Our Nation Is Literally Coming Apart at the Seams
The violence that resulted from the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, has been shocking to observe. In less than a week’s time of unrest, over 300 businesses have been destroyed in the twin cities area. The violence and looting have spread to several other cities.
I watched YouTube videos that show levels of destruction that I would have never thought possible. In New York and Los Angeles, thousands of people were moving with military precision to strip whole city blocks of anything of value. There are groups that are using highly organized efforts to orchestrate violence on a nationwide basis. The most shocking thing is that 40,000 police in New York were unable to contend with mobs of people who have no regard for the law.
The unrest has been the most widespread in the United States since 1968, when cities went up in flames over the slaying of civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr., and rekindled memories of 1992 riots in Los Angeles after police were acquitted in the brutal beating of black motorist Rodney King.
The whole Black Lives Matter movement is not doing African Americans any good. Over the past six years, the value of life has been in a steady descent with each major incident.
On August 9, 2014, Michael Brown Jr., an 18-year-old black man, was fatally shot by 28-year-old white Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson in the city of Ferguson, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis. Michael Brown pushed Officer Wilson back into his squad car and proceeded to punch him in the face. They struggled for the officer’s gun. Michael Brown then continued to beat the officer nearly unconscious. Wilson gained full control of his weapon and shot Ferguson six times.
November 24, 2014, a St. Louis County grand jury had decided not to indict Wilson. On March 4, 2015, the U.S. Department of Justice reported the conclusion of its own investigation and cleared Wilson of civil rights violations in the shooting.
On April 12, 2015, Baltimore Police Department officers arrested Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old African American resident of Baltimore, Maryland. Gray sustained injuries to his neck and spine while in transport in a police vehicle. On April 18, 2015, after Gray’s subsequent coma, the residents of Baltimore protested in front of the Western district police station. Gray died the following day, April 19, 2015, a week after the arrest.
On May 1, 2015, Gray’s death was ruled by the medical examiner to be a homicide. Six officers were charged with various offenses, including second-degree murder, in connection with Gray’s death. Three officers were subsequently acquitted; in July 2016, following the acquittals, Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby dropped charges against the remaining three officers.
The death of George Floyd seems to be an open and shut case. The officer had his knee on Floyd’s neck for ten minutes. Despite Floyd saying he can’t breathe and witnesses telling the officer on video of the problem, he continued to apply pressure to Floyd’s neck long after he quit breathing. Derek Chauvin, the officer involved in George Floyd’s death, had 17 complaints filed against him during his career.
The root of the problem is the collapse of our moral foundations. Our nation has turned its back on God, and we have been given over to the pitfalls of sin. The only form of moral compass we have today is from Democratic mayors and governors that issue meaningless platitude:
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio is blaming the violence being seen at protests in Brooklyn and Manhattan on people with a “warped ideology.” Speaking to Spectrum News, de Blasio said a “small number” of people at these protests are “clearly trying to incite violence against the police, and create property damage and vandalism.”
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey: “This is about violence, and we need to make sure that it stops. We’re in the middle of a pandemic right now. We have two crises that are sandwiched on top of one another.”
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz: “Let’s be very clear. The situation in Minneapolis is no longer in any way about the murder of George Floyd. It is about attacking civil society, instilling fear and disrupting our great cities.
The greatest threat to blacks isn’t from police officers or even the Ku Klux Klan. Read the FBI crime statistics. Check out white-on-black crime, black-on-white crime, and black-on-black crime. Is the truth racist? Do numbers, in this instance, lie?
An important underlying factor is the “gangsta” sub-culture that’s so alluring to minority youth. No, I didn’t attack a skin color; I’ve addressed a destructive mindset of machismo, violence, profanity, prolific promiscuity and lawlessness that directly leads to low expectations, broken families, substance abuse, poverty, incarceration and death. Until it’s addressed forthrightly by blacks and whites, this problem isn’t going away.
BET founder Bob Johnson unveiled a $14.7 trillion reparations plan; he looks at it as an investment. Unless White America recognizes the need for reparations to atone for slavery, the country will remain separate and unequal, says Johnson. Some folks seem to be taking their reparations early in payment of shoes, jewelry and other looted goods.
I am greatly concerned that the luxuries that blacks already have will soon be taken away from them. Our economy is on the brink of calamity. We cannot keep pumping trillions of dollars into a system that has no ability to service this debt. When the dollar crashes in value and the welfare state quits working, people will make this recent violence look like a Sunday picnic.
When the unrest reaches a level that threatens the stability of the government, military action becomes the only way to restore order. The tear gas will be replaced with live rounds, and fear of death will replace the rule of law.
“And I say unto you my friends, be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, fear him” (Luke 12:4-5).
