Speaker: Andy Whitehurst
00:42
We’re going to be looking at character versus the beast and its image. So I’m going to start by zeroing in on looking at the importance of understanding character, and what the Bible talks about character. We’re not going to do a huge study on this. But I want to look at it just enough so that I really drive home the point of the importance of character. And then what we’re going to do is we’re going to look at how the beast affects our character, and how the image of the beast affects our character. And no, we’re not going into prophecy. I think you’ll understand where this is going when we really dive into the beast, and then the image. It’s a play on words.
01:24
So we’re going to start out by looking at character. And what we see in the Word of God and Revelation chapter nine in verse four is where we’re going to start, Revelation 9:4, and the Word of God says: “And it was commanded them, that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree, but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.” So here we can see very clearly, that the seal of God in the forehead is extremely important. We need to understand what this is, because this is very important. So we’re going to compare this with Revelation 7:3 now, and comparing verse with verse, here a little there a little, we’re going to get a better understanding of what the seal is, and how important this is for us. Revelation chapter seven, and verse three says: “Saying, hurt not the earth, neither the sea nor the trees till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.” So here again, we can see this paralleling perfectly with Revelation 9:4 and the seal of God and hurting not the trees and so on and so forth, and being connected with the seal. Now here, though, what we see is this connection is being connected with the 144,000. So we’re getting a better understanding of the importance of the seal. And also, of course, the time of the seal. But we’re not going into that right now either. So what I really want to drive home is that the seal in the forehead is extremely important to understand. And it is the 144,000 that have this seal. Also lending urgency to having a right understanding of the seal in the forehead.
03:14
Now we’re going to look at Revelation 14:1 again, comparing verse with verse, Scripture with Scripture. Revelation chapter 14 and verse one, the Spirit of Prophecy through John the revelator tells us: “And I looked, and lo, a lamb stood on the Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 having his Father’s name written in their foreheads.” So now we have a little more information yet again, dealing with the seal. In Revelation chapter seven, we saw the seal in the forehead connected with 144,000. Now here in Revelation 14, in verse one, we see the seal of God connected with 144,000, but it’s the Father’s name written in the forehead. And this is extremely important.
04:00
What is name? And again, I’m not going to go into a great explanation as to what name stands for at this point. But it’s a fairly basic study, you look at Abraham or Abram to Abraham. Jacob to Israel. These name changes signify character change. Name is representative of character. So when you see the Bible talking about the name of God, the name aspects, the emphasis is character what it’s emphasizing there. And so the name of the Father in the forehead is receiving the character of God. Where is that? In the forehead, and we’re going to talk about that a little bit more here in just a moment.
04:46
When we compare this with Ephesians 1:13, we see a little more on this topic. Ephesians chapter one, verse 13. The Spirit of Prophecy speaking through Paul says: “In whom ye also trusted after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise.” So here in the Word of God, we find that the seal is given to us, we are sealed with the holy Spirit of promise. This is important as well, because this is another way of saying the exact same thing. So now what I would like to do is I want to read some statements from the Spirit of Prophecy through the writings of Ellen White, that will really help to confirm and to clarify and to nail this down further and show the importance of this more.
05:43
Ministry of Healing 37.2: “We are to be distinguished from the world because God has placed His seal upon us, because He manifests in us His own character of love. Our Redeemer covers us with His righteousness.” So here we can see a parallel statement, His seal, being parallel to the character. Seal is parallel to the character. Review and Herald, November 1, 1892, par. 9: “Those who are waiting to behold a magical change in their characters without a determined effort on their part, will be disappointed. With our limited powers, we are to be as holy in our sphere as God is holy in His sphere. To the extent of our ability we are to make manifest the truth and love and excellence of the Divine character. And for this reason, we must draw from the living fountain, as the wax takes the impression of the seal. So the soul is to take the impression of the Spirit of God, and retain the moral image of Christ. We are to become partakers of the divine nature, realizing in our experience, the vigor and perfection of spiritual life.”
07:06
So here, what we see, parallel statements, multiple parallel statements, very powerful when we understand parallel statements. What we see is, His character being paralleled with the wax seal, parallel with this holy Spirit of God, the Spirit of God, and the moral image of Christ, and parallel, all of this parallel with the divine nature. So this is very powerful. Character, seal, Spirit of God, image of Christ, divine nature, all of these things are parallel to each other. In other words, they’re saying the exact same thing. They’re saying the same thing.
07:52
MB 128.3:”A tender spirit, a gentle winning deportment, may save the erring, and hide a multitude of sins. The revelation of Christ in your own character.” I want to stop right there for just a moment. The revelation of Christ in your own character. This is Christ in you, the hope of glory. This is Colossians 1:27. Everything centers around Christ in you, the hope of glory. And what is Christ in you? The hope of glory. It’s Christ in your own character. That is what this is all about. And so I’m going to give you a kind of a heads up. You sum up the Word of God and it’s all about character. Not so much about the doctrines that we believe although those doctrines help us to understand the character of God. But that’s not the final point of those doctrine. The final point of understanding the Word of God is not the doctrine, let me say that. The final point of the doctrine is to help us understand the character of God. So she continues on: “The revelation of Christ in your own character will have a transforming power upon all with whom you come in contact.” Powerful. “Let Christ be daily made manifest in you. He will reveal through you the creative energy of His words– a gentle, persuasive, yet mighty influence to recreate other souls in the beauty of the Lord our God.”
