Undivided Loyalties! | Dr. Conrad Vine

uh uh my my talk this morning is entitled undivided loyalties and uh this is going to be our journey today. We're going to look after our introduction at the old world then the new world then the coming world and then we're going to come to our conclusions. And so as we begin invite you to bow your heads to invite the presence of the Holy Spirit. So shall we pray? Our dear heavenly father, we thank you for the privilege we have to gather and worship you here this morning.

Father, there have been so many miracles, so many answers to prayer. And I pray, Lord, that you'll be the Lord of the details. That not one grain will fall between the cracks or down to the ground. I pray Lord that this program and this event um will be the start of something beautiful and new here in Berian Springs and around the world. Father, we pray for the gift of your Holy Spirit.

Now Lord, we don't just gather for information, but we're gathering for transformation. And I ask that you will whisper into each of our ears, this is the way, walking in it. Father, for those who are watching online, we pray your blessing upon them. And may your spirit move mightily in their hearts and minds as well as they share in these moments with us. In the name of Jesus, we humbly ask.

Amen. All right. So, um, this is a picture of my wife and myself. She's actually my first wife and um [clears throat] she's here with us here today. And back in 2016, we became US citizens.

And when you become a US citizen, you have to take the pledge of what? The pledge of allegiance. Um but there is an act there is a song in our himynil called I vow to thee my country. Are you familiar with that song? I vow to thee my country.

It's a beautiful hymn. It's actually the favorite hymn of King Charles III in England. But this is it has two verses. And the first verse says this. It says, "I vow to thee, my country, all earthly things above, entire and whole and perfect, the service of my love.

The love that asks the reason, the love that stands the test, that lays upon the altar, the dearest and the best, the love that never falters, the love that pays the price, the love that makes undaunted the final sacrifice." It's a beautiful hymn. This the first verse talks about our love for our earthly country. And the truth of the matter is this. We are to be the best possible citizens in our respective nations. We are to pay our taxes on time.

We are to obey the speed limit. Hint hint. We are to um we are to obey all the laws of the land. And if just like um if the police were to say uh is is somebody under suspicion say no, he's an Adventist. He's a follower of Jesus Christ.

There shouldn't be any complaints about that individual. We should be known for being the most law-abiding citizens in the nation. And so, um, but despite the fact we are citizens of earthly nations, we're also citizens of a heavenly nation, and that is the kingdom of God. And the Apostle Paul describes that there in Philippians 3:20. He says, "But our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we're expecting a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ." And so, as Christians, we have two loyalties.

We have loyalties to our earthly nation and we also have loyalty to the heavenly kingdom and the coming king of kings and lord of lords. And while we are to be a preserving and an enlightening influence in the land in which we now live, whether it be America or any other nation, um we are also to live by the principles of the coming king of kings and lord of lords and we are to exemplify his kingdom um in all that we do. So let's talk um about this question of divided and undivided loyalties. And let's come back to the old world. And uh this is Europe.

We're going to call it the old world here. This is a picture um from the time of the 30 years war. Is any of you familiar with the 30-year war? Okay. If we were to talk about the history of the 30-year war, it would take about 30 years to discuss it.

It was about as complex a war as you could be begin to imagine. But America arose directly out of the 30-year war in the Old World. And there are reasons for that. We're going to look into those reasons right now. What you see on the picture is a is a um a contemporary um drawing of the slaughter of Protestants by Catholic mercenary armies in southern Germany.

And so the 30-year war had a number of distinct phases. The first phase was the Bohemian Revolt. The Bohemian Revolt was in 1618. And it happened because Bo Bo Bo Bo Bo Bo Bo Bo Bo Bo Bo Bo Bo Bo Bo Bo Bo Bo Bo Bo Bohemia in southern Germany was a Protestant state and they wanted to have a Protestant prince. But the Holy Roman Emperor who was a Catholic and based in Vienna, he wanted to impose a Catholic ruler on on Bohemia.

And the Bohemians didn't want this. So they rose up in revolt and uh actually what happened was the Catholics invaded and they they they they wiped out the Protestants. about 27 ring leaders were hanged and then they imposed a Catholic monarch on Bohemia. Then the war spread across Germany in 1620 to 1622 1623 and the armies of what was then known as the Holy Roman Empire um from Sweden, from Austria, from northern Italy and from Spain. They invaded all across Germany and they drove the Protestants further and further north and they conquered mo much of Germany for Catholicism.

In response to this, King uh Christian IVth of Denmark um he decided to get involved in in the battle and uh he led his armies down from Denmark into Germany and he tried to push back the ger the Catholic armies. Um the fighting lasted 5 years, but the end of those five years, King Christian IV of Denmark was forced back into Denmark and he signed a treaty in which he agreed never to support the other Lutheran states of Germany ever again. And he yielded control of most of Germany to the Catholic armies. Then you have the Swedish war and the king of Sweden was a man called Gustavos Adulus and he realized that um as as as the Catholics now controlled all of Germany um the next logical um stage for Catholic conquest was Sweden and so um King Gustavos Adulus is known as the savior of Protestantism in Germany and probably in most of Europe. He was one of the crucial figures in the defense of Protestantism.

