GYC 2009: unASHAMED

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Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

Eric Walsh:  The Dragon's War on the Remnant

Eric Walsh

The Dragon’s War on the Remnant Part 1

I guess while we're waiting, I'll just do a little brief introduction of who I am for those of you who don't know me.

And then we'll go into the first part of the six-part session.

Right now, I'm still on faculty at Loma Linda University.

But I no longer work full-time at Loma Linda.

Right now I'm the medical director for the jail system for the county of Orange, California.

You know, you see like the Real Housewives of the OC.

Of course, The people in jail aren't the people on the show in general.

So my ministry work, I find actually far more rewarding and meaningful inside the jails.

And I do a lot of public health work as a medical director for 1 of the public health divisions.

And in the community, then, honestly, even at conventions like this.

Because you really reach people who just don't know Christ at all, and their lives are in shambles.

And 1 of the problems, or 1 of the challenges, I should say, to the remnant church really is reaching the people who are the furthest from God.

And a lot of times, we're good at reaching each other.

But when you really start to deal with murderers, gangbangers, rapists, child molesters on a daily basis and have to provide quality medical care to them, it really pushes your Christianity.

Because you have to really look at them and really learn to look at people as God looks at them.

And if you don't learn to love people regardless of what they've done, you can't work in a jail.

You'll try and be judge and jury yourself and punish people.

And so it's really, I've been doing that since last summer.

And that's really, really helped me a lot.

I don't know how much longer I'll be doing it, because it is very taxing.

But it's been a very good spiritual experience for me.

And I'll weave in some of the stories as we talk throughout the day, because there's some very interesting things, obviously, that happen inside of a county jail system with a population that's with 3000000 people.

I mean, our county is bigger than many of the southern states in terms of population.

I went to medical school at the University of Miami in Florida.

I grew up in Connecticut, in Hartford, with actually 1 of my good friends from childhood is here, Yoka.

And actually, I forgot how cold it gets living in California and Miami, so this has been a reminder as to why I stay in California.

This is, I believe, a big part of God's last push.

And I don't know, maybe we overlook how significant what was happening here really is.

Pippam last night, who was a wonderful soldier at a cross.

And we were just talking about the impact that this has, audio-verse.

I've gone to Europe and spoken a couple times a few years ago, and it's amazing how all of this information is being transported by technology around the world and feeding the little tiny fragments of the remnant in places where they're not getting a word from their churches.

So it's a powerful, powerful thing that we're a part of.

And we really should be very prayerful that God's word goes out with power from here during this conference, because you have all these awesome speakers all in 1 place all at the same time.

1 day we'll be on a sea of glass and remember how God moved through these conferences.

I also work as a youth pastor in California as well at 1 of the churches.

And that also helps keep my heir to the ground.

1 of our young men, they called him Fat Daddy, actually he was a crip.

When we baptized, when the family was, went into the church, his father was a crip, or stepfather was a crip as well.

And so he was a, he had come out of it and he was just murdered a week ago.

I mean, And to me, you're not doing ministry until you get to some of those hard issues.

And that's what drives me in ministry, actually, is reaching those people that are most difficult to reach.

And part of the reason my style is a lot different than a lot of other people's style, because a lot of times I really am doing these presentations and doing these talks to people who simply just don't know God and have no experience with Jesus Christ or lost it a long time ago and don't know that they can have it back.

So that is to me 1 of the strongest reasons the Remnant exists and why as the Remnant church we have a lot a lot of work to do.

With that said I want to start by having a word of prayer if you'd bow your heads.

Father God we thank you Lord for bringing us into this place and we thank you Lord for your mercy and for your grace.

Father God, we are unworthy of the blessings you give us from day to day.

In fact, Father God, you are so much better to us than we are to ourselves.

So today, Father God, make me just a mouthpiece and ask that you speak through me.

Each 1 of these presentations, Lord, would be touched by your Holy Spirit.

And Father God, all who come in contact with this material would be blessed.

Bless, Lord, this group that is here with me today as well.

And Father God, as we go on this journey, Lord, we learn and grow together in Jesus Christ.

OK, so my talks, they have another name for the whole thing, but I didn't make up the name, so I can't even remember it, honestly.

