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EARTH IS A BATTLEFIELD
with Scott Christiansen
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SCOTT CHRISTIANSEN
Author, "Planet In Distress"
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I have here, a handful of dirt--
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a handful of soil actually.
It's alive, it smells alive.
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I've taken it from this park--hopefully I'm
not going to get in trouble for doing so--
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and the thing is, there's a
lot going on in this handful of soil,
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including pitched war.
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That's right. War.
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There's a battle going on in here.
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There's hundreds of millions,
maybe billions, of micro-organisms.
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There's predator and prey.
Some of them, amazingly, are forming teams,
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and they're engaging in
chemical and biological warfare,
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one type of organism against another.
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Or they're engaging in fierce one-on-one
battles, where the winner eats the loser.
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In these fights, you can see
specialized and sophisticated weapons.
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You can see defenses, measures,
counter-measures, tactics, responses.
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What's going on in this handful of
dirt, frankly, is a hellish nightmare
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of conflict, struggle, and death.
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But the thing is, what goes on in this
handful of soil is no different, really,
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than what goes on throughout
all of the natural world.
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This is representative of the relationships
of the creatures of the earth,
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from the smallest right
on up to the largest.
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All the earth, in fact,
is a battleground.
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Everywhere, we're
seeing predator and prey,
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we see conflict and fear, we see disease
and parasites, we see suffering and death,
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and for Christians, that's a problem.
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In fact, it's a profound problem.
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You see, the Bible tells us in
Genesis chapter one
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how God created the earth.
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It also tells us in Job 38:7, that
when He created it, the angels sang.
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And from this, we conclude that
it was so beautiful, so special,
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that it dazzled the angels.
It was so good in fact,
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that God called it "very good"
at the conclusion of His creation work.
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Now, the Bible tells us that God is love.
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In other words, the essence
of His character is love.
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He is also generous, He is supportive,
He is nurturing, He is protective of us,
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but more than anything else,
He is the very definition of love.
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In fact, in John 3:16, the most
memorized verse in the Bible,
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the Bible says that God
profoundly loves the world,
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which includes humans, and
everything else He created--
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we're talking the world that
He loved, not just mankind.
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So taking all this into account,
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let's ask a critical and
fundamental question:
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What kind of world would God create?
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If God's character is
the definition of love,
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then really, He could
create nothing but a
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loving, harmonious, elegant, supportive,
nurturing, amazing world, right?
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A character of perfect love cannot create
something that is contrary to its character.
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So what God created would
necessarily reflect His character, right?
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Further, we can understand that love,
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or more broadly, let's
call it "loving-kindness",
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would be God's organizing principle
for the operation of His earth.
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In other words, love, or
loving-kindness, would define
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how the world fundamentally operates.
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It would define the
relationships between creatures,
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and even define the
operation of the natural systems
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that support life on earth,
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such as our atmosphere, our hydrosphere,
our oceanic systems, our climate systems.
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If God created a world that operated
on a system that's contrary to love,
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then logically, God would
not be who the Bible says He is.
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And if God created something
that was contrary to His character,
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then the angels would not be dazzled
by it, nor would they respond by singing.
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They would in fact, respond in
shock and confusion instead.
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But the world doesn't operate
on a system of loving-kindness,
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we know that just by
looking all around us.
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Because when we look around us, we see
struggle, we see fear, we see fighting,
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we see disease, we see
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parasites and death.
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The world calls this system,
"the survival of the fittest".
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But when I look at everything going on,
I see more than just individual struggle.
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The system that I see is,
in fact, an intentional system.
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And if we examine it carefully,
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we see that the ultimate
organizing principle of this system,
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is selfishness.
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Which is the exact opposite of
what the Bible says God's character is.
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So, here's our dilemma:
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If God created the world as we observe it,
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then the Bible is false, and God is
a monster who is unworthy of our worship.
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Full-stop.
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It's either that, or He is
who He says He is,
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and the Bible is true,
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but something happened to change
the organizing principle of the earth
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from loving-kindness, to selfishness.
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If this second choice is true, then it
raises a whole slew of questions--
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important questions.
