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Pacific Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Seminar: Eye-witness the Light

Scott Mayer

Eye-witness the Light- Part 1

Before I start this, many of you have probably seen this clip from some of our other videos.

But I want to play it to you because it will play in context what exactly is being said out there.

What is Hollywood putting out there that they know this thing is having a profound effect upon society and they're almost gloating and laughing in people's face.

So this, it was really after seeing this video which was played during a Super Bowl that spun this whole project here that took us 3 years to actually travel around the United States and capture.

But here's the commercial that was played.

So what was amazing to me is this commercial was played during the Super Bowl.

And when I saw it, I was blown away at 1 of the most watched moments.

This wasn't put on in the middle of the night when no 1 would see it.

It was put on when everybody is watching television saying, listen, this is an evil plot to destroy the world.

Here we're giving you television, movies, whenever you want them, however you want them, as much as you want them, for free.

So this was the question that we really wanted to answer.

Is there really some physical damage that's happening inside of our brains from watching television.

And in order to do that I want to just kind of set the stage here.

1 of the greatest evidences and powers of Christianity that can be presented to the world as a well-ordered, well-disciplined family.

This will recommend the truth as nothing else can for it is a living witness of the practical power upon the heart.

Do you know that Ellen White here is stating, saying, listen, if you want to be the greatest representation of the gospel, it is in a well-ordered family.

Now, question, what do we call family time in America?

So it's interesting to me that there's a correlation here with a well-ordered family will represent truth like nothing else and what do we spend our time as families doing together?

I want to go over the roles in the family because I just want to start to build up in your mind how television and movies are starting to tinker with this model that God has set up.

So, if the family represents truth, Let's talk about the father as a priest, right?

The lawmaker and the priest of all the members in the family centers around the father He is the lawmaker illustrating in his own manly bearing the sterner virtues energy integrity honest patience courage diligence practical Usefulness The father is in 1 sense the priest of the household laying upon the altar of God the morning and evening sacrifices.

So the father's role is to be this priest.

The queen of the home, which is the mother, the king upon his throne has no higher work than his mother.

Now, this is a very interesting statement.

Right here, the mother is the queen of her household.

She has in her power the molding of her children's characters, that they may be fitted for a higher immortal life.

An angel could not ask for a higher mission, for in doing this work she is doing the service of God.

Let her realize the high character of her task, and it will inspire her with courage.

Let her realize the worth of her work and put on the whole armor of God as she may resist the temptation to conform to the world's standard.

Here, her work is for a time and an eternity." You know what's interesting as I've studied out this role of the male and the female coming together and having a child, a baby.

What is amazing to me is the imprint is from the father.

The imprint, the characteristics, those things that are passed down from generation to generation to generation are imprinted from the father figure.

That's why Jesus spent so much time with his mother learning about the gospel.

Now of course we know that the children's job is to obey the parents in the Lord.

For this is right, honor your mother and your father, which is the first commandment with a promise that it may go well with you and you live long in the land.

I found this interesting in Adventist home.

If the marriage vows have been promised to be as 1, the wife covenanting her love and to obey her husband and the husband promising to love and cherish his wife, and if the law of God is obeyed, the demon of strife will be kept out of the family.

You know, to expand upon this, it says that if a family has a well-ordered family that is adhering to the commandments and laws of God, that it is impenetrable by the devil.

Impenetrable, he cannot come into your home.

But you know what I find is really interesting in the day and age that we live in?

A window by which the devil has access to come in and educate us, taint and twist our views and characters.

How does Hollywood produce the image of the father?

If you notice some of the most common iconic father figures coming out of either cartoons, popular TV shows, movies.

Do you see how they're always portraying the father to kind of be this just moron and how he's just kind of this funny goofy guy?

Here's what she says in Adventist Home, Maturity of experience is called for.

A father must not be as a child moved merely by impulse.

He is bound to his family by sacred and holy ties.

So the father figure really should be a role that is not a jokester like this, like a moron.

They're taking this idea of what God is set up to be and twisting the model.

In fact, we have today a lot of shows that are reshaping what we view as the modern family.

