Participants: John Bradshaw (Host), Scott Christiansen
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. 09:54 Receive a daily spiritual boost. 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. 18:53 To discover more about It Is Written, I invite you 18:55 to visit our website www.itiswritten.com 18:58 and browse the dozens of pages that describe what we do and how 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. |
Revised 2015-02-06