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Including, "Why would an all powerful
God, allow His earth to be twisted
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and perverted like that?
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And how is that consistent with a God that
the Bible says has a character of love?"
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Well, these are really,
truly important questions,
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and we'll begin to take them up,
in this series.
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In the course of doing so,
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we'll eventually come back
to this handful of soil.
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Because there's more that it can
teach us about the character of God,
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and the organizing principle of the earth.
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It can in fact, teach us
something about ourselves.
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SCOTT CHRISTIANSEN
Author, "Planet In Distress"
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Here I am in Fort Knox,
off of Bucksport, Maine.
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This is not the Fort Knox
with all the gold in it.
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What this fort has a lot of is big, huge
granite blocks. It's a civil war era fort.
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It's got gun-ports all around
it, and the walls are so thick
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that if I reach through those gun-ports,
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I can't possibly touch
the outside of the wall.
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It's massive.
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Well, this fort is a fitting place to take
up our discussion, in this video series,
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because one of the central points in this
series is that Earth is a battlefield.
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In fact, all the life forms on Earth--from
the micro-organisms in our soil,
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all the way up to the massive blue whale--
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function within a framework, a
paradigm if you will,
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of predator and prey, struggle and fear,
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while also dealing with disease, and
parasites, and the constant threat of death.
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There is a pitched war going
on, and what we're asking is,
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"Where is God in all of this?"
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Well, let's go back to what I said a
minute ago--the earth is a battle field;
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a battlefield between opposing forces.
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And on this battlefield is playing
out a war that we can barely see,
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a war between God and Satan.
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To understand the earth, to understand
God, to understand our lives,
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we first have to understand
this war, and our role in it,
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because everything, everything,
everything, that happens on Earth
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happens in the context of this great war.
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This war, oddly enough, started in heaven,
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where Satan was an angel,
the highest ranking angel actually,
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and he was then named Lucifer.
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We find that he had everything, and
functioned in a perfect universe.
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We also find that he wasn't satisfied.
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He wanted more.
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The Bible tells us that Lucifer
was perfect in all his ways.
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This means his thoughts,
his feelings, his behavior.
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So perfect in all his ways was he, that
right up until iniquity was found in him,
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was he perfect.
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When iniquity was found in him, he began to
be called Satan, which means "adversary".
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What iniquity was found in Satan?
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Selfishness.
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Lucifer decided he wanted to be like God;
he wanted to be "like the Most High"
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is the way it's phrased in Isaiah 14:14.
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We can understand that Lucifer went
to work undermining God's character,
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making accusations that God
was not what He said He was.
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By denying the essential goodness of God's
character, Satan attempted to erode
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trust toward God, and
incite rebellion against Him.
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How else do you rise above
God, but to bring Him down?
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Satan's undermining was successful.
We understand from Revelation 12:4,
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that a third of the angels were
deceived by this cunning plot.
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Well, here's a thing
which fixates me a bit:
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logically, Satan could not have
recruited angels to his side
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simply by making a charge against God.
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He couldn't just say, "God is bad",
and have angels follow him.
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So logically, Satan had to also
offer a better way (his words)
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of organizing the universe
than what God had put in place.
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So what was this competing system?
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We can find out by
following what Satan did.
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What Satan did was press his attacks,
and as we're told in Revelation 12:7,
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war broke out in heaven.
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Ty Gibson has an excellent study on this
subject, and he points out in this text,
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that the word translated as
"war", is "polemos" in Greek.
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Which is related to the words
like "polemic" and "politics".
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And so the conflict wasn't primarily a war
of physical engagement or force of arms,
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it was mostly a political war,
a propaganda campaign,
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a character assassination scheme.
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Satan waged his war by telling lies
about the fundamental character of God,
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and by offering a different way.
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Looking at Satan's
rebellion, in Ezekiel 28:16,
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we find that Lucifer was cast out
of heaven because he sinned.
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In 1 John 3:4, we find that
John defines sin as "lawlessness."
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In other words, Satan
rebelled against God's law.
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In Romans 13:10, Paul
defines God's law as love.
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So Satan made war on God's character.