09:22
So I want to just take a slight side note. I realize it’s kind of funny to say this is a side note, because this is the main point of what she’s talking about. And that is all about character. Our character affects those around us in a powerful way. And so it’s extremely important that we get character right. Extremely important that we get character right. But I want to point out that parallels here, Christ in you, the hope of glory, is the same as Christ in your own character, Christ in your own character, and Christ in your own character is the creative energy of His word as being parallel there. Now is that the limit to it? No, obviously, that’s not the limit to Christ in you, the hope of glory, because we’re we’re seeing all kinds of things here that are being paralleled. This is just another explanation, another parallel, that is very powerful. So Christ in you, the hope of glory, or the Christ in your own character, if you will, is parallel to the creative energy of His word. And that creative energy, the creative energy of His word, affects those around you. It affects you when you accept it, it changes you from the inside out, and then it affects those around you. You are not an island unto yourself. When you throw a stone into a pond, it starts a ripple effect.
10:56
Review and Herald May 28, 1889, par. 8, final one, “We should study more earnestly the character of our Savior.” So the topic is the character. “We should imitate the lovely pattern that God has given us. We should dwell upon the matchless charms of Jesus until there will be nothing satisfying in this perishing world. We should desire to reflect his image” This is paralleled with His character. “to reflect his image in kindness, in courtesy, in gentleness, and love, then,” quote, “when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him, purifies himself, even as he is pure.” End quote.
11:41
“In a little while, everyone who is a child of God will have his seal placed upon him. Oh that it may be placed upon our foreheads! Who can endure the thought of being passed by when the angel goes forth to seal the servants of God in their foreheads?” So, what is this seal that is being spoken of in Revelation chapter seven that we looked at earlier that we did this whole study on? Earlier through the Bible, the spirit of prophecy is found in the Bible, and the seal. What is she paralleled to here is the character of the Savior.
12:14
It’s we are to reflect His image, so character and the reflection of His image, it is the seal being placed upon us and that seal is placed in the forehead. So what goes into the forehead? The character of our Savior. So the seal in the forehead is dealing with character. So the point that I really, really want to try to drive home here is the fact that the most important thing to understand from the Word of God, the spirit of prophecy is found in the Bible, the spirit of prophecy is found in the writings of Ellen White, is that it’s all about character. This is the only thing that we can take to Heaven is our character.
12:56
There’s a story, an example, if you will, of a man who died and on his way to heaven, he was, he finally convinced his angel that he needed to take all his possessions, his most valuable possessions with him to heaven. The angel kept trying to tell him your possessions mean nothing in heaven. But the guy insisted. And finally, the angel says, Okay, fine. Take whatever most valuable possessions you want. If that’s what you want to do, go ahead. So the guy gets all this gold that he had stored up. He’s very wealthy. Bars of gold. And he put these bars of gold in his suitcase, and he got his suitcase already. And he told the angel, Okay, I’m ready. So they go to heaven. And the guy comes to the the gates of heaven. And the angel says, what’s the attending Angel at the gate says what’s in your suitcase? I would like to check that out. And so the guy puts the suitcase up on a table and the angel opens it up, and the angel pulls out this bar of gold, and he says, you brought pavement? Why would you bring pavement? The point is that everything that is here on this earth means nothing. It is worthless. Because in heaven, gold is nothing but pavement. We walk on it. The thing that matters the most in this world is our character. And where is our character found? Scientifically, right here, the frontal lobe, the forehead. There’s an interesting study done some years back by a high schooler, as I recall. And what he did was he studied mice and the effects of music upon mice. And so he took mice, a group of mice and he ran them through a maze. And he timed them, and he continued to time them until they’re time going through the maze started to level out. So the time started big and then it started getting smaller and smaller and smaller as the mice started learning the maze, until it finally got to the point where they just couldn’t get through the maze any faster. And so there was a level time there. So then what he did was he took heavy metal, and he started playing heavy metal to these mice. And he had to stop the experiment. Why did he have to stop the experiment? Because the heavy metal affected the frontal lobes of the mice so much that they started killing each other. So he had to stop the experiment. He redid the experiment, very interesting, he redid the experiment. But this time, he had to keep all the mice separate. And so he redid it, he got the average time. And then he started playing heavy metal to them. And there are times the amount of time that it took them to go through the maze started going up with the heavy metal. Why? Because it was destroying their reasoning ability. And the destruction of that reasoning ability made them violent towards each other.
16:12
See brothers and sisters, this is exactly what the devil wants he wants to destroy the frontal lobe, because he understands that this is where our character is. He understands that this is also where the seat of spirituality resides in us, is this frontal lobe. So he is throwing everything at us that he can to try to attack and destroy the frontal lobe. Music is just one of those things that can destroy the frontal lobe or uplift the frontal lobe, depending on the kind of music. Something else, though, I’m not going to talk about music, that is not the focal point of what we’re talking about. What I am going to focus on right now though, is how the beast affects the image out how, or sorry, how the beast affects our character or the frontal lobe and our character. So we looked at character. And we’re, we’re hopefully you’re seeing if you haven’t already, which I’m sure you probably have, but you’re seeing really the importance of understanding that character is the most important thing we’ve got. It is the one thing that we bring to heaven. And it is the focal point of the gospel, is our character. So now I want to look at something else that affects our character, not just music, because that’s really not my focal point right now. I want to look at the beast and how the beast affects our character. And I think you’ll understand what I mean by the beast. When I start by reading this study, which was found in the Huffington Post. Very interesting study. Recent research by Arizona State University showed omnivores who went meatless felt better emotionally.
