It Is Written

Planet in Distress

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: John Bradshaw (Host), Scott Christiansen

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Series Code: IIW

Program Code: IIW001308


00:00 [Theme Music] It has stood the test
00:08 of time, God's Book the Bible.
00:17 Still relevant in today's complex world.
00:22 It Is Written, sharing hope around the globe.
00:36 Thanks for joining me today on It Is Written.
00:38 I'm John Bradshaw.
00:40 You know as well as I do that in recent, environmental issues
00:44 have become very big news.
00:46 People talk about climate change, the resulting rising
00:50 in sea levels, the polar ice cap melting, people in danger,
00:54 wildlife endangered, species becoming even more endangered.
00:58 In recent years there has been talk about ozone layer
01:01 depletion, nuclear issues, particularly when natural
01:06 disasters cause problems at nuclear power stations.
01:09 People fear what are we going to do to avoid nuclear waste
01:14 and nuclear fall-out.
01:15 If there is any number of environmental issues today,
01:19 some of them have been highly politicized but
01:21 my question today is what does any of this
01:25 have to do with the Bible?
01:27 Maybe nothing, maybe something.
01:30 My guest today is Scott Christiansen.
01:32 Scott has worked virtually all of his adult life in Christian
01:36 ministry, at times, working with environmental issues
01:40 in various parts of the world.
01:42 He has seen up close the way the environment is changing
01:46 and the effect that that has on society and its relationship
01:51 to the Bible.
01:52 Scott is an author and his seminar on the Bible
01:55 and the Environment has been warmly and enthusiastically
01:58 received all across North America.
02:01 Scott Christiansen, thanks for joining me today.
02:03 SC: Thank you John.
02:04 It's my pleasure to be here.
02:05 JB: Tell me, to begin with, what do environmental issues
02:08 have to do with the Bible, if anything at all.
02:10 SC: Well, let's go straight to Scripture.
02:12 Let's go to Matthew 24.
02:13 Christ told his disciples what the waymarks would be
02:16 before he came.
02:17 He gave us many, many things to look for.
02:20 And in fact, in Mark, Chapter 13,
02:23 we are told to watch.
02:24 We have a responsibility to watch.
02:27 So we are not to be passive.
02:29 When in Matthew 24 we are told that there will be wars
02:32 and rumors of wars.
02:33 We are told that there will be pestilences and famines
02:35 and earthquakes in diverse places.
02:37 In the last 50 years or so we've seen increasing disturbances
02:42 in the environment and we are coming to understand
02:44 destabilization in the environment, destabilizes
02:47 a society and leads to conflict, and leads to pestilence,
02:50 and leads to famine.
02:52 It leads to the fulfillment of prophecy and we
02:55 are seeing it now.
02:56 JB: So why are environmental issues biblical issues?
03:01 Where is the correlation?
03:03 SC: You have to go back to the systems, not just
03:06 the things that were created during creation week
03:09 because we all know that the oceans were made
03:11 and the atmosphere and everything else but you
03:13 have to go back to the systems.
03:15 JB What do you mean systems?
03:16 SC: Well, our oceanic system and how it interacts with our
03:20 atmospheric system.
03:21 How these two systems were created on the same day,
03:23 two halves of one whole, our atmosphere and our hydrosphere,
03:27 how these were created and are constantly interacting with each
03:30 other, chemical balances and thermal balances and that
03:32 enabled, of course, animal life and the animal life depended
03:36 upon the plant life that was created which depended,
03:40 of course, upon the soil being healthy.
03:43 All of these things are systems.
03:45 You've got our fresh water system and you've got such
03:50 things as our nutrient system, our nitrogen cycle, our alkaline
03:55 metal cycle, which is potassium, calcium, magnesium.
03:58 So the Lord made massive systems, oceanic, atmospheric,
04:02 climate, and he made small systems and they all fit
04:06 together and work together perfectly.