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But my studies have lead me to understand
that this war was not only on God,
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he also made war on God's paradigm,
His organizing principle for the universe--
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His organizing principle of love,
or more broadly, loving-kindness.
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In a way, Satan had to do this
because God's character of love
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was reflected in
everything He did in creation.
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We're told in Revelation 12:9,
that Satan and his angels,
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when they lost the war in
heaven, were cast to the earth.
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Here, Satan deceived man into sinning.
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When Satan overcame man, he
took our dominion of the earth,
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and according to Corinthians 4:4,
he's now the "god" of this world,
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that's god with a lowercase 'g'.
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As god of this world, and
as the former highest angel,
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Satan had sufficient power,
and sufficient freedom,
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to twist creation, and put into
place his own operating system,
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his operating paradigm.
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In other words, Satan had a chance
to pit his claimed system, his paradigm,
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against God's paradigm.
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And how do we know
what Satan's paradigm is?
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Well, we only need to look
at what Satan did to the earth.
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Looking around us, we see fierce
competition, we see struggle,
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we see fighting, we see
predator, we see prey,
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we see disease, and suffering and death.
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The world calls it survival of the
fittest, but it is more than that.
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I conclude that it is an
intentionally designed system,
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whose organizing principle is selfishness.
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What we see all around us then, is
the continuation on Earth of the rebellion
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that Satan started in heaven.
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On the one side, we have God and His system
of love--the loving-kindness paradigm.
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On the other side is Satan, and
his system based on selfishness--
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the selfishness paradigm.
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What are the implications of a
world run on the selfishness paradigm?
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Well, that's what we'll take up
in the next video in this series,
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when we'll look at just how
big a deal Satan's paradigm is.
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How it pervades everything,
everything, here on Earth,
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and what that means for you and me,
at this point in prophetic history.
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SCOTT CHRISTIANSEN
Author, "Planet In Distress"
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Here we are, in the
Washington, New Hampshire church,
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which is this charming, old
church with its beautiful acoustics.
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This is a church where
Sabbath-keeping Adventists first met
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and eventually it became the first
Seventh-day Adventist Church,
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a very historic church.
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This church hasn't changed in many, many
years. It still doesn't have electricity.
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It hasn't changed.
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But we can't say the
same thing for creation.
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You see, when God created the world,
it was a really, really different place
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than the one we live in now.
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For one thing, it didn't rain.
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It's hard for us to
imagine a world like that.
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But we're told in Genesis 2:5 and 6 that a
mist of sorts would rise from the ground,
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and it sounds similar to hydroponic
systems which is pretty much
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the most ideal way of growing
plants that's currently known to man.
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But that wasn't the only difference.
Animals were created as vegetarians.
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Think about that for a moment;
they only ate plants. All of them.
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It says so in Genesis 1:29 and 30,
so yeah, according to Genesis 1,
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the earth was a really,
really different place.
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These texts though, are really
a challenge to some people.
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Scientists for instance, or those
with a scientific bent of mind.
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Most scientist who read these
texts will respond by saying that
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we just don't observe in the
world what the Bible describes.
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Well, okay, fair enough.
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There's herbivores like
sheep, horses and elephants,
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okay, but dogs, birds, fish...
people will be quick to point out
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that most of these animals were
designed to eat other animals.
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End of discussion.
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So, because there is a disparity between
what we see, and what the Bible says,
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scientists are quick, and many
people are quick, to dismiss the Bible.
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Far too quick actually, because
there's a very good explanation for this.
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The Bible goes on to recount
how sin entered the world,
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and how that changed the world, literally.
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Because the consequence of sin
is disease, it's suffering, it's conflict,
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ultimately it's death.
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So, let's take this and think
this through a little, on our own,
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and the place to start thinking, this
disparity, the place to start thinking,
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is with the character of God.
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And we know that the character of
God is complex. After all, He is God.
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But we also know it's ultimately
simple, because God is love.
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So, let's take a look at
what we know of God,
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and apply it to the
operation of His world.
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Doing that, we can say that in God's world,
there's absolutely no fear, no domination,
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no predation, no suffering,
no disease, no parasites.