These shows, you know, if I'm going to get to in the third presentation here, we're going to open up the topic of homosexuality in television and movies.

And it is a very difficult subject to talk about, very hard, but I want to show you the trend of where they're going with all this information.

Now, the new normal, this is what the modern family is looking like here in the current state.

All should guard the senses, lest Satan gain victory over them, For they are the avenues to the soul.

You will have to become a faithful sentinel over your eyes, ears, and all of your senses if you would control your mind and prevent vain and corrupt thoughts from sustaining your soul.

The Power of grace alone can accomplish this most desirable work.

Satan and his angels are busy creating a paralyzed condition of the senses so that cautions, warnings, reproofs shall not be heard, or if they're heard, they shall not take effect upon the heart and reform the life.

My brethren, God calls upon you and his followers to walk in the light.

Sin is among us, and it is not seen to be exceedingly sinful.

The senses of many are benumbed by the indulgence of appetite and the familiarity with sin.

We need to advance nearer to heaven." Ladies, brothers and sisters, this is really the heart of the matter.

You see, I want to ask a question, an honest question.

How many of you have seen a Batman or a Superman movie?

I want you to hold your hand up and I want you to look around the room.

This is a sobering question, brothers and sisters.

I want you to ask yourself, why would I walk into a room and sit down and want to hear a story about a dark night?

All of us who produce or come to church, we're even passing out literature.

And I've gone around the world and spoken this in the most conservative churches where everybody looked like they walked off of an Ellen White set.

It does not matter how conservative you think you are, everybody is watching some of the same things.

So my goal here today is not to necessarily break your confidence in the media, so to say.

My goal is to increase your confidence in the media.

I hope to prove to you today that the media is 1 of the most powerful tools to shape a mind.

And let me tell you, if I believe that it was all evil and that we should have nothing to do with it, I would not be creating media productions for a living.

So I hope that you don't hear, come out of my mouth, it's all evil, throw it all away, break it all, but I'll tell you I notice a common trend in our churches and that is it does not matter how much you are in your Bible, there is a disconnect with the information that we're allowing into our minds.

And that's my goal here over the next 3 presentations to prove to you.

So I want to just show you this American time use.

This is a chart that just kind of shows what people are doing in the day.

Now this is obviously not Seventh-day Adventists, so this is the world, so keep that in mind when you're looking at this.

Here's how much time is spent out of the day.

Here's how much time is spent in leisure sports.

And then there's a tiny little sliver right here in religious activities right here.

It's very easy to sit down and watch a two-hour movie.

Eye-witness the Light- Part 2

All right, I'm going to get started on this 1 because I actually have a lot of information to get through and I just want to say a little precursor to this 1.

A lot of the things that I'm going to say right now I have not said before and I really want to be extremely sensitive but I also think with that there are things in our church that we need to talk about and so you know These subject matters are extremely difficult in terms of the politics of what's going on in our world today.

So I just want to say that before we get started in this.

This presentation right here is actually probably most likely going to be split up into 2.

So it's going to kind of have, you're going to not really get the full story in this 1 hour, but I'm going to do my best.

So let's ask for the Holy Spirit here today.

Dear gracious Heavenly Father, we love you so much.

Lord, we have set our eyes on the things of this world.

We have let things into our lives that I know has has has blocked us from seeing you.

Lord this is a topic that you have laid upon our ministries hearts to share with our fellow brethren and sisters.

We know it's not the issue, the issue Lord is to how to get you into our hearts.

So we ask that you come into each 1 of our hearts today, right here, right now, soften our hearts, open our eyes, and may this information impact us in a way That we don't want to ever be a part of this world again.

Amen For those of you that have Stayed for the other presentation or maybe are coming in here for the new 1 We just went over a lot of the science of what's going on inside your brain when you watch television and I needed to lay that foundation.

So for those of you that are walking in this presentation maybe have never heard of our ministry before, you're gonna just have to trust me on this.

How many of you have ever seen a movie and been positively impacted by it?

Almost everybody in the room has been positively impacted by some movie.

So would it be out of context to say something has a negative impact as well?

Because you can't say, well, I'm impacted to be a good human being over here with this, but oh, it doesn't do anything bad to me.

