GYC Conference 2023: But If Not

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Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

Social Justice in Prophecy

Eric Walsh

Choosing Revolution: My Journey in an Unjust World

All right, we're gonna get started in about 30 seconds.

And looking forward to going through this, a lot of material, very controversial subject matter.

So I think we'll have some good lively discussion.

We can have some question and answer at the end of different sessions.

And I think he told me I have to say my name and the title, I guess, for the recording.

I don't know where they went because I want to make sure I'm doing this right.

I don't know if it records into this or this.

I'm a physician and preacher, pastor sometimes.

Our series for the next 2 days is Prophecy and Social Justice.

What you're gonna find is that the move of social justice is in prophecy.

You're going to see that these controversial issues, as they come up, are planned to come up that way, and that if the church is not careful, these issues will divide the church and subvert the loud cry and even prevent or delay, I should say, the latter rain from falling.

And that's why these are such important issues.

That's why the church is gonna have to grapple with them.

If you've gotta stay with it for the whole ride, there are a lot of twists and turns.

I'm going to say some things that you're going to probably think no 1 would ever say, but that's really where we are.

So if you follow this all the way through, you're going to get some really high level stuff.

1 of my jobs, I have several, my parents are Jamaican, so is that I teach at, actually 1 of the Catholic universities, graduate nursing students, and I teach all the public health, policy, social policy, public policy classes, 2 or 3 of them, to DNP students and masters and nursing students.

And these are a lot of the topics I have to cover, except it's very different when you cover it in a university.

As we're going to talk about over the next 2 days, the universities, as you probably have seen in the news, have become bastions of places where free speech is actually not very much allowed.

Ironically, where you'd want kids to think critically and hear all sides of an issue.

That's not necessarily how it goes on many of our US campuses, which is part of this movement.

And as a way to change the way people think, specifically to change the way young people think, so that You change the way a nation not only thinks, but the direction of the entire nation, and thus the world.

And so we as 70 Adventists have a unique message, a challenging message, 1 that is precluded by the fact that if you stand for what we stand for, believe what we believe, persecution is the natural result.

This brother asked me if I'm gonna give my testimony about what happened to me on some of these issues, and I'm not, but I will weave it in a little bit to make some points, because I experienced this firsthand, what social justice does, and when it is used by the enemy.

And I'm gonna show you that this issue started at the very beginning.

Literally at the dawn of the Earth's history, this is the issue Satan brought up.

And that's 1 of the ways he was able to have Adam and Eve fall.

So let's start, let's have, let me read, actually let me read the scripture and then we'll pray.

I'm gonna read from Psalms 82, verses 1 through 5.

It says, God stands in the congregation of the mighty.

How long will you judge unjustly and accept the persons of the wicked?

They know not, neither will they understand.

All the foundations of the earth are out of course.

Our message, our series is Prophecy and Social Justice and our first installment is The Need for Justice.

Father God, we thank you for this opportunity to study your Word and to study these critical last day issues.

Once again, Lord, I ask that you just make me a nail on the wall.

And Lord, upon that nail, I ask that you hang a portrait of Jesus Christ.

These are very, very shark-infested waters that we're about to walk into to deal with, Lord.

So we're asking for an extra portion of, an extra outpouring and a portion of your Holy Spirit.

Lord, we ask that your Holy Spirit would lead us into all truth.

I may not mention the verse again, so I do want to go over the scripture reading.

1 of the key principles and where we start today is that God is a God of justice.

And I'm gonna show you Ellen White, between today and tomorrow, some powerful texts and passages from Ellen White on this issue.

God is a God of justice, and God is a God of action on the issue of justice.

And that's why David says God stands in the congregation of the mighty.

Then he gives a prescription that is actually repeated throughout the scripture.

Number 1, defend the poor and the fatherless.

They walk on in darkness, and all the foundations of the earth are out of course.

Now, our family worship, we've been going through the minor prophets.

And what is shocking as you study the minor prophets is how many times in all of the minor prophets it is reiterated the idea that Judah, mostly in the mind of prophets, but also Israel, they literally created unequal, untenable societies for the poor, for the widowed.

The Babylonian captivity, after the Assyrians took Israel, the nation of Israel, the Babylonian captivity is a direct result of their inability to create a fair and honorable society.

That's how God dealt with his own people on this issue.

That's why, a big reason as to why that happened.

So I want to go back to the book of Genesis.

So we're going to go back to the beginning, Which is where almost everything goes back to if you study it You can always start in Genesis and end in Revelation on any issue And that's what we're gonna do as we go through this.

So let's let's look at Genesis Genesis 4 8 we're speaking to God's justice now We're gonna go back to the Garden of Eden in 1 of the following presentations.

Now somebody tell me, what time does this session end?

