Another open massacre of people in a public place has happened. Actually within a very short amount of time two of them happened. This was followed by the usual sad tale of the events being painted for political advantage. Since I am not a part of this type of public debacle, I’ve grown numb to it. But there is a response I am a part of in our culture. I am a part of those who say that my thoughts and prayers are with those who suffered the horror of losing loved ones - or with those who face waking up tomorrow and deciding whether to go to Walmart or not. My thoughts and prayers are with those who now face fear, very real fear now that their relatively peaceful community has been shattered by senseless violence and insanity. What is difficult is to hear too many say that offering thoughts and prayers is useless, or even worse, counterproductive. As a Christian leader such words are like a slap in the face. But today, as I spent time reading God’s Word, I was struck not by godless liberals - but by God Himself. It was quite a shock when this happened, yet it did. If you will indulge me for a few minutes, I’d like to share what happened. Deuteronomy 31 was the chapter where I was reading, and these were the words that struck my heart with great force. "Then My anger will be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them and hide My face from them, and they will be consumed, and many evils and troubles will come upon them; so that they will say in that day, 'Is it not because our God is not among us that these evils have come upon us?' "But I will surely hide My face in that day because of all the evil which they will do, for they will turn to other gods.” Deuteronomy 31:17-18 This section is where God speaks to Moses about how God’s people will turn from Him after Moses dies. It is in this context where God says the above statement. There were two things that caught my attention immediately. First was that when they depart from God and no longer obey Him - His anger will be kindled. When God hides His face from them - there will be “many evils and troubles” that will come upon them. Before I continue though, I want to make a very important distinction. This was not written to the ungodly or unbelievers. This was written to those who were supposedly believers. They had left God. They no longer obeyed Him or gave Him honor. The result was that God hid Himself from them. They no longer knew His presence and favor and protection as a society. The result was that evils and troubles came upon them - many of them. These kind of things were said to consume them. I could not help but think of our current situation and all those that have gone before it. But why would God allow these things to happen? Then I read the rest of the passage. Secondly, I saw the reason God allowed this. It was to get the attention of His people so that they would recognize something very important. Here is the quote. “Is it not because our God is not among us that these evils have come upon us?” Again I am not writing to the ungodly saying this. It is not the ungodly who will recognize this. They could not care less about the presence of God. But Christians . . . the faithful and the believers should recognize this. Do we realize that God is not among us, at least not in power sufficient to see our culture changed. For generations the culture has been changing the church when it should be the other way around. All of this was like a slap in the face. And so I believe the Lord began to ask me the very pointed question. “Are you truly thinking and praying about what is happening?” I had to stop reacting to my pride being injured (for you will see there was not that much to be proud of) and begin to ask that same question. Am I thinking about what is happening in my nation? Do I recognize the lack of God’s presence and blessing in the United States of America? Have I grasped what a horror it is that heritage of godly men and women of the past has NOT been handed down to this generation? Have I thought about the lack of God’s protective hand over our nation, over our schools, our homes, our cities? Have I thought about the fact that we are a divided nation? Have I considered that probably the only time when our nation was more divided was before the Civil War? How much thinking have I put into where we are? Honestly, I’ve not thought about it in God’s presence much. I’ve spend time listening to others trying to sway me one way or the other. I’ve even had times where I was caught up in anger and frustration about it. But as for genuine time spent being concerned for the things of God and the lack of His presence in my life and in the life of the church, there has not been much time at all spent. Maybe those criticizing us have a point? Then came a question as to my prayers. Outside of throwing a few brief prayers about those hurting and struggling with losing family and friends - I have not prayed all that much. I’ve prayed, but have I really prayed? Let me explain that statement for a moment. It is one thing to pray once for those who have lost loved ones in these events. But have I prayed about the cause? How long and how often have I been disturbed about the fact that God is not