<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Hillside SDA Communications

Eric Walsh

The Tides of Change Part 1

James chapter 1 verse 25 is our scripture reading.

It says, But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continues therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

The Bible says that God's law is a perfect law of liberty.

So on this Religious Liberty Day, our message is entitled, The Changing Tide, religious liberty in a time of chaos.

Let's pray, Father God, we thank you for this opportunity to study your word.

We thank you Lord for your mercy and for your blessings.

And I ask now Lord that you just make me a nail upon the wall, a rusty, sorry nail, Lord.

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

Let Eric Walsh not be seen or heard today.

Instead, Father, Let us hear a word from the throne room of grace.

This is our prayer in Jesus's precious and holy name.

If you have your Bible, turn me to Exodus chapter 1.

Exodus chapter 1, 1 of my favorite books of the Bible is the book of Exodus.

As African Americans, this book has always held significance because it was a biblical representation of the freedom God would give us in this country.

It's the only social media I have is LinkedIn.

I saw a post on LinkedIn from an Indian influencer in India.

And she was showing the West Indian Bible the British put out that was limited the Bible down to a very narrow book and removed all the parts of the Bible that would have offered liberty or the idea of liberty to slaves in the colonies of the West Indies.

And all these Indian people were commenting And I wanted to say something, but I learned on social media, it's better you just keep quiet.

I was going to say there's a reason they had to take all of those words out of the Bible.

Because the book of scripture is a book of liberty.

If they'd left the Bible intact and let the those that were enslaved read it, they would have known they'd need to fight for freedom.

In fact, when you go to the African-American Museum in Washington, DC, and you guys are a lot closer than a lot of people in the country, When you go, they have Nat Turner, who had a slave revolution, they have his Bible there, Harriet Tubman's hymnal.

It is a misconception about Christianity that it is a European or a white man's religion.

That's what the nation of Islam used to tell me when I was growing up, but this is a lie.

The truth of the matter is the oldest churches in the world are in Lalabela, Ethiopia in Africa.

And the Roman empire was all over North Africa and Christianity was very strong all over North Africa in the great controversy, Ellen White comments, that in Central Africa, the churches kept the Sabbath even during the dark ages of Europe.

There's a pastor in Northeastern Conference, a Yangsten Sednak, if you've ever heard that name.

He wrote a book, Knowledge of the Creator God Embedded in African culture.

And he goes all over Africa and shows you how it is.

But let me make it clear, Christianity is a global religion.

In fact, it was the Apostle Thomas that took it to India.

When we were in India, we actually went and they talked to us about that.

The Chinese characters, if you look at the Chinese language, the characters that make up the Chinese language, you'll find that the Chinese language character, I could send you a link to a Chinese Christian scholar who breaks it down.

Those, the characters all speak to a knowledge of the Bible.

Like the character for Boat is an upside down ark with 8 people inside, like the Ark of Noah.

So bottom line, You are a part of a worldwide global movement that the devil wants to stop.

In Exodus chapter 1 is 1 of the times that the devil realized it was time to try and stop it.

Exodus 1 and verse 6, the Bible says, and Joseph died and all his brethren and all that generation.

You remember that when Joseph's brothers sold him into slavery, Joseph was taken captive.

He stayed in Potiphar's house, went to prison, falsely accused, came out of prison because he was able to interpret dreams, became second in command in all of Egypt, saved not just Egypt, but much of the then known world, saved it from famine, 7 years of famine.

And the Pharaoh at that time allowed his people, there were 70 of them that Jacob brought out, allowed his people to take some of the best land.

And because they were herdsmen, the land prospered and they did well.

Church, there is always a turning point in a sinful world.

In Exodus chapter 1 and verse 6, the Bible says, and Joseph died and all of his brothers and that entire generation.

Look at verse 7, and the children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly and multiplied and waxed exceeding mighty and the land was filled with them.

It says, now there arose up a new king over Egypt, Watch this, who did not know Joseph.

Church, I came to tell you today that the tide changes, that eventually what was once in a sinful world will no longer be.

A land of peace and prosperity can quickly change when there is a new king verse 9 and he said unto his people behold the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we.

Come on, let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply.

And it come to pass that when they fall without any war, they join also unto our enemies and fight against us and so get them up out of the land.

The Pharaoh starts to think strategically, intentionally.

He begins to think ahead and he says, wait a minute, there's so many of them, they've got so many resources, there are more of them, they're mightier than us.

If we don't act now, we'll fall into war and they'll side with our enemies and they will defeat us.

Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens and they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Ramses.

When a new king, they become Burdened slaves.

Verse 12, here's a key 1 for the Christian.

But the more they afflicted them, Ha, the more they multiplied and grew, and they were grieved because of the children of Israel.

Now, I could talk about the prosperity of the former enslaved in the West, I could do that.

But I wanna go even a level deeper into the spiritual realm on this.

You see, the more the people of God are persecuted, the stronger the people of God become.

And the first thing I want you to get today is that we are in Egypt.

The picture to the top middle there, Thoth, is the Egyptian god of intelligence, medical learning, and writing.

When the plague of the Boyles fell on Pharaoh and Egypt, This is the Egyptian God, the 1 on the top on the left.

That is the Egyptian God who was being attacked.

Every 1 of the 10 plagues attacked 1 of the Egyptian gods.

The final plague attacking Pharaoh claiming divinity by killing his own firstborn son.

And that picture you see there is on the, you'll find it on the Library of Congress on the door.

Next to that picture is obviously 1 that you recognize.

And many people have asked, why is there an Egyptian obelisk in at the center of a Western nation like the United States of America.

Many of the founding fathers of this country were Masons, which brings you back to the mysticism of the ancient world.

I won't get into that too much, but that's partly why it's there.

But the other part of it is it is a symbol because the 2 ancient civilizations most represented when you go to Washington DC if you keep your eyes open is ancient Egypt, ancient pagan Rome, and of course some of the Babylonian mysticism as well, as well as even the Persian.

Mithra and others are seen, and you go through some of the buildings.

We don't have time to get into that, but I want you to remember that spiritually, the Bible says, we are in Egypt.

I'm going to jump to the book of Revelation, chapter 11.

Follow me there if you can, because we're gonna do a lot of prophecy review today.

Back to Menu

The Tides of Change Part 1

Transcript

Sponsor

Recorded

Sound Doctrine