Today with Jeff Vines

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This series cannot be segmentable. You cannot compartmentalize this series.
If you take one without the other, it can produce hate.
I don't want you to do that. If you take
another without the other, it can produce apathy. You've got
to take them all together with the culmination as we
talk about, how are we then to go out and
live in a world where the gods have returned?

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Today, Today, Today, Today with Jeff Fines, pasta apologist and
Bible teacher.

Speaker 3 (00:34):
This is Today with Jeff Fines. Hello, my name is Bill,
and welcome. Thanks for joining us today. We're continuing with
the series Under the Influence. Pastor Jeff says, the series
is about culture and society being under the influence of
evil forces. We'll get straight into the message because Pastor

(00:54):
Jeff resets the aim of this series and gives us
a quick recap of some of the topics covered so far.
And of course, if you're keen to catch up on
the whole series, find all episodes wherever you listen to podcasts.
Just search for Today with Jeff Vines. He is passed
to Jeff.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
Now the whole series has been based on this idea
on Ephesian six where we're told that the struggle that
you and I are facing right now is not against
flesh and blood. So our struggle is not with people,

(01:34):
it's with what rulers, powers were enforces. And we broke
that down. I can't do it again because of time.
But we showed you how the apostle Paul gives us
a sort of strata. It tells us that there's a
hierarchy in the demonic world and they are very strategically organized,
and their whole purpose is to bring humanity down.

Speaker 2 (01:53):
To destroy what God loves most.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
We also talked about when the Judeo Christian movement, when
the Jesus movement it hit planet Earth, when Jesus came
that something beautiful happened, that as it spread throughout the
Western world, that the Western world began to flourish because
as you live by the precepts of Jesus, humanity just
gets along. Better think about it, Pray for those who
persecute you. So that's pretty awesome. Difficult, but awesome. Forgive

(02:20):
those who invented you. And so what we found is
the structure of culture, society, and the family became stronger
because of the Jesus movement. Families stayed together. In the
covenant of marriage, sex was between a man and a woman.
In the context of marriage, God, the Bible Jesus were respected,
considered to be sacred. So when that happened, these ancient

(02:43):
demonic forces were pushed and relegated to the fringes of society.
They were still there, they were kind of underground in
dark place as shameful places. However, we said that in
the sixties in America, secularism and paganism reached its critical
mass and as a result, the demonic forces that were
relegated to the fringes by the Jesus movement have now returned.

(03:05):
So we've talked about two gods that have returned. And
I wonder sometimes, you know, Satan always tries to counterfeit
what God has done. So there's a trinity God, the Father,
God that's on God, the Holy Spirit. I wonder if
there's a dark trinity, three gods that try to undo
what the biblical Trinity have tried to accomplish. Well, we
know in ancient literature that we find three gods that

(03:28):
dominate the ancient world and that take on different forms
as culture develops. So we've talked about the god bel
who shows up, and basically what he does is try
to turn our attention away from God, the pursuit of God,
the pursuit of something God has created, materialism, So instead
of worshiping God, we worship the blessings God has given us.
So we turn our attention to money and wealth and power,

(03:49):
and those are the things that give us meaning and security.
So when Bell leaves, he ushers in Istar. We spend
a lot of time talking about his star. Istar is
the god of sex, illicit pornography, of every form of
sexual immorality that you can imagine. And we traced how
in those ancient writings those things have been around for
a long time, and the purpose is historically speaking, man

(04:12):
gets weary of pleasure.

Speaker 2 (04:14):
It's an interesting thing.

Speaker 1 (04:15):
He has so much pleasure, he gets weary, so he's
got to try something else. So he moves from worshiping
stuff materialism to finding a way to worship one another.
There's a great quote, and I think it's connected well
with Ishtar or with the asteristh in the Old Testament,
and it goes like this, meaningless does not come from
being weary of pain.

Speaker 2 (04:37):
Meaning comes from being weary of pleasure.

Speaker 1 (04:39):
Pleasure without God, without the sacred boundaries, will actually leave
you emptier than before. In other words, when God goes,
another God takes his place, and that God will create insatiable.

Speaker 2 (04:50):
Lusts without a way to feel them.

