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Replacement Theology: The Backdoor Assault On The Integrity Of Scripture – By Jonathan Brentner - https://harbingersdaily.com/replacement-theology-the-backdoor-assault-on-the-integrity-of-scripture/ Much like a quarterback suddenly tackled from behind by a player from the opposing side, the claim that God has rejected Israel and replaced the nation with the church represents a blindside attack on the integrity of Scripture. Those who say the church is now God’s kingdom not only greatly err, but also cause considerable harm to the reliability of Scripture, which in turn deprives believers of their safe refuge for the perilous times in which we live. In defense of these assertions, which I know seem extreme to some, I will start with how a group of prominent leaders in the Christian community defined biblical inerrancy in the last century. The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy (1978) In 1978, over three hundred Evangelicals met in Chicago and agreed to a statement affirming the inerrancy and inspiration of Scripture. This was also the year that I graduated from Talbot Theological Seminary and as I recall, the integrity of the Bible was a hot button issue at the time. My professors assigned the reading of several books on this matter. I still have my copy of Harold Lindsell’s The Battle for the Bible written during this time. I am aware that a few who signed this document ascribed to Replacement Theology, the belief that God had rejected Israel and replaced the nation with the church, which represents His current kingdom on the earth and thus our inheritance of such a realm. However, wording of the Chicago Statement refutes the symbolical interpretations of Biblical prophecy upon which Replacement Theology rests. Article VI, which upholds the inspiration and inerrancy of the words of Scripture: We affirm that the whole of Scripture and all its parts, down to the very words of the original, were given by divine inspiration. Article XVIII further negates interpreting God’s Word in ways that dismiss the meaning of the words found in any biblical text: We affirm that the text of Scripture is to be interpreted by grammatico-historical exegesis, taking account of its literary forms and devices, and that Scripture is to interpret Scripture. In the past few years, I have heard several sermons given from the viewpoint that Jesus is now reigning in fulfillment of prophecies found in passages such as Psalm 2, Psalm 110, and Daniel 7. In each case, the pastor based his exegesis of the passage more upon human wisdom rather than upon the words God inspired the writers of Scripture to record for us. However, not only does Replacement Theology contradict the ways that church leaders in the past defined biblical inerrancy, but it also fails to measure up to the amazing record left for us by the Old Testament prophets. The Amazing Hebrew Text After my graduation from Talbot, I worked for an entire year at the Lockman Foundation assisting in its production of the exhaustive concordance for the New American Standard Bible (NASB). I spent the majority of this time immersed in the Hebrew and Aramaic text of the Old Testament connecting words in the original to their English equivalents in the NASB. Spending forty hours a week in the original text of the Old Testament not only greatly increased my love of the words of Scripture, but also left the following impression ingrained in my soul: The amazing uniformity of the Hebrew text, written over a period of many centuries by a variety of authors and prophets, is far more than enough to discredit the retrofitting of its words, with human wisdom, in order to make them support God’s reneging on His solemn promises to Israel. At the time, I regarded my time at the Lockman Foundation as an unnecessary delay in reaching my goal of serving fulltime at a church. Looking back, I regard this detour as a key aspect of the Lord’s preparation for my current ministry. The Backdoor Assault on Scripture During the years following 1978, the vast majority of churches identifying themselves as “Evangelical” not only stood by the Chicago Statement of biblical inerrancy, but also proclaimed that Jesus would come for His church before a seven-year period of Tribulation upon the earth. They affirmed adherence to John’s account of Jesus’ thousand-year reign upon the earth as recoded in the words of Revelation 20:1-10. For many years, belief in the inerrancy of Scripture and the pre-Tribulation Rapture remained inseparable in most churches that referred to themselves as “Evangelical.” Sadly, such is no longer the case. Many churches today adhere to Replacement Theology even though, as noted above, it contradicts the wording of key articles found in the 1978 Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy and rests more upon human wisdom than the words found in Scripture. Does this not signify a backdoor assault on God’s Word? Rather than outright deny the inspiration and inerrancy of Scripture, they voice strong affirmation for it while at the same time adhering to views of future things that changes the meanings and inspired intent of the words penned by its authors and prophets. “What’s the big deal?” some might ask. “As long as a church remains true to the Gospel and its pastors carefully exegete Scripture in areas that do not pertain to future things, why should we be alarmed that it dismisses God’s promises to Israel