7 Reasons Why Premillennialism is a Biblical Necessity

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• Featured Article: 7 Reasons Why Premillennialism is a Biblical Necessity 
• Challenges to Gaza Ceasefire Are Arising Quickly 
• Do You Want To Know The Truth? Infrastructure All Over America Is Crumbling At A Frightening Pace 
• Debtor’s Guilt - By Hal Lindsey 
• Daily Jot: The Farm Chronicles: The farmer and the fish 
• Daily Devotion: Called-Out Ones 

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7 Reasons Why Premillennialism is a Biblical Necessity – Jonathan Brentner - https://www.jonathanbrentner.com/https/jonathan-brentner-g8fgsquarespacecom/config/2020/3/4/7-reasons-why-premillennialism-is-a-biblical-necessity
 
Is belief in premillennialism vital to our hope? Is it biblically necessary to believe in Jesus’ thousand year reign seated on the throne of David in the city of Jerusalem? Absolutely, as we will see.
 
Life in the eternal state will undoubtedly be spectacular, far beyond even our best experiences in this life. Randy Alcorn, in his book Heaven does an excellent job of expanding our imaginations regarding what life might be like on the new earth and in the New Jerusalem. We have much to look forward to when the words of Revelation 21-22 ring true throughout the new earth, the glorious city, and universe. We look forward to in an eternity without sin, death, suffering, sorrow, and pain (Rev. 21:1-4).
 
If such is the case, does it matter what I believe about the millennial reign of Jesus? Yes! Premillennialism is a biblical necessity for the following reasons.
 
1. THE FATHER CANNOT BREAK HIS PROMISE TO HIS SON.
 
In Psalm 2:7-8, we read this promise of the Father to the Son, “. . . The Lord said to me, ‘You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.” The context clarifies this as a physical rule over the nations of the world in which Jesus rules with a “rod of iron” and dashes the nations “in pieces like a potter’s vessel” (Psalm 2:9-10). This cannot be a spiritual realm nor can it refer to the church; this remains an unfulfilled prophecy of Jesus ruling over a physical realm.
 
The presence of rebellion and harsh judgment during Jesus’ reign as described in Psalm 2 also differentiates it from the eternal state where sin and death will no longer exist (Rev. 21:4). Since the conditions of Psalm 2 do not match our current experience and cannot apply to a spiritual domain, the church, or the eternal state, this Psalm must describe Jesus reign during the millennium. No other explanation fits with the words of Psalm 2.
 
A millennium, separate from the eternal state, is a biblical necessity because its absence would signify that the Father has reneged on a promise to his Son. That can never happen!
 
2. ONLY PREMILLENNIALISM MAINTAINS THE ORIGINAL INTENT OF THE WORDS OF THE PROPHETS
 
One cannot deny the reality of a future millennium before the eternal state and at the same time interpret the prophetic words of Scripture in the way the authors intended them when they wrote them or in the way that their original audience would have understood them.
 
Take the words of the prophet Zechariah, for example. He prophesied about a time after Jesus’ crucifixion when a great number of the Israelites would repent and recognize Jesus as their Messiah. Using words that absolutely cannot apply to anyone else except those of Jewish physical descent, the prophet pictures a time of much weeping as the Jewish people recognize the one “they have pierced” as the Messiah and weep signifying their great regret and repentance (Zech. 12:10-13:1).
 
Those who dismiss a future physical kingdom for Israel cannot interpret the words of the Zechariah in the way the prophet intended; it’s impossible for them to do so. Instead, they must retrofit an unrelated and foreign understanding to the text that is light years away from how the faithful in Israel would have understood it at the time or what the prophet intended when he penned the words.
 
Zechariah 14 describes the Lord as “king over all the earth” (v. 9). This occurs in Jerusalem during a time when rebellion remains possible on the earth (see vv. 16-19). The prophet is not talking about a spiritual reign nor can one apply these words to the eternal state. This prophecy remains unfulfilled since Jesus has never reigned over all the nations in the manner described in this chapter.
 
These texts from Zechariah are just a couple of the numerous examples of how only premillennialists guard the original intent of the writers of Scripture. Those who deny the reality of Jesus’ thousand-year reign from Jerusalem cannot make that claim.
 
If Scripture can mean one thing when written and have an entirely different sense at a later time, we would no longer be able to trust it. The use of allegory erodes the objectivity of Scripture by allowing interpreters to impose their own viewpoint on the text, interpretations that have nothing to do with the text at time God inspired it.
 