Speaker 1 (04:52):
Okay, can't go back to that. We have the third
and final God this weekend. This series cannot be segmentable.
You cannot compartmentalize this series. If you take one without
the other, it can produce hate. I don't want you
to do that. If you take another without the other,
it can produce apathy. You got to take them all
together with the culmination next weekend as we talk about,

(05:15):
how are we then to go out and live in
a world where the gods have returned?

Speaker 2 (05:19):
So the third God is a god by the name
of Molek.

Speaker 1 (05:23):
He's the ancient god associated with Ishtar and Baal. You'll
find him throughout ancient civilizations. His title is the Destroyer
in First Kings eleven seven. Then Solomon build a high
place for Kamash, the abomination of Moab, on the hill
that is east of Jerusalem, and for Molech, the abomination
of the people of Ammon. In Leviticus eighteen, God is

(05:45):
he gives his Law says to his people, and you
shall not let any of your descendants pass through the
fire of Molk. So when King Josiah attempted to bring
the people back to God, he knew that the first
thing you've had have to do is obliterate the altars
of Molech. He knew that Yahweh and Molek cannot coexist.

(06:06):
So we're told in Second Kings chapter twenty three, and
he defiled Topith, which is in the valley of the
son of Hinhem, that no man might make his son
or daughter pass through the fire of Molk. So this
third god, what is the fire, well, Molech is the
spirit and god of child sacrifice. In the epic poem

(06:28):
by John Milton, Paradise Lost, Milton writes this first Molik,
which is another name for Molek, horrid king besmeared with
blood of human sacrifice in parents tears, though for the
noise of drums and timbrels loud, their children's cries unheard,
that passed through fire to his grim Idol. Winston Churchill

(06:48):
used the figure of Molech to speak of the evil
of Adolf Hitler. He said he meaning Hitler, had conjured
up the fearful idol of an all devouring Moloch, of
which he was priest and incarnation.

Speaker 2 (07:01):
What is a Churchill saying.

Speaker 1 (07:02):
He's saying that Hitler was possessed by the spirit of Molach.
So what was the worship.

Speaker 2 (07:09):
Of Molech like? And we don't have to guess.

Speaker 1 (07:12):
We find this among the Canaanites, the Greeks, the Romans,
the Phoenicians, and their African colony Carthage. And here's what
Theodorus Sicolus, the Greek historian, rites, there was in their
city a bronze image of Cronus extending its hands palms
up the sloping toward the ground, so that each of
the children, when placed thereon, rolled down and fell into

(07:34):
a sort of gaping pit filled with fire.

Speaker 2 (07:37):
Now, why on earth.

Speaker 1 (07:37):
Would you want to murder or sacrifice your own children
into the fires of molk And here's the answer. And
it was happening in every almost every culture, not just
among the Amalekites, up until the Jesus movement. And the
first reason was because the children were undesirable, if they
were imperfect or blemished in some way.

Speaker 2 (07:55):
In fact, we've said before.

Speaker 1 (07:56):
Until Jesus came along, girls were not safe in the
ancient world. They were the first to be sacrificed because
they were seemed to be more of a liability rather
than an asset in an agrarian society. The other reason
that you would sacrifice your children in the fires of
Molk is for the blessing of economic prosperity. A woman

(08:17):
would be told that she would obtain the God's favor
and her fills would be fruitful if she sacrificed her
child in the fires of Molk for future economic success.
Now you and I can't imagine people offering their newborn
babies up in a fire, and it's because you've been
impacted by the Judeo Christian value. That's why the Greek

(08:38):
historian Clyke Tarkas wrote for Alexander the Great, and here's
what he said, out of reverence for Crolus, the Phoenicians,
and especially the Carthaginians, whenever they seek to obtain some
great favor, vow one of their children burning it as
a sacrifice to the deity if they are especially eager
to gain success. Now listen, just as bel ushers in Istar,

(09:04):
remember what bel does. He turns our attention away from
God into the things God's created is tar ushers in molek,
you say, in what way listen carefully? Is tar ushers
in unrestrained sex with no apparent concern with the ramifications.
So in ancient times modern actually in modern times as well,

(09:25):
But in ancient times children were often the result of
temple worship and sexual promiscuity. So in order to prevent
a child born into this situation from hampering the mother
or the father's economic life, the child then would be
turned around in sacrificed back to Molek. So sexual immorality

(09:47):
with Istar's temple, an unwanted child occurs with the prostitutes,
and then you sacrifice the child to Molek for economic gain.
In modern times, as.