17:55
Character versus the beast, meat eating. That’s what we’re talking about. And I want to show scientifically, that meat eating alters and affects our character. And here it talks about omnivores, who went meatless felt better emotionally. Now, when you’re emotionally upset, you’re far more likely to lash out at somebody, you’re far more likely to show the spirit of the devil instead of the Spirit of Christ in how you deal with somebody, or how you deal with a certain situation. Emotional well being is it a foundational, is at a foundation of our character. Because as we act, this builds our character, and if our emotions are unstable, we’re going to act in the wrong way, which means our character is going to be formed in a wrong way. So emotion is very important and what we eat, and what we listen to, and everything else affects our emotions, because it affects our hormones, which affect our emotions. And I’m not going to go that deep into this. So I just don’t have time. But I really want to drive this home is very interesting study, I want to continue reading it, of the 39 people studied, one group kept to their omnivorous ways. And so obviously, this would be a control group, there would be no change. A second group ate fish, but no other source of animal protein. The third group, no fish, no meat, no eggs. Now, this is where it gets interesting. The first two groups reported no change in emotion, or cognition, emotion or cognition, their ability to reason. No change. Very interesting. You will find people that say, Oh, well, the, just the all you have to do is we’re all you have to worry about is red meat. No, it’s beyond worrying about just red meats. Even fish, eating the fish. And the people, they stopped eating all the red meat, they stopped eating even chicken. And they simply ate fish. And they felt no emotional difference or cognitive difference. Very interesting. A lot of people will say, well, you at least need to eat fish. No, you don’t. There is nothing in fish that you cannot get from natural plant sources. In fact, there’s not a single nutrients that you get from an animal source that you can’t get from a plant source. The plant based party as it continues reported, they felt more relaxed and focused than they did eating meat. Very interesting. They felt more relaxed and focused.
20:53
Now brothers and sisters, when the devil throws something at you to challenge your character, you need to be relaxed and focused, to be able to handle these things. And laying aside all animal products, according to this study, will help you be relaxed, and more focused, you will have better cognitive abilities. And we’re going to read some more things about that as we go along. I want to look at Counsels on Diet 383, paragraph two and three. Counsels on Diet: “The moral evils of a flesh diets”, I want to stop there for just a moment. The moral evils of a flesh diet. There are the laws in the Bible, that the Bible does not specifically use the phrase of moral law, but it’s still biblically applies. And so therefore is a proper name, even though it may not be found in the Bible. But we call oftentimes the 10 commandments, the moral law. It’s interesting, she says: “The moral evils of a flesh diet are not less marked than are the physical ills. Flesh food is injurious to the health, and whatever affects the body has a corresponding effect on the mind and the soul. Think of the cruelty to animals that meat eating involves, and its effect on those who inflict and those who behold it. How it destroys the tenderness with which we should regard these creatures of God!” I want to stop there for just a moment. When I first gave up eating meat, the reason I gave up eating meat was not for health benefits. You know, I really don’t have a particular desire to live to be 150 years old. But what I do want to do is the life that I live, I want to live it to the fullest. I don’t want to be all decrepit, and hurting and in pain and suffering from cancer, and this, that and the other or whatever else. I want to live life to its fullest. And so this is why I started changing.
22:54
No, that’s not why I started to change lifestyle. But afterwards, I realized that is a benefit that I want. But the main reason I changed from eating meats was not to live longer. Not anything to do with character. It was because of what I saw going on with animals. Now, I don’t agree with PETA. And I’m gonna quote some things from PETA here in just a minute. But realize I don’t agree with PETA. PETA wants to elevate animals to that of a human. If you kill an animal, it’s murder. I’m sorry, but that’s not the same thing. What does that mean? I want to kill animals. No. I want to avoid that. It’s, It’s hard to explain. But I find that sick, the killing of animals. I find it sick. I’ve had to do it. And it it has always upset me, upset my stomach. And you know, but I saw videos on Facebook. This was years ago. When I first joined Facebook, I saw some videos on slaughterhouses. And I’m not going to play any of those videos here. Because some of that stuff, I need to be careful of the audience. So I’m not going to play that nor am I going to go into depth describing it. But I would leave that up to you. I think you should look at some of that stuff. Because that really disgusted me. And I’ll be completely honest, you’ve got to be messed up up here to do some of that stuff. Even if it is an animal. And so I saw that and I was like, there’s no way I could do that. That is that is sick and disgusting. But then it really struck home. Every time I eat at McDonald’s and eat that meat and the cheese and so on and so forth, I’m condoning this. And that hit me like a ton of bricks. And so I was like, I can’t I just can’t condone this. I can’t condone what is going on. So I stopped eating meat. And what I found, what I found, was such a drastic character change. I was, now, is my character perfect? No, it’s not perfect. But what I found was I didn’t have to struggle nearly as hard to keep my temper under control. What I found was, I had far more compassion towards people. And I was willing to put up with a lot more with people before I started to get angry or had to walk away or, or frustrated or whatever. I had far more passion. And I started thinking, why? Why have I never heard a sermon about this? I’ve heard people talk about the health benefits. I’ve heard people threaten that you’re not going to go to heaven unless you’re vegan, which I don’t agree with that kind of approach. And so it, it pushed me away to a large degree. But I remembered such a massive change. I was just I, Why has nobody ever told me about this? Well, had I been reading the writings of Ellen White, I would have known it. Of course, at that time. I wasn’t reading the writings of Ellen White, since it was a little bit later. But this, I started asking other people that I knew grew up eating meat and had given up the meat. And I asked him, did you notice this change? And they’re like, Oh, yeah, that was one of the biggest changes, I noticed. And again, I’m like, Why didn’t anybody tell me? So brothers and sisters, this is why I am now presenting this because this is very important. I want you to know this information. If you have struggled with your character, if you have struggled in any way with your anger or your temper. This can help. Is it the cure all? No, your temptations, don’t just, poof, go away. But I can tell you it is so much easier to deal with these things. When you have given these things up. Why? Because it affects the frontal lobe. It greatly affects the frontal lobe. Continuing on with councils on diet:
