Latest / Worldview Matters With David Fiorazo / Dean Dwyer: The Downward Spiritual Spiral In Australia & America
Transcript
- 0:00Welcome to World View Matters, discussing controversial issues, discerning current events,
- 0:10defending biblical Christianity, no topic, off limits.
- 0:16And now, here's your host, David Firazzo.
- 0:20Welcome to another podcast, friends.
- 0:23Thank you again, as always.
- 0:24I mean it for your prayers and for sharing these episodes.
- 0:29I've got my favorite, absolute favorite brother from Australia with us back today, pastor
- 0:35Dean Dwyer from Isar Street Baptist Church.
- 0:38Brother, so good to see you again.
- 0:40Thanks for your time.
- 0:42Thanks for the introduction, David.
- 0:43Always happy to be your favorite Australian.
- 0:45So it's a tag that I'll try and live up to during these next 30 minutes.
- 0:51And you can find out more about Dean over on harbingersdaily.com.
- 0:55He's got an author page there, harbingersdaily.com.
- 1:01And also the website for the church, iserstreetbaptisturch.com, E-I-S-E-R, streetbaptisturch.com.
- 1:10You also find him and his sermons on YouTube under iserstreetbaptisturch.com.
- 1:19So Dean, the topic today, interesting, this was your suggestion and I love it.
- 1:23We've talked about Australia before and America and Barnard Research and the spiritual declines.
- 1:31But we're going to talk a little bit more about the shifting spiritual landscape, right,
- 1:35while declining, and the occult in Australia, but it's not a whole lot different than
- 1:44America.
- 1:45I can, I get your take on that, who kind of is ahead of the game when it comes to the decline.
- 1:53But where do you want to start?
- 1:55Because you talk about, right at the beginning, you talk about a communist Christianity paradigm.
- 2:03Can you explain that?
- 2:05Yeah, I think you referenced America and in terms of where both of us sit.
- 2:11If you listen to, we had some conferences recently where friends of the show and friends
- 2:16of yours, Ken Michael, Mundo Gonzalez, Tom Hughes came over last year, but not this year.
- 2:22And when they examined the spiritual landscape of Australia, they thought that Australia
- 2:27was well ahead of America in terms of its decline in Christianity.
- 2:31So we probably wouldn't disagree with that.
- 2:34I think we've felt that from a spiritual point of view in Australia that things have
- 2:39been shifting pretty rapidly.
- 2:41When I talk about a communist Christianity paradigm, I think in most Western nations
- 2:45now, we're used to seeing a left-right paradigm, and that's certainly true of America.
- 2:50Australia is a little bit different.
- 2:52We don't necessarily have the left-right paradigm, but certainly we can see as ministry leaders
- 2:57in a communist Christianity paradigm, which fundamentally at its core is left and right.
- 3:04But it's more noticeable in the fact that we are really moving into a communist footprint
- 3:12rather than being known as a Christian nation.
- 3:15Right.
- 3:16And you had travel out and on the show recently, and I haven't read his book, but I'm
- 3:20interested in it because, as you know, he did a deep dive into our Prime Minister, Anthony
- 3:24Albanese, who has a very long history with the communist principles.
- 3:28That's right.
- 3:30As a nation, we've re-elected him.
- 3:33Now, I didn't vote for him, and many of the people I know didn't vote for him because
- 3:36we know what he stands for, but as one of the reviewers of Trevor's book said, if more
- 3:42Australians read that book, then I don't think he would have been re-elected.
- 3:48But I think part of the problem, though, David, is that a lot of people don't know what
- 3:53communism is.
- 3:54They don't understand what Marxism is or what socialism is.
- 3:58And that was highlighted by the fact that we've had a poll in the last couple of years,
- 4:03where 40% of Australians, overall, now support socialism.
- 4:10And so that rises to about half in the 18 to 34-year-old category.
- 4:15And so, and as of last year, when they took these polls again, 53% of 18 to 24-year-olds
- 4:24got more socialism.
- 4:26So we're definitely heading in that direction in terms of where people want to see the
- 4:31nation going.