Dr. Thomas Ice in his section on amillennialism in the book, The Popular Encyclopedia of Bible prophecy, summed up this matter quite well:
 
Basic to amillennialism is its lack of a consistent hermeneutic. It must abandon the literal hermeneutic of the historical, grammatical, and contextual approach for some degree of allegorization. The amillennialist must supply ideas or concepts that one would not be able to find by simply reading the text. Allegorization, or spiritualization, brings a meaning from outside of a specific text to interpret it rather than basing the interpretation on what is written in that specific passage.
 
Only premillennialism protects the integrity of the words of the biblical prophets.
 
3. GOD CANNOT BREAK HIS COVENANTS WITH ISRAEL
 
God could not have made it any clearer than He did in Chronicles 16:14-16; His covenant of the Land given to Abraham, Isaac, and the descendants of Jacob remains in effect forever. Why would God say it’s “an everlasting covenant” if he did not intend for us to understand it “as an everlasting covenant?” If the Lord says something is “everlasting,” it’s exactly that! It just doesn’t just go away or somehow reach an unspecified fulfillment ahead of forever.
 
In Romans 11:1-2a Paul wrote this, “I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew.”
 
The words of Paul in Romans 11 and the words of those who deny a future glorious kingdom for Israel are mutually exclusive; they cannot both be true. Either the apostle Paul’s teaching regarding Israel in Romans 11 is false, or the amillennial viewpoint that denies a future restoration of the kingdom to Israel is incorrect.
 
If the words of Paul are true, and they are, then all viewpoints that deny a glorious kingdom to Israel have no merit whatsoever because they overlook the permanence of God’s covenants with the Israelites.
 
Only premillennialism maintains the belief that God will remain true to His covenants with Israel; only premillennialism adheres to Paul’s declaration in Romans 11 that God has not rejected Israel.
 
4. THE LORD CANNOT BREAK HIS PROMISE TO ISRAEL OF A FUTURE RESTORATION
 
Did the Lord’s promises to Israel remain intact after the crucifixion? Yes, they did. We see this in Acts 1:6 when the disciples asked Jesus this question just before His ascension; “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel” (Acts 1:6)? The Savior’s response to their question speaks volumes, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority” (Acts 1:7).
 
Notice that Jesus did not contradict, ridicule, or refute the premise of their question that He would restore a kingdom to Israel. Instead, He simply told his disciples they could not know the timing of this restoration as it was something the Father alone had “fixed by his own authority.”
 
This interaction tells us three key things. First, after hearing Jesus teach about prophecy and the kingdom for several weeks after his resurrection, the disciples remained convinced He would someday restore Israel to a place of greatness. How is it possible that the Lord did not talk about Israel’s future after His resurrection (see Acts 1:3)? If the disciples had misunderstood His teaching on this critical matter, He surely would have corrected them at this point. Instead, He only comments on their misguided timing.
 
Second, in the Old Testament the Lord promised to “restore the fortunes” of Israel at least 14 times. Are we to say all these assurances to the Jewish people somehow symbolically apply to the church or that Jesus fulfilled them? And if this was the case, would He not have made this clear to His disciples before the time of His ascension? Of course He would have!
 
In their question, the disciples repeated a phrase concerning Israel that occurred at least times in the Old Testament and Jesus did not contradict their understanding of it. If anything, the Lord confirmed the premise of their question!
 
Third, the disciples’ question confirms they regarded the Lord’s promise to them in Matthew 19:28 as literal. In this verse, Jesus assured them of a future place in ruling over Israel in His kingdom. And, He let their continuing assumption of just such a future kingdom for Israel stand before He returned to heaven.
 
And, when Matthew recorded this promise decades later, he did not insert a note about how it no longer remained in effect. Instead, he let his primarily Jewish audience at the time assume the continuing validity of Jesus’ promise regarding a future kingdom for Israel. If this somehow applied spiritual to the church, would not Matthew have said so or not recorded it as applying to the nation of Israel?
 
Only premillennialism does not negate the repeated promises of God to restore a glorious kingdom to Israel and protects the promise Jesus made to His disciples in Matthew 19:28.
 