27:29
“The common use of the flesh of dead animals has had a deteriorating influence upon the morals, as well as the physical institution. Ill health in a variety of forms, if effect could be traced to the cause, would reveal this sure result of flesh eating.” Wow, if traced to it, if able to be traced to its original source would be traced to flesh eating. I want to read something that PETA wrote to a chief Warden, the warden of a prison. And in this case, a man had killed and consumed parts his girlfriend, at least. So I’m gonna read this letter that they wrote to you because there’s some very interesting information that they wrote to the warden. Sorry, because there’s some very interesting information here. Dear Chief, on behalf of PETA and our more than 3 million members and supporters including 1000s across Indiana, I’m writing to suggest with all due respect that you help alleged killer and cannibal Joseph Abrahan Lee swear off flesh by providing him with exclusively vegan meals while he is in your custody. Some prison operators including those at Alabama’s highest security prison, William E. Donaldson Correctional Facility, have found that switching inmates to vegetarian meals can be a successful part of a violence reduction program. Interesting. And that’s not it. I’m just stopping here for a moment. They have found in this Correctional Facility, which is a recall yet and Alabama. They they found that putting all the inmates on a vegetarian diet, reduced violence. Blood loss went down. The characters got a little bit better, all because of giving up meat. Very interesting. It continues: If Abrahan Lee did in fact kill Tammy Blanton and eat parts of her body, opting to feed him only vegan foods could diminish that blood loss and might even help protect staff and neighboring inmates. Very good point. In fact, a meat free meal plan could benefit all your inmates. If you’d like to explore it, every vegan meal served at your facility would save animals from coming to a gruesome end. So on and so forth, she talks a little bit about some gruesome stuff, which I’m not going to go into. It’s kind of besides the point and then it says a vegan meals are healthy and easy to prepare, and they can be less expensive than meat based dishes. Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona estimates that he will save $100,000 by eliminating meat from inmate meals and feeding them a healthier and cheaper soy protein instead. We’re going to talk about that in just a moment as well. But continuing on, PETA would be happy to help you design the perfect cruelty free meal plan for the Clark County Jail. Thank you for your consideration. I look forward to hearing from you. I thought it was very interesting. And so I started looking up information from Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona. And I remember when I read, read this, I remembered, of course, this guy was on the news for making all the inmates wear pink and all kinds of other things. He had some very interesting disciplinary approaches. But he estimated that he would save the taxpayers $100,000 by eliminating meat from the meals, just because it’s cheaper to feed them vegan meals than it is to feed the meats. But when I looked into this, what I found this letter was written some time back. And by the time I looked into found this letter and looked into this, I found that there was more information available. And what I saw was very interesting. They estimated $100,000 in savings and tax dollars. But what they realized is that that was actually way below what they really saved. What they found was that they saved a lot of money, not only in the food, but they also saved a lot of money in the medical on, in the institution. Because less people were getting sick, because they were vegan. Go figure, they’re less people are getting sick. They also found that there was less violence, of course, so there was less money going out because of violence. Their staff were absolutely
32:30
safer. They felt safer, it was a safer environment. There are so many benefits to going vegan. And again, the point that I’m trying to bring home is by getting rid of meat, the blood lust goes way down. Your temper goes way down, your compassion for people and animals and everything else goes way up. This is affecting the character. It’s affecting the frontal lobe. Councils on diet 389.5: “A meat diet changes the disposition and strengthens animalism.” Brothers and sisters that sound like what PETA just wrote. It does. But the Spirit of Prophecy through the writings of Ellen White had it long before PETA. “We are composed of what we eat, and eating much flesh will diminish intellectual activity. Students would accomplish much more in their studies if they never tasted meat.” Now, you may not be a student, maybe you are a student and you want to get better grades, but you may not be a student in school, but we should all be a student of the word. And if we want to understand the word better, have a better cognitive skills and have a better effects in our studies, then we want to give up the meat and we will be able to understand the word better, we will be a better student in the Word of God. She continues: “When the animal part of the human agent is strengthened by meat eating, the intellectual powers diminish proportionately. A religious life can be more successfully gained and maintained if meat is discarded.” I don’t know about you, brothers and sisters, but I always am looking for a way to increase my religious life. And I can tell you that when I gave up meat, that definitely happened. It happened hugely. And so I am a living testimony to what I am presenting. And that’s what really I’m doing is presenting my testimony and what I found to be true. And then I started looking up in the writings of Ellen White, and also scientifically and I found these things to be agreeing as well. She continues on. So I’m going to start over that little section with that sentence: “A religious Life can be more successfully gained and maintained if meat is discarded, for this diet stimulates into intense activity lustful propensities, and enfeebles the moral and spiritual nature. The flesh warreth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh.” Councils on Diet 384.3: “Animals are becoming more and more diseased, and it will not be long until animal food will be discarded by many besides Seventh Day Adventists.”
35:28
Brothers and sisters, Seventh Day Adventists have become the tail and not the head, New Age has become the head and unfortunately, a lot of the information is now coming from the New Age movement instead of from Adventism. But what I hope and pray is that for those of you that are watching and listening, that you will dive into this and start really gleaning and studying and understanding this more and more and more, so that we in this movement will stop being the tail and start being the head of this health movement.