and promotes a no Rapture future?” I will answer this objection in the next section. The Fruit Of Dismissing Bible Prophecy Harms New Testament Saints Though often immediately apparent, the long-term impact of retrofitting Bible prophecy so as to make the church the recipient of God’s promises to Israel negatively impacts believers in the following fours ways: 1. It Leads Them to Greater Depths of False Teaching Replacement Theology provides the basis for other teachings that lead those in the pews into greater depths of false teaching. One of its offspring, Dominion Theology, teaches that the church, not Jesus, will inaugurate millennial conditions to the earth. This takes the error of teaching that church is God’s kingdom to a far greater extreme. Despite being the most popular view of future things in churches, Dominion Theology represents an open attack on the reliability of Scripture in all matters pertaining to faith and practice. Preterism, another child of Replacement Theology, sprang up in the 1500’s in response to the Reformer’s insistence that the pope was the antichrist and the Roman Catholic Church his kingdom. Like its sibling, Dominion Theology, such an interpretation of prophecy contradicts God’s Word in many places. Both assault Scripture in ways that severely weaken its reliability in matters not related to future things. 2. It Opens the Door to Wokeism The acceptance that the words on the pages of our Bibles can signify something entirely different than the meaning of the words used by the authors of Scripture erodes the integrity of other passages. In this way, it opens the door for the acceptance of the LGBQT+ agenda. If one can assert that God has rejected Israel despite Paul’s clear assertion to the contrary in Romans 11:1-2, then is it not easy to assume how others might apply the same principles of interpretation to what the apostle wrote about homosexuality? Does it not open the door for alternate interpretations of behavior that the apostle specifically addresses? Andy Stanley is “Exhibit A” for how Replacement Theology leads to Wokeism. Though he stops short of fully endorsing the LGBQT+ agenda, Stanley’s recent statements illuminate the path for others to go there. His views on Israel and the Old Testament reveal that he’s light years away from the view of Scripture expressed by his dad, Charles Stanley: God’s Word is absolutely true. You may not understand how God is going to bring about what He’s promised you, but He is keeping every promise that He has ever made. He will never deceive you or disappoint you, and He will never change His mind about what He’s told you. For more on how the denial of a future for Israel has opened the door to Wokeism in many churches, please read my article, Wokeism Begins With Devaluing the Words of Scripture. 3. It Deprives Them of The Refuge Provided By Bible Prophecy Bible prophecy is the greatest source of encouragement for the perilous times in which we live. I could not even begin to cope with all that I see happening in our world apart from what the Bible teaches about the Hereafter. Jesus is my strong tower of refuge; His Word is what keeps me sane because I know He is going to intervene in this world in the near future. He is coming soon to take me home and after that punish the great wickedness that’s overtaking our world. Pastors who either remain silent about Bible prophecy or proclaim Replacement Theology deprive those in their charge of the only safe refuge available to them in these perilous times. They lead saints away from the “strong tower” (Proverbs 18:10), that of Jesus’ promises to us in His Word, to sandcastles that will soon disappear amid the raging waves of the sea. 4. Guides Believers to UnBiblical Worldviews The religious leaders of first century Jerusalem failed to connect the words of Old Testament prophecy with person of Jesus (Matthew 16:1-4). They regarded Jesus as a threat to their status quo and refused to acknowledge or even investigate how He fulfilled the words of prophecy contained in Scripture. We see the exact same pattern today. Many pastors regard Bible prophecy as a threat to their ministry and treat the Rapture as far too radical of an idea to even discuss from the pulpit. Because of their failure, or unwillingness, to connect the dots between today’s world and biblical prophecy, they lead those in their charge into worldviews that differ little from those espoused by those outside the faith. Any outlook on life that ignores the Lord’s the imminent intervention in our world, or pushes it to the end of ages, inevitably leads to an unbiblical worldview. The dismissing of the multiple signs of the end of the age inevitably leads to that of exalting earthly expectations above eternal realities (2 Corinthians 4:17-18). Denying The Future Restoration of Israel Does Undermine The Integrity Of Scripture The Apostle Peter wrote that in the last days “scoffers” would appear and such people would mock “the promise of his coming” (2 Peter 3:3-4). Jude adds that those who dismiss our hope would be the ones that cause divisions in the church (Jude 17-19). This day arrived and clearly, it’s no small matter. In my experience, I have found the following to be true: Churches that designate beliefs in future things as “tertiary,” or matters of third-rate importance, are by far the most unwelcoming of other positions and thereby divisive to the body of Christ. If you persist in bringing up beliefs in Jesus imminent