And this is what he wrote in 1629. He says, "Denmark is used up. The papists are on the Baltic. They have Rosto, Vismar, Stetin, Valghast, Griefzvald and nearly all the other ports in their hands. Rugan is theirs and also from Rugan they continue to threaten Stralund.

Their aim is to destroy Swedish commerce and plant a foot in the southern shore of our fatherland. Sweden is in danger from the power of the Hapsburg." And so Sweden was the last major U E European power that was Protestant or Lutheran um during the first years of the 30-year war. England was off doing its own thing at the time leading towards their own civil war again between um the Protestants of of the Parliament and King Charles the first who was promoting Catholicism. But Gustavos Adulus was the champion of Lutheranism um in central Europe. And uh this is what he wrote later.

He says, "As one wave follows another, so the Catholic League batters at our gates." So what did he do? He led an army into northern Germany. And he liberated most of northern central Germany from Catholic control. And Sister White writes about this in the historical sketches of the foreign missions of 7th Adventists. I have no idea why this is included in this book.

It's like the Gustavos Adulus was a foreign missionary for the 7th Adventist movement. Um but it's in that book and this is what she writes. She says, "Thus it was that Gustavos II, the king of little Sweden, came to the deliverance of the oppressed nations. It was a herculean task which he had undertaken with slender means and a small army he must encounter an enemy that possessed exhaustless resources and unnumbered forces. But faith that God, whose cause he was undertaking would sustain him, urged him forward to become the defender of Protestantism." Well, actually he died in 1632 in the battle um of uh in north in central Germany and to this day there is a monument to his in to his honor.

He uh he died in Luton 1632. But Brighton fell a major battle. He saved Protestantism in central Europe and probably for us today from the waves of Catholic armies of the Holy Roman Empire. And to this day there is a monument erected on the fields of battle there which says freedom of belief in for the world saved at Brightenfeld Gustavos Adulus Christian and hero and he died the following year at the battle of Luton. He was cut off from his cavalry and um next slide please.

He was cut off from his cavalry and um he was um killed by the Catholic soldiers who surrounded him. And if you can move to the next slide. This uh clicker is not working. All right. So uh then next slide then you come to the the final fra phase of the 30-year war the Franco Swedish phase.

Did any of you watch the three musketeers when you were growing up? Yes. Do you do you remember who was the archdaddy in the three musketeers? There was Cardinal Richler. Do you remember him?

That scheming Machavevelian cardinal in in the royal palace of France. Even though he was trying to wipe out the Protestants of France, the hugenos in the story of the three musketeers, he actually entered into an alliance with Sweden to attack the Catholics of Central Europe because he didn't want um um Austria and Spain to become too powerful. So if your enemy is my enemy, then we're going to become we'll have an alliance. So Cardinal Rishler, the baddy of the three musketeers who was killing the Hugenos entered into alliance with the Swedes and they drove back the Holy Roman Empire. and that brought the 30-year war to an end.

And so there are four key documents of the 30-year war. And these are documents that relate to the founding of America in a very very particular way. And why do I say that? Well, first of all, you have the religious peace of Agsburg. You then have the edict of restitution in 1629.

You have the peace of Prague in 1635. And then the treaty of Estfellia, which really set this the basis for modern day Europe. Well, the religious piece of Agsburg um had these agreements. It recognized Lutheranism and Catholicism. It said that individuals could immigrate to a state that upheld their religion.

The religion of the state was chosen by the ruler. Um but the right of Lutheran within Catholic states was severely restricted. And so if your prince became Protestant in a one of the multiple dozens of German states, then you could celebrate the Protestant faith in that state. But if your prince became Catholic, then your state became officially Catholic and you didn't have freedom of religion, but you could immigrate to a neighboring Protestant state if you wanted. Then you had the edict of restitution and this was after um the the Danish war when they were Danish were forced back.

The Catholics controlled all of Germany and in the edict of restitution all of the lands which had been taken from the Catholic Church in the Reformation were transferred back to Catholic control. monasteries, lands, hospitals, factories and stately homes and so forth. But this the edict of restitution was in 1629 which is about the same time as the the pilgrim fathers are coming to America. And the problem was was that the edict of restitution recognized the rights of Lutheran and of Catholics, but it refused to recognize the right to existence of Calvinists. And the pilgrim fathers were Calvinists.

