[Darris McNeely] After a great deal of stress during this year of 2020, we've had the pandemic, we have had an economic crisis, and now more recently, a civil crisis of protests and riots in the streets of the United States and I think that all of us are finally beginning to realize that something big is happening. In fact, just recently, one of our young staffers came to me and asked me is, "What is going on in America right now, the protests, with the riots? Is it worse than it was in the 1960s?" Well, of course, I was quite a bit alive during the 1960s and remember 1968 and protests during that period of time of a great deal of political crisis and civil unrest that took place during that time. And my answer is it's worse. What's going on today is worse. Now, why would I say that? Well, I would say that because we are 50 years...more than 50 years down the road from where we were in 1968. The world is more dangerous right now with what has taken place on the world scene. There are great powers that wish to replace the United States of America that creates certain tensions. In America, sin, moral decay, and problems have now continued to fester and to grow and they have deeper roots in our culture and we are seeing that all across the spectrum of American culture today. America has been further weakened internally, and that's really, in big part, what makes it a great deal worse. And though we are still very powerful and consequential as a nation in the world scene, there's a great deal of decay that we're beginning to see come out.

And so, my answer to the staffer was, "It's a whole lot worse," and it included this and a few other comments as well. But it got me to thinking about a scripture in Jeremiah 6:16-17 where God says through the prophet about things that are to be remembered and understood within a culture and a society. It says, "Stand in the ways and see and ask for the old paths where the good way is and walk in it that you will find rest for your souls. But they said," and speaking about the people at the day, the prophet records, "We will not walk in it." They didn't wanna walk in the old ways. And yet, here, the teaching is to stand in the old paths, to stand and be able to see what the perspective, the past, the present, but with the perspective of God's Word. And that's what we talk a great deal about on "Beyond Today," a biblical worldview that is rooted in the word of God and Bible prophecy. And it goes on to say, "I set a watchman over you saying, 'Listen to the sound of the trumpet.' But they said we will not listen."

And so, my point to our staff person and to all of us is to continue to watch, to understand, to be able to have a breadth of history, not only in American history, but biblical history, and especially Bible prophecy and developing a worldview of what is taking place here. This was echoed to me in another article that I read out of "The Wall Street Journal" this week that made this comment where this commentator was saying that with the health crisis and economic crisis and the unrest in America, we are so much further down the road of problems that we are involved with at this particular time and the entire world order that has built America and what it is, is in jeopardy of collapse. It is a very serious time, but if we have the proper view of the world and of the Bible based on God's teaching and Bible prophecy, we can stand in those paths and understand what we should do.

That's "BT Daily." Join us next time.