- 4:33But you and I know that as socialism, Marxism, and communism increases within a population,
- 4:39Christianity declines, which is more and more people are attracted to a government,
- 4:45which acts as a nanny state, and ostensibly wants to put itself in the position of God
- 4:51and nanny.
- 4:53So this is, I think, why I describe it as a communist Christianity paradigm in this
- 4:57nation at the moment.
- 4:59Okay.
- 5:00So let's clarify something.
- 5:02Socialism is a necessary step towards communism.
- 5:05We've got a lot of people here in the states that are now saying the quiet part out loud.
- 5:10I'm a Democrat socialist.
- 5:12I mean, sure.
- 5:13Yeah.
- 5:14So they're social.
- 5:15By the way, look back at when Hillary Clinton was running against Donald Trump.
- 5:22And how many young people went for Bernie Sanders?
- 5:26And we're openly supporting socialism.
- 5:29And you say something very interesting, Dean.
- 5:32You say nearly half of young people demand more socialism, but don't know what it means.
- 5:38Do you attribute that to the education system in Australia?
- 5:42Because that's what we do over here.
- 5:44It's the K through 12 in the universities.
- 5:46They can't explain it.
- 5:47They can't defend it.
- 5:49They can't really, they just get upset.
- 5:51They know what they're, they know what they're fighting for, but they can't really articulate
- 5:55your thoughts.
- 5:56100%.
- 5:57100%.
- 5:58I put that at the feet of the education system.
- 6:01So the stats were back in 2019, they said 28% of young people polled, admitted that they
- 6:09didn't know what socialism was.
- 6:10They did not know how to define socialism.
- 6:14And the laughable thing was that another 13% thought that socialism was about being more
- 6:19sociable.
- 6:20So you've got nearly half of young people, you can see the placards out on the street.
- 6:26We want more socialism.
- 6:27We don't know what it is or how to define it, but we want it.
- 6:31It's sad.
- 6:32It's ridiculous.
- 6:33It is.
- 6:34But you're absolutely right.
- 6:36And we have a growing homeschooling part of our education system in Australia, but it's
- 6:45still probably frowned upon.
- 6:47And so I think it's still growing.
- 6:49I think people are still seeing an increasing need for a good homeschooling program within
- 6:55Australia, but it's very fragmented amongst all of the states.
- 6:58So hopefully within the homeschooling sector, they are really drilling down on some of
- 7:02these things, because as you can see, it's very important not only for the spiritual health
- 7:08of a nation, but also fundamentally for the financial health of a nation, because we
- 7:13know that wherever communism has been introduced into a nation, that nation has not succeeded
- 7:18whatsoever.
- 7:19That's right.
- 7:20And I want to clarify something from your article.
- 7:22And by the way, friends, you can find all of Dean's writings over at harbingersdaily.com.
- 7:27If you go to Dean's page there, but you said that in the socialist worldview, humanism
- 7:33replaced God as the great architect of history.
- 7:37And then you talk about a census going back about almost five years that 44% of Australians
- 7:45identified with Christianity, but it sounds good.
- 7:49But let's talk about that word identified, because as you know, sometimes Dean Dwyer,
- 7:55we've got to put Christian or Christianity in air quotes when you're talking about what
- 8:00people believe that they might not really be Christian.
- 8:03Go ahead and share your thoughts on that.
- 8:05Amen.
- 8:06I know, I think in America, if I say Chino, then you might immediately think of pants.
- 8:11But Chino, we have an acronym which is Christian in name only.
- 8:15And I think that's a defining problem, not only in Australia, but it also is throughout
- 8:19the world as well.
- 8:20And that's right.
- 8:21Yeah.
- 8:22Amen.
- 8:23And so this is where they got to in terms of some of this polling, was that they, in the
- 8:28poll, 44% of Australians identified with Christianity.
- 8:33But when they were asked if they are Christian, all of a sudden it's only 34% who say that
- 8:41they are Christians.
- 8:42So there's 10% of people who might identify with Christianity, but don't consider themselves
- 8:47a Christian.