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That would mean that
animals eat plants and seeds,
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as the Bible says was originally the case.
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It would also mean that some
plants, and maybe even some animals,
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would produce specialized
food for other animals.
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In other words, they
would produce a blessing.
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Filter feeders comes to mind:
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animals producing food for filter feeders.
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But so far, we have only defined
God's world by what is absent --
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fear and predation and such,
and not by what is present.
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So let's add to our model,
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and to do that, we need to
again turn to the character of God.
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Based on what we know of God, we can say
that His world would involve generosity,
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and mutual care.
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Sharing, if you will.
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Each life form would provide
a blessing to other life forms.
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Essentially, to get to God's
world you have to reverse
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part of the world as we know it;
a substantial part of the world.
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In our world, which is
fundamentally based on selfishness,
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most everything takes, takes --
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but in a world without sin, in a
world based on the character of God,
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everything would give.
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Now taking what we know
of the character of Satan,
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we can see that the current earth
functions more or less as a pyramid,
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with the bottom of the pyramid
giving the most, and the benefits flowing
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to the top of the pyramid.
The powerful take and the powerless give.
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We see this model throughout the
natural world, we see the food chain,
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but we also see it throughout
human society, human economy,
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where every level of the pyramid
takes from the levels below it.
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By applying what we know of God, we can see
that we take this model, and we invert it,
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where the pyramid is upside down.
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Where everything blesses and gives to
everything else, and where goodness flows
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from the stronger to the weaker,
which is to say God gives more
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than anything or anyone else.
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This model, this upside down
pyramid, these blessings flowing,
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is consistent with what we
know of the character of God.
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For a world like this to work,
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all life forms on it would have to
have to be returned from their current
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twisted and perverted states,
back to their original created states.
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At the same time, plants would have
to be returned to their original state.
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In fact, everything would have to
be returned to its original state,
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and that is exactly what God
says He'll do in Revelation 21:1,
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when the earth is created new
without any trace or stain of sin.
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What we'll see, is a complete
elimination of the selfishness paradigm.
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There won't be one thing that just takes.
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And what we will is a pure expression,
of the loving-kindness paradigm.
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The result of that is given in Isaiah 11:9,
where it says, referring to the new Earth,
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"They will not hurt or destroy
in all my holy mountain."
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An Earth that isn't a battlefield?
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You know, to me that just sounds
really, really good. I mean really good.
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In the next video in this series,
we'll look at the selfishness paradigm
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as reflected in our lives, our work,
our play, our money, our egos --
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we're going to look at all of that.
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And we'll briefly explore
some of the truly critical questions
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about how Christians relate to a world
that operates on the selfishness paradigm,
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including this question: "How can
Christians live out the character of God,
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and constantly give,
in a world that only wants to take?"
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SCOTT CHRISTIANSEN
Author, 'Planet In Distress'
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As we look at the world, and its
selfishness-based systems of operation,
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there's one thing that
we need to keep in mind,
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and that's this:
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Selfishness is the ultimate
expression of unsustainability.
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This is because, by its very nature,
selfishness collapses in on itself.
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So the things that the world relentlessly
pursues: wealth, power, status,
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fame, domination... those will
all come to nothing in the end,
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precisely because they are the
very definition of selfishness.
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Now, selfishness is self-defeating.
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This probably puts the plainest face
on the folly of man's rebellion though sin.
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This world will end,
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and judging by the fulfillment of
prophecy that we see all around us,
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it's going to end soon.
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So, what you see behind me, this
town, the things around me, the trees,
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all around us, that's going to end.
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And judging by the fulfillment of prophecy
that we see all around us,
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it's going to end soon.
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Now, about a hundred and fifty years ago,
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there were Seventh-day
Adventists that were meeting.
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The 'Adventist' part comes
from people who believed that
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Jesus was returning very soon,
and the Seventh-day part
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comes from people who believe
in the fourth commandment:
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worshiping God on the seventh
day, the Sabbath, as He commands.
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So that was about a
hundred and fifty years ago,
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and they understood that there was
work that urgently needed to be done,
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at that time.