among us? Now I know that there will be some who will come back with a theologically correct statement that He is always with us. But let me ask even them. Do we truly know God’s favor in this nation? Can we honestly say that His favor rests on the United States? When was the last time our nation was truly rocked by a national revival? When was the last move of God upon our nation that resulted in righteousness being restored in our land? When was it that the churches were filled with broken, repenting saints getting right with God and each other? When was it that we watched what I just said result in a wave of effective evangelism blow across our nation like a breath of fresh air? If I were completely honest with you I would have to say that I have not known of one in my lifetime. So what am I doing about it. I am among those who think that the political leaders of our land cannot answer what is happening today. They are part of the problem and too many are more concerned with their re-election that they are with re-viving our national conscience and character. Only God can turn our nation around. In light of that “so-called belief” of mine, am I praying? I say that I am. “Let them know that they are in my thoughts and prayers.” Are they? Am I praying with a brokenness and repentant heart because the Lord is no longer with us in the United States? Am I crying out to Him for revival and His return in power upon His church? Are we doing this? Are we crying out to God for revival and His return to the church? Are we crying out for God to do such a work that our “national character” is affected? Then where are all the prayer meetings happening in our nation right now? Where are the gathering of God’s people to repent and return to Him - calling upon Him to revive us again so that we will rejoice in Him? Here is my conclusion after truly thinking and praying about this. I know many in the religious community will not like this conclusion. I think we honestly deserve the derision of the ungodly in our nation. But I do not think we need to respond by being offended and by lashing out with our own view of how they are not helping things either. Here is what I truly believe we should do. I think we should passionately give ourselves to thoughts and prayers concerning these things. Whether or not they know it or would even admit it, thoughts and prayers are very powerful. They exhibit their greatest power when they are followed by action and a renewed commitment to spending the gospel to our nation. They are truly a powerhouse when thoughts and prayers yield a church filled with those who are rich in good works, rich in gospel proclamation, and rich in the power of God to truly change hearts. May God have mercy on me (and us) for not truly thinking and praying for our nation. AND - may He return to us - return in power because we think as He thinks - pray and He leads - and live as He dictates. That, my precious fellow saints, is what we truly need in this hour.
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Getting cash to buy bread in Weimar Germany Many really don't know what is actually happening with the current FED policy called, Qualitative Easing parts 1, 2, and now 3. We are being told that this is a stimulus for our sluggish economy. There are little more than empty promises that this will help put more money into our economy - thus making it more solvent and better for all of us. Such statements are policy statements at best, and lying propaganda statements at worst. What is slowly happening with these moves by the FED is that our money is slowly being made worthless green pieces of paper. The only inaccuracy in that statement is that this is a slow process. Unfortunately there is going to be a day very soon when we will experience a crash similar to that which was experienced by the 1920's Weimar Republic in Germany. Let me explain a little more - and hopefully also tie this to what is going to happen in these last days. The Weimar Republic was the government in Germany after WWI. Due to a number of different factors, this government was facing great financial difficulties. During WWI Germany had borrowed tremendous amounts of money. The debt of Germany had risen from 3 billion to 55 billion marks. The way the government decided to deal with this was to "monetize" the debt. To "monetize" a debt simply means to print money to pay it. The problem is that the printed money has nothing to back it and make it worth anything. The result of monetizing their debt was disastrous. Since their money was worth nothing - it created hyperinflation. The price of everything went through the ceiling. The way the German government dealt with this was to further print worthless money. By 1922-23 hyperinflation exploded and the result was skyrocketing prices for EVERYTHING! Rising prices is something that we've learned to deal with - and some say that we will see increases in prices - but that inflation will remain under control in all of our Quantitative Easing - or monetizing our debt. To give you a little better idea of the increase of prices in Germany I will offer an example. In July of 1914 you could buy a loaf of bread for 1 mark. After they monetized their debt