- 8:48So we can explain that by saying, well, maybe they've been raised in a family.
- 8:52Maybe they went to a Christian school, but we know that identifying as a Christian is
- 8:57not the same as being one and more importantly being saved through Jesus Christ.
- 9:02So that was pretty eye-opening to me that to this, there's a good proportion of people
- 9:08who probably don't understand the nature of Christianity if they think that being identified
- 9:14is around the same thing as being a Christian.
- 9:16That's right.
- 9:17Can you explain something real quick, something fascinating from what you sent me about, there's
- 9:24the demographic of recently widowed, 22%, over 55%, 16%, recently separated and divorced,
- 9:3514%, this is a lot of people, a lot of adults, and then you say nearly every church might
- 9:42have an active youth ministry, but they don't necessarily minister to those, these adults
- 9:50that were recently widowed and whatnot.
- 9:53So can you share a little bit more about that?
- 9:55That's interesting to me.
- 9:57This was from a faith report released just recently in Australia.
- 10:00These come out semi-regulately, which is really helpful for ministry leaders because it
- 10:04allows us to see what's really going on when people answer questions honestly.
- 10:09So this was the question around who had moved on average from no religion to Christianity.
- 10:18So overall, there was a shift from people who identified with no religion and then became
- 10:23identified with Christianity that overall that was 11%.
- 10:28But when you break that down into some of those key demographic areas, then all of a sudden,
- 10:33we see recently widowed that average goes up to 22%, 55% and over 16%, Aboriginal and
- 10:40Torres Strait Islander, 15%, and the recently separated or divorced 14%.
- 10:46So I think that what that indicates is that people who have had a major life change
- 10:51or people who are getting older probably start to think or reflect on their life a little
- 10:56bit more and are searching.
- 10:59So the comment I made was that we specifically target the youth, and we should continue to
- 11:03do that because we know that the youth are bombarded with various messages from the world
- 11:08which are unhelpful, unholy and unrighteous.
- 11:11But what the faith report indicates is that we should really be putting work into some
- 11:15of those other key demographic areas because these people are searching, and so we've never
- 11:21had in many churches a program for the recently widowed or the 55 and over or the recently
- 11:28separated or divorced.
- 11:29So it instructs us as ministry leaders that, hey, people are searching not just in their
- 11:35youth, but also at other various stages of their life.
- 11:38So it's important for us to be able to volitionally target some of those demographics with the
- 11:43hope of the gospel.
- 11:45So before we take a break, let's talk about the youth in America and is this different
- 11:51because I was looking at the numbers of church attendance, Gen Z, Gen Y, Gen X, in America,
- 11:57I think we really kind of miss the boat as far as we meaning the biblical church in America
- 12:03which is a minority, the remnant church in America.
- 12:08We miss the boat when it comes to reaching millennials and that generation.
- 12:12And then now the generation after them, I guess that would be generation Z, Gen Z.
- 12:17It seems like there's a spike in interest in faith and spiritual things.
- 12:23There's more seekers.
- 12:25There's more young people really wanting truth, really wanting to find something that's
- 12:30real.
- 12:31And I'm seeing some of that, Dean, on college campuses, articles I'm reading about, not necessarily
- 12:36revivals, but there's athletes on college campuses that are doing baptisms and their
- 12:42preach in the gospel, they're getting people saved.
- 12:44Well, wow, first of all, they're allowing that, which is amazing to me with the intolerance
- 12:50of the biblical worldview here in America on campuses.
- 12:54But there's more young people that are instigating this.
- 12:57Is there something similar in Australia?
- 13:00Unfortunately, not necessarily.
- 13:03What that we see on mass, certainly not within our university systems, within our churches
- 13:10somewhat different, I think that's what people are looking for and what you describe in
- 13:14America.
- 13:15I think the majority would say that they're looking for authenticity.
- 13:20And I think this has become a problem for the modern church because there's a lot of
- 13:24style over substance and I think this is why a lot of people are moving away from Christianity
- 13:31as well.
- 13:32We talk about the stats where people move into Christianity, but it's almost double the
- 13:37proportion of those living Christianity.