They gave it to me, and I was probably supposed to use it.

But when I was talking on the phone with 1 of the young ladies, this is the name that kind of came to me as I thought about what I wanted to talk about at GYC.

Because I really want, again, to try and make as much information relevant for those who are doing ministry in hard to reach places and dealing with fighting the battle of the remnant church, meaning that there are people who are trying to unmake us the remnant as well.

And so it's tough because you have to, you know, this is a tough thing to do in love, but it is a real thing and it's, I think you'll see that balance is important, but you can't really waver on truth.

And that's 1 of the key principles of the talk.

And here's the overview for all the 6 sessions.

And every time I start a new session, I'll put this slide up.

But this 1 today, this first 1 is In Search of the Remnant.

The second 1 is The Dragon in the Digital Age.

The third 1 is secret agents and double agents.

The fourth 1 is the real dragon, false doctrine.

And the last 1 tomorrow afternoon is the remnant's counterattack.

And we'll talk about the things that we're doing and should be doing to really go against what the dragon is trying to do to the God's remnant church.

So this is part 1, in search of the remnant.

And we'll be coming from the book of Ezra, which is where I find some of the best verses that describes what the remnant should look like.

And you have a picture of Ezra there reading from the scroll in front of the congregation in the newly built temple, and a remodel of the ark there in the lower picture.

And we'll be reading from Ezra chapter 9.

Now, when these things were done, the princes came to me saying, the people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the people of the lands doing according to their abominations even of the Canaanites the Hittites the Perizzites the Jebusites the Ammonites the Moabites the Egyptians and the Amorites For they have taken of their daughters for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy seed have mingled themselves with the people of those lands.

Yea, the hand of the princes and the rulers have been chief in this trespass.

So the Bible paints this picture where the children of Israel, during this time they're still in captivity.

This is after the 70 years that Jeremiah prophesied.

Ezra gets back, and they're trying to rebuild his temple.

He's a scribe, he's a great man of God, and he finds that there's these horrible sins being done by those who never left the actual holy land to be brought into captivity.

And what he finds here, as you can see, is that, and the key words that I like, I'm going to put my pen, the key word I like here is this 1.

I like where he says, so that the holy seed have mingled themselves with the people of those lands.

He understood that the remnant, those left behind in Israel, in Canaan, those left behind were still a holy seed.

He understood that even though it seemed as if Israel would never rise again, it was a long time that they were in captivity, Ezra understood that they were supposed to stay holy.

Just because they were cut off didn't mean that they had the right now to go and do what God had forbidden them to do for hundreds and hundreds of years.

The Dragon’s War on the Remnant Part 2

Biah heads, Father God, we thank you, Lord, for giving us this opportunity again to come before you and to look at your word, study your word and apply your word.

Father God, also, we just ask that you help us to make these things relevant and to, Lord, be able to use these in helping to save and bring others to the knowledge of salvation in Christ Jesus.

He just changed the battery, so he said, maybe that's why it wasn't coming through clear.

All right, so this 1 is the Dragon in the Digital Age, which is the second talk on the list here.

And so we'll go from here and start with Revelation chapter 12.

The scripture says, and there appeared another wonder in heaven.

And behold, a great red dragon, having 7 heads and 10 horns and 7 crowns upon his heads.

And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven.

And The dragon stood before the woman, which was ready to be delivered for it to devour her child as soon as it was born.

The Bible goes on to say, and there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels, I knew I hit it 1 time too many, and there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels fought against the dragon and the dragon fought and his angels and prevailed not, neither was their place found any more in heaven.

And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent called the devil, and Satan which deceives the whole world.

He was cast out onto the earth and his angels were cast out with him." 1 of the powerful things that happened when Jesus died on the cross, when he rose from the tomb, is that it sealed the devils being blocked out of heaven.

And Satan, of course, wants his place in heaven back.

When you understand that, you understand a lot about the popular culture and why the popular culture goes the way it goes.

The devil and his angels want to be worshipped.

The other side of it is after Jesus rose from the tomb, the devil knew he lost.

And there's only 1 thing the devil can actually do now to retaliate against God.

The only way for him to hurt God now would be to try and bring us to hell with him.