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They understood that we are
all warriors for one side or another,
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and that we're also
the stakes in this battle.
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The battle they saw building,
is now nearing its culmination.
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That being the case,
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we live in a time when there are
things that urgently need to be done,
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and we live in a time when
we need to see things clearly.
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So let's dig a little deeper.
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Let's look at the systems of the
world today, through the clarifying lens
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of the selfishness paradigm.
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And we're going to start with an easy one.
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Capitalism.
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Now, capitalism is the
financial organizing system
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almost universally employed
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throughout the world.
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And, quite interestingly, it
actually requires selfishness to work.
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The system requires that everyone
act in their own self-interest,
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and that the actions and reactions be
predictable, and based on this expectation.
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Capitalism rewards those who try
hardest to grasp and hold resources.
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Now, capitalism itself
isn't really good or bad,
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but if we're going to put things
in either a loving-kindness paradigm,
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or a selfishness paradigm (in other words,
how the earth operates) then clearly,
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capitalism belongs in
the selfishness paradigm.
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Now let's try another
one: our political system.
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Now, particularly as practiced here
in America, it's been said that politics
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is the process that we use
to decide who gets what.
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Perhaps you'll agree that the
system as it currently exists
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is less about competent
administration of our civil institutions,
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and more about a fierce
competition for power and resources.
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It's hard to see any loving-
kindness in this system, so clearly,
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we can put this in the
selfishness paradigm category.
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Ultimately, all of society's
systems can be evaluated
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in comparison to the selfishness paradigm.
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But interestingly, so can also
most of our individual actions.
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How we drive, to pick something at random.
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Are we selfish in our driving,
or do we express loving-kindness?
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How about our conversations?
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Do we engage others in order
to be able talk about ourselves,
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or are we actually interested in
the other person, and ask after them?
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How about parenting? [laughs]
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If a parent -- an overworked
parent, a tired parent --
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but if a parent treats
a child dismissively,
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in order to avoid longer interactions, and
tries to dominate them instead of taking
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time and energy to engage with them,
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what paradigm does that belong in?
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What about relationship
dynamics between married people?
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It seems every action, every
thought, whether large or small,
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can fit into one or the
other of these two systems.
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The question then, is whether we
are intentional, steadily intentional,
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about recognizing this divide,
and increasingly living our lives
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in the loving-kindness paradigm.
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If we do that, we'll be trying to be givers
of blessings in a world that only takes.
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No one can do that, at
least not for very long.
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So how can it be done?
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Well, by fixing our eyes on Christ.
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By making our relationship with
Him, our most important goal,
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and our most valuable possession.
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Ultimately, we must be so close to Christ,
that He gives blessings through us.
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That is how we can give and give
in a world that only wants to take,
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because it is Christ working with us
and through us, who does the giving.
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That's who He is, that's what He does.
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How different from the rest of
the world are we going to be,
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if we're truly trying to live within
the loving-kindness paradigm?
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We're going to be really, really
different, that's the answer.
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We'll truly be a peculiar people in
comparison to the majority of the world.
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But then how else can we be an example?
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If we are not different as
a result of what we believe,
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then what's the use of believing?
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After all, Christianity is not some
mere sprinkling of pixie dust
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on top of what the world
does and calling it God's way.
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Ultimately, we are or will be,
of one paradigm or another.
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We're going to be either sheep,
or we're going to be goats.
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In the end, we either have Christ's loving-
kindness, or we have Satan's selfishness.
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At the conclusion, there's no middle
path, there's no lukewarm response.
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In this light, the implications
of a hard look at our lives,
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through the selfishness paradigm, are
truly significant, maybe revolutionary.
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The message is aimed at us from
all sides that we should be chasing
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what the world is chasing.
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Some even say that the pursuit of
wealth is a Christian right and duty,
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and success is proof of God's blessing.
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But no.
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Christ was emphatic that His
kingdom was not of this world,
-
and in fact, that is what
we're going to be looking at
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next in this series:
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the contest between Christ's paradigm
and Satan's paradigm in the Bible.
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How we see both of those
at work in the world today,
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and the challenge of being in
the world, but not of the world.