They were neither Lutheran nor Catholic. They were Calvinists. And so the edict of restitution has this particular clause. It says all other doctrines and sects, whatever names they may have, such as the pilgrim fathers and the Calvinists, not included in the peace of Agsburg, are forbidden and cannot be tolerated. And so the edict of restitution as well as the peace of Agsburg refused to recognize the religious liberty of Calvinists.

um not but they recognized the right of Lutheran to exist and so then you come to the piece of vest failure which was the turning point and there's a clause seven in the piece of vest failure it's on the screen there it says it is agreed by the unanimous consent of his imperial majesty and all the estates of the empire that whatever rights and benefits are conferred upon the states and subjects attached to the Catholic and algsburg faiths that's the Lutheran shall also apply to those who are called reformed um cal those were the Calvinists and so the piece of vest failure in 1648 had certain benefits for religious liberty in Europe. It recognized the rights of Lutheran of Catholics and of Calvinists to exist. Everybody could privately practice the religion of their choice. Um rulers could only regulate the public expression of faith but they could no longer impose their faith on their subjects. If you were a dissident, you were allowed to immigrate from a Catholic state to a Calvinist state or from a Calvinist state to a Lutheran state or vice versa.

And even if you immigrated, um, you allowed to keep your property even if you were exiled by your ruler. So the peace of Vesia was an essential part in establishing modernday Europe today. But uh because um what was going on at the time with the edict of restitution, the key point for us this morning is that the the Calvinists um they had no legal recognition at the time of the the the pilgrim fathers. So let's come forward then to the um the 30-year war. Just a summary of what the 30-year war actually did.

The 30-year war was the last major attempt by the Roman Catholic Church and the Holy Roman Empire to impose Catholic rule on Europe by force. It was the last major attempt and it was the last major war in Europe where there was the ideologically driven killing of civilians in large numbers. In fact, so many civilians died that in parts of southwest Germany like modern day Ben Wenberg, it's estimated that almost 70% of the population was wiped out during this fighting. And if you go north into central Germany, almost 60% was wiped out. And in the Lutheran regions of the north, almost 50% of the population was wiped out during this fighting.

And so the the old world saw um ideologically driven killing of civilians. Now Protestants also did this um to the Catholic communities but that the largest killing by a long way was by Catholic mercenaries against Protestant um communities. Now this led to an ideological backclass in Europe and because that this was a war of religion after the end of the 30-year war. Europe turned to the age of the enlightenment and they said we've there's been so much killing in the name of God. let's just try human reason for a while and we're not going to start continue killing each other in the name of God.

And uh that's so the the age of reason and the enlightenment took off in Europe. And towards the end of those 150 years um after the the 30-year war, you have three major revolutions. The industrial revolution, the French Revolution, and the American Revolution. So how does this relate to us here today? We speak about the old world, but this does relate to us today.

So let's talk about the new world u before we go on to the coming world. So the book of revelation talks about the earth. We see this in revelation 12:13-16. A very familiar passage to Adventists. It says, "So when the dragon that is Satan saw that he'd been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child.

But the woman was given the two wings of a great eagle so that she could fly from the serpent into the wilderness to her place where she is nourished for a time a times and half a time. And as most of us here I think are Adventists. I'm not going to go into any detailed exugesus of this. Then it says then from his mouth the serpent poured water like a river after the woman to sweep her away with the flood. But the earth came to the help of the woman.

it opened its mouth and swallowed the river that the dragon had poured from his mouth. And so, um, how does this apply in history? Well, in the early 1600s during the 30-year war, the Puritans living in England were a very strict Calvinist sect. And they were devoted to predestination, personal piety, and personal holiness. And because they rejected the kind of semi-atholic practices of the Church of England, they were persecuted in England.

And so, many of them fled to Europe. But in Europe, what they found under the edict of restitution and the peace of Agsburg was that and that during the 30-year war, there was no legal recognition for Calvinists. And even though the pilgrim fathers went to Europe to find refuge from um from the king of England, when they landed in Europe, they found that neither Catholics nor Lutheran particularly wanted them and they had no legal recognition. They had nowhere else to go. And so because of this um they decided to flee to the new world in 1620 and so hence you have the pilgrim fathers and they flew to they fled to America referred in this verse here as the earth the underlying passage that you see there.

So what was happening in Europe and the peace of Agsburg and the edict of restitution which denied the legal rights or existence of Calvinists helped to drive the Puritans and the pilgrim fathers from Europe, from England across the Atlantic to the United States of America. You know, um people think that these ancient documents don't have much meaning. Oh yes, they do. You know, I've I've worked with refugees for many years in some parts of the world and I can tell you if you don't have an identity document, you are lost for the rest of your life. If you are forced from your home tomorrow by an invading army and you have no identity on you, you can't prove anything about yourself.