04:10 He created everything in perfection.
04:12 And then sin entered the world.
04:13 JB What did sin do to the perfection of God's systems?
04:16 SC: What is the consequence of sin?
04:18 The consequence of sin is death.
04:20 And we have always said, well, OK, people die, animals die,
04:24 humans understand that.
04:26 What we have not appreciated is that sin affects the planet
04:30 itself.
04:30 JB: So when death entered the world and if we stop
04:33 and think about this, sin brings death but also
04:36 it brought death to trees and whatever else dies,
04:43 stuff in the water.
04:44 SC: It brought death to every part of the massive systems
04:46 that God created to sustain life on this planet
04:49 and, therefore, it brought death to those systems of selves.
04:52 If every piece is dying, if every cell in your body
04:54 is dying, then your entire body is dying.
04:57 God created the planet in such perfection and in such perfect
05:01 balance that it has gone on for a very long time.
05:05 However, like a spinning top, you know, it goes perfectly
05:10 at first.
05:11 It's very stable.
05:13 But then it destabilizes and it begins to wobble
05:15 and you have seen the spinning top.
05:17 The end comes very quickly and looking at the evidence
05:20 in their natural world, we are at the point where
05:24 the systems that God created are so affected by sin
05:27 that they are destabilized and like a top they are wobbling
05:30 significantly.
05:31 JB: Somebody is going to say, Why are you blaming sin for
05:35 a hole in the ozone layer when scientifically we would believe
05:39 that that is because of too much CFC's gone in the environment.
05:44 Why are you blaming sin for my careless use of refrigerants?
05:49 SC We were told to be stewards of this planet.
05:53 We were given dominion over the planet.
05:55 If we were living up to our charge, we would not be
05:59 destabilizing the earth.
06:00 And that's a fact of sin in man.
06:03 You have to trace the problem all the way back.
06:05 You can say that people are not responsible.
06:08 You can say that corporations aren't responsible.
06:10 You can say that governments are not responsible
06:12 but that does not trace the problem back to its roots.
06:15 You trace the problem back to its roots.
06:17 And it's the effect of sin.
06:18 There is a reason that God hates sin.
06:21 It only decays, it only destroys, it only causes death.
06:25 JB: We tend to think of industrialization and flash
06:31 cars, nice cars, as progress.
06:33 SC: What we have done as a global human society
06:38 is kind of build a bubble around ourselves.
06:41 Cars are part of it.
06:42 The industrial life is a part of it.
06:50 But we think we don't really need God.
06:52 And we think we don't really need the world that he created.
06:54 We think that spirituality is outside of our industrial
06:56 society and we think that nature is outside of our industrial
07:01 society.
07:02 In fact, God created systems that support life on this earth
07:05 and we are anything but outside of those systems.
07:08 So as the earth continues to decay and it is an accelerating
07:11 decay right now.
07:12 It is not just a linear process, it is an accelerating decay.
07:15 As the earth continues to decay, we will be more and more
07:20 destabilized as a global society and that is a big deal because
07:24 it leaves us to the fulfillment of prophecy.
07:27 JB: The decay we see in society not just people killing
07:31 each other and interpersonal problems, but environmental
07:35 issues we see because they are a result of sin.
07:38 SC: Absolutely.
07:39 Oh, absolutely!
07:40 Let me give you a specific example just of a society
07:44 that is being impacted by environmental decay.
07:47 Let's go to Syria.
07:48 For the last six years, there has been
07:52 ... and it has kind of gone up and down a little bit,
07:54 but there has been a very significant drought
07:56 in the Middle East and in the Mediterranean region.
07:59 So much so that in Syria, in particular, there have been
08:01 successive years of crop failures and successive
08:05 years of herds of animals that could not graze and had
08:08 to be slaughtered.
08:09 Subsistence farmers had less and less and less.
08:14 Now scientific studies have validated that the Arab spring,
08:19 so-called, while it was in response to despotic
08:22 governments, was actually triggered by a sharp rise
08:26 in food prices.