36:08
So we’ve looked at character, and the importance of character. And we looked at how the beast affects the character by the frontal lobe and the lustful propensities and the blood loss, and so on and so forth. And I may have stepped on some toes. I’m not trying to step on toes. But I’ve got to present what I have found. And I don’t want to withhold this because I know there are people that are looking for this information, I wish somebody would have told me this. And so I am presenting this information. And if I hadn’t stepped stepped on your toes, maybe because, maybe you’re vegetarian. But I might step on them now. Because now I’m going to look at the image of the beast and, and I don’t know where you’re at. But I hope that you gain something from this and you decide to take the next step in health. But now I’m going to look at the image of the beast. This as I said, New Age is leading this, unfortunately. And so this study comes from celestialhealing.net. And I not going to give you all the information because I honestly, I don’t know that I won’t really want to send people there. It was just something I happen to run across. But it was, this information is really good. So I’m gonna go ahead and read this. Dr. J. Robert Hatharael is a research scientist and faculty member of the Environmental Studies Department, University of California, Santa Barbara. “From 1984 to 1994, the number of youth under 18, who were arrested for murder tripled. According to the Department of Justice, it is time to look beyond the sociological roots of this trend, to consider the profound changes in our food supply as a possible cause of violent behavior. We need to rethink our dependence on processed foods and animal products filled with possible toxic chemicals, antibiotics, and steroids.” I want to stop there for just a moment, processed foods. So it’s not just eating meat. It’s also the heavily processed foods that affect our frontal lobe and affect our character ultimately. Rather than directing all our attention to bitter debates on gun control, and the violence in entertainment, the entertainment industry. So I want to stop there for just a moment. This this this. Writers not saying that these things are not an issue, particularly the violence in the entertainment industry, I will fully agree that that is an issue. There’s science that shows that and proves that actually, and I won’t go into all the depth of it. But there was a study done by, with a monkey, where the monkey every time you’d reach out and touch something, a certain synapse would fire within the brain and you could hear bzzz, you know every time you’d reach out and grab this, this food product that they would put up there, you’d hear bzzz as he’d reach out and grab it, bzzz. But very interesting, one time, the monkey instead of reaching out to grab the food product that was put there and hearing that bzzz when the monkey grabbed it, the scientist walked by and grabbed the food product. And you know what? You still heard that noise. Why? Because in the monkey’s brain, the monkey saw what happened. But the brain didn’t, didn’t connect to that it was not the monkey that did it, the brain still connected that the monkey picked up that food. Another words, just because you see something on television that’s violent, and you didn’t do it does not mean that it doesn’t affect you as though you did it. Because the fact is, it does affect you, as though you did it. That’s how the brain operates. So violence in the entertainment industry is a major thing. And God does say in Psalms, that he hates those that love violence, he abhors those that love violence. He does not say he hates or abhors those that do violence. He says he abhors those that love violence. You don’t have to commit the violence. You just have to love watching it on television, playing it on those video games, whatever else the case may be.
40:56
So there’s my red herring. Actually, it’s not a red herring because it is a real issue. But there’s my side issue on the entertainment industry. For those that may be interested, but it continues I’ll get and let’s get back to the point here. It continues: “Let’s also consider the pressing need for a cleaner environment and a vegetarian diet. Food should be good for physical as well as moral health.” Interesting, this study sounds just like something we read in councils on diet, doesn’t it? Very interesting. In a Harvard study conducted in 1998, there were four groups of rats tested based on diet. It was immediately apparent that the different diets had different effects on behavior in the four groups. The rats receiving natural food and clean water remained attentive and alert. The rats receiving natural food and hot dogs became a violent and fought aggressively violent and fought aggressively because they were eating hot dogs. What do you think? You remember the mouse study that I’ve talked about earlier? With the music. What do you think’s going to happen when you’re eating hotdogs and listening to heavy metal? It’s going to be nigh impossible to form a godly character. It’s just not going to happen. The third group of rats subsisted on products containing sugar coated cereal and fruit punch was nervous, hyperactive and behaved aimlessly. What about children? Do you see them doing the same thing? Science is also connecting ADHD with sugar intake. So it’s not just in rats. The fourth group subsisting on doughnuts and cola were unable to function as a social unit. Here, brothers and sisters, we in this movement are desiring to join in a social unit, we are wanting to unify. Is it possible to unify? When we’re subsisting on junk food? It’s not gonna happen. It’s not gonna happen. We need to get our lifestyles right. And I’m only talking of one of the eight laws of health here. Imagine there are seven other laws of health. There’s not just one, there are seven other laws of health. Continuing on, they were fearful and had trouble sleeping. So if you have trouble sleeping, consider changing your lifestyle. When you look at this study, it is no surprise that we can solve at least 75% of our behavior by simply going to a vegetarian diets. And by vegetarian diet, they’re also including the throwing out of processed foods. As pointed out earlier, a toxic person generally has an acid pH level, which results from the ingestion of animal proteins, refined sugars and cooked fats. These foods are poorly digested and create toxic residues, which are then absorbed into the bloodstream. Conversely, the more alkaline the body the more serene or calm the individual. Increased intake of living foods, (fruits and vegetables) and (creates or helps to create an alkaline pH level). I want to stop there for just a moment. When my wife and I do the eight simple secrets to health, we we ended up traveling all over the US presenting eight simple secrets to health and upon invitation. And the way I like to present it, at least is just my personal preference, the way I really like to present it is focusing on pH, not because pH is the silver bullet. It’s not the silver bullet. But when you understand pH and the body’s pH, the blood pH and the more specifically the cell pH, because the body will, you will die before the blood pH changes, is just that important. I won’t go into all of that as much as I want to right now. But when you understand body pH, and how food affects your pH, how exercise, water, sunshine, temperance, air rest, trust in God, how all of these things, they all, every last one of them affect your body Ph. When you understand pH, then you can help to under, you can help to grasp how these eight, eight laws of health affect your body. This is just one avenue by which
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I like to teach it. This is the avenue in which I like to teach it. And it really comes in from a scientific perspective as to how I like to teach it. But again, pH is not the the the miracle cure. And yes, I’ve read the book, The Peak PH The Miracle Cure, and I agree with 98% of what Robert Young talks about. But it’s not the silver bullet. That’s where I may disagree with him. It is not the silver bullet, there are eight laws of health, not just one. So anyways, continuing on, animal products do not possess the nutrients needed to satisfy human enzyme requirements. Their increased use results in toxic devitalized and violence prone individuals, interesting. Violence prone individuals, by increasing the amount of fresh raw foods in the diet, and reducing the intake of toxic allergenic and acid producing foods like meat and dairy products, each person can experience a much more positive, non violent emotional state. Now I realized that that sounded very yoga, New Age, because it is. But the fact is that it’s still true. Everything that was just said there is 100% accurate. And it’s not just the beast that affects our character. It’s the image of the beast. And by image of the beast, oftentimes, what what happens is people will give up meat eating, and then they will take on all these veggie products that look like the beast. They’re the image of the beast. Fried chicken, and Wham instead of ham, and all these different names, they even name it after the beast. These things are not better for you than the beast itself. In fact, I dare say that these things are worse for you, especially since the invention of GMOs, they are far worse for you than the beast is. You are better off eating free range grass fed beef, then you are the veggie products that replace it. Now, lest somebody get confused and think I’m promoting meat eating, which I hope should be obvious that I’m not promoting that. The point is, don’t think that the image of the beast is where you need to stay. Now, if you need to bring these things into your diet to help you give up the meat eating, so be it. Go for it, go ahead and do that. I encourage that. And I will show some some things showing that or read some things showing that here in just a few minutes. But don’t think that that’s the end. Don’t think that you’re gluten steak is good for you because and I may be stepping on toes, but it’s not good for you friends. We need to get rid of that processed stuff. We need to go back as close as possible to the diet given to us in Eden, which was fresh fruits and vegetables, raw fruits and vegetables. Now and again, less people misunderstand me, I’m not saying you have to go all raw. I’m not saying you shouldn’t either. And I deal with that more in the eight simple secrets to health. So I don’t have time to do that. But suffice it to say that the more extreme bad your health is, the more extreme you have to go in your lifestyle to correct the bad health. So you may need to go raw, at least for a while to correct your health. And then you can come back to a 75/25. But again, we’re, that’s not the point of this. So that is a very passionate topic of mine time. I’m having to try to keep my tongue here to keep this video short.