5. THE CLEAR PROPHETIC INTENT OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION
 
The book of Revelation begins with these words: “The revelation of Jesus Christ.” From beginning to end, the book contains Jesus’ revelation to us, His church. Yet many today treat the book as an allegory from which they can pick and choose what is symbolic and what is not. In essence, decide how to interpret the symbolism based on human reasoning rather then what the apostle John wrote.
 
John’s choice of words totally negates the allegorical approach to the book of Revelation. The apostle uses the word “saw” 44 times by itself and 12 times with the word “looked.” He uses the word “heard” 30 times to indicate he was writing down words he heard.
 
John purposely used the words of someone communicating God’s message based on what he saw and heard. Those writing allegory do not write as eyewitnesses to events, but John does.
 
Yes, the apostle employs symbolism and imagery in relating Jesus’ message about the future. His overriding intent, however, was to tell us specifically what he saw and heard concerning the future, especially during a time of tribulation that will come upon the world. Jesus Himself confirmed that the words of the book as prophecy (Rev. 22:6) and warned against the practice of allegory that “takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy” (Rev. 22:19, emphasis mine).
 
Only premillennialism interprets the book of Revelation as future prophecy, the way both John and Jesus tells us we should interpret it. John recorded what he saw and heard.
 
 6. AMILLENNIALISM OPENS THE DOOR TO HERESY
 
History demonstrates that over time, amillennialism leads to a further erosion of biblical truth opening the door to heresy. It has done so in the past; it is happening now; it will certainly occur again.
 
In order to deny the future glorious kingdom for Israel, one must relegate a multitude of Old Testament prophecies regarding the future of Israel to allegory. Such interpretations diminish the importance of words in the Bible and thereby open the door for other biblical texts to fall victim to allegory.
 
This diminished importance on the original intent of God’s Word explains why amillennialism so easily morphs into heresies such as Preterism, the belief that Jesus returned to earth in AD 70 and in doing so fulfilled most, if not all, of future biblical prophecy. Amillennialists and preterists take an almost identical approach to Old Testament prophecy and the book of Revelation; they only differ on the timing of the second coming, which preterists say has already happened.
 
Dominion theology also has its roots in the identical allegorical approach to biblical prophecy used by amillennialists and preterists.
 
The church in the United Kingdom exemplifies how amillennialism so easily morphs into false beliefs. Although I receive several e-mails from a great number of premillennialists who live there, the leaders of the church in the United Kingdom have long since rejected it in favor of amillennialism.
 
The events of January of 2020 show how their adherence to amillennialism has led to a further erosion of God’s truth. During this month, churches in Scotland and England disinvited Franklin Graham to speak because of his views on the LBGTQ agenda. Bryan Kerr, a Church of Scotland pastor in Lanark said this, “Franklin Graham isn’t the voice of Christianity.” So much for the church in Scotland being an example of why one should adopt its amillennialism as one pastor told me I should do.
 
Once a pastor, church, or denomination relegates a clear prophet passage to allegory, at some point later on this precise methodology gets applied to other passages and more false teaching ensues.
 
Only premillennialism guards the integrity of the words of all of Scripture.
 
7. ONLY PREMILLENNIALISM CONTINUES THE WORK OF THE REFORMERS
 
Luther and Calvin, along with other Reformers of their time, returned the church to a more literal interpretation of Scripture. Their approach to God’s Word restored the doctrine of justification by faith that had also fallen victim to false teaching during the dark ages as the church expended its use of allegory beyond prophetic passages of Scripture to those dealing with salvation.
 
Luther and Calvin recognized the considerable damage allegory interpretations had done to the purity of the Gospel and both firmly denounced its usage in interpreting God’s world. Despite their condemnation of it, the Reformers failed to apply their sound principles of scriptural interpretations to prophetic portions of Scripture.
 
Since then, Bible scholars have continued to reverse the trend of the dark ages where allegorical interpretations expanded from prophecy to contaminate the purity of the Gospel. Since the Reformation, many teachers and writers have expanded the use of the Reformer’s principles of literal interpretation from passages on justification to those regarding prophecy. They have continued the Reformation by applying a literal approach to biblical prophecy.
 
Dr. William Watson wrote an article called The Rise of Philo-Semitism and Premillennialism During the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries.[i] He documents how the next generation after the time of the Reformers turned away from the allegorical interpretations of John Calvin and Martin Luther and as a result, biblical prophecies regarding a future kingdom for Israel sprang to life. Dr. Watson lists over 45 writers who from 1585 to 1800 expressed some level of belief in premillennialism; he provides quotes from many of them.
 