with their own version of QE-1, prices began to soar. By July of 1922 that same loaf of bread cost 100.6 marks. But even though that kind of inflation seems outrageous, it was nothing compared to what was to come. German government officials decided in 1922 to buy some of their debt in the form of bonds from the world markets. They did this by printing a whole lot of worthless paper money. Their hope was to create a stimulus of their economy through these actions. But what happened turned German financial markets - and prices in the street into a disaster zone. A loaf of bread shot from 100.6 marks in July 1922 to 2785 marks by January 1923. But this was nothing compared to the hyperinflation that was about to be released. A year later, in July 1923 a loaf of bread would cost 194,000 marks - and by November of that same year, 1923, the cost of a loaf of bread shot to 726,000,000,000 marks. All because the nation thought they could print money to deal with their financial problems. This seems crazy when you read it, I know, but it is all in the history books and can be verified quite easily. The decision today to initiate QE-3 is a step toward a financial cliff over which it is almost beyond our power to now avoid. The FED has stated that QE-3 is an effort to buy hundreds of billions of dollars of our government's debt bonds in the open market. What are we going to use to pay for them? Money that will be printed by the FED. What backs that money? NOTHING! We are attempting to do what the Weimar Republic did from 1914-1923 - but think we can do it without any financial repercussions. Here is the truth - we cannot! This move to initiate QE-3 is simply another order to start the printing presses of the FED. We are printing money that one day won't be worth the paper it is printed upon. What is even crazier is that the Legislative branch of our government just voted to continue to fund itself at current levels for the next 6 months because very few have the guts to tell the collective United States electorate that the emperor doesn't have any financial clothes. They are more interested in being re-elected than in doing the hard work of governing responsibly. By the way this required a bi-partisan response from both Republicans and Democrats. Hardly anyone is willing to say the truth about all this - even fewer are willing to tell us we are far beyond broke. We are flying down the path of the Weimar Republic - and no one is willing to be honest about it. Now, how does all this fit in with the Biblical last day's scenario? First of all, it is a preface to a world without cash. Since pretty much every currency is going to be worthless - why have money at all. There will be moves to remove cash from society - and for the world to work only within the framework of electronic money. This move will help us toward the second thing that is being prepared in our day - biometric chips or some other device that will have all our financial, medical, and government records on them. Thus we can run the back of our hand over a scanner or stand in front of a camera and have all our finances done electronically. This paves the way for the antichrist to institute a program where he will control all spending - and will tie it to worshiping him. The third thing that will happen is that great chaos will sweep over the world in the wake of the dollar and the euro crashing and becoming utterly worthless over a short period of time. Remember what happened in the wake of the Weimar Republic's financial stupidity. A period of horrific financial depression resulted - followed by the rise of a very charismatic leader named Adolph Hitler. When people are struggling to be able to survive - they will follow anyone - even a crazed, satanic dictator. What is about to happen worldwide due to the crash of the dollar and the euro is going to make the Weimar Republic financial disaster look like a picnic in the park. QE-3 is going to result in financial disaster. The worthless paper money that will be pumped into our system is going to do nothing except further depress it in the end. Prices will one day begin to explode - first by 10% all the way to 100% over a few years. The real disaster will come quickly as that horrific 100% increase will be eclipsed by 1000%, 100,000%, and even 1,000,000,000% increases in prices throughout our economy. IT IS COMING! The only way that we can avert it is to face up to the foolishness of what we are doing currently. That will radically affect the elections this Fall - not toward a Republican or Democratic leanings. It will require us to elect HONEST politicians who will tell us the truth - in all of its ugly overtones - and in all of its horrible consequences. But, to be honest, I don't see that happening. What I see is eminent financial disaster - followed by a descent into chaos and anarchy. Why? Because have not nor will we learn from the history of the Weimar Republic. But I truly see that what awaits us in this difficult repeat of history is something far more sinister than Adolph Hitler. The one who will rise to power over the rubble of world economic disaster (and most likely a major attack on Israel - see Ezekiel 37-38) will fulfill much prophecy in doing