And Cain talked with Abel his brother, and it came to pass when they were in the field that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and slew him.

I won't go into the backstory, you all know they brought different things before God.

Cain's big mistake was he thought that he could bring whatever he wanted, right?

If this is what I produced Cain represents righteousness by works Abel represents righteousness by faith and Because Those who practice righteousness by works cannot stand those who exist in righteousness by faith He rose up against him and slew him you get that That's a pretty powerful statement and here's why that's relevant It is literally the 2 spirits that follow throughout the earth after that Right.

Those are the 2 spirits and to this day when you even look at what's going to happen in the end times, righteousness by faith is a key component of what's going to happen.

Divide, Conquer, Unite: Social Justice Role in Bringing About Sunday Law and Persecution

Let's pray, we're gonna wrap up the last talk and go into the next 1, all right?

Father God, we thank you for this opportunity to study and to conversate, Lord, to look at the things that are coming upon the earth, these difficult topics, Lord.

But we thank you, Lord, for your mercy and for your grace.

Again, we ask for an extra outpouring of your Holy Spirit.

All right, so this 1, I'm assuming goes to about 11.50.

We'll stop and then we meet back up this afternoon.

So we were talking about health equals resiliency over stress, and we're talking about why social justice is important because you have to really address the stress that people are dealing with.

The world gives false resources, we said.

God does not own a thousand cattle on a hill he owns what the cattle on a thousand hills So he has the resources we need so when you get stressed out 1 of the things that happens Is that you've probably seen me show this before, stressed spelled backwards is desserts.

And so 1 of the reasons, there is another whole piece of social injustice.

I don't know if you guys notice, but poor rural, predominantly white areas of the United States, places I used to live in, places like Alabama, and inner city, predominantly black and brown areas, the fast food companies know that If they put these places there, these cheap, highly processed foods, high in animal products, people are going to eat more of them.

Because when you're eating, the sugar with the fat releases dopamine, makes you feel better.

You don't really get better, but it makes you feel better.

People say, well, I don't know if that's true.

I'm gonna put a bowl of apples next to a bowl of chocolate chip cookies.

Most of us trained here, living and growing up here in America, you go for the thing that's sweeter and fatter.

Poverty, I'm gonna go through these quick to get to the next talk, but poverty is 1 of the big ones.

Poverty is 1 of the worst things that can happen.

A man that does not work and support his family is worse than an infidel.

That's a powerful statement in the Bible.

People say, well, when the church started they were socialists, you know, so everybody just gave to each other.

But the Bible says you still are supposed to work and support yourself and your family.

And so Gandhi, who said poverty is the worst form of violence.

If people are made poor because of policy, like we were talking about in Jamaica through the IMF and the World Bank, that's almost a form of violence, when you intentionally keep people poor by taking advantage of them.

Well, you have poor academic achievement, more dropouts from school, more abuse, more neglect, Behavioral problems, socio-emotional problems, health problems, developmental delays, poverty does all of that.

It shows you that 1 out of 5 Americans is now on food stamps.

1 in 2 American children are expected to be on food stamp before they turn 18.

And what we see, this is federal spending on food stamps.

So I'm going to keep injecting some of the things that we're going to talk about in the last talk in case we don't get to finish it.

Every church that is able should have a community garden.

So how powerful would it be that if people that knew the Adventist churches in our city of Hartford, I'll use Hartford, Connecticut, where I live as the example, What if all our Adventist churches pooled together, we have a church, 1 CVAC, Central Connecticut Valley Adventist Church, big plot of land in the back.

What if we actually farmed the land or found land, farmed it, and then had mobile farmers markets that went into the poorest parts of town and either for very low price or for free gave out fruits and vegetables.

What would that do rather than going in and doing a health seminar?

Now, you're still gonna need a health seminar because they gotta learn how to cook all those rutabagas and stuff, right?

But you get that this, when we talk about social justice in the church, the church is gonna have to begin to completely transform how we look.

1 of the things I told my church is, growing up, Pathfinders was a way to take care of the children in the church, in the church I grew up in.

We had an amazing Pathfinder Club, the Golden Eagle Pathfinder Club, right?

The Pathfinder Club needs to be the Pathfinder Club for the neighborhood.

You need to find all the kids in the neighborhood under 10 years old and get them involved so that you can help be a part of their lives on those Sundays, for all those people who don't go to church, a lot of them will be happy to have their kids in a structured program like pathfinders.

This is where we really have to get to as time winds up.

We have to do those types of things, right?

This is a study from Vanderbilt University.

They said, Larry Bartels' study, senators are fairly responsive to the preferences of those in the upper third of income distribution, less responsive to those in the middle third, and not at all responsive to the preferences of constituents in the bottom third of the income distribution.