Perhaps the most well-known premillennialist during this era was Isaac Newton. His study of the books of Daniel and Revelation led him to conclude in 1706 that God would again make Israel a nation after which the Jewish people would build another temple that the antichrist would desecrate in the middle of the tribulation. Newton believed Jesus would return with his saints after this terrible time on the earth and establish a thousand year reign upon the earth in Jerusalem.
 
Dr. Andy Woods describes the trend in this way: “The Reformers, in essence, knocked over a domino. And once it fell, the Holy Spirit raised up others who could go even further and knock over more dominoes—using the same method that the Protestant Reformers retrieved from Antioch.”[ii]
 
The Sola Scriptura and Scripture interprets Scripture principles championed by the Reformers later became the needed spark for resurgence of premillennialism that dominated Bible-believing churches during the twentieth century.
 
It might seem as though I am overly harsh on amillennialists and perhaps I am. My objections to this teaching have grown substantially during the past three years. Sadly, they have swung the pendulum back the use of allegory that reverts biblical prophecy back to the dark ages and always, always opens the door to additional false teaching.
 
Note: Please consider signing up for my newsletter on the home page of my website at https://www.jonathanbrentner.com/. It will greatly help me in reaching more people. Thanks!!!
 
[i] William Watson, The Rise of Philo-Semitism and Premillennialism During the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, on the Pre-Trib Research Center website @ https://www.pre-trib.org/articles/all-articles
 
[ii] Dr. Andy Woods, Ever Reforming (Taos, NM: Dispensational Publishing House, Inc., 2018), p. 64.

 


 
Challenges to Gaza Ceasefire Are Arising Quickly - By Yaakov Lappin - https://besacenter.org/challenges-to-gaza-ceasefire-are-arising-quickly/
 
Hamas will always prioritize its radical ideological and political objectives over pragmatic considerations whenever those two factors come into conflict. As Israeli decision makers monitor Hamas’s renewed efforts at force build-up following Operation Guardian of the Walls, they face dilemmas as they look for “least-worst” options.
 
Since seizing power in a violent coup in Gaza in 2007, Hamas has fought four major armed conflicts with Israel, and many smaller ones.
 
The frequency of these conflicts and the amount of time it took for Israeli deterrence to erode between the rounds of fighting indicate consistent challenges to Israel’s attempts to contain Hamas in Gaza and keep the Gazan arena relatively stable.
 
This stands in stark contrast to the Lebanese arena, which has remained largely stable since the 2006 Second Lebanon War (though it presents its own growing challenges to long-term containment approaches).
 
There is no alternative ruling regime in sight for Gaza, and the Israeli defense establishment views any notion of a near-term Palestinian Authority ruling presence in the Strip as unrealistic.
 
Israel is determined not to return to ruling over some two million hostile Gazans and being responsible for their daily needs, so the default approach of containing Hamas without toppling it is the option Israel has turned to since 2007. This was also true of the 11-day conflict that erupted in May, dubbed by Israel Operation Guardian of the Walls.
 
In recent years, Gaza has swung like a pendulum between escalations and attempts to reach longer-term mediated understandings between Israel and Hamas.
 
Intermediaries such as Egypt, the UN, and others have attempted to help negotiate more stable understandings, but so far, all such efforts have failed.
 
Even now, Israeli defense sources warn that another escalation could be imminent, so soon after the guns went quiet in May. The head of Hamas’s political bureau in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, is messaging Israel that his patience is running out due to failed mediated talks over post-conflict arrangements. Israeli PM Naftali Bennet has vowed a new zero-tolerance approach to the kinds of “pressure tactics” Hamas used in the past to get Israel to agree to its demands, such as arson, explosive balloons, and rocket fire.
 
Ultimately, Hamas’s actions after the latest clash appear to suggest that it will always prioritize its radical ideological and political objectives over pragmatic considerations whenever those two factors come into conflict.
 
While Hamas is open to temporarily exploring tactical breaks to give Gazan civilians breathing room and its own military wing an opportunity to rearm and “build back better,” if it identifies an opportunity to promote its long-term radical ideological objectives or improve its political situation, that will take precedence over pragmatic realpolitik.
 