appearing in such places of worship, its pastors are more than willing to show you to the door. I have received emails from all over the world verifying this sad reality. On the other hand, pastors who adhere to a pre-Tribulation Rapture typically do not close the door of their churches to those with differing views of Bible prophecy. When preaching about future things, they often acknowledge the existence of other viewpoints about Bible prophecy, something one never hears in churches that adhere to Replacement Theology either tacitly or openly. The denial of God’s future restoration of a kingdom for Israel is no small matter. Although the fruit of such unbelief is rarely evident in the near term, over time, it most definitely leaves a legacy of undermining the veracity of Scripture and harming the saints in the ways noted in the previous section. Bible prophecy is most certainly not a “tertiary” matter in the day in which we live, it’s of the utmost importance and essential to the wellbeing of believers. What are Biblical Signs? – Pete Garcia - https://www.rev310.net/post/signs What is needed desperately today is prophetic insight. Scholars can interpret the past; it takes prophets to interpret the present. - Aiden Wilson Tozer When we think of "prophets" we often think back to the Old Testament and consider men like Isaiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and so on, as those whom God gifted the burden of either foreseeing or foretelling the future either by the Holy Spirit, angelic messenger, or by a word from the Lord (i.e., thus sayeth the Lord...). However, I believe God has primarily chosen to reveal His plans for us with two primary methods of divine communication; progressive revelation, and progressive illumination. Progressive Revelation is direct from God to the prophet to give to the people (i.e., Thus sayeth the Lord...). Progressive Illumination, however, is when what has already been prophesied, either finds its fulfillment or exists at a time when the conditions are such that said prophecy can be fulfilled. Thus, the former relies on God, who is not bound by time (see Isaiah 46:9-10) to reveal to His prophets the things that will come to pass. The latter, relies upon men with prophetic insight who can, through the power of the Holy Spirit, discern the times in which they live, to show in Scripture what has, or what can come to pass. Both of these, make heavy use of signs, as a means to either validate or authenticate the message. But what are signs and how can we trust what we see is what is really from God? Given the fact that one of the most used and abused words in the English language (or perhaps every language) is the word signs. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word signs means: 1. an object, quality, or event whose presence or occurrence indicates the probable presence or occurrence of something else 2. a gesture or action used to convey information or instructions. Various belief systems, including Christianity, have long relied on supernatural signs (in the sense they either never or rarely happen in nature) to establish their authenticity and authority throughout human history. Pagan traditions, for instance, interpreted rare meteorological and natural occurrences as indicators of divine emotions toward their followers. Similarly, cults have long utilized both natural signs and purported paranormal phenomena to exert control over their followers. Nevertheless, signs persist as a primary method of validation across most major belief systems, serving as a common thread in the quest to substantiate both individual and collective faith. However, outside of Biblical Christianity, these signs often exhibit an air of ambiguity, making their appearance subject to the interpretation of the interpreter. Considering the pervasive appearance of unexplainable signs as of late, one might question whether the Biblical signs, amidst the cacophony, have become nothing more than white noise in the background. This thought raises the inquiry: What foundation does the Biblical perspective have in such a context? Certainly, Satan, the chief adversary of mankind and the Christian faith knows the Bible routinely uses signs as a means to give us to understand the times in which we live...especially for those in the proximity of the two advents of Christ. Given Satan's blundering in the first coming (1 Cor 2:8), he knows full well he cannot prevent the signs that Jesus gave in the Olivet Discourse from happening. So if Satan can't stop them from manifesting, how can he nullify (or attempt to nullify) these from warning the masses of the nearness of the end? He does what we see now...with a flood of signs. He sends so many lying signs and wonders that mankind is inundated with signs so much so that most are simply overwhelmed by them and ultimately become desensitized to their meaning. I believe this has very much been the case since the turn of the 20th century when the world was thrust into the 2nd, 3rd, and now 4th industrial revolutions, two world wars, hundreds of other regional and national conflicts, massive population explosion, a deluge of toxic ideologies promoting anything and everything except the truth, as well as the exponential rise of paranormal, supernatural, and other unexplainable phenomena. So, what are Biblical signs? As already mentioned, God as the creator of time and reality, does not exist in time, nor is He bound by it. He sees the