08:27 So all around the Middle East you had the Arab spring rise.
08:31 It was triggered ultimately by this drought.
08:34 Now so what we see is a shift in climate,
08:37 people that are hungry and desperate, rebellions
08:43 and then massive death and displacement and continuing
08:46 disruption to neighboring countries.
08:48 So we see wars and rumors of wars.
08:51 We see famine.
08:52 We see pestilence because of rise in disease.
08:55 This is just one grain of sand on the scale.
08:58 But when you see the trend that we are one as a globe, you see
09:02 how this lines up with prophecy and we are really
09:05 not awake to it.
09:06 JB: Societal issues brought about by environmental issues,
09:09 which were triggered by sin.
09:10 SC: Right, right.
09:11 JB: In just a moment I am going to ask you this question.
09:13 I want to give you a second to think about it.
09:15 The question is: Is God an environmentalist?
09:19 Give that some thought.
09:20 You can give that some thought too.
09:22 We'll be back with more on It is Written in just a moment.
09:26 [Music] ...In Matthew 4:4 the word
09:30 of God says, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread
09:33 alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God."
09:38 Every Word is a one-minute Bible-based daily devotional
09:41 presented by pastor John Bradshaw and designed especially
09:44 for busy people like you.
09:45 Look for Every Word on selected networks or watch it on line
09:50 everyday on our website, itiswritten.com.
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09:56 Watch Every Word.
09:57 You'll be glad you did.
09:59 Here's a sample.
10:09 Astronomers in Australia announced a few years ago that
10:12 they had calculated the number of stars in the sky.
10:16 Seventy sextillion.
10:17 That's seventy thousand million million million.
10:20 70 followed by 22 zeros.
10:21 That's more stars than there are grains of sand in all of Earth's
10:25 deserts and beaches.
10:26 And the astronomers say it's likely their number
10:29 is way too low.
10:30 In Psalms 8:3-4 we read these words.
10:32 "When I consider they heavens, the work of thy fingers,
10:35 the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained,
10:38 what is man that thou art mindful of him?" God has made
10:41 a universe that vast, and yet He is still 'mindful'
10:45 of the human family.
10:46 We serve a great, and a big, God.
10:48 If He made all that - and He did - you can be certain He can take
10:53 care of you and your burdens today.
10:55 I'm John Bradshaw for It Is Written.
10:57 Let's live today by Every Word.
11:01 JB: Thanks for joining me today on It Is Written.
11:04 My guest today is author, seminar presenter, Christian
11:08 minister, Scott Christiansen.
11:10 And we are discussing today the relationship between
11:12 the environment, the decaying environment, and the Bible.
11:17 Scott, I told you just a moment ago that I am about to ask
11:20 you this question.
11:21 SC: Right.
11:22 JB: Here's the question.
11:23 Is God an environmentalist?
11:25 SC: If you take the word "environmentalist" and you ask
11:29 people to define it you are going to get a bunch
11:31 of different ... so I have to be careful in my answer because
11:34 if I say yes, then there is going to be a dozen
11:36 different people thinking a dozen different things.
11:38 So let me just put it like this.
11:40 When God created the world, we are told in Job
11:42 that the morning star is saying that heaven was amazed
11:45 and celebrated over this amazing earth.
11:48 So if you mean by environmentalists that this
11:50 is someone who loves the beauty and majesty of the earth
11:54 and who celebrates it, then my answer
11:56 is absolutely yes!
11:57 And if you mean that by environmentalists that this
12:01 is someone who wants to preserve the earth, then my answer
12:04 is yes.
12:05 And all we have to do is go to the most commonly quoted
12:09 and memorized text in all of Christendom.
12:11 "For God so loved the world..."
12:14 JB: There's a tension here.
12:16 Probably in everything there is a tension and we are going
12:19 to zero-in on the tension here.
12:20 God created the world.