Speaker 2 (10:00):
The sexual revolution bore its fruit.

Speaker 1 (10:02):
In the sixties and seventies, and it did bear its fruit,
didn't it, More and more children were conceived out of
marriage and were more likely to be unwanted and eradicated.
Abortion rates skyrocketed in America in the seventies, eighties, and nineties.
Now it makes sense why because those were the years
following the sexual Revolution. So children, unwanted, unplanned children were

(10:25):
produced from the sexual revolution, right free sex that actually
wasn't free. It cost us immensely. And I'm going to
make a statement, it's going to be very harsh, and
like I said, you have to take all the sermons together.
But abortion has become the modern day sacrifice to Molich.
Remember once again that the influence of the Jesus Movement

(10:48):
with the inswants of the Gospel into the West, there
was this inevitable clash or collision over the values of
the sanctity of human life. So because of the Jesus Movement,
the value of women, the treatment of the weak, the
care of the sick, and the worth and protection of
children born and unborn, the Gospel brought an end to

(11:10):
inequality and infanticide in the Roman world. And as the
Jesus Movement spread like wildfire through the West. I had
no idea until I'd done this research, because I'd heard
this verse. But I had no idea until I'd done
this research. The power of Psalm one thirty nine, the
role that it played in the Jesus Movement when it

(11:30):
came to being concerned for the kids. Psawm one thirty nine,
you formed my inward parts, you covered me in my
mother's womb. My frame was not hidden from you when
I was made in secret, and in your book they
were all written, the days fashioned for me, when as
yet there were none of them. Suddenly the Jesus movement

(11:52):
understood that even when it were in our mother's womb,
we are alive, and we are a gift of God,
and we are being shaped and formed, and God knows
the number of our days. It was the Christian faith
and the biblical valuing of life that brought protection to
the young and unborn children and the definitive end of

(12:15):
large scale murder now listen. As a result, it really
shouldn't be any surprise that after renouncing Christianity that the
Soviet Union became the first state to legalize the killing
of the unborn. And then in the case of other

(12:37):
I guess you would call it demonically anti Christian power,
or the primary demonically Christian power. In our time the
twentieth century Nazi Germany, the killing of the unborn had
more to do with the genocide of impure humans, right,
the uberments, the superhuman, the master race. And then, of course,
if you know the story, you'll know that to promote

(13:00):
economic success throughout Germany, the Jews were blamed for having
stolen the economy, so they began to eradicate them one
by one. In fact, historically speaking folks, Molek is especially
interested in Jewish children. He killed thousands in the ancient times,
and in Germany and Europe his spirit inspired the killing
of millions, half a million being the unborn. So here's

(13:23):
the question. We've asked it every week. Has Molich returned?
And that's not a hard question to answer, is it.
I got to stop here just for say, I have
to stop listen. And I was going to save this
to the end, but I don't want to lose you.
I know there are some women in here who've had abortions.
I hope you know that this is not a message
of shame. This is a message to remind you of
the forgiving power of Jesus Christ. Okay, the purpose, the

(13:49):
purpose of this message is to not somehow tell you
that you're bad and you're worse than anybody else.

Speaker 3 (13:53):
You're not.

Speaker 2 (13:54):
You're not. But the purpose is to.

Speaker 1 (13:56):
Make us aware of what's going on in culture and
to love you and to help you realize Jesus came
to set the captives free, and I don't want you
to be captive. Anymore. Okay, Now, in the late nineteen
sixties there were a handful of American states that opened
the door to Molenk by legalizing the killing of on
board children. On January twenty second, nineteen seventy three, to

(14:17):
be exact, the Supreme Court legalized abortion. The stats today
are mind boggling. Really, now, I want to give you
so I don't know how much you read about this.
And by the way, remember don't put me in a
political forum. This is a biblical sermon, not a political one. Okay,
sixty four million babies we've eradicated. I think it's what
forty eight million that have died in wars. We've already

(14:40):
passed that. Eighty six percent of all abortions have been
performed on unmarried young women. And here's the stat that
most of you are not familiar with. Zero point five
percent are victims of rape, less than one percentage half
of one percentage point.