Because even if you're filthy rich, they're still only fairly responsive to you.

They're most responsive to the people who support their campaigns and stuff like that, in my opinion.

So 1 of the other big Places of injustice we talk about a lot is wage inequality.

And when I teach at the university, it's a nursing thing.

And the poor guy basically doesn't say anything the whole class.

Most of the time, the last class, the 1 guy did.

But here's what wage inequality actually looks like.

I want to show you a different perspective on this.

When you flip it and you look at it, and you say, well, it's a gender issue.

But It's not simply a gender issue, right?

White men make more money than white women, but they still, white men make less money than Asian men on average, right?

And white women make more money than black men or Latino men.

So it's far more complicated than that, but the rhetoric you hear is, it's simply a gender issue.

And unless you step back and start looking at this thing properly, again, you start to say, and what's happening in this Barbie movie, I don't think it helped.

But the whole thing now is like, men are the problem.

Literally, men are the problem in the world.

Spoiler alert again, there's a Bible verse that says, we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against spiritual wickedness where?

If you think that white people are your enemy black people are your enemy If you think the government is your enemy, you have missed completely.

And as long as you make people your enemy, ironically, by beholding, you become changed.

In fact, you will watch the oppressed often become just like the oppressor.

Right, the intolerance that they receive they'll often reflect because by beholding you become changed, right?

So education is another 1, there's a big thing with education and equality.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt said, democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely.

The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is what?

There are people who don't really care if whole swaths of the population are not well educated Why would they not care because in many ways you can control the people better if they're not educated I during a pandemic I was shocked at how many seemingly intelligent people sent me like cartoons to try and convince me of stuff.

Social Justice and the Sexual Revolutions: The Politics of Pleasure and Deception

Alright, so we are on part 3 of our series on prophecy and social justice.

I'm going to start with our scripture reading and then we're going to go right into this third part and we're going to look at the French Revolution and its effect, its shadow, all the way down today, and I give an example of how the principles of the French Revolution actually still affect how we look at things today and how it impacts our society today.

So our scripture reading is taken from 1 Samuel, chapter 15, 1 of my favorite Bible verses.

It says, Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.

For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.

So our third installment in our prophecy and social justice series Under the Spell of Revolution.

We thank you for this opportunity to go further into your word and into these topics I just asked now Lord for your Holy Spirit.

I asked for guidance I pray Lord that all that is said and done would be done to your names honor and glory So I pray in Jesus's name.

Amen I don't know where my room attendant is, but if she knows where the guys that do this recording, I don't know that it's recording and I'm gonna start anyway.

It's alright, I'll Do it again for Pennsylvania Camp Meet, and then they'll film it too, it'll be even better.

So, we're gonna go to 1 of the toughest parts of the Bible, really start getting into some prophecy.

And when I mean toughest, I mean the part that you really have to kind of dig and stay there and look at.

But I want to look at Revelation chapter 11 briefly and then look at some history and then look at how this applies to today.

If I had more time, I'd have everybody get up and shake hands or do something but we're just gonna go for it if you get sleepy it's alright.

Revelation 11 1 says, and there was given me a reed like unto a rod and the angel stood saying rise and measure the temple of God and them that worship therein.

So this is speaking to judgment which tells you that this prophecy is speaking to a time before the end of the investigative judgment are pointing towards it.

But the court which is without the temple leave out and measure it not, for it is given unto the Gentiles in the holy city.

And the holy city shall they tread under foot 40 and 2 months.

And so this helps you find out exactly where in the prophetic stream they're talking about, right?

So if it's talking about the 42 months, we're talking about the 1260 year prophecy that ends in 1798.

So we're looking at the prophecy that starts in 538 and ends in 1798 and this is what is being looked at and so it was given to the Gentiles and the Holy City meaning the people of God were trampled under for that time and we know that that's true as we're going to talk about.

It says in verse 3, and I will give power unto my 2 witnesses And they shall prophesy a thousand 203 score days clothed in sackcloth." What do the 2 witnesses represent?

It represents the scripture, the revelation of God before the birth of Christ, the revelation of God in his word after the birth of Christ, Old and New Testament, right?

To make that point clear, John the Revelator then writes, these are the 2 olive trees, and then from the Old Testament prophecy on the olive trees, it's the olive oil that represents the Holy Spirit the word leads you the Holy Spirit leads you to into the word the word leads you into the Holy Spirit and 2 candlesticks standing before the God of Earth David says that God's Word is like a lamp unto his feet so we're talking about God's Word so during the 1260 years we're still talking about social justice Social justice was dead.

There was a Feudal system set up in Europe.

Here's where it gets interesting Once you start to study history a lot of things become more plain.

Europe was a horrible place during the Dark Ages, as many of you would know.