12:22 The question I asked you is a loaded question,
12:25 "Is God an environmentalist?"
12:27 because it is loaded with so many different meanings,
12:29 but looking at it, the first verse of the Bible
12:31 says "in the beginning" God created so God loves
12:35 the environment, obviously, and he made a perfect
12:37 and a beautiful earth which is still very beautiful but far
12:41 from perfect today.
12:42 God made the earth to serve us, did he not?
12:47 SC: Yes he did.
12:48 It's our home.
12:49 JB: Kill that animal under a certain circumstance, cut down
12:52 that tree under a certain circumstance, these were
12:54 renewable resources, so probably God was not taking a big risk
12:57 with that.
12:58 But there is a tension, is there not, between how to
13:01 appropriately manage the environment, how does
13:06 the Christian find that balance?
13:08 SC: First of all, we have to remember that the world
13:11 is not only tainted by sin, it is dying
13:13 as a result of sin.
13:15 If we are going to try and fix something, if we are going
13:18 to try and save the world, then what is the proposal for
13:23 reversing the effects of sin?
13:25 What is the proposal for not having prophecy come
13:29 to fulfillment that the earth will be destroyed
13:32 and recreated?
13:33 JB: Are you saying that environmental activism
13:35 is futile?
13:36 SC: I have to walk a very fine line here.
13:38 JB: That's the tension.
13:39 SC: That's the tension because here's the thing.
13:42 If you only have so much time and you only have so many
13:44 resources, are you going to invest those in a planet
13:46 that is dying or are you going to invest those in people
13:48 who can be saved?
13:49 And you have to balance that with the fact
13:52 that there is a tremendously disproportionate distribution
13:56 of resources in the world.
13:58 There is 3.5 billion people who make less than $2.50 a day.
14:02 Some of those people spend 90% of their income on food
14:06 and their lives are desperate.
14:08 So everything that we do that consumes more resources,
14:12 disproportionately, in excess if you will, and everything that we
14:16 do that places a greater burden on the planet makes those
14:19 people's lives more difficult.
14:21 There is a responsibility there.
14:23 There is a balance there and I think it is to
14:26 the individual to decide where it is.
14:28 For me, it is a matter of putting all of my efforts into
14:33 pointing people to Christ and his very, very soon coming.
14:36 JB: I imagine ... I am imagining that if somebody loves God they
14:40 are going to love what God loves and that would instill in them
14:45 a care, at least, for the environment.
14:47 Should Christians be environmentalists?
14:49 Should Christians be greenies?
14:50 SC: Christians should be environmentalists in this sense.
14:54 Well, first they should be responsible to their fellow men
14:57 and they should not have a disproportionate use
15:00 of resources.
15:01 They need to be careful but at the same time
15:03 understanding, of course, that the world is dying.
15:06 Christians should be environmentalists in the sense
15:09 that they are absolutely looking forward to seeing the earth
15:12 recreated.
15:13 In its full glory and full majesty.
15:16 In that sense, I am a raging environmentalist.
15:18 I can hardly wait to see the earth as God created
15:21 in its perfection.
15:22 It fills me with joy just to think about it.
15:25 But our responsibility is here and now.
15:28 Our responsibility is spreading the good news
15:31 of Christ's return.
15:32 JB: A few moments ago you mentioned that you'll find
15:35 the right words ... the destruction
15:37 of the earth, the decay of the earth.
15:39 You said it is happening in a fashion that is not
15:41 linear, but it's accelerating.
15:43 How do we see this accelerating decay of the planet.
15:48 Let's talk about some examples.
15:50 SC: I want to go immediately to scientific studies and data
15:52 and all of that.
15:53 But concurrent with scientific studies you get a general sense
15:57 when you talk to people or when people observe the environment
16:01 around them.
16:02 This was not happening when I was a kid.
16:05 People themselves observe changes.
16:07 Greater storms, greater heat waves, more droughts and you
16:10 can't always trust those things.