When Hamas fired seven rockets at Jerusalem and southern Israel on May 10, it did so because it spotted a golden opportunity to outmaneuver its rival, the Fatah-run Palestinian Authority, and market itself as the authentic defender of Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque. But it also did so because its force build-up program had reached new milestones, and Hamas’s diverse arsenal of rockets made its leadership confident and prepared to take risks.
 
All the risks Hamas took in recent weeks were designed to serve a wider strategic objective: the eventual takeover by Hamas of the West Bank. This goal is driven by Hamas’s ideological determination to surround Israel with rocket bases and terror squads from two sides and stamp out competition from non-Islamist Palestinian rivals in the process.
 
Prior to the May conflict, the IDF’s Southern Command had been pursuing a strategic triangle made up of three key goals: boosting Israel’s readiness for war, waging a campaign to disrupt Hamas’s force build-up, and launching an ongoing humanitarian-economic improvement effort in Gaza.
 
The goal of preventing Hamas rearmament has grown significantly more important for Israel following the May conflict. This is based on the understanding that a well-armed Hamas is an overconfident Hamas, one that is prepared to take new kinds of risks.
 
Past attempts to create long-term stability were based on the idea of enabling Gaza to develop its economy and society—something Israel views as aligned with its own security interests, so long as it does not boost Hamas’s military wing in the process.
 
Yet these efforts have largely failed to lead to stability, as have efforts at securing the release of Israeli MIAs and civilians held by Hamas via a prisoner swap deal.
 
The question of whether a formula for a long-term arrangement is simply too elusive to be reached remains open. Events since 2007 strongly suggest that the answer is in the affirmative.
 
In fact, the May escalation casts into doubt the notion that Hamas’s top priority has been to improve Gaza’s economic and civilian-humanitarian situation at all.
 
Sinwar is prepared to advance Gaza’s civilian-economic interests only when doing so does not interfere with Hamas’s ideological objective of setting up and expanding an Islamist armed fortress.
 
Sinwar and the commander of Hamas’s military wing, Muhammad Deif, seem all too eager to integrate their Gazan army into the Iranian “ring of fire” club of proxies with which the Islamic Republic is patiently trying to surround Israel.
 
Hamas did not hesitate to risk war last month to promote its ideological maneuverings over the interests of the Gazan people, dragging them into another conflict and causing them much suffering.
 
When examining Hamas’s so-called identity crisis, a question that often presents itself is how the Islamist terror movement views itself. Is it as a civilian-political regime, a terror army, a national-pragmatic movement, or a fundamentalist radical Islamist force?
 
The latest events seem to push toward the conclusion that Hamas sees itself first and foremost as a revolutionary Islamist force. Its top priority is to use its control of Gaza to build an army, and then to expand its control to the West Bank by toppling or taking over the Palestinian Authority.
 
In the past, Hamas’s efforts to reach understandings with Israel were challenged by Palestinian Islamic Jihad, raising the question of whether Hamas could one day become an “enforcer of calm” despite its destructive ideology. Such ideas lack much supporting evidence following Operation Guardian of the Walls.
 
The high cost in blood and treasure of a full ground offensive into Gaza to fundamentally alter this troubling strategic reality has deterred successive Israeli governments from ordering this option.
 
This also means the idea of a clear victory has stopped being relevant when it comes to Israel’s military dealings with Hamas.
 
Israel is fighting a non-state military organization that is sufficiently decentralized to be able to fire rockets until the last day of a conflict, no matter how effective IAF strikes and Israeli intelligence may be.
 
Yet it may be premature to write off a clear victory in the future.
 
As part of its ongoing arms race with terror armies, the IDF is working on a new technological capability that involves intercepting rockets at their ascent stage—thereby eliminating, in most cases, warning sirens in Israeli cities— and using a large network of missiles and sensors to fire on all enemy launchers within 15 seconds of their attack on Israel.
 
If successful, such a technological leap forward could theoretically remove the only major weapon left in the hands of Hamas at this time, which is its diverse rocket arsenal, built with Iranian know-how, funding, and training.
 
In the more short-term future, however, the clouds of conflict with Hamas are once again looming.
 
Israel is not prepared to go back to the previous reality that took hold after the 2014 Gaza war. During those years, enough cement and metal to build 20 Burj Khalifa-sized skyscrapers entered Gaza for the purpose of reconstruction, but ended up underground in the form of the “Metro” combat tunnel system.
 