Speaker 2 (14:59):
Because everybody we will alwas say what about rape?

Speaker 1 (15:01):
We're talking about ninety nine point five percent of abortions. Here,
ninety two percent of women who have an abortion. Give
these reasons, and you can research all this for yourself inconvenience.
It interferes with my educational plans, it interferes with my career.
I'm not ready for a child. I can't afford a child.
I'm not mature enough for a child. Maybe you weren't

(15:23):
mature enough to have sex. There's a way to prevent abortion.
The most frequently given answer that leads a mother to
kill her unborn child today is that if the child lived,
it would hamper the mother's life, her time, energy, educational
or career prospects, her future earning capacities. The child will
be a burden to her aspirations. Without the child, she

(15:45):
would be in a better position to achieve her goals
and attain success and prosperity.

Speaker 2 (15:50):
And I find it uncamm Even in the ancient.

Speaker 1 (15:52):
World, mothers sacrificed their children to moleke because they believe
that in doing so, they were invoking prosperity and gain.
During the sacrifice of children to molech, there would be
this loud, strange music played so that the villagers could
not hear the screams of the children or the mothers.
The Greek philosopher Plutarch writes this, and the whole area

(16:14):
before the statue was filled with a loud noise of
flutes and drums, so that the cries of the willing
should not reach the ears of the people. Today, the
horror of putting a baby to death. At least before YouTube,
all the disturbing sights and sounds and details are hidden
from public view. Somebody forced me to watch a documentary

(16:34):
and I hate watching it because I know where they're
gonna go, But I watched anyway. And there's a doctor
showing his interns how to perform an abortion on a
late stage child. And he goes in with the clamps
and whatever he's gonna do, and the baby jumps, and
he looks at the interns and says, that's okay. They
always do that.

Speaker 2 (16:56):
Who's they?

Speaker 1 (16:57):
By the way, and abortion is seen as something sacred
in our culture? Did you know that? Talk about a
demonic inversion. Let me read you some quotes. Our culture
needs new rituals as well as laws to restore abortion
to its sacred dimension. Abortion is a major blessing and
a sacrament in the hands of women. It is not

(17:19):
immoral to choose abortion. It's simply another kind of morality,
a pagan one. Abortion is a sacred act. I actually
agree with that. Sacred means connected to the God or
gods for religious purposes. Abortion is an offering to the
dark gods and goddesses empowered by the dark forces of
Ephesian six. The paganization of America has unleashed the gods

(17:43):
of the dark Trinity. Jonathan Kahn I refer to him
a lot ago back to referring to you again. To
his book, he says, the spirit of bel has caused
America to believe that departing from God would bring it freedom.
The spirit of Istar should be of Istar had convinced
had convinced it that if it abandon its moral safeguards
for instant gratification and sexual abandon it would find fulfillment.

(18:05):
And the spirit of Molech had promised to grant it
the blessings of an unhindered life if it would only
allow him to take away the children. What was the
result in ancient civilization of child sacrifice? So let me
tell you brokenness, emptiness, depression, death, In some cases mental
illness has been linked to child sacrifice. And of course

(18:26):
you can understand why the destruction of the family ultimately
the destruction of society, and now America is reaping the
consequences of its own bloodshed. Sixty four million murdered children
far exceeds anything that Molic accomplished in the ancient world.
Pray man, pray man, pray And then second, we Christians

(18:49):
need to start being more consistent than living the way
that we say is right, because seven out of ten
women who've had abortions identify as christ followers.

Speaker 2 (19:00):
I said last week, if.

Speaker 1 (19:01):
I'm walking this way and I say follow me.

Speaker 2 (19:03):
And you go the other way, you're not following me.

Speaker 1 (19:06):
If Jesus says sex is between a man and a
woman in the context of marriage, follow me and you
go the other way, you're not following Jesus. So if
you're living together right now and you're not married, just
be honest, you're not following Jesus. Bell Is Tar and
Moleic They are the gods who have returned to destroy
the West. But is Tar is the god or goddess

(19:31):
that ushers in the end. I want you to stay
with me.

Speaker 3 (19:34):
Here.