so. But, do not fear, little flock, for this has all been prophesied previously. Yes, things will get very difficult - and the world will face a 7 year period unlike anything it has ever seen or ever will see. But you, saints of God, lift up your heads - for in the midst of the chaos, destruction - your redemption draws near! Just recently I've finished reading through the prophets in the Old Testament. I do this at least once a year as I read through the Bible. This year, however, their voice is reverberating in my mind and heart as I look at our nation and what God is currently doing. Let me share with you what I saw this year - and how it relates to our nation, our coming election, and the difficulties and disasters which I believe are in our future. Please also let me share why God, in His sovereign providence, is allowing them.
First, I need to comment on the state of the church leading up to this coming election. As the saints of God we are to get our marching orders from heaven. Those directives come to us through the Scriptures. I fear that too many in the conservative wing of the evangelical think that their marching orders are coming from the RNC or the Tea Party. There is an errant notion that by electing Governor Romney as president and a Republican majority in the House and Senate - our problems will be on the way to being solved in this nation. Even though I believe in voting in elections and seeking for political action toward things like abortion, homosexual marriage, racism, and matters of justice and righteousness - I do not see the United States government (even if it is the hands of conservatives) doing a whole lot to advance righteousness in America. They may use such things as election issues - but I've been burned to many times over 32 years of voting by their actual ruling looking little like their stump speeches. Also, I seem to notice in Matthew 28:18-19 that Jesus did not call us to go and make Republicans of all the nations. We are called to God's will in conduct, purpose, principle, and action. That won't fly in any political arena in present day politics. And I am not willing to cede the work of the gospel to those who are offended that the Bible presents truths that show that Muslims, Mormans, Hindus, Buddhists, and anyone else who does not repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ are lost and destined for God's judgment. Such things are not up for a vote. As I've read the prophets this year I've been somewhat overwhelmed with the reality that God commands us to repent and return to Him. If we do not repent - if we continue to serve other gods - gods acceptable to our culture and acceptable to our flesh - God will begin bringing difficulties upon His people. The prophets thunder with God's unrelenting call to Himself. They do not apologize that God is sovereign. They do not apologize for His moral standards. They do not apologize that God authoritatively calls men to worship and serve Him only. And they certainly do not want to make adjustments so that the Baal worshippers, the Asherah-adherants, and the worshppers of other false gods can feel more comfortable and be a part of a "big-tent." The prophets say things very offensive to a multi-cultural world - not so much to the culture - but to anything driven by a culture's embrace of false deities. But God is not focused on the "lost" in the prophets. He is focused on His people - those who should know better. He is focused on calling His people to much needed repentance. What happens in a society when its Christians refuse to return and to repent? According to the prophets, God begins to remove first His blessing and later His protection from them and from their nation. If you've ever read the prophets you know that over time this can get very rough. God will allow earthquakes, disasters, and military conquest to overtake His people. Israel and Judah experienced horrific consequences for their love of foreign gods and the lifestyles that came with them. Baal and Asherah embraced a lifestyle of sexual immorality. Marriage was denigrated as first men committed heterosexual immoralities - and eventually moved on to homosexuality as well. Those who think the 1960's ushered in free love, know little about how far Israel and Judah fell in their pursuit of these false deities. The worship of Molech led many to sacrifice their babies in a firey death. Those who see such a thing as disgusting should remember the modern day Molech - Planned Parenthood - who promote the sacrifice of babies for the sake of supposed greater sexual freedom. Actually what they are getting is greater sexual bondage in the guise of immorality without consequences. Then there is the immorality that disguises itself as free trade, or socialism, or communism, or any other "ism" that takes precedent over Scriptural principles of business or government. You see, our culture is not all that different from the days of the prophets. We have just named things with a more sophisticated name - hiding the hideousness of what they truly are. We've also got better at lying about the true nature of things while ignoring Scripture - and occasionally insulting God and the way that He needs to improve His own image