16:12 When you've got a global sense that things are changing
16:15 and things are different and that the planet
16:17 is more hostile, that in itself is a data point.
16:20 Aside from that, let's go back to data.
16:23 Let's go to something that is hard and that is we
16:25 have had a quintupling of damage from disasters
16:27 on a global basis with a disproportion amount of that
16:32 damage centered in the United States, which is interesting.
16:36 JB Before we talk about natural disasters, let me slip
16:38 in here if I may.
16:41 Don't we simply have better mechanisms for recording
16:46 disasters?
16:48 The Richter scale has only been in existence for so long
16:51 and so forth.
16:52 SC: It's interesting.
16:53 Let's go back to the frequency of disasters.
16:56 Now I have a chart that I use that tracks disasters and this
17:00 is out of an organization called EM-DAT out of Brussels and you
17:03 have to use the chart very, very carefully because these are
17:07 observed disasters or these are reported disasters,
17:09 more accurately.
17:10 And so you go back to 1900 and while we were still using,
17:13 you know, the telegraph, but if you look at the data
17:16 trend on this and you notice from say 1970, 1980,
17:22 we had satellites, we had communication everywhere.
17:25 We had cable TV in the 80's but the rise in disasters
17:30 has been constant since then and extremely
17:33 significant.
17:34 So yes, we are seeing an increase in disasters
17:38 and an increase in the magnitude of disasters as well.
17:40 It's happening and it is a big deal and it fulfills prophecy.
17:43 JB: And an increase in the cost of those disasters in turn goes
17:47 on to affect society in many ways.
17:49 SC: We underestimate the profound affect
17:52 of society by an environment that is steadily destabilizing.
17:56 We think we are separate.
17:58 We think there are just trees and grass and things out there
18:02 but as a matter of fact we are pumping out our aquifers
18:07 all over the world.
18:08 We are in major cities, we are beginning to run out of water,
18:13 especially in Asia.
18:15 The oceans are crashing.
18:16 It is expected.
18:17 Scientists who have looked at this carefully that the oceans
18:21 will be essentially fished out of commercial species
18:23 in the next 25 years.
18:24 The eco system is crashing and there is a billion people
18:28 who rely on the oceans for their food.
18:30 JB: Let's come back to this in just a moment.
18:32 And also let's look at some biblical references to
18:38 the problems the environment is facing due to the work
18:44 of sin.
18:45 We'll be back with more in just a moment.
18:49 It Is Written is dedicated to sharing the gospel around
18:52 the world.
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19:01 we do it.
19:02 Let's get to know each other better.
19:04 Visit our website itiswritten.com today.
19:08 This is It Is Written.
19:10 I'm John Bradshaw.
19:11 My guest today is Scott Christiansen who is an author,
19:14 a Christian minister and a seminar presenter
19:16 dealing with the very important and timely subject of the decay
19:21 in the environment around us and how that relates
19:25 to the Word of God.
19:26 Now Scott, Isaiah wrote many, many years ago that the earth
19:29 would wax old like a garment.
19:33 What do you think he was talking about there?
19:36 SC: In my interpretation, under sin, the world destabilizes.
19:38 The world falls apart.
19:39 JB: So sin doesn't just make murderers out of people,
19:43 it affects the ground, and the trees and the air and the ocean.
19:47 Absolutely unsurprisingly and you know, we could
19:50 not actually see this because we only have a generational
19:53 view, because we only see things in our lifetime until
19:56 the decay of the earth accelerated, basically
19:59 within the last 50 years we have been able to begin
20:01 to see this and now we have a building sense,
20:04 as a global community we have a building sense
20:06 that something is wrong.
20:08 Let's zero-in a little bit on some of these systemic
20:12 collapses.
20:13 You'd spoke before briefly about the oceans.
20:17 You mentioned that a colossal amount of people depend
20:21 upon the oceans.
20:22 SC: A billion or more than a billion.