Speaker 1 (19:35):
Here's why Istar is so damaging. God ordained marriage in
the family. He ordered the family to teach in the
God the children of the next generation, the existence of God,
the purpose of creation. Istar more than any other god
or goddess desires to destroy the family, to destroy society,
and to wound the heart of God and the demonic
forces exist. Jesus told us to still kill and destroy.

(19:58):
So Istar not only destroys the sactity sex, marriage, and
the family. We learned last week that Istar desires to
change a man's desire for a woman to a man,
and a woman's desire for men toward a woman. Now
here's the question. So far, I've only told you what
I know in the ancient world. I want to tell
you this is now a speculation. This is my speculation. Okay,

(20:22):
I guess the number one way to destroy society would
be to destroy procreation. Right Well, in less sex is
between a man and a woman, it's going to be
hard to procreate. And I think one of the temptations,
one of the avenues through which Ishtar works to ultimately

(20:44):
destroy humanity, is to celebrate the methods that break down
what is sacred. Remember what we said, what gets celebrated
gets repeated, And now think about this.

Speaker 2 (20:56):
Here we go, now think about this. In the ancient
Middle East.

Speaker 1 (20:59):
Is was especially known as the goddess of parades or
parades and processions. The ancient hymn the Holy One begins.
The people of Sumer parade before you. They play the
sweet Allah drums before you, so you know that Ishtar
has returned to culture to destroy the sanctity of marriage

(21:20):
in the family when her parades return and are applauded
because her parades became a central part in Mesopotamia and
the Middle Eastern popular culture.

Speaker 2 (21:30):
See you with me.

Speaker 1 (21:31):
This is where it gets hard. Stay come on now,
let's go five months after Stonewall and if you missed
last week. Sorry, if you miss last week, go back
watching tonight a little all makes sense. But five months
after Stonewall, remember what we said about Stonewall in New
York City, the gateway into America, the Stonewall Riots looking
up had become a haven for all that is ishtar,

(21:53):
male prostitutes, female prostitutes, sex workers, street hustlers, homosexuality, lesbianism.

Speaker 2 (21:59):
It became a.

Speaker 1 (21:59):
Place of celebration of what had previously been uncelebrated. Five
months after the Stonewall Riots, gay and lesbian activists met
in Philadelphia and planned a march to commemorate the stone
Wall Uprising. Let me give you a few facts about it.
About the March. It would be repeated every year the
last Sunday in June. Three Other marches were planned in

(22:20):
San Francisco, Chicago, and Los Angeles. There were to be
protest marches as well as parades at the same time,
and the plan was that with each passing year, more
and more parades and more and more cities would occur
and would evolve into what we know today as the
Gay Pride Parades and finally Pride Parades. The similarities, and
this is where I had to cut cut cut because

(22:41):
of time, But the similarities between the Pride parades and
the ancient parade of Istar are uncanny. Just to name
a few, the parades began at the entryway leading into
ancient Babylon, the Gate of Istar. The pride parades began
in New York City the modern Babylon at the gate
into America, the Gateway New York City. The ancient parades

(23:02):
began at the City Wall. The pride parades.

Speaker 2 (23:04):
Began at Stonewall.

Speaker 1 (23:06):
The Gate of the Goddess was made up of two
brick covered archways, a smaller and greater. The Stonewall Inn, likewise,
possessed two brick covered archways, a smaller and a greater
and then the Gate of Istar was famous for its
depictions of lions, another symbol of the Goddess, the processions
and parades bird that Stonewall began under the lion's head,

(23:26):
At lion's head, Pum.

Speaker 2 (23:28):
It's amazing.

Speaker 3 (23:30):
You've been listening to Today with Jeff Fines. Thanks for
joining us. Next time we'll bring you the rest of
this message from Past to Jeff.

Speaker 1 (23:40):
The movement continues to expand and to celebrate the turning
of men away from women and the turning of women
away from men. And June throughout the West in our
modern world celebrates Istar, whether it knows it or not,
her festivals for evil practices, sexual immorality, and gender confusion.

Speaker 3 (24:01):
You can listen to more messages like this just search
for Today with Jeff Fines. Wherever you get your podcasts.
You make me one day say with every single friend

(24:23):
you Today, Today, Today, Today with Jeff Fines