You end up in a refugee camp for the rest of your life because nobody will take you because you can't prove your identity. Ancient documents still have a profound influence on us today. Now, the Puritan's vision was not of religious or political liberty. It's best captured in John Winthrop's sermon, a model of Christian charity. And if we can come to the next slide.

Uh John Winthrop was a preacher um who preached a sermon as he was about to sail across the Atlantic. Um he was fleeing the persecution in England and from the Lutheran and from the Catholics in Europe during the 30-year war. Nobody recognized the rights of the Calvinist to exist. And so he fled across the Atlantic. And as he was about to set sail, he gave a very famous sermon called a model of Christian charity.

And for Winthrop, the Massachusetts Bay Colony was not to be a bastion of religious liberty whatsoever. It was going to be a place where if England is ruled by the king and the the the Anglican church and if Europe is ruled by Lutherans and Catholics, then the new world is going to be a place ruled by Calvinists and we're going to be in control there. That's going to be our patch of land. So the Puritans were not seeking religious liberty for all. They were seeking the religious space where they could be in charge and have their own plot of land and say this is going to be Calvinist and pilgrim uh from the pilgrim fathers.

They weren't truly seeking religious liberty for all. They were seeking religious liberty for themselves and also the ability to control their own patch of land where they could impose their views on everybody else just as the Catholics, the Lutherans and the Anglicans were imposing their views on the pilgrim fathers in England. Are you following me on this? Okay. So this is what he said.

Very famous phrase. He says, "We must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us." Very famous line. And John F. Kennedy um 11 days before his inauguration, he used this line when he spoke to the Massachusetts State Assembly just before his inauguration as president.

and he quoted this line and he he used it in the phrase that America is a city on a hill and the eyes of the whole world is are upon us and how are we going to act as a nation in the middle of the midst of the civil of the the cold war that's going on right here. So um what happened um in in in the Bay Colony, many of you familiar um a guy called Roger Williams, he advocated for the separation of church and state. We won't go into his story here. Here he is being driven away from from the um from the uh the Massachusetts Bay Colony, which leads us, we're skipping through history here pretty fast, to the Declaration of Independence. And it suddenly occurred to me this morning that all of those framers and signers, they spoke in my my accent, you know.

So when I talk about the Declaration of Independence that they spoke with my accent, I'm sorry to say. All right. Um they spoke with a very sanctified accent and they were very brave individuals. But the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776 and it uh there's a copy of it there and it says we hold these truths to be what? That all men are created what?

Equal. They're endowed by their who? Creator with certain unalienable rights. that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And what this basically says is go government does not grant rights in America because our rights come by virtue of rational creation by a loving creator.

Government's job is to protect our rights, not to grant us rights. And so when they founded America, there were two visions. There was John Winthrop's vision of an authoritarian city on a hill, or there was Roger Williams' vision of freedom of conscience and mutual tolerance. And which vision of America would prevail? It was a vision of Roger Williams.

Praise the Lord for that. And that led to the be the bill of rights ratified in December 1791. And uh the first bill the first right in the US bill of rights is known as the first amendment. And in the first amendment, the very first right that is mentioned is freedom of conscience and freedom of religion. So our founders they understood that in order for a nation to be free in its and how it lives its lives and people as how they live their lives we must have freedom in our minds.

We must have the ability to think and to speak freely because that is the fountain in civil life of all other um expressions of how we live our lives. So it says congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. And we break that down into two clauses. There's the establishment clause that is Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion. And there is also the free exercise clause such as prohibiting that Congress shall make no law respecting the or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.

So what does the establishment clause mean in practice? This is what it means. four specific rights and that the establishment clause is designed to prevent the government from establishing a national religion or a state church. It was to ensure that the government does not favor one religion or over another or favor non-religion over religion at all. It means the government cannot force us to attend church or support a specific religious institution with their tax dollars.

um the Baptist lay preachers who were being imprisoned in Virginia, one of the things they were protesting about in the pre-revolutionary era was the fact that the state of Virginia was forcibly collecting tithes to give to the Episcopalian clergy. Um the Anglican clergy who who they had a state church there in Virginia um before the the um the war of independence and the the Baptists were very much against this and this comes through in the establishment clause. And the fourth um point there is the government cannot show preferential treatment to one religious group or another and it cannot promote specific religious beliefs. The free exercise clause um has two components. There's freedom of belief and there is freedom of action.

And the freedom of belief means the government can never dictate what you must believe or they cannot punish you for your religious convictions or lack thereof. So absolute freedom of thought and belief is completely protected and that that the first amendment is perhaps the single most important bull work against tyranny in our world today. It's not the American military, it's the first amendment and it's the first phrase of the first amendment. This is the beacon that draws people to America from every nation around the world. The ability to think and the ability to speak speak freely without being condemned.