by becoming far more "hip" and "culturally-sensitive." The truth is, WE are Israel and Judah in the times of the prophets! WE have our modern day worship of Baal, Asherah, and Molech - along with calls for accepting the gods of Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, and a host of cults embraced even by political candidates of our day (oops, did I say that out loud - nope, just wrote it). But the church is different, some may assert! But my question to you is to take a long look at her and answer the question, "Is it?" Do you see a movement of repentance and return in the church today? Do you see scores of people in broken repentance and prayer meetings where they are crying out for revival? Do you see the church expanding its evangelsitic outreach the point of being persecuted by groups whose numbers are being decimated by the number of people being saved? Do you see complaints by wicked businesses Who sell porn and other ungodly products that the church and her efforts in evangelism is hurting their bottom line? God calls us in 2 Chronicles 7:14 to "humble ourselves, pray, seek His face, and turn from our wicked ways. Read of the revivals that took place in the 1700-1800's. Read of what took place on a far wider scale in our country. Imagine what they would look like in our day - a revival driven by repentance, brokenness, and prayer. A revival with the aisles filled with repentant church members - and others being radically saved from sin. What then am I trying to say through all this? After reading the prophets . . . honestly - I'm concerned - no - I'm scared. We are about to be ushered into MORE discipline as a nation - and that discipline is meant to wake-up God's people to repentance, prayer, and brokenness. I don't want to say this - but sense the need to do so for the sake of the saints who read this. We are about to experience events that will make 9-11 look like a picnic in the park. God tried to wake us up by allowing that disaster to come upon us. We didn't wake up though. Therefore - more is coming. Far worse is coming. Do I know what that will be? No, because I am not a prophet. But I can tell you that things like a devastating earthquake come to mind. Military disasters that involve the destruction of entire armies have happened to God's people. Drought and famine are also options for God. He has soereignly allowed the destruction of entire cities - whch is terrifying in our day of bombs that can do that in a matter of moments. With our current arrogance toward money - a complete financial collapse unlike anything we've ever seen is very possible. All these things and a dozen others are possible - even probable considering our currrent lack of response to God's call to pray and seek His face. I read recently where the Mississippi river is at historic lows. If the drought we are in continues, it is possible to see the Mississippi so low that no boat traffic is allowed. That will cut off over 300 million dollars of commerce a day. That is a monthly total of 9 billion dollars of our economy stifled. The prognosticators said that would throw our natin into depression within 2 months. Kind of sobering isn't it? I can hear the comment, "Why are you writing stuff like this, pastor John?" Do you get some kind of sick thrill scaring people to death? NO! A thousand times NO! That is not my intent. My intent is to help wake up Christians to what is looming in our future. Do you really think God is going to continue to bless our nation as it is currently going? Do you really think that the church is not going to be affected by what happens in our nation? Do you really think that by maintaining a positive confession in the midst of such spiritual squallor that we will be delivered? God is going to continue allowing greater and greater disasters and troubles to come upon us until we repent, drop to our knees, and begin to cry out in desperate prayer for revival in the church and spiritual awakening in our land! This is not going to magically get better - neither is it going to be averted by electing a Morman as president and a group of Tea Party conservatives to the Congress - who have NO INTENT on addressing the moral and spiritual rot of the church and our country. We are currently as blind as Israel and Judah during the times of the prophets. The same situations and the same false prophets of health, wealth, prosperity, and "nothing bad is going to happen to us" exist today. The political leaders (kings in those days) who made a difference made it by leading the nation to repentance and a whole-hearted return to God. Such a leader who would start doing this in our day - would most likely be impeached for such actions. OK, I understand that the vast majority of us are pretty much at a point of tuning out anything that has to do with the words, “debt ceiling.” I know that I am. Yet what is happening currently is part of what God is doing in our world. Let me explain a little more by sharing a section of Scripture that I believe will shed a great deal of light on our problems. It is found in the wildly popular book of Habakkuk.