past, present, and future simultaneously and frequently declares the "end from the beginning." God alone is the only being in all of creation (including all dimensions and realities) who can manipulate time. Everyone else is subject to it, even the created spiritual hosts (both holy and fallen) who exist in the eternal realm, are subject to the constraints of time. But God gives us (mankind) signs so that we can know when we are on God's prophetic calendar. Then the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and testing Him asked that He would show them a sign from heaven. He answered and said to them, “When it is evening you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red’; and in the morning, ‘It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times. A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.” And He left them and departed. Matt. 16:1-4 As such, God can foretell future events with laser-like precision because He has already seen them unfold. This means that the accuracy of Bible prophecy is always 100 percent accurate and is unparalleled amongst any other belief system, ideology, religion, or scientific endeavor. The Bible is the only Holy book, amongst the world's "holy" books that even dares make such claims. As such, the prophetic signs are meant to convey information to us in a manner that:
Granted, this is but a sampling as there are many hundreds of passages related to signs and their meaning. Furthermore, and borrowing these thoughts from my friend Lee Brainard, — signs appear immediately after the great tribulation (Matt. 24:29) — signs appear when nations are gathered for Armageddon (Joel 3:9-16, Is. 34:2-4) — signs happen in the presence of a descending army (Joel 2:2-11, Is. 13:3-13) — signs happen when Satan and minions are bound (Is. 24:21-23) Given its unparalleled accuracy, Satan (the father of lies) knows he cannot compete with God's mastery of time. Therefore, since he cannot foresee the future, he has taken to corrupting and perverting this gift (signs) from God so they can be used to confound and deceive the masses (e.g., Matt. 24:24, 2 Thessalonians 2;11, Revelation 13:13-14, 16:14, 19:20, etc.). This is why Jesus in His epochal Matthew 24 Olivet Discourse, warns of deception in the last days;
Of the Jewish people we Christians are often chided to be more like, is the Bereans (Acts 17:11) who trusted but verified, and the sons of Issachar (1 Chron. 12:32), who understood the times in which they lived. As such, given the reality that deception is going to be exponential in the last days, we are to both verify information conveyed to us and to understand the times in which we live based on God's word. God gives us signs so that we can know beforehand and therefore, have our faith reinforced. Conclusion The Church right now has more fashion than passion, is more pathetic than prophetic, is more superficial than supernatural. Leonard Ravenhill One of the criticisms I often hear from non-Christians in mocking my belief in Christianity is that we only know about this "invisible sky god" from an "antiquated book" written by "illiterate sheepherders." If that last bit were true, then that in and of itself would be quite the achievement given the masterful use of Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek (all of which are far more precise languages than English) to create: all sixty-six books, which were written by 40 men, on three continents, and over 1,600 years. All of which, contain the prophetic scarlet thread of the coming Messiah we see interwoven from Genesis to Malachi. And while the godless and haters of Christianity might mock the written word itself, they cannot mock the fulfilled prophecies that were recorded thousands of years in advance foretelling what would happen before they happened. At best, they might have to attempt to do the mental cheetah flips and twist the meanings of things, but they cannot do so legitimately. Nor can they undo recorded history proving the Biblical text is true. It is in their hatred of all things God, that one of the final nails in the coffin as it were in their process of being given over to a debased mind, is when they flagrantly dismiss provable, quantifiable, and qualitatively proven fulfilled bible prophecy. As Mr. Ravenhill astutely observes, the modern, western, church has come to ignore bible prophecy to its detriment, trading the deeper things of God for wave-top-level, twenty-minute sermonettes on how to live your best life now. By ignoring the signs God gives us about the end of the age, most professing Christians are ignorant of their predicament of facing an immediate storm on the horizon. But this is not just any storm. It's the end of the world storm and God's in the final stages of wrapping up human history. Sermonettes on sowing financial seeds, or becoming more accommodating to a society bent on suiciding itself is the wrong message at the wrong time. It's the wrong message because it is willfully ignoring the times in which we live. If you can ignore the time in which you live, means you've ignored all the signs God's given you to warn about what is coming upon the earth. Many churches avoid eschatology altogether because they think it is either "too sensational," "too divisive", or "too unknowable" to be taught to the lay people. They treat this doctrine (eschatology- the study of last things) as if it were somehow wholly distinct from the rest of biblical doctrines in that you have