, that God
gave us the ability to resist Satan,

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who had just conquered us.

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Our friend in Maine, Arnet Mathers,
who has studied this deeply,

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and he concludes that
Satan didn't see that coming.

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That our ability to resist him after he
conquered us, was a surprise to him.

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That perspective gives us a sense
of just how dynamic this war was,

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and is.

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Next, going to the book of Job, we
see Satan claiming that Job serves God

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only through selfishness, and
asserting that Job follows God

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only because God has
blessed him, and protected him.

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Note that Satan is accusing God of employing
the selfishness paradigm to get followers.

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Wow!

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God responds by saying that He
will remove His protection from Job.

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And eventually, Satan takes
everything from Job except his life.

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But even though Job regrets his
being born, he does not curse God.

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Satan and his paradigm
were defeated, soundly,

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and God restored to Job what he had lost.

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But the Bible's ultimate hand to hand
combat between Christ and Satan,

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the ultimate clash of paradigms?

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That's what we're going to look at in
the next and last video in this series.

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It's fascinating.

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Join me.