You had things like the Spanish Inquisition that happened.

How did God's word, to fulfill this prophecy, how did it testify that it was in sackcloth during that time?

Well, 1 of the things that happened in the 1500s was there was a Protestant Reformation.

Even before Martin Luther, the Word of God was speaking through these reformers ultimately culminating in what Martin Luther did on October 31st when he hammered the 95 Theses into the door of that church and hear BAM!

What was speaking even though it was closed in sackcloth?

So I used to say, you know, I used to ask the question, why wouldn't the Protestant Reformation be the wound that hurt the beast?

That would make more sense than what Berthier did in 1798.

But when you think about what was going on, this is God's Word.

And out of that time, these groups began to form And people began to move further and further towards the truth.

As you study revelations, it reveals the march towards a complete, or more complete, or the most complete revelation of truth that culminates not at 1844, but in the time right afterwards.

As the great disappointment, which I always say was not a great disappointment, it was a great purification.

As the church is purified and all of the stragglers who really weren't in it for the right reasons fall away and just a handful, 50 so people are left and they study the Bible and they begin to realize that it was the heavenly sanctuary that was being spoken of and the sanctuary message comes into view.

Then the Sabbath message comes into view.

1888, righteousness by faith comes into view.

And here, all of these truths come out, but they all happen after 1798, right?

So God's word is in sackcloth during that time in verse 5.

It says and if any man will hurt them Fire proceeds out of their mouth and devours their enemies, and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed.

What happened to those who sought to kill the Word of God?

Well, first and foremost, who was first trying to kill the Word of God during the 1260 years?

The Bibles were chained to the desks in the monasteries.

It was against the law to have the Bibles.

And as we're going to talk about the French Revolution, it culminates in the French Revolution where Bibles were taken, they were burned in public, it was a war against the Bible on both fronts.

And what the Spirit of Prophecy tells us is that because the papacy, and remember that France was the eldest son of the Vatican, of the papacy.

It was in France that the whole thing started and it's in France that the whole thing ends in 1798, right?

Of the 10 tribes, this is the 1 that is the eldest son.

So here Catholicism was very strong and it was very dark and the consequences of that stifling of the Bible and an attempt to destroy the Bible means that those who tried to do it actually got the retribution they handed out as we'll talk about you'll see.

Verse 6, these have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy, and have power over the water to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will.

So some people say this is Elijah and Moses.

I say I don't know that there's really a difference, right?

At the end of the day, Moses is the 1 who wrote the beginning stages, the first books of the Old Testament, representing the Old Testament.

It is in the spirit of Elijah that the Messiah comes and that is where we get our New Testament from.

So yeah, I believe it's the Old and New Testament but I see that the both of those writers both of whom are still alive somebody ought to say amen have to do with this this prophecy so here you get the Old Testament the New Testament knows that come against them get into some big trouble.

Then it says, and when they shall have finished their testimony the beast that ascends, oh wait I skipped 1, these have power to shut heaven that it rained in the days of their prophecy, rained not in the days of their prophecy, and have power over waters to turn them to blood, speaking of Moses, and this is what I didn't want to skip, and to smite the earth with all plagues as often as they will.

So this ties you back to the Old Testament plagues, and when you go see, it actually ties you to the 7 last plagues.

Revelation 11 is a real important chapter.

Verse 7, and when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them and shall overcome them and kill them.

Series

Social Justice in Prophecy

The Remnant’s Response: The Everlasting Gospel and True Liberation

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Ignite Your Local Church for Mission

Q and A and Final Charge

1h

GYC 2012 Seminar: Unleashing the Power - A Practical Guide for Finishing God's Work

Tools for Transforming Your Local Church

56m

GYC 2011 Seminar: The Spirit-led Discipleship

Discipleship: Revolution

1h 10m

Plenary Sessions

Six Keys for the Western Adventist Church

1h 8m

GYC 2012 Seminar: Conversion - My Own, Around Me and On the Go

The Code of Conduct

52m

GYC 2013 Seminar: The Gay Puzzle: Loving Gays to Christ

06-Turn Around: Q&A

1h 16m

A Call To Arms: How to Fully Engage In God's Church

1. Red Tape to Red Carpet: Your Unique Participation in the Global Adventist Church

59m

Ron duPreez ~ No Matter What: How morality impacts your mortality

Military and Morality

56m

Making Sons of Hell? The Don’ts and Do’s of Soul Winning

Addressing Objections and Answering Difficult Bible Questions

1h 2m

Total Member Involvement

4. The Ministry That Died And Nobody Noticed

1h

GYC 2011 Seminar: Unity in the Church

Wishful Thinking? Part 2

48m

Soul Winning Hour

Soul Winning Hour - 2nd Sabbath

1h

Sound Doctrine