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Dalton SDA Church

Chester Clark

When the Truth is Forbidden

So we're talking today about when the truth is forbidden.

I don't know about you, but I believe we are living in the last days of this earth's history.

And I believe that God's Word predicts a time when it will no longer be popular to tell the truth.

You know we always think about that as some time in the maybe far distant future.

I mean after all this is America, There's freedom isn't there?

And Yet as we as we consider what is happening in our world today as we consider the prophecies of God's Word it It strikes me that we may be closer to that time Than we would imagine Someone shared with me this week an article from the Wall Street Journal by Peggy Noonan.

It was very interesting and it shared a little bit of a comparison to some of the things that are starting to happen now and the world during the Cultural Revolution in China.

You see Chairman Mao had a bit of a problem on his hand.

Although he was revolutionizing his economy and culture, there were some who didn't agree.

In the mid-1960s he became suspicious of some of those around him, even of some of his Soviet allies.

And he decided it was time for a little bit of mayhem.

The problem wasn't his ideology, which had proven to be a disaster.

The problem was there were feudal forces, this is quoting his writing, there's feudal forces full of hatred toward socialism, stirring up trouble, sabotaging socialist productive forces.

The party had been infiltrated by pragmatists and revisionists.

That is the main question of the revolution.

His usual suspects were intellectuals and other class enemies, capitalist rotors who clung to old religions or traditions.

And the Red Guards were instructed to clear away the old habits of old society by attacking the 4 olds.

The 4 olds are old ideas, old customs, old habits, and old culture.

Everything from that old era needed to be wiped away.

With a vengeance the young people came to his aid.

Often teachers became suspected of lacking enough commitment to the new cause.

They were paraded through the streets and campuses, sometimes through the stadiums.

What was important in those days before social media was that there were jeering crowds.

It was important that the electric feeling of possible murder be present.

Dunce caps, sometimes wastebaskets, were placed on the victims' heads and placards stipulating what their crimes had been were hung around their necks.

The victims were assaulted, berated, accused, and many falsely confessed in hopes of finding favor or mercy.

The Chinese Catholic, Margaret Chu, a medical lab assistant, was dragged into the office of her labor camp in 1968 and made to answer invented charges.

Their real motive, she writes, was once and again to force me to admit all my alleged crimes.

She denied her guilt again immediately 2 people jumped on me and cut off half of my hair She was tortured left in handcuffs cuffs for a hundred days and imprisoned for years While in prison she sometimes prayed that she would die so that her suffering would end.

Now, the Cultural Revolution ended roughly a dozen years after it began.

In time, the party would admit that it was a failure.

Today, I'm quite amazed to see some of the parallels that we see happening.

It's not parading through the streets, but on social media.

If someone dares to say something that is not culturally sensitive or culturally aware enough or class aware enough or whatever it is, the immediate humiliation starts piling on.

If you look at thoughts and thought leaders, if you look at our campuses, if you look at if someone tries to come to a conservative place to share liberal ideas or a liberal place to share conservative ideas, the same type of attacks come.

It's not to try to engage, it's not to try to dialogue, it's not to try to debate or to reason, it's simply to drown out the voices of those we do not like.

Social media is full of swarming political and ideological mobs.

And 1 of the examples that Peggy Noonan gave in her article was very interesting.

A few weeks ago, a young woman on Twitter thought aloud, what if public libraries were open late every night and we could engage in public life there instead of having to choose between drinking at the bar and domestic isolation.

What if there's a place to go besides bars for social life?

What if public libraries could be that place?

It seems innocent enough, but there was an onslaught of reaction.

Libraries are already significantly underfunded with what they struggle to do, they struggle to make do with what they've got.

Another 1, before you suggest this, understand that our librarians are maxed out.

The idea would only work in, quote, mainly affluent urban and suburban communities with already well-funded libraries whose wealth insulates them.

A woman soon to marry a librarian warned of what this would do to the lives of the people who work there.

After being batted about on social media, the young woman who had, I thought, a pretty good idea.

I made insensitive tweets about public libraries and the individuals that staff them.

I have much to learn about the difficult challenges public librarians face, the services they provide, and how much they strive to meet the needs of communities they serve.

It's fascinating How a simple, innocent idea can turn into class warfare.

Not too long ago, Joe Biden made a horrific mistake.

He had the temerity to suggest that our current Vice President, Pence, is actually, and this were his words, a decent person.

Immediately He was attacked by the thought police.

Pence as America's most anti-LGBT elected leader because he believes, as some Christians do, that marriage is between a man and a woman.

Biden to consider how this falls on the ears of our community.

Biden said, it's no longer possible in America to disagree with someone and I believe when truth will be forbidden.

A time when thought police, no matter what political party you might subscribe to, everyone should be aware that the political parties don't have the solution for this earth's problems.

We're going to talk about why truth matters and Why when the truth is forbidden it is a problem and it will be in heaven I want to pray that you would send your spirit to be here to be our instructor to hours in these days of Earth's history Then in times past the truth mean your Bibles to Revelation chapter 13 and we're gonna be a summary of the the scenario that is going to Is going revelation chapter 13 and verse 11 will read verses 11 through 17 if you're there can you say amen?

11 Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth and he had 2 horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon.

And he exercised all the power of the first beast in his presence and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast whose deadly wound was healed.

Now without getting into the specifics of this prophecy We can at least understand that this subject here.

This is not something that is Secular in nature.

This is something that is religious in nature There is forced coerced worship being discussed here in verse 13 by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived.

He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as Many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed He causes all both small and great rich and poor free and slave to receive a mark on their right hand or in their foreheads, and that no 1 may buy or sell except 1 who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

This is a time in earth's history, the Bible predicts when religious worship will be legislated, when consciences will be enforced, when whatever Ideology is prevalent in the world What?

We know It won't matter whether you're rich or poor, right?

Whether whatever your social status is, your economic status, it doesn't matter.

Every man, woman, and child will be coerced.

And there's, by the way, before we leave this on a dark note, I want you to realize Revelation chapter 14 has God's answer to Revelation 13, right?

There's 3 angels' messages going to the whole world, warning of the dangers of going along with this system.

But what I believe is described here is a system of the truth being forbidden.

A system where thought police are going to first try to shame us into not believing what we believe or sharing what we believe and finally coerce us into not believing what we believe.

Now let's ask the question first of all, why is truth important?

We're going to look at 3 reasons why truth matters and we're going to look at answers from the Word of God that describe why truth matters.

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When the Truth is Forbidden

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