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SCOTT CHRISTIANSEN
Author, "Planet In Distress"
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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.
-
But today, even though Satan
has twisted things around severely,
-
God, as master designer of
the earth, can still be seen.
-
The author Ellen White, in
the book "Desire of Ages"
-
talks about how there's
both good and evil in the world,
-
and we can see God in nature still.
-
Where the only thing that is,
or can completely be evil,
-
is the hearts of those humans
who decide to be wholly evil.
-
And here is what she says
on page twenty of her book:
-
she says, "Now sin has
marred God's perfect work,
-
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.
-
No bird that cleaves the air, nor
animal that moves upon the ground,
-
but ministers to some other life.
-
There is no leaf of the forest, or lowly
blade of grass but has its ministry.
-
Every tree and shrub and leaf
pours forth that element of life
-
without which neither
man nor animal could live.
-
And man and animal, in turn, minister to
the life of the tree and shrub and leaf.
-
The flowers breathe fragrance and unfold
their beauty in blessing to the world,
-
the sun sheds its light to
gladden a thousand worlds.
-
The ocean, itself the source of
all of our springs and fountains,
-
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,
-
that it may bring forth and bud."
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So, we can even still see God in His earth.
-
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
-
in a handful.
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And while there is war
going on in our soil,
-
and war going on at
every level all around us,
-
so also is there a little cooperation, a
little sharing, a little passing of blessings.
-
We see a little bit of that
paradigm -- God's paradigm.
-
We can see bacteria capturing nitrogen from
the air to make it available to plants,
-
who then provide the bacteria with
nutrients, and fungus in the soil,
-
the filaments of fungus cycle
nutrients and enhance plant life.
-
Plants provide food to the
fungus; symbiotic relationships.
-
So even though the tapestry of
creation is tattered and faded,
-
we can still catch a glimpse
of God's paradigm in it.
-
And in catching this glimpse, we can better
understand that He wants us to return
-
to a much, much better world
than the one that we now live in.
-
But, for now we're here, in the midst
of this war between Christ and Satan,
-
this pitched battle, which started in
heaven and will soon end, praise the Lord,
-
here on Earth.
-
And this war has been
raging without pause.
-
And we're going to look at
a couple of the skirmishes
-
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,
-
in Genesis 3:3 and 4.
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Satan cleverly offered to Adam
and Eve an alternate paradigm,
-
disguised though it was.
-
To this first couple, who had
everything, he offered more.
-
He told them that God was a liar.
-
And he told them that by disobeying Him,
they would receive the amazing thing
-
He was keeping from them, and
that they would become like gods,
-
knowing good and evil.
-
Well, they fell for it. And they were
ashamed, they were appalled,
-
and they were incredibly
sorrowful as a result.
-
God then pronounced a broad-ranging
curse in Genesis 3:14 through 19.
-
But within that curse, is
something very, very interesting.
-
He put enmity between us and Satan.
-
I read this to say in part, that God
gave us the ability to resist Satan,
-
who had just conquered us.
-
Our friend in Maine, Arnet Mathers,
who has studied this deeply,
-
and he concludes that
Satan didn't see that coming.
-
That our ability to resist him after he
conquered us, was a surprise to him.
-
That perspective gives us a sense
of just how dynamic this war was,
-
and is.
-
Next, going to the book of Job, we
see Satan claiming that Job serves God
-
only through selfishness, and
asserting that Job follows God
-
only because God has
blessed him, and protected him.
-
Note that Satan is accusing God of employing
the selfishness paradigm to get followers.
-
Wow!
-
God responds by saying that He
will remove His protection from Job.
-
And eventually, Satan takes
everything from Job except his life.
-
But even though Job regrets his
being born, he does not curse God.
-
Satan and his paradigm
were defeated, soundly,
-
and God restored to Job what he had lost.
-
But the Bible's ultimate hand to hand
combat between Christ and Satan,
-
the ultimate clash of paradigms?
-
That's what we're going to look at in
the next in this series.
-
It's fascinating.
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Join me.