I mean clearly they're not they don't know what marriage is like yet. In principle, that's a joke by the way. Um, in principle, what draws people to America more than anything else over the centuries is the ability to think freely and to worship freely and to think for yourself. Then you have freedom of action. Is the right to practice your faith is also protected.

But the right to practice your faith is not absolute. For instance, you cannot practice child sacrifice. You may want to with your teenagers, but it's not allowed. And you cannot threaten a compelling government interest such as the public health and safety. There are certain Supreme Court decisions relating to that.

So um when we look at the new world, we see that in Revelation 12, America is a land of refuge for God's people. Would you agree with me that that the that that God provided the earth, the earth swallowed up the flood and the woman escaped from papal persecution. Revelation 12 um 13-16. And in Revelation 12, America is a land of refuge for God's people. And this is the America that we celebrate today.

Sister White says this, "The United States is a land that has been under the special shield of omnipotence from great controversy." We also see she wrote in the Review and Herald, she said, "The Lord has done more for the United States than for any other country upon which the sun shines. Here he provided an asylum for his people where they could worship him according to the dictates of conscience. Here Christianity has progressed its purity in its purity. The lifegiving doctrine of the one mediator between God and man has been freely taught. God that's a high priestly ministry of Jesus Christ.

God designed that this country should ever remain free for all people to worship him according to the dictates of conscience. And we have grown up in this land that is under God's special blessing and special protection and special provision. And that is the land that we celebrate when we say God bless America. But from the same earth in Revelation chapter 13 cuz the earth is mentioned again. There is uh then I saw another beast that rose out of the earth.

It had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon. So in Revelation 12, America is a land of refuge for God's people. But in Revelation 13, America becomes the persecutor of God's people. A change is happening in our nation. A change will happen in our nation.

This is not the land that we say, "God bless America. We celebrate the America of Revelation 12, but we endure the America of Revelation 13." And so um America is a refuge in chapter 12 of Revelation. America is a persecutor in Revelation 13. Um, Sister White describes it thus. She says, "The prophecy of Revelation 13 declares that the power represented by the beast with lamblike horns shall call the cause the earth and them which dwelt therein to worship the papacy, there symbolized by the beast like unto a leopard.

It has been shown that the United States is the power represented by the beast with lamblike horns and that this prophecy will be fulfilled when the United States shall enforce Sunday observance which Rome claims as the special acknowledgement of her supremacy. And so a change is going to take place in our nation. And that is why this sermon is entitled undivided loyalties because we need to ask ourself where are our loyalties today. We pledge allegiance to the flag and to the republic for which it stands. Yes.

Yes. We are to be the best possible citizens of the United States of America. We should be living lives without reproach in America. We should be living upholding the laws, paying our taxes. We should be a preserving and an enlightening influence, upholding all that is good and rejecting all that is evil within our nation.

Yes. But we are also citizens of God's kingdom. And as that and as as our nation transitions from Revelation 12 to Revelation 13, we need to make that transition so that our primary loyalty is to the kingdom of God rather than to any earthly nation. And so right now we've just seen the Religious Liberty Commission um uh come out from uh they made their interim report. I want to thank pillarillar of freedom and uh brother Jonathan Zurkel who's speaking later today did a fantastic work in highlighting the recommendations and there's a copy of the the front page and um they made their initial report.

We're going to be discussing it tomorrow afternoon the very specific recommendations. Some are good, some are bad, some are ugly. So you're going to have to listen to that conversation tomorrow. But the religious liberty commission um that the chair of the presidential religious liberty committee um denied that the separation of church exists in the constitution and affirmed that through this religious liberty commission um the commissioners want to replace the wall of separation with a bridge between church and state. They use the phrase a bridge.

Now um you need to look at the details of the report. You can download it. It's on Google. It's freely available for everybody to see. Many Adventists submitted comments to the initial report and those comments now available as well and Pillar of Freedom has them on their website I believe uh with Jonathan Zurkel who'll be speaking about this or you go and go and find him this week and talk to him about this cuz he's an expert on this but many people made comments on the religious liberty commission.

I made a long comment on there as well and probably didn't endear myself to the federal government but I made a long comment there and uh this is the world in which we are now living. We are moving to the state where America is going to shift from the revelation 12 America to the revelation 13 in America. Great controversy says this. The dignitaries of church and state will unite to bribe, persuade or compel all classes to be vaccinated. Sorry to honor the Sunday.

History does repeat. The lack of divine authority will be supplied by oppressive enactments. Political corruption is destroying love of justice and regard for truth. And even in free America, rulers and legislatures will yield to the popular demand for a law enforcing Sunday observance. By the decree in fifth times 5:41 enforcing the institution of papacy in violation of the law of God, our nation that is America shall disconnect herself fully from righteousness.

