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Secrets Unsealed

Stephen Bohr

The Origin, Foundations, and Destiny of the United States of America, Part 2

We have still a few items that we want to cover in our discussion.

Before we do, I would like to just mention that as I said before, during the last several days we've been taping a series here called God's Great Prophetic Chain.

Basically it's 10 presentations following the trajectory of Bible prophecy, link after link.

This series will be available from Secrets Unsealed, it's also on YouTube, we live-streamed it And also all of the lectures in written form are available in a syllabus.

So I would encourage all of those who are watching this program to get this series on DVD if you don't watch it on YouTube and to get the syllabus because it'll give you the framework for everything that we're talking about here in this particular panel discussion this afternoon.

It's been a real joy and a real pleasure discussing these issues with you.

And what we want to do now is perhaps deal with the first amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

Revelation 13 verse 11 says that this beast that rises from the earth which we believe to be the United States has 2 horns like a lamb.

And we've understood this to mean that the United States in its origins sustained the idea of civil and religious liberty, which is based on the idea of separation of church and state.

Because when you, what happens is when you enforce religion, people not only lose their religious rights, they lose their civil rights as well.

You know, for example, when the Sunday Law is enacted in the United States, is that going to affect our freedom of speech?

Is it going to affect our freedom of assembly on the Sabbath?

Are we going to be able to ask the government for a redress of grievances?

So once the government gets involved in religious legislation you also lose civil rights.

So these are the 2 horns like a lamb, civil and religious liberty, which is based on the idea of 2 kingdoms in the United States, the church and the state, each functioning with its sword separate from 1 from the other not together but separate the church operating as church and the state operating as state And I believe the First Amendment to the Constitution contains the 2 horns like a lamb.

Because what does the First Amendment guarantee?

Maybe a Pastor Jensen, who is the the the historian, the authority on these issues of early America and the Constitution and so on can help us.

There are 16 key words in the First Amendment that deals with religious liberty and they are Congress, which initially referred to the federal government, shall make no law respecting, that is having to do anything with, an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.

These 2 clauses of the Bill of Rights are known as the Establishment Clause, which sometimes is referred to as freedom from religion, which prevents Congress and through the 14th Amendment also states from enacting any laws that promote religion or religious activities.

And then the second clause of that, the free exercise clause, commonly referred to as freedom of religion, prevents the government from inhibiting or hindering the exercise of religion.

So in simple terms, the government is to be neutral toward religion, accommodating it, but never advocating it.

Sometimes you'll hear the religious right say, well, you know, the Constitution of the USSR also has a phrase about separation of church and state.

And that's true to a certain extent, but theirs is a hostile separation, and as envisioned, we can talk more maybe about the separation principle itself and where it came from, but it's to be a friendly separation, each respecting the rights and privileges of others.

As Bob Maddox, who was a Southern Baptist minister and he used to be the President of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which I belonged to for a number of years out of Silver Spring, Maryland, he used this analogy or illustration.

He said, church and state should be good neighbors, but they should never get married and they should not be in the same bed together.

So, I think that illustration really gives a graphic description of the relationship between the 2.

So you have these 2 spheres, and we've talked about the 2 horns, and just a simple side point, but the horns on an animal are not joined together.

It's not like a unicorn where the 2 horns are stuck.

They're separate here on each side of the head.

And so even that suggests that there's not to be a union between the 2.

Okay, now you've discussed the first 2 clauses of the First Amendment, which guarantee religious rights, but the First Amendment also guarantees civil rights.

So the 2 horns like a lamb are contained in the First Amendment to the Constitution, because The third clause of the First Amendment says that Congress cannot make any law that abridges the freedom of speech, the freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, and the right to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

So basically, the First Amendment guarantees full civil and religious liberty.

Now let me ask this And maybe I'll ask Dustin because Dustin has been very quiet for a while here.

The book of Revelation not only says that the beast from the earth will make an image of the first beast, But it also says that it will enforce the mark of the first beast.

How do we understand the meaning of the mark of the first beast?

I recently pulled out some old books from my garage and I had a little Catholic catechism.

And I remembered from a series I watched a long time ago that on page 51, I think, of that catechism, gave an answer to a question that was asked, why do we keep Sunday instead of Sabbath?

And the answer was given because the Catholic Church changed the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday.

And then the question was, why did they do this?

And it went on to say that they had the authority to do this.

It says it's a mark of her ecclesiastical power.

We've read quotes that demonstrate that she views that as her right to do.

That is a mark of her ecclesiastical authority.

So enforced Sunday worship will end up being this mark of authority that she enforces upon the world.