- 13:40And I think that's because we have or not we, but some churches have prioritized style
- 13:46over substance.
- 13:47And you go back to the early church, now these are people who prioritized substance over
- 13:52style.
- 13:53I mean, they didn't have the three pieces, they didn't have the jets, they didn't have
- 13:57the million dollar smiles or the big mega churches.
- 14:00They had the scars of faith.
- 14:02And so when they talk to people, then people could relate to them because they were authentic,
- 14:07they were genuine.
- 14:08They could see that they came from the same place as they did and were able to speak
- 14:12open to their lives because they came from the same persecution.
- 14:16So I think that instead of seeing the style of Christianity, people want to see the scars
- 14:22of Christianity.
- 14:23That's true.
- 14:24That's exactly right.
- 14:26So that people are looking for something that's authentic and I think that is what the
- 14:30young people are looking for, at least that's what I'm hearing is they want the authenticity.
- 14:35So to do that, to give them that, sometimes I think we've got to do or the modern church
- 14:40has to do away with the flashy part of Christianity and just get back to the substance and speak
- 14:46into the people's lives and let them know there is real hope in Christianity, not just
- 14:51to show.
- 14:52Oh man, you had me at style over substance and sadly, that is what we see way too much
- 14:58of in the modern church, but we've got to take a brief pause.
- 15:01We're with Dean Dwyer, Isaac Street Baptist Church to Wimbledon, Australia.
- 15:05You can find more at harbingersdaily.com.
- 15:07We'll be right back today's show is brought to you by Harbinger's Daily World News Biblically
- 15:13Understood.
- 15:14Stay informed at harbingersdaily.com.
- 15:20Alright friends, now we're going to take a very interesting turn and Dean, you mentioned
- 15:33the occult in Australia opening the arms of the occult.
- 15:39Now we're talking churches, we're talking Christianity, but when you start putting things
- 15:44like style or entertainment over substance and equipping the saints, there are a lot
- 15:51of problems and a lot of people can get the wrong information.
- 15:54So you say, let's talk about celebrity endorsements.
- 16:00You say those are, many are sleepwalking into the occult because celebrities are leading
- 16:06the way and not necessarily biblical pastors, explain that a bit more please.
- 16:12I have a saying that the back door of Christianity is leading to the front door of the occult
- 16:17and it goes back to what I said prior to the break in that because people are looking
- 16:23for something that's authentic and real and powerful in their lives, they're turning
- 16:27away from Christianity which again prioritises the style of substance and they're turning
- 16:32to the occult which we might have various ideas on what the occult is.
- 16:37People think it's about black caked satinist meeting and underground layers but the occult
- 16:41is everywhere.
- 16:42It's pervasive, it's in TV shows, it's in movies, it's in art, literature, music.
- 16:47So people are looking for something which is going to impact their lives directly and
- 16:54unfortunately I think a lot of people are finding this in the occult and I get a sense, a growing
- 16:59sense amongst ministry leaders, there was one person interviewed not long ago and he feels
- 17:04this is going to be the key area for ministry leaders that we need to be able to deal with
- 17:10and explain and warn about the dangers of the occult because people are going to seek
- 17:15it more and more in their lives, sometimes very innocently, sometimes just out of curiosity
- 17:20but satin uses the celebrity cult as the old bait and switch.
- 17:24So he gets people to look at the lives of celebrities, the success of celebrities and tries
- 17:31to convince people that hey you too can have that if only you will follow the same type of
- 17:37methodology and one of that is to be able to be deeply involved in the occult which is
- 17:42through various means, mediumship, divination, tarot cards, manifestation, we talked about
- 17:48manifestation last time I was on the show and obviously Oprah's endorsement of various
- 17:55things through Eckhart toll, ronda burn, through the secret.
- 17:59So that's why I call it satin's bait and switch strategy because he tries to lure and
- 18:03he does, he loers people into this celebrity cult through thinking they too can have the
- 18:09same lifestyle as celebrities but he just drags them along, they find that they don't
- 18:14have the same success but they still wander into the same darkness as many celebrities as
- 18:19well.
