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Secrets Unsealed

Stephen Bohr

The Origin, Foundations, and Destiny of the United States of America, Part 1

We're very happy to see all of you here this afternoon for this special discussion on The meaning of the 4th of July There's a lot more to the story and you'll be hearing about events that took place before the 4th of July but we're very pleased that you're here.

I would just like to mention something about the backdrop.

During the last 10 days or so, we've been producing a series here in our studio titled, God's Great Prophetic Chain.

And this panel discussion is actually the culmination of that particular series on the prophetic chain.

So that's the meaning of the backdrop that you can see behind us.

I would like to begin by reading a statement that we find in Signs of the Times, July 4, 1899.

July 4, Ellen White is writing this statement on Independence Day, and this is how it reads.

The greatest and most favored nation upon the earth is the United States.

A gracious providence has shielded this country and poured upon her the choicest of heaven's blessings.

Here the persecuted and oppressed have found refuge.

Here the Christian faith in its purity has been taught.

This people have been the recipients of great light and unrivaled mercies, but these gifts have been repaid by ingratitude and forgetfulness of God.

The Infinite 1 keeps a reckoning with the nations, and their guilt is proportioned to the light rejected.

A fearful record now stands in the register of heaven against our land, but the crime which shall fill up the measure of her iniquity is that of making void the law of God.

So there you have the positive and the negative.

Before we begin our discussion and I introduce our participants this afternoon I would like to have a word of prayer to ask the Lord to guide our discussion.

Father in heaven we thank you for the privilege of being here this 4th of July weekend to discuss the origins, the foundations, and the destiny of this great country which you have raised up for a time such as this.

We ask for the presence of your Holy Spirit, guide our thoughts, guide our words.

I ask that you will bless everyone who will be watching this program that it might be edifying, enlightening, and a blessing to each.

We thank you Father for hearing and answering our prayer for we ask it in the precious name of Jesus Amen.

I want to take this opportunity to introduce the panelists that we have here this afternoon.

I'm going to introduce them in the order in which they're seated.

First of all, I have my good friend, Pastor Gary Jensen.

Pastor Gary Jensen is the interim senior pastor of Fresno Central Church and he's been a friend and a colleague for several years and I've really been blessed by having fellowship and learning many details of history from you and so we're glad Pastor Jensen that you could be with us this afternoon.

Then next we have Daniel Mesa, we call him Daniel Table, but even though he has the last name Mesa we thought for sure he would speak Spanish but he doesn't speak any Spanish but anyway Daniel is our associate marketing director here at Secrets Unsealed he's a tremendous Bible student outstanding speaker a defender of the faith and it's been a real pleasure Daniel working with you here at Secrets Unsealed.

I don't know Dustin as well as I know some of these other guys but we have crossed paths now and then.

He has participated in other symposiums before symposiums on the issue of spiritual formation in the 1 project.

Dustin is an elder of the Orosi Church here in the Central California Conference.

And then finally last but definitely not least is my good friend David Giangrande.

He moved to this area from New York, escaping the big city to the smaller city.

And David has been a really, really good friend the many years that I've been here at Fresno Central.

And it's a real pleasure to have David with us on the panel this afternoon.

He is an elder of the Fresno Central Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Of course, I'm Stephen Boer, the president of Secrets Unsealed.

And so now I would like to ask Pastor Jensen a question just to warm up the panel.

Pastor Jensen is very much involved in the issue of religious liberty.

I know that for a fact he spends a lot of time in Sacramento.

He's very well versed on all of the issues relating to church and state.

And I'd like to ask Pastor Jensen, what is it that led you to dedicate so much time and so much interest to the issue of religious liberty, church state issues, etc.

You know, religious liberty, when you stop and think about it, is really the cornerstone of the gospel.

Jesus came to set us free from sin, from the devil, from temptation.

The freedoms that we enjoy are God-given by virtue of our creation.

And it's within the context of religious liberty that we are able to have freedom to proclaim the eternal truths of the everlasting gospel.