So basically, Protestants and Roman Catholics are in the same boat when it comes to the issue of Sunday observance.

And there's many quotations by writers, Roman Catholic writers who say that Protestants in keeping Sunday as a day of worship are accepting the authority of the Roman Catholic Church even though they might not want to admit it openly.

If the Roman Catholic Church says we change the law, which the little horn says it would think to change God's law, then Protestants are simply accepting the authority of the papacy in the change of the day whether they want to admit it or not because it's not in the Bible certainly the change of the day of worship is not to be found in the Bible so I we believe that the time is coming when this is going to be enforced.

Ellen White of course says that in harmony with the Bible that not only will Sunday be enforced as the day of worship but ultimately an anti-sabbath law will also be proclaimed and God's people will be forbidden from keeping the Sabbath.

So that leads me to the next question and it's this.

How is it possible that Protestants would be so interested in cozying up with the papacy these days.

I mean, if you go back to the days of when John Kennedy was running for president, Americans were very suspicious of the papacy.

In fact, John Kennedy had to go to the Ministerial Association in Houston and he had to say well you know if I'm elected president I won't get my orders from the Pope and I believe in separation of church and state.

These days, I mean Protestants have really cozied up to the papacy So Daniel you look like you're tremendously anxious to talk about this close relationship between the papacy and and Protestants I wasn't listening to most of the comments so you're going to have to skip me on this 1.

The Protestants cozying up with the papacy like the Tony Palmer affair for example.

Well that's a perfect example because I believe most of us were startled to watch Tony Palmer in front of an evangelical conference and declare to all of these evangelical leaders that the protest is over and if the protest is over then how can there be a Protestant?

And that was followed by, I don't know if it was a standing ovation, but there were cheers.

All these evangelical leaders agreed with him.

And so, that is a demonstration of them wanting to cozy up to the papacy.

They don't realize that those who established their very own churches would die for their faith, would die for their Protestant faith.

In a very short time on the 16th of this month that we're in, so it'll be 7-16-16, We have what's coming is something that I'm going to be able to go and distribute literature at, and also I've been asked to speak there.

Reset 2016 is a place where Protestants all over North America are gathering together at the White House Mall, and they will be there to demonstrate that they want unity amidst the various denominations, and they also probably chose the White House to be showing them that they want some support from the state as well.

And 1 of the things that they really wanted was the Pope to be there.

These are Protestants, remember, but the Pope couldn't be there.

So what he's going to do is he's going to send a video of himself and he's going to be able to address them there.

Now, I recently, within 3 or 4 days, saw a video of Pope, the Pope, he was sitting kind of in a selfie video, and he held up a T-shirt that said, together, all the way down with the American flag at the bottom, if I remember correctly, And he was encouraging everybody to get this t-shirt so that of course they can show that they are unified and together in What he would call love And they've said that the that the only point on the agenda is Jesus Doesn't that sound nice yes So to just elaborate on what both of them have said is Protestants, as Dustin said first of all, have forgotten the history of the papacy.

They've misunderstood, they've misinterpreted the prophecies of the Bible that tell us what's going to happen in the end.

But I'd like to offer a yet a third reason, and maybe even a fourth.

A third reason is that many Protestants no longer, they believe that the Catholic Church is different than what it used to be.

You know, it's interesting, over the years, I've worked with a number of Catholics and probably baptized more Catholics than anybody.

And many times, you know, somebody will ask them, are you a Christian, to these Catholics?

They'll say, no, we're not Christian, we're Catholic, they say that themselves.

They think that some of you, if you've grown up in the Catholic Church, remember the Friday abstinence from meat and some things, but the core beliefs of the Catholic Church, the intercession of the Virgin Mary, the infallibility of the Pope, and some of these things, the Petrine doctrine of the papacy, that he's apostolic succession in line with Peter being the first Pope, those core beliefs are never gonna change.

And so the changes that we see are peripheral on the surface.

And Ellen White makes a very interesting statement.

Steve and I have talked about it several times in great controversy.

Beneath the variable change of the chameleon, the appearance of the chameleon is the invariable venom of the serpent, something to that effect.

In other words, they present, as she says, a fair front to the world, but underneath is the dragon, you see.

And then I would like to even offer a fourth reason, which you touched on, Daniel, and that is misunderstanding the prayer of Jesus in John 17, that they all may be 1 as we are 1.

We are living in a time when the ecumenical movement is the big thing right now.

We dare not speak against another church.

We dare not promote our own church at the expense of somebody else.

Hey, we're all brothers and sisters in Christ.

Let's just all come together and shake hands and sing kumbaya and the world will be fine.

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The Origin, Foundations, and Destiny of the United States of America, Part 2

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