- 18:20So I think it's a growing problem in Christianity and I don't know that it's addressed
- 18:27enough and that's why Harvages have published I think four articles to date is a fifth one
- 18:32coming out very soon where I start to address a lot of these issues within the occult explaining
- 18:39exactly what it is.
- 18:40Going back the layers and the misunderstandings just to truly examine what it is and why
- 18:45God speaks so strongly against it and I'll also be going into a sermon series very shortly
- 18:51as well just to try and highlight some of these things and warn people why they should not
- 18:56be involved in any of these practices.
- 18:59It's amazing you wouldn't think you would have to tell Christians this if they knew their
- 19:03Bibles if they read the Old Testament and the New Testament but anyway there's been in
- 19:09an occult invasion there's been an explosion of things like Wicca and Witchcraft thanks
- 19:14in part to the Harry Potter brand and many many more and video games and all these dark
- 19:21things but I want to go back to something that you wrote about I didn't realize in Britain
- 19:28I should check the University of America but you can get a master's degree in magic and
- 19:34occult science what are you going to do with that?
- 19:37What are you going to do with that degree?
- 19:39Well I'll cost $34,000 so the first thing you need to do is just try and make your money
- 19:46materialize again but this is the ridiculous nature again we go back to the education system
- 19:53Traditionally you would go to university to learn a trade or to learn something in a field
- 19:59which is able to help your community and so when we look at a degree in magic and occult
- 20:06science I mean it sounds laughable and it sounds worthless and it should be because really
- 20:12all you're suggesting is that you're going to use the supernatural to contact the demonic
- 20:16world which is really what the occult is it's relying on a supernatural force it's looking
- 20:21for mysterious hidden or secret knowledge but that's obtained through the demonic world
- 20:27so look for anyone who wants to sign up to that type of university degree not only I think
- 20:34are you wasting an extraordinary amount of money what you're doing as well as your leading
- 20:39into some very dark forces which are not going to be good for your life so I think that
- 20:45the problem though that we find is that going back to why people are heading at the back
- 20:51door of Christianity into the front door of the occult is that the occult is very much
- 20:55focused on self and so this is why it appeals to the majority of people because there's
- 21:00a lot of narcissism in our world today so it's a counterfeit of divine revelation so this
- 21:06is Satan's counterfeit system so that in the religion of self this is where you obtain
- 21:11your divine revelation in order to support your religion of self and so this is why celebrities
- 21:17love it because we know that a lot of them are narcissistic and this is why a lot of ordinary
- 21:22people love it as well because it really focuses on self what can I get what knowledge can
- 21:27I get what how can I make my life better and so this is why people are attracted to it but
- 21:34again as I said it leans into the demonic world so let's talk briefly we've had Jen
- 21:43Niza on former psychic and medium and the US is it the US psychic services industry valued
- 21:52at 2.3 billion dollars that's just in the US yep absolutely right so look God very clearly
- 22:01warns against occultic practices deuteronomy 18 now I know that was under the law and we're under
- 22:06grace but the principle remains the same because of the origins of the occult I mean you're not
- 22:12deriving power or knowledge from God through the Holy Spirit you are fundamentally turning to Satan
- 22:20and the demonic world in order to try and garner information and so it's a warning that's gone
- 22:27largely unheeded and so as you said 2.3 billion in the US alone and that would be multiplied
- 22:32many times over if you look at those who use occultic practices throughout the world and again that's
- 22:38as Jen Niza often speaks about that's as simple as something like going to a medium or a tarot
- 22:44card reader or going to a manifestation coach I mean people might be shocked at just how pervasive
- 22:51occult practices are but how simple it is to stumble into them as well so yeah we appreciate
- 22:57the work of Jen Niza and Melissa Doherty and Doreen Virgil and people like that who have come
- 23:02out of that world and are able to speak very clearly into why it's so wrong and these are the
- 23:08voices we really need in Christianity and we really need I'd encourage fellow pastors to really
- 23:13touch on these things they're not pleasant to touch on or speak from from the pulpit but I think