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SCOTT CHRISTIANSEN
Author, "Planet In Distress"
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Here I am, sitting in front of the graveyard
of the Washington, New Hampshire
-
Seventh-day Adventist church.
-
Now, a graveyard is a burial ground that's
next to a church, attached to a church.
-
A cemetery is a burial ground
that is not attached to a church.
-
So I'm definitely sitting in
front of a graveyard here.
-
And what a place this will be,
what a tumultuous place this will be,
-
at the resurrection, where people come
out absolutely joyous when Christ comes.
-
And for that reason, this is a good
place for us to conclude our discussion.
-
And I want to talk about
the limits of life, actually.
-
Emergency room physicians have a saying to
remember the limits of human endurance,
-
and it goes something like this,
"Three minutes without oxygen,
-
three days without water,
thirty days without food."
-
It's a memorable saying,
but it's not quite accurate.
-
The absolute limit of human endurance
without food is right about forty days.
-
And if we look at Matthew 4:1 through 11,
-
we're told that Christ was led
by the Spirit into the wilderness,
-
where He fasted for forty days.
-
So we know He was at the absolute, outer
edge of life, he was profoundly weakened.
-
But at the same time, we also know that
He was closer than ever to His Father,
-
through prayer.
-
And it is in this state of weakness and
strength, that Satan joins battle with Him.
-
At stake is the universe. Literally.
-
Satan pushes his paradigm:
-
get or take what we want or
need, pursuing our desires
-
at the expense of those who
are weaker -- that's his model.
-
Satan came at Christ three times
in the desert, when He was so weak.
-
First, he tempted with food.
-
And it was an overwhelming temptation
since Christ's body was at the very edge
-
of the eat or die stage.
-
But it didn't work.
-
Christ responded with a quote from
Scripture, so Satan tempted Him
-
with something far more insidious.
-
He cast doubt on whether God
really loved, and would care for Christ.
-
He implied the necessity of selfishness,
and in watching out for ourselves.
-
This temptation too, Christ
met by quoting Scripture.
-
Then came the third
and the final temptation.
-
The fiercest clash of these two paradigms.
-
Satan showed Christ the
results of his earthly paradigms:
-
the mighty kingdoms, the striving people,
the struggling that had built great societies,
-
and accumulated great wealth.
-
He said Christ could have it all
if only He would worship Satan.
-
In other words, if only
He would acknowledge
-
that Satan's paradigm was
superior, and worth having;
-
if only He would acknowledge
that Satan's way was better.
-
Well, praise God!
-
Christ did not succumb. And Satan
and his paradigm did not prevail.
-
The war rages on now in its final
battle, with you and I as the warriors,
-
on one side or the other, and
with us also as the prize in the war.
-
The Bible's very clear in regard to
what places us on one side or another,
-
but I want to add one more indication.
-
And that is whether or
not we fundamentally
-
want to operate under a
loving-kindness paradigm,
-
or a selfishness paradigm.
-
Whether or not our hearts pull us
to give, and love, or to take, and control.
-
This war started out as a charge
against the character of God,
-
and an assertion that
there was a better way.
-
and it remains a war,
over just those things.
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And so here's the question for you:
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Does your heart naturally pull you
toward a loving-kindness paradigm,
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where you give, where you
bless, where you nourish,
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and where Christ gives through you?
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Or does your heart naturally pull
you toward a selfishness paradigm,
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where you take, where you
accumulate, where you control?
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Or are you still conflicted -- some mixture
of the two, somewhere in the middle?
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In the end, we will all
be one or the other,
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and if you are fighting the pull
of the world, the good news is
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you don't have to fight alone.
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In fact the battle, and the war,
have already been won for you.
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Jesus was God made into human flesh,
to overcome the principle of selfishness
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in real life experiences.
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While on earth, He battled every temptation
we battle, and He remained sinless.
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Then on the cross, He became sin
for us to put to death in our hearts
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the root of all sin -- the self.
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And through His victory on the
cross, the war with Satan was won.
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Even if the final battle of the war is
not yet concluded, the war is won.
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I'm Scott Christiansen, and I hope
you have enjoyed this video series.
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I hope it gives you
something to think about.