free license to make of it whatever you want. They act as if it were a "Choose-Your-Own-Adventure" book. Eschatology, like every other biblical doctrine, only has one definitive interpretation. Granted, doctrines often have multiple applications, but each has only one interpretation. The Lord Jesus Christ is only going to Rapture the Church one way. He's only going to subjugate the world to God's wrath one way. He's only going to return at the Second Coming one way. And as we become like both the Bereans and the Sons of Issachar, in letting the Holy Spirit guide us into all truth, we quickly realize that while we can't know the day or hour, we can know the season. According to Jesus’ warning in Revelation 3:3 to the church of Sardis, the expectation is that we will know the hour and only those Christians who are asleep (spiritually speaking) will be caught unaware. We will know the season because the signs that point to that final week of years (Daniel's 70th Week) are being prepared right before our very eyes. In closing, we should be like that good servant who, in knowing the master will one day return, be fruitful in investing the treasure he has entrusted to us. That treasure, while shown as currency in the parable of The Parable of the Talents, is the gifts and callings God has bestowed upon each of us. What did we do with those talents He has entrusted to us? (See Matthew 25:14-30) The Parable of the Faithful Servant and the Wicked Servant further illustrates God’s expectations that we should be watching and anticipating His any moment return as part of our lives as believers. We watch because we are supposed to be watching, and what we are watching for is accompanied by prophesied signs that serve as mile markers showing us the nearness of our redemption. “Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning; and you yourselves be like men who wait for their master, when he will return from the wedding, that when he comes and knocks they may open to him immediately. Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, will find watching. Assuredly, I say to you that he will gird himself and have them sit down to eat, and will come and serve them. And if he should come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants. But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” Luke 12:35-40 DOWNLOAD THE PROPHECY UPDATE APP Prophecy Update Videos Must Watch Videos! Videos You Can Trust
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DONATE HERE Your can also mail your support to: Prophecy Update PO Box 40516 Bakersfield, CA 93384 Is The KJV Inspired? - by Bill Perkins - https://compass.org/is-the-kjv-inspired/ …do not turn aside from any of the words which I command you today, to the right or to the left, Deut. 28:14a When you read verses like the one above, it begs the question—how accurate are the words in the Bible? If we're going to stake our lives on the written Word, which English version of the Bible should I be learning from? Susie and I became Believers in the 1970s and first attended a small Baptist church in Vestavia Hills, Alabama. Being good Independent Baptists they made sure we used the King James Version of the Bible (KJV). We were basically taught it was sinful to use anything but the KJV. So a lot of the early verses we learned were in the King James vernacular. After a couple of years we changed churches and began attending a Bible church that used the New American Standard Bible version (NASB). There we learned that the KJV was not God-inspired any more than one particular French version was God-inspired. Or Korean. Or German. The only version that was inspired by the Lord was the original Hebrew and Greek manuscripts. And regardless of which translation you’re using, the words are all traced back to those original transcripts. Changing Bible versions was a major change for us and we’ve benefited tremendously from switching to the NASB. But even today I sometimes have to computer-search for a verse using a KJV or NKJV translation because the key words I originally learned are from that translation. The KJV IS a good, word-for-word, honest, literal translation that was completed in 1611. It’s been updated and corrected over ten times—the last was the NKJV in 1982. The original KJV, including all its following updates, modifications, and corrections, were translated based on one manuscript called the Textus Receptus. The Textus Receptus is a Latin, word-for-word, New Testament translation and was compiled by several scholars (mainly spearheaded by Dutch Erasmus) in the 16th century using eight Byzantine manuscripts. Erasmus mainly used one manuscript, called Manuscript 2105. The original German "Luther Bible," the English "Tyndale Bible," and the "King James Bible" were all based on the Textus Receptus. The NASB is also a literal word-for-word translation begun in 1959 and completed in 1971, and updated in 1977 and 1995. It was translated comparing five manuscripts, all dated 100 to 800 years or more before the Textus Receptus was compiled. The NASB is widely considered to be the most literal translation available today providing a precise translation of the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek in familiar English language. There are no original copies of the New Testament books available to read today. However, we do have some 5,800 complete or fragmented Greek copies of text that date back to the first century. Plus, we also have some 10,000 