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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Peter Chung

The Missing Truth of Present News

Today's topic, today's message is titled The Missing Truth of Present News.

I was told to deal with the American Pope and end time events, and quite honestly, I don't like preaching about this topic, but it is needed.

And so Before I begin, let's have a word of prayer and ask for God's presence at this time again to tell my message is the missing truth of present news.

Holy Father, our Father God in heaven, Father, I'm a weak man.

I'm a sinful erring man that needs your grace.

So Father, today I ask that you use this broken vessel to do a mighty work.

So Father, today I ask that you fill me with your Holy Spirit, that the people of God be blessed by the preaching of this word, that this message is 1 of hope and assurance and love and not of fear.

And so Father today, in spite of myself, I ask that you do something special here today, this we pray in Jesus' name, amen.

On March 10, 2025, in an article from the Associated Press, the article is based upon comments made by our current president.

Our current president has a fascination for a part of US history called the Gilded Age.

It's 1 of the longest units that you have to deal with and I hate teaching that unit because it's not dealing with spectacular events like the Civil War or World War II, it deals with economic policy, it deals with the growth of the cities, it deals with factories, it deals with social class, and what high school student is interested in those things?

It's very difficult to teach that topic, but our president has a very much fascination with the Gilded Age.

And it got me thinking about the Gilded Age.

What is the significance of the Gilded Age?

And part of the Gilded Age is from the post-Civil War era to 1900.

In the midst of that time period is the special year of 1888.

And it got me thinking about the Gilded Age and what happened and what's happening today.

And notice some of the fascinating things that are happening in the Gilded Age.

Because the Gilded Age is a time where America becomes industrialized.

It is an era of billionaires, of robber barons like Rockefeller and J.P.

Morgan and these rich billionaires that control the government.

It's talking about an era of immigration and nativism where there's anti-immigration everywhere because of immigrants coming from Eastern Europe and China.

And so we see here some mirrors and parallels between the Gilded Age and what's going on today.

Notice, the federal government during the Gilded Age got their revenue from tariffs.

The federal government is seeking to get their revenue from tariffs.

After the Civil War, during the Gilded Age, the federal government sought to downsize the federal government.

We see here today the same thing, the federal government seeking to downsize the federal agencies.

The federal government during that time promoted in the Gilded Age, laissez-faire economics, which is no government regulation, let the economy run, let the rich and the businesses make as much money possible without government regulation.

We see that happening today with deregulation.

We see during that time, You had the super wealthy dominate American wealth, Rockefeller, JPMorgan, and Carnegie.

Here in the super wealthy today we have Zuckerberg, Bezos, and Musk.

Anti-immigration nativist sentiments were directed towards Eastern European and Chinese immigrants.

You had the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the first specific anti-immigrant act towards a specific ethnic group.

What's going on today, nativists and anti-immigration settlements are policies targeting specific immigrant groups.

You have President Garfield, he's president for 2 non-consecutive terms.

President Trump is president for 2 non-consecutive terms.

You have Pope Leo XIII, who led the papal church in the Gilded Age.

You have Pope Leo XIV, who is the Pope in 2025.

You have Protestant Christians under the National Reform Movement that sought to destroy the separation of church and state through their involvement in politics.

You have evangelical Protestant Christians is seeking to do the same here today.

And a lot of Adventists seek to like focus on the Pope and what the Pope is doing.

But Protestant churches and major Protestant groups are seeking to control government to destroy the separation of church and state.

Now on November 19, 2022, I was here at Avent Hope and I dealt with the separation of church and state, how Roger Williams introduced this concept of separation of church and state where religious liberty was for every single religion, atheists, Muslims, any religion.

And we as Adventists believe that religious liberty is for every religion, not just Christian.

We also believe in the separation of church and state, that the church should not dictate the government to control their agenda.

We believe that the church has no place in government and that the government has no place on the church.

But evangelical Christians are seeking to destroy the wall of separation between church and state.

In fact, notice what Inspiration says in Great Converse on page 445.

When the leading churches of the United States, uniting upon such points of doctrine as are held them in common, shall influence the state to enforce their decrees and to sustain their institutions, then what?

Is Protestant America different from the American Pope?

Protestant America will have formed an image of the Roman hierarchy, and infliction of civil penalties upon dissenters will inevitably result.

The image of the beast represents the form of apostate Protestantism, which we developed when the Protestant churches shall seek the aid of civil power for the enforcement of their dogmas.

And we're seeing this happening right before our eyes.

We also have, during that time, the Blair Bill was introduced in the Gilded Age in 1888, introduced a bill for Sabbath Sunday rest laws to be imposed nationwide.

And today, we had Project 2025 that advocated for the Department of Labor to ask Congress to pass a nationwide Sabbath Sunday rest law.

Well, it was written by the Heritage Foundation, which is an evangelical Christian lobbyist group that seeks to lobby the government for their agenda.

Some of the authors include 1 of our own, Dr.

Benjamin Carson, Jonathan Berry, former officials who served in the previous Trump administration.

Berry wrote something very, very significant on project 2025.

This is what he said, that Congress should encourage communal rest by amending the Fair Labor Standards Act to require the workers to be paid time and a half for hours worked on the Sabbath.

That day would default to Sunday, except for employers with a sincere religious observance of Sabbath at a different time.

Now, There's some Adventists that are saying, what's the big deal?

Some well-known evangelists have said the same thing.

I give you Adventist history and the writings of A.T.

Now those that are not familiar with Adventist history, Elder A.T.

Jones was our religious liberty champion during the Gilded Age.

And he testified in Congress against the Blair Bill, and by the grace of God, God held the winds of strife so that we could be here today living.

Now, notice what he said in the American Sentinel, November 19, 1891, about should there be a Sabbath law by the government.

Yes, sir, We are against every Sunday law that was ever made in this world, from the first enacted by Constantine to the 1 now proposed.

And we will be equally against a Sabbath law if it were proposed, for that would be anti-Christian too.

Just because it gives an exception for Sabbath does not make it right.

Adventists from prominent ministries today saying, oh, Project 2025, no big deal.

All these far left people and these social justice warriors, they're just freaking out.

Those woke Adventists, that left-leaning religious liberty department in the NAD, they're just freaking out.

But Elder Jones said that if there was a Sabbath law, it'd be just as bad.

This is our historical evidence position.

The Bible says this, The thing that hath been, it is that it shall be.

And that which is done is that which shall be done.

In other words, Solomon says, history rhymes.

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