- 23:19it's really important so that people are equipped to be able to recognize and stay away from
- 23:24there's a lot of people there's a lot of things that people get lured into or just habits people
- 23:28start forming checking your daily what is it astrological sign or whatever yoga yoga Hinduism things
- 23:36like that that are that can be subtle but they're deception so pastors do need to warn about these
- 23:43things yeah absolutely it's funny I just recently wrote an article which might appear at Harbinger's
- 23:50daily very soon but it was about some of the Cold War tactics that were used by the Soviets
- 23:56and they were using yoga not a lot of people know that in the yoga sutras serious yoga practitioners
- 24:02their aim is to increase their psychic power so this is why yoga is used people think it's just
- 24:09all stretching we know that there's some of those poses are to Hindu gods but it's also about
- 24:15trying to contact or bring to the consciousness those psychic powers and so very strange to read
- 24:22some of those old CIA reports and see that the Soviets were really trying to use this
- 24:27as a battlefield advantage back through the Cold War okay we're already down to three minutes
- 24:33Dean Dwyer I do want to mention people need to look up Edgar case C-A-Y-C-E I was I didn't hear
- 24:40about this guy and you shared some very interesting things about him and the sleeping prophet and all
- 24:46that so Edgar case will that be in your upcoming article that was touched on in a recent one so
- 24:53that could be at Harbinger's daily so he pronounces his name Casey Edgar Casey so he was yeah one of
- 25:00America's most famous psychics so anyone in the psychic service industry will know his name the
- 25:06sleeping prophet he's called the sleeping prophet because apparently he was able to diagnose medical
- 25:12issues while in a trance like or sleep like states so very strange okay let's wrap it up by
- 25:20talking about perseverance you and I in our personal lives can both testify to the fact that this
- 25:26is important principle biblical principle endurance and perseverance and you mentioned Hebrews 12
- 25:312 where Jesus endured the cross for the joy that was set before him and go ahead and share
- 25:38whatever you'd like in the last couple minutes brother I think that in this age in particular we
- 25:44know that we are in the end times and so we know that that's going to take a degree of perseverance
- 25:52just by itself but I think the propensity sometimes is that as we see these faith reports and we
- 25:58see people leaving the back door of Christianity and we see the great gains that programs like
- 26:03communism and socialism and Marxism make and and see people turning to nature based religions and
- 26:11and even occult practices I think sometimes that might get us down I think sometimes that might
- 26:17wear us down so that it becomes harder to persevere not only through some of the shifting
- 26:23parts of the spiritual landscape we know the spiritual warfare is very real and we've got our own
- 26:29troubles and trials and afflictions as well so this is where I think it's an undertaught part
- 26:34of Christianity as well the necessary part of perseverance and I think that for people when you
- 26:40talk about perseverance they might think that that is just digging deep and we just got to dig deep
- 26:45and try and get through on our own strengths but that's certainly not biblical perseverance and so
- 26:52we know that the great paradox of Christianity is that we've got to make a volitional decision to be
- 26:56very engaged in our faith in terms of how we choose day to day to live but we can only do that
- 27:02through 100% reliance on the Holy Spirit and so this is the paradox of it that we've got to choose
- 27:09it but we don't have the strength to be able to choose it or carry it out and so we know I know your
- 27:15story David you know mine and for any other Christian as well things are tough and so we don't
- 27:21dispute that but the Bible has the answers and within that is perseverance and perseverance in some
- 27:28of the Greek language had a military context that if you were a soldier that you would hold the line
- 27:33no matter what the cost that is biblical perseverance and that is my encouragement to all people
- 27:39hold the line no matter what the cost you will be rewarded in the Father's Kingdom. Amen great
- 27:45way to end brother thank you soldiers of Christ so at harbingersdaily.com scroll down in the left
- 27:51hand column and Dean Dwyer is right between Ken Ham and Tony Perkins great people to be among brother
- 27:58thanks for your time today we'll do this again always a privilege thanks David God bless you friends
- 28:04and as always keep speaking the truth about things it matters