manuscript copies or pieces of copies in Latin and 9300 copies in other languages. There are over 2.6 million pages of Biblical text in just the Greek. No two manuscripts are exactly alike. When you hand-write a book of the Bible on papyrus or animal skin, there are inevitably copyist errors of all kinds. Jewish scribes and Catholic Monks did a commendable job of accurately reproducing the Biblical text through the centuries. But humans are fallible. Therefore, since they were hand-written, using five manuscripts to compare and translate the NASB gives an overall more-accurate translation. Wherever there is a manuscript difference, the NASB editors make note of the difference in the margin. I’ve found the NASB to be more easily understood because it was translated in today’s language in 1977 (slightly revised in 1995) as opposed to the KJV from 1611. There are other reasons to use the NASB and someone at biblesanity.org did a good job of outlining most of them. CLICK HERE to read what they say. Other non-literal translations like the NIV are referred to as dynamic equivalents or "thought for thought." This means a person reads the Greek or Hebrew and writes down what they think the verse means. Obviously, when you inject human reasoning into translating God’s Word to make it more readable, you’ve filtered God with human/sinful nature. Often that waters down the intended meaning. I personally want to read what God said, not what someone thinks God said. I’ll let God’s Holy Spirit enlighten me to its meaning. So it's best to use Thought for Thought and Paraphrase Bibles as commentaries, not study Bibles. Again, I think the KJV is a good translation…for some reason it even sounds Godly when you read it. But it’s not inspired by God. It has errors. All translations do. Therefore, regardless of which translation you use, it’s best to spend a lot of time looking up words in the original languages—which WERE inspired by God. With computers today you can get the original word in Greek and/or Hebrew by just hovering your mouse over the word. When you consider that there are five times as many Greek words as English (up to one million English and five million Greek), translators often have had to use the same English word to translate several different Greek words. An often-cited example is our English word “love.” I can say in English, “I love to play golf,” “a mother loves her children,” “I want to make love to my wife,” or “God loves me.” “Love” can mean a lot of different things. But in the Greek those are all different Greek words. In fact, there are actually eight Greek words we translate into one English word, “Love.” Eros is physical love or sexual desire. Philia is affectionate/friendship love. Agape is unconditional, sacrificial love. Storge is love for family members. Mania is obsessive/stalker love. Ludus is playful, flirting, or noncommittal sexual love. Pragma is practical love based on duty, obligation or logic. Philautia is self-love, how one feels about their own self. So when using Greek words to describe something, the meaning in the sentence is rarely missed. Some Bible scholars go so far as to say God created the Koine Greek language (the common language of the day) specifically for accurately recording the meanings of His written Word. Makes sense to me. I LOVE everyone reading this. Guess which love! Use us, Lord! A Pipeline Of Criminals Into The United States - by Michael Snyder - https://endoftheamericandream.com/a-pipeline-of-criminals-into-the-united-states/ A relentless crime wave is raging all over America, and you would think that politicians from both major parties would be determined to do whatever they can to make things safer for all of us. Unfortunately, that isn’t what is happening. Our politicians have become so soft on crime, and violent criminals are often put right back into the streets even if they manage to get arrested. So now our streets are absolutely teeming with predators, and conditions are getting worse with each passing year. But apparently that isn’t enough for some of our politicians, and so they have opened up the floodgates and are allowing vast numbers of lawbreakers to come pouring across our borders. Let me take this one step at a time. According to Gallup, Americans now consider immigration to be the most important problem that we are facing as a nation… Significantly more Americans name immigration as the most important problem facing the U.S. (28%) than did a month ago (20%). Immigration has now passed the government as the most often cited problem, after the two issues tied for the top position the past two months. The government ranked first each month from January through November 2023. In the latest poll, 20% of Americans name the government as the most important problem, followed by the economy (12%) and inflation (11%). Immigration is the only issue that has shown meaningful change in the past month. Without a doubt, a lot of those that have been migrating to this country are hard working people that are just searching for a better life. But there are also many that are coming for other reasons. According to Bloomberg, violent deaths have been plummeting in Venezuela “following years of massive migration”… Venezuela’s rate of violent deaths dropped to its lowest level in more than two decades following years of massive migration as both criminals and victims fled the nation’s economic crisis. The Venezuelan Violence Observatory registered 26.8 