When Protestant when Protestantism shall stretch her hand across the gulf to grasp the hands of the Roman power. When she shall reach over the abyss to clasp hands with spiritualism, when under the influence of this three-fold union our country shall repudiate every principle of its constitution as a Protestant and a republican government, and shall make no provision and shall make provision for the propagation of papal falsehoods and delusions. Then we may know that the time has come for the marvelous working of Satan and that the end is near. I wrote a sermon on this topic just recently about when Satan appears and I came to the conclusion that Satan appears before the close of probation and his appearance extends beyond the end of the close of probation. And so Satan appears to deceive the nations and to garner the world's support in favor of the Sunday laws that are coming upon our world.

And so the lamblike beast will end up speaking as a dragon. In the final time of trouble, America will be in her Revelation 13 persecuting mode. And this will reveal to the world what human government really is like when it is under the control of Satan. If you thought the federal government was bad today, you have complaints about your senator, about your president, you ain't seen nothing yet. What is coming is beyond anything we've ever imagined.

There's a rough ride before Jesus comes again. But as Adventists, because we know there is an end to this rough ride, we can get through this rough ride. If we didn't know that Jesus was coming again, you would just succumb to the pressure. But when you know that Jesus is coming again for his own, for those whose names are in the lamb's book of life, you can buckle up, grit your teeth, and by prayer and through faith in Jesus, we can get through this coming rough ride. And so she says in great controversy about this final time of trouble coming upon the world.

She says, "All the depths of satanic skill and subtlety acquired, all the cruelty developed during those struggles of the ages will be brought to bear against God's people in the final conflict." So, when I go to Europe, uh when when I when my wife and I went to England just after we got married, um it was Christmas time and I wanted to show my wife some of English culture. So, I took her to see um Windsor Castle and Kennallorth Castle and Warick Castle because I like castles. And when we went into each castle, there are two passages. The passage up goes to the state rooms where you see the the clothing from the 15th and the 14th centuries. And the passage downward goes to the torture chambers, and that's where the armory is.

And under the torture chambers, they have a hole dug in the in the in in the stone that's about 6 ft deep and 3 ft across. And there's a grate on top of that little hole. It's known in French as the ooiet, which means the forgotten. And when a j when a governor was really upset with you, they didn't just torture you. They put you in that hole, put a steel grate over you, and left you to rot.

And you were just forgotten. And so when I look at those and I like looking around torture chambers, okay, it was um we're anticipating having children. I wanted to make sure I was prepared for this eventuality. And um I like looking at the torture chambers. I look at those torture chambers and I realize that everything that humanity has done to humanity in the past is going to be visited upon God's people in the final crisis.

It's not going to be pretty. It's why we are to not have any love for the world in our hearts. There has to be no love for the desires of the flesh in our hearts. There has to be no love for the desires of wealth or the accum accumulation of possessions. When we have gods in this world and they are have a hold upon our hearts, we're not going to make it through that final crisis because those gods of the world will cause us to step out from being under the fire of the of the government.

Which brings us to the third stage of our time this morning. We have 9 minutes left. The coming world. We're not just 7th day worshippers. We are Adventist worshippers.

We are seventh day adventists. And uh to go back to that hymn that we started out with, the first verse I vow to thee my country speaks about the earthly citiz nation where we are citizens. But the second verse is absolutely beautiful. And this speaks about the coming kingdom of God. And that verse the words of this.

It says, "And there is another country that is the kingdom of God I heard of long ago, most dear to them that love her, most great to them that know. We may not count her armies. We may not see her king. Her fortress is a faithful heart. Her pride is suffering.

And one by one and fervently we pray for her increase. And her ways are ways of gentleness. And all her paths are peace. It's a beautiful beautiful hymn um that tr that takes us from our loyalty to our earthly nation to our ultimate loy ultimate loyalty to the kingdom of God. And the kingdom that this song is talking about is actually the kingdom of heaven.

And uh Jesus um spoke about this um in Luke 23. On the cross, the thief said to Christ, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." And uh this coming kingdom of God, it's the reign of God today. It's not a literal kingdom. Today, it's a kingdom of grace. And one day, it's going to be a kingdom of glory when Jesus comes again.

And when Jesus came to this earth, he announced that the kingdom of God is at hand. when he was casting out demons, he said, "This is how you know that the kingdom of God is here. It's by the power of God that I'm casting out demons." And Satan's kingdom has been dismantled one victim at a time. And so, this kingdom of God that Jesus came to establish will one day destroy the kingdom of Satan. First Kings 1 Corinthians 15:24 says this, "Then comes the end when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed every ruler and authority and power." And those words in the Greek, ruler and authority and power, exusia dunameus, those are referring to the powers of darkness, the kingdom of Satan in our world today.

And Jesus said, "If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand?" So we live in America. We are citizens of America or Canada or Mexico, wherever we come from. But there's also a spiritual conflict going on. There is the kingdom of Jesus Christ and there is the kingdom of Satan.