If it can go this way, it can go that way, too.

And I'll tell you what, as we kind of talk about some of these Hollywood movies, what scares me the most is the things with the Bible references.

The movies, like when we first started this ministry, let me tell you, we showed evil after evil after evil.

I can't tell you, I have broken down in tears in front of audiences before and people are like, oh my goodness, this speaker's like totally crying.

And because of the evil that I'm showing, let me tell you, I am sick of seeing some of these clips.

And the problem that I see in our church is that we read our Bible and we let these things into our life.

There's a blending of light and darkness that's happening here and let me tell you it's going to get weirder and weirder and weirder and it's going to get harder and harder to spot the error.

I'm gonna show you a movie that just came out yesterday.

I'm going to show you a clip, just the trailer.

You guys can go on the internet and look at the trailer, and we're going to sit there and analyze it.

I'm going to play it for you first, and I want to teach you how to spot these things.

And with God's help, I hope that someday you will wake up and you will say, you know what, enough is enough.

So I'll let the cat out of the bag right now.

I'm here to hopefully destroy your confidence in the Hollywood machine.

So this presentation is titled, Holy Hollywood.

Now, Why did I title it that with a brackets around the E?

Because there's a lot of holy or messages that are coming out of Hollywood, but I think they're full of holes.

And when there's something that is 99% truth and 1% error, is it worth anything to me?

Matthew 7, 21 to 22 says this, Not everyone that says unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

It's not people that just say I follow God, it's the people that do the will of God.

Many people will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name?

And in thy name have we not cast out devils?

And in thy name have we not cast out devils, and in thy name have we not done a lot of wonderful works." There's a lot of movies that are coming out these days that, you know what, I pray to God that they're having a positive impact.

But if they're causing error, woe unto those people.

Matthew 7.23 says, and then I will profess unto them, I never knew you.

How many of you believe Snoop Dogg believes in God?

So, Snoop, I have to ask you this first question, right?

What is your inspiration in your own work?

I couldn't exist without him, and I keep him in everything I do.

Snoop Dogg believes in God how about Beyonce where does Beyonce get her inspiration from?

He is the reason why have you seen any of her work?

How about Steven Seagal, this guy believe in God?

Where did you get your inspiration from before you created your book?

I could stand up here and show you celebrity after celebrity after celebrity that will attribute their work to God and their belief in God.

I just thank God every day for everything, everything, you know, greatness coming my way.

You don't think she thinks she's following and worshiping God?

I found this very interesting when I saw this clip.

They're asking her, how are you so famous?

How did you get to the place that you are right now?

Eye-witness the Light- Part 3

Dear Gracious Heavenly Father, Lord I know this is a sensitive subject matter.

I know that there is a lot of people struggling with this.

Lord I know I was 1 of those that struggled so deep with this.

Lord it is not my goal to just point out evil, but there is a goal And that is to show that you are more victorious than any of this.

So Lord, may all this information do nothing but lead people to fall on their knees and ask for you and your guidance and your spirit into their lives.

Please be with us open our eyes and soften our hearts in Jesus name.

I Titled this 1 the whole holy Hollywood And let me let me be conscious of how much time I actually have Here so I can get through this so I have probably like 30 40 minutes.

I'm gonna leave a little bit of time Hopefully for question and answer and so I do want to mention this some questions that came up in the the last presentation Somebody asked me what about God's not dead.

What about a few of these Christian movies that are that are popping up I have not personally seen that film so I can't quite speak on it in this I can say this to you though Is it in line with your Bible?

That is what I'm trying to accomplish here by talking to you guys.

If it's just, you know, the content that the Bible is trying to teach you, even though it doesn't just say Jesus this, Jesus that, but it's in line with this principles that are that the Bible is teaching, it's pretty hard to fight against that.

I, myself, because I tried to be in Hollywood and tried to do the filmmaking and everything, I personally will not ever make a theatrical film in the way that I did before.

Because what I've done is I've seen a line in the sand.

And I said, I don't want to see how close I can get to the line.

And I've fallen in love with documentary filmmaking, and I make documentary films for a living.