20:24 JB: But the oceans are collapsing.
20:27 I've heard about these dead spots in the ocean.
20:30 Tell me about that.
20:31 SC: Well what happens is we apply massive amounts
20:34 of fertilizer to grow the food that the planet
20:37 needs and by the way, we are on a razor's edge.
20:39 We might want to talk about that when it comes to global food
20:42 supply.
20:43 But this fertilizer and pesticides that we use
20:45 all over the world, they get washed.
20:48 Part of it gets washed off the land and then you
20:50 have all these nutrients flowing into the ocean and that causes
20:53 a bloom, an algal bloom and that algal bloom
20:56 just expands, just explodes and then collapses
20:59 and dies and when that algal bloom dies the decay sucks
21:03 all the oxygen out of the water.
21:05 In the Gulf of Mexico you have a dead spot the size of Vermont,
21:09 for instance, where the water is dead.
21:13 There is nothing in there that is living.
21:15 It is below the surface because the surface of the water
21:18 exchanges oxygen with the atmosphere
21:20 but below the surface, if something swims in,
21:22 it does not swim out.
21:23 It is completely dead.
21:24 JB: Okay.
21:25 We are talking about the oceans.
21:27 The ocean is really big, man.
21:28 It c overs this great big part of the earth.
21:30 You talk about a size of Vermont.
21:32 Here's my question.
21:33 Is it really that big?
21:34 SC: It's really that big.
21:35 JB: No, no, I mean really.
21:36 Is it really that bad or is this just environmental hysteria,
21:39 some greenie who hugs trees wants you to think that we
21:42 are at crisis point.
21:44 Is it really that bad?
21:45 SC: It's really that bad.
21:46 Let's take your point.
21:47 You say the ocean is big.
21:49 Now when I worked in Mongolia I would frequently fly from
21:52 Los Angeles to Beijing.
21:53 I get on the plane in seconds I would be over
21:56 the Pacific Ocean.
21:57 I would read a book, I would watch a movie.
22:00 I would start another book.
22:02 I would take a nap and you know what?
22:05 At 600 miles an hour we were still over the Pacific Ocean.
22:08 It is massive.
22:09 It is huge and yet, it is very well documented.
22:12 The entire ocean, not just the pacific, our entire
22:15 hydrosphere is collapsing, the ocean specifically.
22:17 The life in it, the fish in it, the very acid levels which are
22:22 affecting life change, our corals, everything
22:24 is falling apart, the most rapidly of any system
22:28 that we are observing.
22:29 It is profound and it's very serious.
22:31 JB: And the implications of this collapsing ocean will be what?
22:36 SC: Well over there the economic implications are huge, though
22:40 we are mostly focusing on the spiritual.
22:42 But let's go to the things, which are linked to prophecy.
22:44 We have got a billion people who depend primarily
22:47 on the ocean for food.
22:49 Each year that food gets less now.
22:51 The resource is less on a global basis but within 25 years
22:56 or less, it will be entirely fished out
22:59 for all practical purposes.
23:00 Then you have got a billion people that starting now are
23:04 having to transition over to land-based food.
23:06 Now we are right at a razor's edge between the amount of food
23:10 that we produce and the amount of food that we consume.
23:14 Last year we consumed more food than we produced.
23:17 Yes, that's a very big deal.
23:19 It is very serious.
23:21 We are in a world of trouble and we can see the process
23:24 is flowing that where society becomes more destabilized
23:28 we see more wars and rumors of wars over food, over water,
23:32 over oil, over metals, over something like phosphate
23:36 which is a critically pressured resource.
23:38 All of these things come in at once in our age.
23:42 We are seeing this confluence of forces.
23:44 JB: Won't we figure it out?
23:46 I mean, we've got brilliant people around this world.
23:49 We've figured out all the problems so far.
23:51 I mean, isn't there a way out of this?