And that conflict is going on all around us even as we live our lives today. And the question is where are your loyalties in that struggle in the the era of the seventh trumpet? And we are now in the era of the seventh trumpet because it says now has come the time for judging the dead which is 1844 the pre-advent judgment. In the era of the seventh trumpet which concludes with the destruction of Satan says then the seventh angel blew the trumpet and there were loud voices in heaven saying the kingdom of the world that is the kingdom of Satan has become the kingdom of our lord and of his messiah and he that is Christ will reign forever and ever. Can you say amen?

that the kingdom of Satan that rules in this world, the god of this world who's blinded the thinking and the eyes of the inhabitants of this world, his kingdom is going to be destroyed. It's going to be replaced. It's going to be obliterated and replaced with the kingdom of Jesus Christ. And the kingdom that Jesus is going to establish is unlike anything we've ever experienced before. Praise God for that.

Says, "For I'm about to create a new heavens and a new earth. The form of things shall not be remembered or come to mind." So no memory of Britain or America or Canada or Mexico, wherever we come from, no memory of the pains and struggles and suffering of this world. No memory of the heartache and the diseases we experience. That the promise of what God is going to do for us is profound. There's going to be no memory of what we the struggles we've gone through in this world.

I'm truly grateful to God for that. The Messiah is going to rule the coming kingdom. And next slide, please. The Messiah is going to rule the coming kingdom. We read about that in Isaiah 11:1.

Says, "A chute shall come out from the stump of Jesse." It's a messianic passage here. "And a branch shall grow out of his roots." Goes on to say in verse 5 of the same chapter, "This will be a kingdom ruled by righteousness." Says, "Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist and faithfulness the belt around his loins." So God's kingdom is going to be based on righteousness and justice, which are intertwinable concepts in the Hebrew there. and that God is going to be faithful to his people when he leads his people in the kingdom of God. It's a kingdom not just ruled by righteousness. Um, but the second verse on the screen there is one of my favorite verses in scripture.

It says, "The Lord is just in all his ways and kind in all his doings." We never associate justice with kindness, do we? the justice system associated with police and ICE and and you know um um um riot police and tear gas and and cufflinks and um you know supermax prisons and all the rest of it and and the in the justice system the most violent part of America is probably in our prisons and so we don't associate justice with kindness but something beautiful about the kingdom of God is that the Lord is just in all his ways we want justice but the way he leads rules his kingdom. He is kind in all his ways. It's a be there. We've never seen anything like it in our world today.

And so it's a kingdom ruled by righteousness, but kindness is the modus opyande of the kingdom of God. And it's something that I want to see more than anything else in this world. Uh we want justice um for others. We want mercy for ourselves. But when God rules on the throne, there is justice for all.

And people experience the kindness and the goodness of God um uh in in their daily lives. It's a kingdom not of war, but it's a kingdom of shalom. Our next slide, it says, "The wolf shall lie down with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze." You know, cows and bears don't get on well together, do they? What this tells you is that if the cow and the bear shall graze together, that is the natural enmity of this world is done away with.

and their young shall lie down together and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. I'm sure the zebras will be happy. Uh it goes on to say in that passage there, the nurse the nursing child shall put it shall play over the whole of the asp and the weaned child shall put its hand in the viper's den. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain for the earth is filled and for the earth is filled of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. You know, it's an incredible kingdom that God has got lined up for us.

It's also a kingdom of reconciliation. When we get to heaven, there's going to be the river of the water of life flowing from the tree in the center of God's kingdom. And it says the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. So, it's going to be a place not just of peace. It's going to be a place not just of of um the absence of war, but it's going to be a place where there's reconciliation.

Have you imagined when when when David and Ba Sheba at the tree of life and Uriah saunters up to meet them, it's going to be awkward. Yes. Okay. But the text says that the kingdom of God when we get to heaven is going to be a place of reconciliation. There's going to be healing for broken relationships.

And maybe the most important things in our lives today, the things that cause us the most heartache are not broken homes or broken cars, but broken relationships with those we love. And so, the kingdom of God is a place of of peace. It's a place where there is the absence of war. It's a kingdom of justice and of right doing. It's a place that has it's like nothing we've ever experienced before.

And it has it's a kingdom where there is reconciliation. It's a kingdom of unspeakable joy. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. The lame shall leap like a deer and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy. For water shall break forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert.

The lame shall leap like a deer. When I broke my leg and I was on my back for a few months, I dreamt of being able to walk again, you know, and if Jesus just walked through my room and said, "Get up and walk." I say, "Praise the Lord isn't just a theoretical expression. It's like, "Praise the Lord, I can walk again." And it took me five years to learn to walk properly again. Somebody maybe maybe remember that. I was walking miles and miles every day trying to treat my left leg to walk the way my right leg was walking.