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In Counsels on Diet 381.2: “Those who have received instruction regarding the evils of the use of flesh foods, tea and coffee, and rich and unhealthful food preparations, and who are determined to make a covenant with God by sacrifice, will not continue to indulge their appetite for food that they know to be unhealthful. God demands that the appetite be cleansed and that self denial be practiced in regard to those things which are not good. This is a work that will have to be done before his people can stand before him, a perfected people.” The 144,000 stand before God, a perfected people because they have the seal of God, they have the character of Christ. How are we going to stand before God a perfected people? Well, we’re not going to do it when we’re eating meats, and dairy products and unhealthful food preparations. So it’s not just good enough to give up the meat, it’s not good enough just to give up the dairy products, brothers and sisters, we need to give up the unhealthful food preparations. Those processed things also affect our character. And I want you to notice those who are determined to make a covenant with God, by sacrifice. It’s not always easy. It’s not always easy. It took me multiple tries, just to give up the meat, multiple tries. So it’s not an easy road. But I can tell you, once you start down that road, you won’t want to go back. I don’t want to go back for any reason. I’ve gone back after several months of being vegetarian, even just vegetarian, and I ate a McDonald’s burger. And my favorite thing. I’m surprised I’m even here, I should have probably died from cancer, because I used to eat McDonald’s, three meals a day, six to seven days a week, or at least fast food three meals a day, six to seven days a week. And with McDonald’s, my favorite thing was a there was a number one, which is a Big Mac meal supersized, with two apple pies. And then I went to a can of chewing tobacco a day. And it was a, it was a Dr Pepper that I would drink. And that was pretty much every meal type of thing. My lifestyle was terrible. But anyways, I won’t I won’t go into that because there’s there’s no need glorifying any of that. When I would have changed my lifestyle, I took one of the first major steps and gave up meat eating. And I just I fell off the bandwagon if you will. I went to McDonald’s and I got a number one supersized with a Dr Pepper and two apple pies. And I wasn’t even done eating that. And I felt nasty. Oh, and I got to thinking I don’t remember ever feeling like this before. And what dawned on me was I didn’t remember feeling like this before because I always felt like that. And after having given that junk up that is when I started feeling better. I started having more energy. I started being able to think. I started being able to pick myself up off the dinner table and actually go work instead of having to sit down for an hour and a half, work sluggishly we’ll go through my work because I was so blocked because of all the junk I ate. So you may fall off the bandwagon. And it’s it’s not easy. But I can tell you that when you go down this road, you don’t want to return, you feel so much better. And you think so much better. And you’re emotionally feeling so much better. It’s very powerful. Counsels on Diet 190.2: “Persons who have indulged their appetite to eat freely of meat, highly seasoned gravies.” So it’s not just the meat “and various kinds of rich cakes and preserves.” So it’s the processed foods “cannot immediately relish a plain wholesome and nutritious diet. Their taste is so perverted that they have no appetite for a wholesome diet of fruits, plain bread and vegetables.” I want to talk now briefly about how to change so we will looked at
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the importance of character, we’ve looked at how the beast affects our eating, the beast affects our character, how eating the image of the beast affects our character. I don’t want to just leave you with that. I want to now help you take that next step, and what to do. So what we’re talking about now, what I want to talk about now is real briefly, how to change, how to make these changes, councils on diet has some really good information. And this, unbeknownst to me, I hadn’t read this at the time that I really started into health ministry. But I found that this is what worked for me. And then I read her writings, I was like, Oh, ding, she knew what she was talking about, I can tell you that this works. So let’s I want to continue reading what she has to say. So even though our taste buds are perverted, she says: “They” are we, are you and myself “need not expect to relish at first food so different from what from that which they have been indulging themselves to eat. If they cannot at first enjoy plain food, they should fast until they can.” I want to talk briefly about fasting. And I just want to issue a caution about jumping right into a water fast. The reason I personally do not would not do that is because most of us have overloaded livers. Our livers are totally overloaded because of all the toxins that we have. We live in an environment of far more toxic than the environment of Ellen White and the pioneers. So what happens is the liver becomes overloaded with toxins. And it can’t deal with all the toxins that are coming in. Because some of these toxins need some serious break down energy. Energy to go into breaking down in some serious time, to go into breaking down these toxins so that they can be excreted out of the body without doing more damage. So what, what the liver does then is it takes the toxins, the fat soluble toxins, because they’re far easier to deal with. And it takes them in it wraps them in fat, and then it stores them in places that you don’t really want it stored. And this is why actually, believe it or not, why some people, they just cannot lose weight. It’s because their body knows what stored in that fat because the liver stored it there. And it doesn’t want to deal with it. So it’s doing everything it can not to break into those fat stores. But what happens is when you do a water fast, you force the body to break into those fat stores or die. So the body breaks into those fat stores. And it’s starting to release all these toxins. And this is why the body didn’t want to break into it because your liver is already overloaded, it can’t handle the toxins that are already in the system. And you just unleashed a huge amount of toxins from all that fat breaking free in your system. So what happens is the fat starts, these toxins start floating around in your bloodstream, and what is fatty tissue, the brain. So these fats like to relodge in the brain. And this is why you get that hazy foggy effect when you first start a fast. Now you may feel great after a few days. But that initial day or two is because what is going on is these toxins are lodging in the brain giving you that hazy foggy feeling. And if you’re seriously toxic, you will actually do brain damage by jumping right into a water fast. So I’m not trying to scare you. But I’m trying to tell you do this in an educated manner. Don’t just jump into something, do this in an educated manner, don’t just jump right directly into a fast. Now once you, you need to clean your liver. And then you can start doing things and I’m speaking in a general term by saying you. So I do a liver cleanse, to cleanse the liver and then I can do a fast. And once you’ve done that a few times and you’ve gotten things out of your system, then you can go into water fast as a maintenance thing. And that’s what would be a good idea. That’s what I would do is going to a water fast is more of a maintenance thing.