And so I see as a minister that by fostering a climate of religious liberty, we're also fostering a climate in which the gospel can thrive.

Rather than delaying the coming prophecies, which we'll get into at the end here, about the future of America, rather it is going to hasten the coming of Christ because what Jesus is waiting most of all for is for a people who are ready to receive him.

And they can only do that where there's freedom for the gospel to be preached.

And the first question that I want to ask is, as we know, the great empires of history have all been prophesied in Scripture.

So the question is, do we find in the Bible any specific prophecy that describes the rise of the United States as a superpower and the final destiny of the United States.

We can find that prophecy in Revelation 13, verses 11 through 18.

And a very clear description of that is also found in the great controversy and it can be read there and explained fairly well but Revelation 13 is an answer to that question.

Okay now we studied in the great prophetic chain that is culminating today The sequence of world powers that rise in the course of history.

We began with Babylon, then Medo-Persia, then Greece, the Roman Empire, the divided Roman Empire, then the papacy ruling for 1260 years and then we spoke about the beast that rises from the earth when the papacy receives its deadly wound.

So and that would be of course revelation chapter 13 and verses 11 through 18.

So the question is what evidences do we have from that passage in Revelation 13 that the beast from the earth does represent the United States specifically?

Do we have any anything in that passage that would indicate that the beast from the earth that has 2 horns like a lamb and speaks like a dragon is a symbol of the United States.

John didn't know how to describe it because he had never seen such an animal.

But it's obviously a reference to the bison or the buffalo, which is native to North America.

If you've seen it, it has 2 horns like a buffalo, they would have scratched their heads and said, what is that?

But the buffalo, has very small horns and it's been a symbol of the United States that appeared on the buffalo nickel It appears today on the flag of the Secretary of the Interior and is an adequate representation of the principles of separation of church and state.

Anybody else want to add characteristics in Revelation 13 that describe what this beast represents?

1 of the characteristics I'd like to mention is that in verse 11, as it says, I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had 2 horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.

It does not talk about coming up out of the earth in force and taking by using teeth or stamping as it does in Daniel chapter 7 and 8.

And so the way that this nation comes up in what we know as an unpopulated area, which would be the earth, which is contrary to the water, which we know as peoples, just the characteristics of those 2 things coming up in an unpopulated area which would be represented by the earth, and also the way it comes up is peaceably could also represent the United States of America.

Arnold Toynbee, the great historian, said that like a silent seed, America came up out of the ground.

And it's interesting, the same power that inflicted the wound on the first beast, the sea beast, the papacy, France, was also the same power that recognized the emergence of the United States.

Also we could mention the fact that this beast from the earth rises in the prophetic chain where the first beast receives its deadly wound.

And the first beast received its deadly wound in 1798, which means that we would expect this nation to rise somewhere around the year 1798.

And of course, we all know the United States had its origins, you know, with 3, basically 3 founding documents.

We have the Declaration of Independence, we have the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, 1776, 1787, and 1791, and then the deadly wound is 1798.

I was also thinking in verse 12 where it talks about he will cause the earth and them which dwell therein to worship.

It must of necessity be a worldwide influence and of course the United States has been known as 1 of the strongest nations in the world.

Not so much add something, but I have a question about to verse 13.

Verse 13 says that he performs great signs so that He even makes fire come down from heaven on earth inside of men.

So my question is Why why is it look like?

This power is on the winning side or as we see then start the story of Elijah Elijah was able to make fire come down from heaven.

And I was wondering if anybody can expand on the apparent swap.

Well, the fact is that this beast from the earth is also called the false prophet in Revelation 16 verse 13.

And it's not any false prophet, it is the false prophet Elijah.

So Elijah made fire come down from heaven, so the false prophet Elijah is going to make fire come down from heaven.

In other words, he's going to do something that the false prophets could not do in the days of Elijah.

All right, let me just ask this question.

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The Origin, Foundations, and Destiny of the United States of America, Part 1

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