Israel’s insistence on changing the rules of the game is placing Hamas in a corner. Israel is insisting that new inspection capabilities be installed in Gaza by those who wish to help it recover. That would mean Hamas can no longer receive metal pipes for sewage and use them to build rocket engines, or take resources intended for schools and hospitals and divert them to its military wing. It also means Gaza’s economy cannot receive large-scale investment programs until Hamas releases two Israeli civilian captives and the remains of two MIA soldiers (although hundreds of trucks carrying humanitarian aid and basic goods continue to cross into Gaza every day).
 
At the end of the day, Israel’s interest clearly lies in conflict avoidance, but the dynamics on the ground do not suggest that long-term stability is on the horizon for Gaza at this time.
 
If Israel allows cement to pour into Gaza freely, new combat tunnels will be under construction in no time. If it prevents the entry of the cement, Hamas will likely escalate the security situation.
 
These daily post-conflict dilemmas are the reality Israeli decision makers must face as they seek to identify and pursue the “least-worst” options when it comes to the grim affairs of a Hamas-ruled Gaza.


 


 
Do You Want To Know The Truth? Infrastructure All Over America Is Crumbling At A Frightening Pace - by Michael Snyder - http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/do-you-want-to-know-the-truth-infrastructure-all-over-america-is-crumbling-at-a-frightening-pace/
 
The great tragedy that we just witnessed in Florida has shocked the entire nation, and it should be a major wake up call for all of us. Our nation really is literally falling apart right in front of our eyes. Just a few short months ago, at least 151 people died during a catastrophic failure of the power grid in Texas. Thousands of water pipes burst, and billions of dollars worth of damage was done. But most people that don’t live in Texas soon forgot all about that, and now we have another spectacular example of the rapid deterioration of the once beautiful cities that previous generations handed down to us. According to the latest report that I have seen, nearly 100 people are still missing, and officials say that they are hearing “sounds like banging” coming from the wreckage…
 
Miami-Dade fire officials said rescuers have heard “what sounds like banging” from within the rubble, but not voices, as they continue to search for survivors of the Champlain Towers South collapse.
 
Thirty-seven people have been pulled from the structure so far, and the portions of the building that did not collapse have been evacuated. At least 99 people remain unaccounted for.
 
Hopefully anyone that is still alive underneath all of that rubble will soon be rescued.
 
What makes this tragedy much worse is that it could have been prevented.
 
According to USA Today, a study that was conducted last year discovered that this particular building had been “sinking at an alarming rate” since the 90s…
 
A Florida high rise that collapsed early Thursday was determined to be unstable a year ago, according to a researcher at Florida International University.
 
The building, which was constructed in 1981, has been sinking at an alarming rate since the 1990s, according to a 2020 study conducted by Shimon Wdowinski, a professor in the Department of Earth and Environment.
 
So they knew that this was probably going to happen, and they did nothing to stop it.
 
They also know that our entire economy is heading for a massive implosion, and they aren’t doing anything to stop that from happening either.
 
I have been writing about America’s crumbling infrastructure for many years, and now we have gotten to a point where horrible “accidents” are occurring all around us on a regular basis.
 
Prior to the tragedy in Florida, the sudden collapse of a bridge in Washington D.C. was making headlines all over the nation…
 
SIX people have been injured after a bridge in Washington DC collapsed, reports say.
 
Shocking pictures show that the Kenilworth bridge caved in over a highway, halting dozens of cars.
 
Five people were rushed to hospital and six people in total were hurt, cops said during an afternoon press conference.
 
If you are not familiar with that disaster, you can see footage of the aftermath right here.
 
None of this should be a surprise to any of us. The ASCE has been sounding the alarm about America’s crumbling infrastructure for a very long time, but very few have been listening. To me, these numbers are simply astounding…
 
The topic of improving our national infrastructure is once again front and center in Washington. For years, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) has been urging policymakers to reinvest in things like waterways, bridges, energy grids, and roads. In fact, ASCE reports that 43% of America’s public roadways are in poor or mediocre condition, more than 230,000 U.S. bridges require repair and preservation work, and there is a water main break every two minutes, causing an estimated six billion gallons of treated water to be lost each day.
 
So now the Biden administration wants to make a big effort to patch up some of our decaying infrastructure.
 
That is a noble goal, but instead of using existing funds the Biden administration is proposing an enormous amount of new spending…
 
According to the White House, the price tag comes in at $1.2 trillion over eight years, with more than $500 billion in new spending. How the measure would be paid for was a central point in negotiations, with Republicans opposed to undoing any of the 2017 tax cuts.
 