And so the devil works tirelessly to accomplish those 2 goals.

And 2, he never really got worship in heaven, but he thought he did.

The Bible says he was built with pipes and tablets.

He was, he was a music, living musical instrument as it were, and so he sang God's praises.

He led praise in heaven, and Lucifer confused leading praise in heaven and having that Shekinah glory of God bounce off of him and the angels see it and know he was in the presence of God, he confused that with him being worshipped.

He began to believe he should exalt his self above the throne of the Most High God.

That's how iniquity was initially found in him.

But of course, Jesus wins this battle, and he is tossed down to the ground.

So the Bible goes on and it says, therefore rejoice ye heavens and ye that dwell in them.

Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea.

For the devil has come down on you having great wrath, because he knows that he has what?

And when the dragon saw that he was cast onto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child." Now, this is the angels rejoicing in heaven.

Heaven is happy because heaven has been cleansed.

The devil no longer has access to heaven.

But with that is a solemn warning to those on earth.

And it's something that the devil seems to get that a lot of us as Christians don't get.

The devil understands he doesn't have a lot of time.

It's interesting that a being who's existed, we don't know how many thousands and thousands of years, it's interesting that he understands that time is short.

And those of us with only 70 years to live, 80, 90, 100 years to live, We think we have all the time in the world.

The devil is mad because he realizes his time is short.

He realizes he has forfeited his immortality.

If he had stayed with God, he would have lived forever.

By rebelling against God, he's given away his immortality.

And when the dragon saw that he was cast into the earth, he persecuted the woman, which brought forth the man child.

This is manifested, as we were saying, and the church being represented as a woman, this is manifested with all of the terrible persecution that happened to the early Christian Church.

And many of us have no clue how terrible that really was.

Burned at the stake, set in front of crowds and amphitheaters at the forum, the Colosseum.

The Roman emperors would cheer along with the bloodthirsty crowd.

Many of them, as they were burned at the stake, they sang hymns until they burned till they couldn't sing anymore.

He was that angry that he went after the church in a way he never had before.

Because with Israel, he was always trying to dilute Israel, water down Israel, beat Israel that way.

When he realized he had no more chance of getting back to heaven, it's almost as if he turned to just pure destruction of the church.

The problem the devil had, and you've got to get this if you understand the dragon's war on the remnant, he realized the more he persecuted the church, the more it grew.

He could not figure out, how do you beat them if the more I persecute them, the stronger they become?

And that is 1 of the reasons why his tactics today are not openly persecutory, even though I believe he will clearly return to this method through the Roman church.

So Revelation 12 also says, unto the woman were given 2 wings of a great eagle that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, a time, and a half a time, from the face of the serpent, which you talked about last session.

And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood.

And the earth opened her mouth and swallowed up the flood with the dragon cast out of his mouth.

And what I want to focus on here is this flood.

Because at some point, the devil realized he had to change his tactics.

And he tried to water down, dilute truth.

This is where Constantine comes into it, as we're going to talk about later.

All of a sudden, he realized he had to change his tactics.

And he tried to send out water out of his mouth, a flood.

A flood of lies, deception, delusion, to try and destroy the church at the time.

Now, 1 of the most important principles, and I could quote Ellen G.

White in The Great Controversy, because Ellen G.

White is very strongly confirmed by Roger Minow's book here.

And I remember when I first read The Great Controversy many years ago, and reading in The Great Controversy, Satan had this, like a powwow with all of his leaders and came up with a strategy to try and destroy the world.

And it seemed so far-fetched and crazy almost when you read, especially as a young person.

I was amazed when years later I stumbled upon this book, and then later on even saw the interview, which I'm going to quote from on the next few slides, and found where Roger Minot, as a demon worshiper, and I don't know if you know the story of Roger Bonneau, I just got Cyril Gross' book, too, so I'm going to read that when I get back home.

When he came out, he didn't really know what he was going to do with his life.

And 1 of his friends got him to go to a seance.

And when he went to the seance, he was blown away.

The Dragon’s War on the Remnant Part 3

Father God, we thank you Lord for bringing us safely to this place.

We thank you for lunch and we thank you Lord for all that you are doing in our lives.