violent deaths per 100,000 inhabitants this year from a rate of 35.3 for every 100,000 habitants in 2022, Roberto Briceño León, director of the Observatory, said in a webcast Thursday. That’s its lowest since 2001 and is one-third of what it was in 2016, he added. That is certainly good news for Venezuela. But where did all of those violent criminals go? Kristi Noem, who is one of the top candidates to be Donald Trump’s running mate, is claiming that Venezuela has been “emptying their prisons of dangerous criminals to send them to America”… Nations like Venezuela are emptying their prisons of dangerous criminals to send them to America. They are happy to let America’s open border be the solution to their problem. Of course this is not exactly a new allegation. All the way back in 2022, Breitbart warned that this was happening… A recent Department of Homeland Security intelligence report received by the Border Patrol instructs agents to look for Venezuelan inmates released from entering the U.S., according to a source within CBP. The report, reviewed by Breitbart Texas, indicates the Venezuelan government, under the leadership of Nicolás Maduro Moros, is purposely freeing inmates — including some convicted of murder, rape, and extortion. The intelligence report warns agents the freed prisoners have been seen within migrant caravans traveling from Tapachula, Mexico toward the U.S.-Mexico border as recently as July. The source, not authorized to speak to the media, told Breitbart Texas the move is reminiscent of a similar action taken by Cuban dictator Fidel Castro during the Mariel boat lift in the 1980s. The report does not state whether the released prison inmates were traveling as a cohesive group but does state it was commonly shared knowledge among migrants traveling to the United States within a caravan in July that many of the Venezuelan migrants in the group were convicts and included hardened criminals. If such allegations are actually true, this is a very, very serious threat to our country. Violent criminals from Venezuela have certainly been popping up in the news a lot lately. For example, a 32-year-old Venezuelan man just sexually assaulted a minor in Virginia… Authorities in Virginia have arrested a 32-year-old Venezuelan migrant in connection with a sexual assault on a minor, the Campbell County Sheriff’s Office confirmed to Fox News. The Campbell County Sheriff’s Office said that Renzo Mendoza Montes, 32, was arrested on Thursday, February 22, on two felony charges in connection with a sexual assault on a minor. According to deputies, Mendoza is a Venezuelan citizen who is in the country illegally after being detained and released by US Customs and Border Patrol in El Paso, Texas, on September 2, 2023. And by now all of you have probably heard about the tragic murder of nursing student Laken Riley in Georgia… Neighbors of the Venezuelan migrant accused of killing nursing student Laken Riley claimed he would watch the running path all day long and that he was seen on security cameras throwing out bloody clothes on the day of the attack. Jose Antonio Ibarra, 26, was arrested at his apartment complex near the running trail close to where Riley’s body was found last week. Residents of the complex told NewsNation’s Alex Caprariello that their security cameras captured Ibarra disposing of evidence in the building’s dumpster, which they turned over to police. If our borders were secure and our immigration laws were being enforced, these horrible tragedies and countless others may have been avoided. This is why so many Americans consider immigration to be such an important issue. We just want our families to be safe. Our legal immigration process exists for a reason. If people are going to come here, we should make sure that they aren’t violent criminals. Is that too much to ask? Right now, there is so much frustration about the immigration crisis that we are facing. Earlier this week, Elon Musk expressed how he feels about all of this… On Tuesday, Musk reacted to a report from Fox News’ Bill Melugin that Sen. Laphonza Butler, D-Calif., is requesting federal funds to provide more beds for a migrant shelter in San Diego. Butler said 800 to 1,000 migrants will be mass released daily if the bankrupt shelter does not gain access to additional funds. “Dams are bursting all over the country,” Musk wrote in a post that quoted Melugin. “America is only 4% of Earth’s population. If only 1% of the rest of Earth moves here, that would crush all essential services.” “I am ringing the alarm bell, because the flood of illegals is crushing the country!” the billionaire explained. This crisis has exploded over the last several years, but it goes back a lot longer than that. We have been doing things the wrong way for a very long time, and now we are paying an exceedingly high price for our foolishness. Daily Jot: Christian Nationalists - Bill Wilson – www.dailyjot.com The news media, radical leftists and the Democratic Party are labeling conservative Christians as new Nazis. The direct term is “Christian Nationalists,” a radical brand of Christianity that is detrimental to the “state” because it believes the values of the Christian faith should be represented in government. Politico investigative reporter Heidi Przybyla said on February 22nd’s edition of MSNBC’s “All In” that Christian nationalists, not Christians, believe rights come from God. She said they are problematic because, “they believe that our rights