If I thought that all media was evil, I would not be producing it.

Many people come up to me and say, I want to make The Great Controversy into a movie.

If you want to serve God in that way, that's great.

If that is your passion, that is what you want to do, then pray this prayer, Lord God, I want to make this movie, but not as I will.

Lord God, I give you permission to open up the doors, to give me 3.5 million dollars to make this movie.

If you do that, then I will know that you wanted me to do this.

But Lord, if you don't want me to do this, then I give you permission to close the door." Now what you've done is you've placed the decision in God's hands, and when you get to heaven, and you have every right to go to God and go, you know what you gave me 3.5 million Hey, I Asked for that if you ask God for that I stand firm on my convictions He will not ignore you So if that is your conviction that is what you want to do.

You pray to God, Lord, is this what you want me to do?

So I hope that by showing you what I'm showing you, I'm not telling you, don't go out and make a movie or don't go out and do this.

If you want to ask me about those, I'll tell you about them, but I don't have time for right now.

I think there's a lot of wonderful things out there to watch on television and movies that are awesome that could give you a better understanding of God.

I think there's people that truly believe they're following everything that God wants them to do and it's not my place to say you're not doing what God wants you to do, but I will say by their fruits you will know them.

And that's what I'm hoping to achieve with you today.

So I titled this 1 Holy Hollywood because I want to really get to this part of the movie industry that is talking about all these religious movies that are coming out.

I don't think it's by chance that they have made the movie Noah.

I don't think it's by chance that they have made the movie Moses and the coming out of Egypt and that it's 1 of the biggest blockbuster Ridley Scott films you'll ever see if you've seen the trailer to this thing it is going to be amazing But could be possibly terribly deceptive and so I want to show you something I want to show you a little bit of people in the industry and people that say they follow God.

Matthew 7, 21 and 22 says this, Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father, which is in heaven.

Now, here's the key to this verse right here.

People that say, Lord, Lord, that's just, you can call out someone's name all you want, but it is the ones that do the will of the Father that he is going to say, I know you, right?

Many will say unto me into that day, Lord, Lord, we have, have we not prophesied in thy name?

And in thy name have done wonderful works?

And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you, depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

I think it's a very simple concept If by your work by your fruits by whatever it is that you're doing if you are building up the kingdom of God I believe that there's really only 2 ways about it.

You're either tearing down the kingdom of God or you're building it up.

By doing nothing at all, what are you like?

That's why the story of the talents is so important.

So by doing nothing you're choosing to be on 1 side of the fence or not.

Now how many people believe Snoop Dogg believes in God?

Snoop Dogg, of course, has a lot of questionable content out there.

So Snoop really thinks that he only exists because of God.

Here's Beyonce saying something about God.

He's, He created everybody, everything, and I love Him, and He is the reason why I sing.

I mean, if you've seen any of her content it's very questionable what the fruits are right?

So it's interesting to me that a lot of these people attribute their success or give glory to God.

I mean if you've seen any of Steven Seagal's movies, they're terrible.

Seriously, my day-round is in the business.

No, I just thank God every day for everything.

It's everything, you know, greatness coming my way.

Now, all these people that are giving glory to God, you would take a look at someone like this and you would say Lady Gaga Really has nothing to do with God if you've looked at some of her work on MTV or whatever it is some terribly satanic stuff But here in a documentary that HBO did on her they're asking her the question Where do you get your inspiration from and I find this really interesting how she answers this question.

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Series

Seminar: Eye-witness the Light

Eye-witness the Light- Part 1

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Seminar: Eye-witness the Light

Eye-witness the Light- Part 2

56m

The Rise of Spiritualism and the Occult

The Dark Side of Hollywood

1h 7m

Story-Driven Evangelism: How to Reach a Netflix Audience (Without Compromise)

55m

Seminar: Eye-witness the Light

Eye-witness the Light- Part 3

36m

Breakout Session 4

Modern Medium- Part 2

58m

False System of Worship

1h

Our Urgent Call: LIVE the Three Angels' Messages

Media on the Brain - Part 1

1h 19m

Hollywood’s War on God

1h 30m

Sound Doctrine