I was thinking of the mechanics of how you put your foot down and how you bend it and how you go up on on the toes of your feet and so forth. And uh but the kingdom of God is where the lame shall leap like a deer and the tongue of the speechless will sing for joy. Praise God for the kingdom that's coming our way. It's a kingdom of eternal life. Says he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations.

He will swallow up death forever. Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces. The idea that God will swallow up all death forever. What a beautiful promise we have. The kingdom of God.

And this kingdom is a kingdom that we pray for daily. When we pray, "Thy kingdom come," we're praying for the arrival of this kingdom. We're praying for Jesus to come as soon as possible. And when we pray, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven," I have no control over anything in your lives. The only part of this world I have control over is my life.

And so when I say, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." I'm saying, Lord, may your will be done in my life. Your perfect, holy will be done in my life. And so we pray for this kingdom on a daily basis. May your kingdom come and we proclaim this kingdom to the ends of the earth here at Adventist Mission Institute. Whatever ministry involved, this incredible ministries down in the in the exhibitor tents here.

We all have a common goal, which is this. The good news of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the world as a testament to all the nations and then the end shall come. So we pray for this kingdom. We work for this kingdom. We labor for this kingdom.

We proclaim this nation, this kingdom. We live for this kingdom. And uh we tell the world that there is a coming kingdom better than the world in which we now live. This is a fascinating presentation because the team up there are moving my powerpoints up ahead of me and I realize I'm 50 seconds over. So I'm trying to keep up with my PowerPoints.

All right. Um this is like a the PowerPoints have got a life of their own. So I think I have two more powerpoints and then we're going to draw this to a close. It says, "So how do we live as we wait? We live in the I I come from the old world.

I now live in the new world, but I live for the coming world." And that is to be all of our experience. No matter what world you live in, you may have lived in the old world or another part of the world. We're now living physically in the new world, but that Revelation 12 is going to turn to Revelation 13. So our hopes and our eyes are lifted high to the coming world. And that is what we live for.

That is what we proclaim. That is why AI even exists. Sister White says, "We as a people have not yet accomplished the work which God has committed to us. We are not ready for the issue to which the enforcement of the Sunday law will bring us. It is our duty as we see the signs of approaching peril to arouse to action.

Let none sit in calm expectation of the evil, comforting themselves with belief that this work must go on because prophecy has foretold it and that the Lord will shelter his people. We are not doing the will of God if we sit in quietude doing nothing to preserve liberty of what? Okay. And in this this last summer it was my privilege to be in Sweden where we baptize people in Slovenia where we baptize people in Washington where we baptize people and just in Hawaii just recently and down Oregon where we baptize people. All through this summer I've seen the Holy Spirit at work leading people into the kingdom of God.

And people are hungry for truth. They're hungry for hope. They're hungry for meaning. And when you announce that there is a coming king and his kingdom is one of righteousness and all his ways are just and his doing and his his dealings with humanity are kind. It's a kingdom of peace without any war.

It's a kingdom of righteousness. It's a kingdom where there is unspeakable joy. It's a kingdom where death is done away with one son forever and for all. Praise God for this coming kingdom. And we are not just to sit and wait for the kingdom to come.

We are to labor with Christ to win as many souls for this coming kingdom. And that is why we uphold liberty of conscience in each of our ministries and at AMI. Man, this PowerPoint moves on on its own. Final slide here. The banner of truth and religious liberty held loft by the founders of the gospel church and by God's witnesses during the centuries that has passed since then has in this last conflict been committed to our hands.

In God's mysterious providence, he didn't choose Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to live in 2026 or Esther or Mary Magdalene. We're here. And the moment of earth's greatest darkness, it's not Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It's you and it's me. That God sees something in us here today.

that when the darkest the darkness is at its worst, when evil is upon the land in a way never seen before, God has chosen us here today to be his champions to shine like the stars of heaven to shine the light of the gospel in all in how we live our lives to win as many souls for Christ in earth's final and darkest hour. That Roman centurion killed Christ you see on the screen there. But at the foot of the cross, he said, "Truly this man was the on of God, not the emperor in Rome." That man had undivided loyalties. My challenge to you today is have undivided loyalties. We are first and foremost citizens of heaven above from where we are expecting our savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Live for him, live with him. Allow him to shine through you and he will walk with you to the end of the age. And his promise to you is, I will never leave you even to the end of the age. He will be with us. He will speak through us.

who give us words to speak when we call before Sanhedrin and councils and if people see the love of God in our eyes and hear the love of voice God in our voices and they see the love of God in how we treat one another they'll be one for the coming kingdom yes I'm from the old kingdom yes we live in the new world but as Adventists we are champions of the coming king of kings and the coming kingdom live for Jesus from this day forward amen