as Americans, as all human beings, don’t come from any earthly authority. They don’t come from Congress. They don’t come from the Supreme Court, they come from God.” This is antithetical to the American form of government. The Declaration of Independence clearly stated that no authority other than God gave our rights. The Declaration says, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” This is the exact opposite of what Przbyla and her Marxist minions believe is the construct of American civil rights. From the time of Plato to Thomas Hobbes to John Locke in the 1600s, to our Founding Fathers in the 1700s to Marx in the 1800s, men attempted to define the need of government in society. Plato wrote of an utopian communistic society as did Hobbes, who used Biblical imagery in his essay “Leviathan” to describe the all-powerful government. Marx wanted to ban all religion. Their systems essentially focused on the idea that man is inherently evil and must be strongly governed by a “benevolent” sovereign. Locke, however, saw that God created man in his own image, gave him dominion over the earth, and gave him laws by which to live. Locke believed these inalienable God-given rights were those of life, freedom, and property. He believed that governments were needed to impartially enforce the laws of God. In other words, man would give up some of his freedom for the protection of government in civil society. Otherwise, he should be left to prosper by his own value add, which is his labor. Founder John Adams said, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” The rule of law is the law of freedom instituted by God. When the law of God is written in our hearts, we want to do what is right because we embody the righteousness of God. The law in stone—where man does what is right in his own eyes–results in the kind of culture we have today where law is used to undermine families, religion, and the community as a whole. May we be a Jeremiah 31:32 people as the Lord declared, “I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.” Christians participating in government and guided by God’s Word–Christian nationalism–is what the Founders intended. No wonder the enemies of God label it a threat. Sources: https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2024/02/23/politicos-przybyla-christian-nationalists-not-christians-believe-rights-come-from-god/ Daily Devotion: The Only Way We Can Know God - by Greg Laurie – www.harvest.org In fact, according to the law of Moses, nearly everything was purified with blood. For without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. —Hebrews 9:22 https://harvest.org/resources/devotion/the-only-way-we-can-know-god/ - Listen The classic hymn by Robert Lowry says, “What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. O precious is the flow that makes me white as snow; no other fount I know; nothing but the blood of Jesus.” Sometimes, even people who are Christians say things like, “I think that other people may find their own path to God. Who am I to say they can’t know God if they haven’t come through Christ? I found my way to God through Christ. But maybe someone else has found their way through another path.” That may sound sweet and touching, but it is not biblical thinking. The Bible clearly teaches that without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins (see Hebrews 9:22). This is God’s order. He set it up. In the Old Testament, a priest sacrificed an animal for a person’s sin. In the New Testament, Jesus Christ fulfilled all that the Old Testament pointed to. He became the Lamb of God who took away the sin of the world (see John 1:29). Now, the only way that we can know God is through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. We can only come to God through Jesus Christ. And if we are not coming to Him through the blood of Christ, then we cannot know God. We don’t come to God because we seek to follow the example of Jesus alone. No one can do that. If anything, if we were to take an honest look at Jesus’ life, it would show us how far we fall short. We don’t gain access to God because we try to live by the teachings of Jesus, as wonderful and profound as they are as the words of God to us. It isn’t following His teaching alone that does it. If we honestly look at the teaching of Jesus, it will make us aware of our own sinful condition. In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, among other things, “But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48 NLT). He also said that God looks at our hearts as well as our actions. His teaching drives us to Him. So, can we approach God because we’re worthy? No. It is built upon a relationship that stands, no matter what our state may be. Jesus died on the cross and shed His blood for us so that we could be forgiven of our sins. We put our complete trust in Him because it is only through His blood that we can approach God. It is one thing to know that God has done this for us and to say that we believe it’s true. But we need to ask ourselves these questions: Have we applied it in our lives? Are we applying it to the situations that we’re facing? We have open access to God through the blood of Jesus Christ. There is no other way. PROPHECY UPDATE NEWS HEADLINES Yesterday's Prophecies - Today's Headlines HEADLINES IN PARTNERSHIP WITH TRACKING BIBLE PROPHECY 2/28/24 http://trackingbibleprophecy.org/birthpangs.php
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