The plan “makes transformational and historic investments in clean transportation infrastructure, clean water infrastructure, universal broadband infrastructure, clean power infrastructure, remediation of legacy pollution, and resilience to the changing climate,” said a White House fact sheet on the plan released Thursday.
 
We can’t do this.
 
Our politicians have already borrowed and spent trillions and trillions of dollars that we did not have over the course of the past year, and this has created very painful inflation throughout our economy.
 
Stealing hundreds of billions more dollars from future generations may seem like a good short-term solution, but it just makes our long-term financial problems even worse.
 
I am all for fixing up our infrastructure, but existing funds that are already being greatly wasted elsewhere should be diverted for that purpose.
 
But that isn’t going to happen. Our politicians are absolutely addicted to spending money, and after this “infrastructure package” gets passed I am sure that they will soon come up with even more ways to flush our future down the toilet.
 
Every dollar that we borrow and spend now is a dollar that we will be expected to pay back later with interest.
 
During the past year, our politicians have been on the biggest spending binge in American history by a very wide margin, but most Americans don’t seem to care.
 
And the Federal Reserve has been committing economic suicide by pumping trillions upon trillions of fresh dollars into the financial system, but most Americans don’t seem to care about that either.
 
Our entire society is absolutely addicted to immediate gratification, and so the vast majority of the population wants our leaders to do whatever is necessary to make life better right now.
 
Meanwhile, the long-term outlook for our nation just gets bleaker and bleaker.
 
It was just a matter of time before that building in Florida fell, and it is just a matter of time before the entire U.S. economy collapses.
 
The whole system is crumbling all around us, but very few people are concerned enough to try to save it.

 


 
Debtor’s Guilt - By Hal Lindsey – www.hallindsey.com
 
When I was in seminary, I borrowed money from a friend. In good faith, I gave him a date on which I expected to pay him back. But something unexpected happened, and I couldn’t pay when I said I would. I felt terrible. I felt like a deadbeat. I found myself avoiding my friend.
 
And here’s the part that makes no sense but was very real. I felt anger toward him for not understanding my plight. It makes no sense because I hadn’t even tried to explain the situation, and he had not said a word about me being late. I thought about how I might approach him. When I thought through our imagined conversations, I thought about what it would be like if he raked me over the coals. That made me even angrier at him, even though the conversations had all been confined to my own imagination.
 
Fearing his disapproval — and feeling that I deserved disapproval — I stayed away from him. Then one day, I found myself in a situation where I could not avoid him. Confronted with the presence of my friend, I told him the truth. He didn’t shout at me or put me down. He was glad to be back in fellowship with me. Because of guilt, I had needlessly deprived myself of his friendship.
 
That happens in our relationship with God. We sin. Then, foolishly, we try to hide it from God — even though we know that God knows everything. Because we feel unholy, we don’t want to invite the presence of the Holy Spirit into our lives. We don’t pray. We don’t read the Bible. Sometimes, we don’t even want to go to church, or be around Christian friends.
 
Sin blocks our fellowship with God. We’re still in Christ, still headed for heaven, but our own feelings of guilt cause us to interrupt the flow of power from God into our lives. This works out great for Satan. He knows that God’s power is necessary for us to defeat sin. It becomes a vicious cycle. We sin, then we hide from the One who can help us defeat that sin.
 
God knows that while still in these bodies, we are incapable of perfect obedience. He wants us to walk moment by moment depending on His Spirit. But failure to trust Him amplifies sin and puts us back into the vicious downward spiral. How do we defeat that vicious cycle?
 
Go to Him. Warts and all, present yourself to Him. Confess your sin and claim His forgiveness. Then turn from your sin and trust Him again. In 1 John 1:9, He promises, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
 
You might worry that you are not strong enough to turn from your sin. Maybe you worry that you don’t have the power to change. Good! Now you know where you stand. You can’t, but God can! He will give you power. But you need to make the first move. The power to live the Christian life comes from the Holy Spirit and from confidence in the knowledge that Jesus died for our sins, rose from the dead, and sits in heaven at the right hand of the Father where He prays for us continually.
 
In days like these, we need to walk in His power, and not be sidetracked by sin and the accompanying guilt. So, when you miss the mark, go to Him quickly. And learn to avoid sin by inviting the Holy Spirit into every part of your life. Live victoriously by trusting in Jesus, your Redeemer and Lord.
 