–Todd
Post-Rapture Rage
Pat Robertson was once heard to say on his TV program that there couldn’t be a sudden disappearance of millions of people. That would cause such chaos and carnage that such a thing just couldn’t happen. I paraphrase, but that was very close to his declaration.
He said that it would mean cars would have massive accidents, airplanes would crash, and the world would just come unglued. This was just not going to happen, he adamantly said.
I haven’t a clue of where he was going with this except to suspect that he was making known his genuine disdain for the teaching of Rapture—particularly of the pre-Trib Rapture. He consistently railed against the teaching at the time.
This isn’t meant to cast aspersions upon Mr. Robertson. But the words I remember him saying do open up my thinking regarding things that will begin taking place immediately when people all over the world suddenly vanish before the eyes of those left behind, or when people are missing the next day where it is nighttime and most people are sleeping when the Rapture occurs.
The matter that sparked this thinking also is the explosion of violence that erupted when George Floyd, an African-American, was killed by the Minneapolis policeman just over a week ago.
Video of the officer pressing his knee into the neck of Mr. Floyd until he died went viral. It appeared to be murder caught in the act—on video recording. Even the victim’s begging to be allowed to breathe before he died was there for the world to see and hear.
Like in the cases of violence in American cities in the previous incidents where black men were killed by actions of white policemen and by a “white Hispanic” man, the city of the killing, Minneapolis, exploded in violence. The white-hot rage spread to many other large cities around America. Police vehicles were damaged and burned; the police precinct building near the scene of Mr. Floyd’s death was invaded and burned to the ground. The police fled the scene and left it to the anarchists for the most part.
Looters entered and stole all they could get, destroying buildings and businesses in the process.
Like in other cases of what was deemed police brutality, the media quickly, in my view, encouraged the violence by giving the rioters camera time and even moral support. The genuine expressions of protestation—the acts of the ones who lawfully assembled to express their anger—were lost in the anarchy that ensued.
Even CNN’s headquarters being targeted for destruction in Atlanta didn’t cause that media entity to come against the rioters to any meaningful extent. To my way of thinking, it was for that news organization, like for the anarchists, yet another opportunity to push the anti-American agenda they seem to champion.
This all, again, brought to mind the belief of those who have opinions on the Rapture—whether it will occur or is a prophetic event that will not happen.
Particularly, I’m interested in examining the opinions of those who believe the Rapture is going to occur, but who think it will have little effect on American life. It will, I’ve heard these say, hardly be noticed when it happens. Their reasoning is that there are so few “real Christians” that their numbers missing will have no significant effect.
It’s dumbfounding to think that those with such a view have witnessed the American inner cities go insane with rage over one incident and used that incident to burn and loot believe that the disappearance of millions will cause but a ripple. And factors even more traumatic than just the disappearance must be considered.
The first is the fact that every child, even those still in the womb, will be gone in that instant. We’ve gone over a number of times why this is so, as God’s very character is at stake. How can anyone believe that the national psyche will remain untouched—or touched very little—by such an occurrence?
Second, and even more importantly, the Holy Spirit will, in that moment remove as the Restrainer of evil, according to 2 Thessalonians 2. If people act as they have in the recent madness by burning their cities and looting at every opportunity, how will they react to the Rapture? Do these who think it will have little effect on society and culture really believe the anarchists won’t go completely insane with their consciences having been shed of all restraint?
We’ve seen, I believe, just a foretaste of what that post-Rapture time will be like immediately following Christ’s call to the Church. It is something for profound consideration. Would anyone want those they love to be left behind to suffer the throes of enragement witnessed within America’s cities the past week? The reality of that time will almost certainly be infinitely worse than what occurred following the outrageous killing of Mr. Floyd on the street in Minneapolis.
To avoid the post-Rapture rage, it is wise to accept pre-Rapture salvation through the grace-gift offer of the God who said:
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)
—Terry
***Major documentary request from Terry James***
We ask our RR family to let us know anyone of your aquaintence who is a survivor of the Nazi holocaust.
Here are details from my friend Dr. Thomas Horn.
SkyWatch TV, SkyWatch Films and Defender Publishing plan to produce a documentary, a section of which will focus on WW2 and Hitler’s Final Solution. We would like to include an interview(s) with a Jewish survivor of the Holocaust, preferably a Messianic Jew –but they could be orthodox We also plan to interview soldier(s) that fought with allied forces against and/or survived the Nazi’s.
If anybody happens to know any such persons or organization you could put us in contact with, we plan to start production this summer and would like to make contact and details very soon.
Dr. Thomas Horn
SkyWatch TV
417-723-0610
Or write to me, Terry, at