We just ask now Lord that your Holy Spirit would lead as we have this session and Lord we would leave here more Lord energized to see you seek your truth and to speak your truth.

And Lord, we would live your truth as well.

This is our prayer in Jesus's name, amen.

All right, so this session, the third session on the Dragon's War on the Remnant is secret agents and double agents.

It is, the first 1 we did this morning was in search of the remnant, and we really kind of tried to establish the remnant church and look at prophecy from a different angle.

So we used the Book of Corinthians, actually.

Normally in Adventism we go Revelation 12, 17, and then we go to where it says in the Testament of Jesus Christ, the spirit of prophecy, and we stop.

But in Corinthians, it does a lot of work on showing you the purpose of prophecy.

If we are the remnant, we all have a part to play in the spirit of prophecy, meaning that when we come across people who are unlearned and don't know truth, we all have a part to play in sharing truth with them.

That's partly why you are part of the remnant church.

And then we talked about the dragon and the digital age.

And there's a lot, lot more I could have done on that.

On the power of technology, we were just talking about the internet.

And I didn't even really get into The ability of the internet to do everything from create these digital pornography addictions that we see so common in America now and around the world, secret affairs that people are able to have because now they've got a whole new way to communicate.

And then never mind all of the false doctrine and false information that's available.

And of course, the good thing about the internet is there's also a presence in truth.

So you can go on there and find a lot of good information as well.

But obviously, there's a lot of battle going on just through the internet that never existed just 20 years ago.

So we're looking at real heavy digital time in terms of the ability to just take information, download it on a mobile device like an iPod, and walk around with it.

That is something that the devil is trying to use to his advantage.

And praise God we have stuff like AudioVerse and 3ABN so that we have something really to counteract that.

And you can send people to those sites and those outlets as a way for them to get truth.

This 1 is secret agents, double agents, and this is talking more about how the devil is trying to get into the church.

And so we're going to move from, we were talking about secular music and Hollywood and that kind of stuff.

But now we're going to move into how is the devil really trying to get the church itself.

And the first text here is Matthew chapter 10, verse 35.

It says, for I am come not, I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.

And a man's foes shall be they of his own household." Very strong text.

And what the text is really saying is that when you become a Christian, You can have no allegiance to anyone that trumps your allegiance to Christ.

Your first and foremost, most important relationship is your relationship with Christ, your allegiance to God.

And anybody that comes in between that, you have to cut that relationship off.

And not meaning that you don't love the person or deal with the person, but that person cannot take control of your life like that.

And I heard a testimony somewhere where a young lady was saying she was trying to make it work in this relationship with a young man.

And 8 months or 9 months they were together, And she was hoping they would get married.

And God said, I'm not willing to share you.

This man has too much of a place in your life.

And she broke off the relationship because it was an unhealthy relationship for other reasons.

And she was compromising her relationship with God over the relationship.

Series

Eric Walsh: The Dragon's War on the Remnant

The Dragon’s War on the Remnant Part 5

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Attachments

Emmanuel Institute - Ignite Your Church

Ignite Your Church - Part 8: Evaluating Your Church

1h 1m

The Everlasting Gospel for These Last Days

03 From Questions on Doctrine to Desmond Ford

56m

Repairing the Breach Caused by the Doctrines of Devils

03 Certainty of the Sabbath

59m

Plenary

Sabbath School Panel on Daniel 3

58m

How to Make Your Bible Explode.. With Jesus

05 How to Make Your Bible Explode...With Jesus

56m

GYC 2013 Seminar: Daniel: Defining Adventism's Role in the Great Controversy

02-Daniel 7: The Investigative Judgment, Men Before Angels

57m

Mark Howard: White Out? Whatever Happened to the Gift of Prophecy?

Ellen White vs. the World Wide Web

1h

The White Elephant in the Room

God’s Fascinating Prophetic Pattern

56m

Faith and Healing

59m

GYC 2011 Seminar: The Gift

The Gift: Taste Them Again for the First Time, Part 1

1h 16m

Cosmic Conflict

2. Good God, Evil World?-Theodicy

1h 8m

Fieldwork

Follow Me

50m

Sound Doctrine