 

 


 
Daily Jot: The Farm Chronicles: The farmer and the fish – Bill Wilson – www.dailyjot.com
 
Back in July 1969, Dad had broken his leg a couple of weeks before we went on what had become our annual Myrtle Beach vacation with the Hefts’. Dad and I had went to an all-contest horse show and ignored Mom’s last words, “Carl, don’t you and Bill run that ribbon race.” It was the fastest timed event and the most dangerous. Two horses race around the arena with the riders holding a three-foot crepe paper ribbon between them. The fastest to make the run without breaking the ribbon wins. That day, we suffered the consequences of not heeding Mom’s warning. Dad’s horse slipped around the turn, fell on him, and we later found out Dad broke his ankle. And that impacted our vacation.
 
The first time we went deep sea fishing at Murals Inlet was a 25-mile trip in sunny calm seas. Good experience. ‘Caught literally dozens of black sea bass and red snappers. The Hefts and Wilsons ate fresh fish the rest of the week and even gave some away to guests at the Blue Surf beach house where we were staying. This year, we planned even a bigger adventure—a 75-mile excursion. We boarded the large boat with about 20 other people, Dad hobbling up the gangway in his knee-high cast. Little did we know that this was going to be very similar to the Gilligan’s Island adventure in a ship that actually looked like the SS Minnow. You see, unawares, we were entering into the makings of tropical storm Anna and, at the time, the most active Atlantic hurricane season since 1933.
 
Well, we got out into the ocean and it was rockin’. I stood with my pole straight up bracing my body against the ships rail and could almost touch my nose in the water as the little ship tossed among the deep swells of an angry ocean. We were being called into the water tight cabin by the captain because it was so rough, but Dad stubbornly resisted. He had a fish on the end of his line. And it was giving him a good fight with that boat bouncing around in the water. Standing against a strong wind and high waves, Dad hobbled in his cast around that boat for the better part of an hour trying to bring in that fish. Finally, the crew pulled it out of the raging sea--an unusually large 90-pound amberjack. This crazy farmer caught the biggest fish, the only fish, on a day that no one should even venture outside the safety of their home.
 
We were kind of like the story in Matthew 8:24, “There arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves: but he (Christ) was asleep.” While Dad and I were far from asleep, we were oblivious to the boat tossing violently about the sea, and that all around us, people were sick and vomiting, crying out in fear that we were not going to make it back to land, praying that we would. We were so excited, recalling every detail of how he fought that fish on a peg leg, holding on for dear life as the boat rocked and the fish pulled. But by the time we finally made it to port, the sun was out and it was as if weather was never a problem. Then they told us that we couldn’t eat the amberjack because it had parasites. We took pictures to prove the catch and to this day the legend of the farmer and the fish is oft retold.
 
 

 


 
Daily Devotion: Called-Out Ones - by Greg Laurie – www.harvest.org
 
For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. —Galatians 3:26
 
https://harvest.org/resources/devotion/called-out-ones/ - Listen
 
I think one of the great features of the church today is that we have people of different backgrounds, different races, and different ages coming together under the banner of Jesus Christ.
 
Paul wrote in Galatians 3, “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (verses 26–28 NKJV).
 
Yet there are a lot of churches today that want to gear their entire church toward a specific group of people based on certain demographics.
 
But we need to be careful with this because the Church is made up of true believers from every background. Regardless of who you are, if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, then you are a part of His Church.
 
Jesus said, “On this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18 NKJV).
 
The word Jesus used here for “church” is the Greek word ekklēsia, which means “called-out ones.” The Jews used this word to describe themselves as a unique group of people, a unique race. And some Gentiles used it in describing a community.
 
But here Jesus used it in a unique context, which wasn’t for only Jews or for people living in a community together. He was saying, “I’m going to build a new unit of believers. But it’s not just for Jews. It’s not just for Gentiles. It’s for everyone.” That was a revolutionary thought.
 
Now, there may be a place for specialized ministry to various groups, but we must not allow that to overshadow God’s primary desire of bringing us all together. That’s one of the great testimonies of the church.
 
We are the called-out ones—called together, called to worship the Lord.

 


 
FROM THE HEART
    
Let Us Make the Short Time We have Left,
Count for ALL of Eternity!

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