23:54 SC: It is the fundamental nature of man to try and figure out
23:58 a solution to these two problems.
24:01 And we've dodged the bullet, as a global society,
24:05 we've dodged the bullet a number of times.
24:07 But we've got a number of problems facing us right now.
24:10 We've got a decay in our atmosphere.
24:14 We've got a decay in our hydrosphere -- that's fresh
24:16 water and salt water.
24:17 We've got significant decay of soils around the world,
24:22 and their ability to produce.
24:24 We've got a growing population base.
24:27 If we look at one problem, one universal problem that the globe
24:33 got together, the nations of the earth got together
24:35 and solved, what would that problem be?
24:39 There is almost no example.
24:41 So we've got these numbers of problems which are converging
24:44 and which accelerate each other and we've got no basis
24:47 for solving anything but above and beyond that,
24:50 let me ask again.
24:51 You know, what is the proposal for reversing the effects of sin
24:55 and how does that sink with scripture?
24:57 JB: So, looking at this scripturally, the environment
24:59 is falling apart as a result of sin collapsing.
25:02 What is the end game?
25:04 SC: The end game is laid out very well in Matthew 24
25:08 and it is a good chapter to read every month.
25:11 We know that we have a time of little trouble coming.
25:13 We know we have a time of great trouble coming and we know that
25:17 Christ's coming is soon and this really is my message to people.
25:20 It is not an environmental message.
25:22 The message is Jesus really is coming.
25:25 JB: And the environment is yet another marker demonstrator
25:29 of that fact.
25:30 SC: Right.
25:31 Christ would not tell us in Mark 13 to watch
25:33 and give us nothing to watch for and this is one more sign
25:36 that his coming is very, very soon.
25:39 Is our sense of urgency commensurate with the nearness
25:43 of his coming?
25:44 JB: Scott Christiansen, thank you for joining me today.
25:47 SC: I appreciate it very much.
25:48 Thank you.
25:49 JB: This is a world that is under attack and while
25:52 the environment tells us that the earth is at breaking point,
25:55 philosophies and theories are tearing the heart
25:59 out of the world and attacking faith in what matters most.
26:03 That is why I want you to have this book.
26:05 It's called "The Thought makers".
26:08 Learn how the Bible answers the biggest questions.
26:12 To get your free copy, call right now 1.800.253.3000.
26:14 Now, supplies of this book are limited.
26:18 So call right away.
26:20 If the line is busy, please do call again or write to us at
26:24 It Is Written, Box O, Thousand Oaks, California
26:27 91359 and we will mail a copy
26:30 to your address in North America.
26:32 It Is Written is a donor supported ministry.
26:34 To support It Is Written, call that same number.
26:37 1.800.253.3000 or visit us on-line at itiswritten.com.
26:44 Fascinating discussion today about the biblical connection
26:47 between the deterioration of our environment and the prophetic
26:53 signs of Jesus' return.
26:56 Scott Christiansen, I am so thankful you were here
26:58 with me today.
26:59 SC: My pleasure.
27:00 JB: Let's take the opportunity to pray and ask God to bless
27:03 us as we get ready for Jesus' return.
27:05 Our Father in heaven, how thankful we are that
27:08 we have much to look forward to.
27:10 The signs around us that herald the return of Jesus while they
27:14 can alarm us on so many levels also excite us.
27:17 It was Luke who wrote Jesus' words "When you see these things
27:21 begin to come to pass, lift up your heads and look up
27:23 for your redemption draws nigh.
27:25 Lord, thank you for the message that around us, the world tells
27:29 us our redemption draws nigh.
27:31 We thank you for a Savior who loves us enough to return
27:37 and take us home.
27:39 Let that day come soon, I pray, in Jesus' name, Amen.
27:49 Thank you for joining me today.
27:50 I look forward to seeing you again next time.
27:53 Until then, remember "It is written, man shall not
27:56 live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds
28:00 from the mouth of God.


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Revised 2015-02-06