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So just something to look into. But I wanted to issue that caution real quick before we continued on. “That fast will prove to them of greater benefit than medicine for the abused stomach will find that rest which it has long needed, and real hunger can be satisfied with a plain diet. It will take time for the taste to recover from the abuses which it has received, and to gain its natural tone. But perseverance and a self denying course of eating and drinking will soon make plain, wholesome foods palatable, and it will soon be eaten with greater satisfaction than the epicure enjoys over his rich dainties.” So the principle here that is being put forth is to fast and it doesn’t necessarily mean water fast, you could do a juice fast, a green fast, you could do a raw fast, you can do all kinds of different things. But what happens is what she’s talking about is fast from those dainties, if you will, and it will help to cleanse the palate and change the taste buds. Now, will it be fun? No, it won’t be fun. I can tell you, I’ve done 40 day raw fasts. And it’s not fun, per se. There’s some aspects of it that are fun. But for me, it’s you know, maybe some people love it. But for me, I just it’s you know, it’s not real fun. And if it is for you, then great. But I still do it, because I know it’s good. So here’s another principle count Councils on Diet 397.4 and 398.1: “We should, however, consider the situation of the people and the power of lifelong habit and should be careful not to urge even right ideas unduly. None should be urged to make the change abrupty.”
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I want to stop there for just a moment, even right ideas should not be pushed unduly. Because for me personally, I saw the, the the science of this information, not from the writings of Ellen White, but I saw the scientific information. And I was like, Ah, you know, I need to give up all of this stuff. So I gave it all up. And it was so extreme that I just could not hold it. And so I bounced back. And I would get frustrated. And I would, you know, really beat myself up, and I would kick myself, and until I got back on the wagon, quote, unquote. For a while and then I would fall off and get back on it, fall off and get back on. And I was going back and forth. This was more unhealthy for my for my system going back and forth like this than it would have been just to continue eating the junk food. And so that’s not good. And so I started taking a step at a time, step at a time. And I found that that was something that I could do. And I’ve also found that that helps with other people. And she says none should, or should be urged to make the change abruptly. There’s actually some scientific reasons for this, when you go from eating heavy meat straight to vegan; if you don’t know what you’re doing number one, you need to drink far more water. But if you don’t understand the, the law of water to begin with, you’re probably not getting enough water as it is. And then when you go vegan, you’re, you’re eating all this extra fiber. And if you’ve been a heavy meat eater, then the sides of your intestines, the walls of your intestines are loaded with gunk. And as this vegan food is going through your intestines, it’s scraping this stuff off, and it starts pushing a plug in front of it. Until finally it just can’t push that plug any further and you get backed up. And this can become so serious that you can go, you need, may need to go to the hospital. So you want to transition slowly. And I’m not talking so slowly that we’re talking years here. Okay? So don’t justify yourself by saying, well, I’ll be vegan in 10 years. No, no, I’m not talking about that slow. I’m talking months, okay, not, not years. But you do need to make that transition slowly and increase your water intake as well to help flush things out. Now when we do our eight simple secrets to health. One thing that I tell people right off the bat is I tell them that I’m going to be pointing out some things. When I’m talking about the nutrition side, I’m going to be pointing out some things about some foods that are not good, some bad, bad food things. And you may eat these food things. But I want you to know that I’m not here to take things off of your plate. I’m here to add things to your plate.
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And what I encourage people to do is define something because when we do the simple secrets to health, I present the science aspect of it. And then my wife presents the cooking aspect of it. And most people know how to cook so what she does is she presents, 99% of what she presents is raw foods. Again, not saying you have to go 100% raw, but most people don’t know how to get raw foods into their diet. So she’s presenting raw foods. And so I will present the science aspect and when she’s ready, she will say something and I will stand to the side and be quiet. And then she will demo a raw food plate and and then everybody gets to taste it. And when she’s done demoing it, she starts cleaning up and while she’s cleaning up and getting ready for the next one, I go into more scientific information. And we do this through all eight laws of health. She continues to presenting raw foods through all eight laws of health. But what we ask for people is to find something that they like and start adding that. And to eat that good thing first, and then eat the junk later. And what you’re going to find is that you’ve got less than less room for the junk, as you have, as you put more and more good on. The more good on, the less bad is on the plate; the more craving you have for the good, so the more good you put on, which means that there’s less that much less bad on the plate, which means you have more craving for the good is. You see where I’m going with this. It’s an upward spiral. It’s a catch 22 in reverse, going upward. And it’s a very powerful principle that I have found, what I found to work in my life. And I found it to work in, in hundreds of other people have reported back and said yes, that worked very well; thank you so much for that. I’ve been able to go from a heavy meat eater to with all the drugs and and what not. And they have gotten off of it. I didn’t take them off the drugs, they took themselves off, they worked with their doctor, whatever they did, I don’t know. I just get the reports from them, and done a lot of positive reports from doing it that way. She continues: “The place of meat should be supplied with wholesome foods that are inexpensive.
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In this matter very much depends on the cook. With care and skill, dishes may be prepared that will be both nutritious and appetizing, and will, to a great degree, take the place of flesh food. In all cases, educate the conscience, enlist the will, supply good, wholesome food, and the change will be readily made, and the demand for flesh will soon cease.”
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This is exactly what we do when we present the eight laws of health eight simple secrets of health. We give the scientific information which helps to enlist or educate the conscience, which then helps to enlist the will. And then we supply good food, wholesome food that tastes good somebody we have not had anybody. Some, but we’ve not had anybody ever walk away from our health presentations without at least one thing that they like. Even the heaviest of meat eaters has walked away from our presentations with at least one thing that they really liked and they added to their diet. Praise the Lord. Counsels on Diet 380.4 “Among those who are waiting for the coming of the Lord, meat eating will eventually be done away; flesh will cease to form a part of their diet. We should ever keep this end in view, and endeavor to work steadily toward it. I cannot think that in the practice of flesh eating we are in harmony with the light which God has been pleased to give us.” So principle number three: set a goal. Decide I’m going to be at this point in my lifestyle at this point in time. And so make a large goal and then set smaller daily goals. Reach those goals, day at a time if that’s what you need, hour by hour if that’s what you need. Set these goals, reach these goals, attain these goals. That gives you courage and strength to make the next goal which gives you courage and strength to make the next goal so on and so forth until you get to the point that you’re looking for. Set goals, attain those goals. Don’t be too overzealous in setting your goals; make them attainable, but not so easy that you don’t have to make hardly any changes to attain those goals. Make them just within reach, but yet within reach. Not out of reach.
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So three principles. Principle one, do a fast, but not necessarily a water fast. There’s different fasts that you can do. Take the dainties if you will, the sweets and the cakes and the meat or whatever it is; take something out and start fasting from that. And you will find that your tastebuds eventually begin to change. Principle two: Make slow, steady changes or fast steady changes depending on you, but make changes as you can sustain them and withhold them. Don’t make a change overnight. Boom. And Principle number three: Set goals and attain those goals. In closing, I want to call you to a decision. I don’t know where you are at. Maybe you need to give up meat, maybe you’ve already given up meat, and you want to give up dairy or eggs or whatever. Or maybe you’ve given that up too. And you’re ready to give up the image of the beast. Or maybe you’ve given up those those fake meats, but you still have lots of processed foods, and you want to give up those processed foods. Or maybe you don’t eat a lot of processed foods, but you still want to give a little bit up that you have, whatever the case is. Search, and I believe you will find, you will hear God speaking to you about what steps to take. That’s why I want to encourage you to take that step. Councils on Diet 404.2 and the next two paragraphs. As I read this, I want you to hear Jesus speaking directly to you. “I have been instructed.” So this is Jesus speaking directly to you. This isn’t her opinion. “I have been instructed the flesh food has a tendency to animalize the nature, to rob men and women of that love and sympathy which they should feel for everyone, and to give the lower passions control over the higher powers of the being. If meat eating were ever helpful, it is not safe now. Cancers, tumors and pulmonary diseases are largely caused by meat eating.” “The health of the body is to be regarded as essential for growth in grace.” I want to read that again in a personal way. The health of your body is to be regarded as essential for growth in grace “and the acquirement of an even temper. If your stomach is not properly cared for, the formation of an upright moral character will be hindered. The brain and nerves are in sympathy with the stomach. Erroneous eating and drinking result in erroneous thinking and acting.” Want to read that sentence again, I want you to hear Jesus speaking to you. “Erroneous eating and drinking, result in erroneous thinking and acting. All are now being tested” which means you. You are now being tested “and proved. You have been baptized into Christ, and if you will act your part by separating from everything that would drag you down and make you what you ought not to be; there will be given you strength to grow up into Christ, who is our head, our living head”. There, brothers and sisters, is a promise that you will be given strength; claim that promise. “And we shall see the salvation of God.” So brothers and sisters, I want to ask, do you hear Jesus? Do you hear him calling you to take the next step? Do you see what that step is? And what your goal should be? I want you to fix on that goal. Make the decision by the and covenant with God by sacrifice, and He will fulfill His and He will give you strength to go forward to the end and to reach that goal. And so I want to ask you if you are willing to make a covenant with God now I would ask that you would kneel with me in closing prayer.
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Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for the truth that You have given to us in Your word, through the Spirit of Prophecy in the Bible and through the Spirit of Prophecy as found in the writings of Ellen White. Father, we thank You that science has also backed this up and shown it as well. Not that we need science to prove it. But Father, I’m grateful for that science showing it. Father, I pray for those that have decided to take the next step to improve their character by giving up whatever it is that Jesus is calling them to give up. Father, I pray that You will give them strength to attain these goals, that You will send angels that excel in strength to watch over and protect them. Because Father, we want to reflect the image of Christ perfectly. And the only way that’s going to happen is if we give up these unhealthful lifestyle things like eating meat, so on so it’s not just eating meat. It’s not just dairy, but there are eight laws of health. But Father, I pray that You will help us in these things that we may attain. to Christ being in us, the hope of glory. This is in Jesus name. Amen.