Behold, as for the proud one, His soul is not right within him; but the righteous will live by his faith. Furthermore, wine betrays the haughty man, so that he does not stay at home. He enlarges his appetite like Sheol, and he is like death, never satisfied. He also gathers to himself all nations and collects to himself all peoples. Will not all of these take up a taunt-song against him, even mockery and insinuations against him and say, 'Woe to him who increases what is not his— for how long— and makes himself rich with loans?' Will not your creditors rise up suddenly, and those who collect from you awaken? Indeed, you will become plunder for them. Because you have looted many nations, all the remainder of the peoples will loot you— because of human bloodshed and violence done to the land, to the town and all its inhabitants. Habakkuk 2:4-8 Here we have Habakkuk warning of problems that are coming to Israel because of choices – moral choices that they have made. His first warning is not about budgets or spending bills – rather it is a warning against pride and not being right with God. He warns about those who give themselves to drunkenness – to being out all the time – and to an appetite that never seems to be satisfied, no matter how much he gets. These sins are at work – and lead to a “woe” statement God makes about them. Before I proceed to the “WOE” that is given I must comment on what has just been said. We have those in our government who think our greatest problems are economic. They fear the debt ceiling, the mounting debt, the lack of jobs, the anemic economy – and see these as the problems. But to co-opt a phrase that was used several elections ago – changing it for our current scenario, “It’s our morals stupid!” Now I am not a fan of using the term, “stupid” and have only done so for the point I am about to make. The core of what God says through Habakkuk has to do with the morals of the people of Israel – not their current economic plans and packages. We are going to have to wake up some day (the sooner the better) and grasp that our problems in America are moral ones. The economy is only a symptom of our malaise. The real problems have been moral – and have been building since the 1940’s or earlier. Really our problems have been building since before the turn of the century. But let me get back to the Habakkuk passage. The “WOE” that is given here is part of a song that is sung taunting this nation. The song, believe it or not, is about accumulating too much debt. The reason the debt is incurred is because the people of that nation want to make themselves rich with their loans. The problem that is presented is that one day, their debt will no longer be sustainable. Then their creditors will rise up suddenly and make their nation plunder. Then, on the back end of this song, we also learn that another reason God is bringing this down upon them is because they have filled their own land with violence and bloodshed. You see, our problem is not the debt – the debt is only a glaring symptom that is supposed to point us to the disease. The disease is pride, greed, a lack of self-control, a desire for excess, violence, and bloodshed. There is one thing I’ve not mentioned – even though it was mentioned in the passage. That is that they no longer live by their faith. Their faith is history – and instead their society now lives as a monument to consumption! The lack of any kind of moral fiber in the nation at large has led to this. They learned to live for their wants – their desires – and spent every penny they had and did not have to try to fulfill them. In the end, they were left still wanting – wanting more – and going in debt further to get more. But there were other problems – which were that they were also shedding blood in the process of living for themselves and their lusts. Let me comment very plainly on all this – and how Habakkuk speaks to the United States of America in our current situation. I know that what I am about to say will really upset some Republicans, fiscal conservatives, and Tea Party members. It really does not matter what financial plan is decided upon by our government leaders – because God is going to judge our nation for reasons other than an insufficient number of Republicans or Tea Party members in our government. By its policies and practices the United States of America has embraced grossly immoral positions. That is what God ultimately is dealing with – and it is those kinds of grossly immoral positions that have led us to the precipice today. Early this century, our society began to embrace sexual immorality. The flappers of the 1920’s shocked society – followed by more immorality through the 30’s, 40’s, and 50’s – which was mostly hidden from the public. In the 1960’s what was hidden by one generation was openly embraced by the next. Their open immorality led to the growing experimentation with homosexuality in the 1970’s. In the 1980’s this perversion came out of the closet – and began to assert itself so that now – it is pretty much accepted as mainstream – and has even been legislated as normal by a growing number of states. God, sees such things this way – sex outside of marriage is fornication. Sex outside of marriage vows is adultery. Sex with the same sex is an abomination. What is truly sad is that these issues really aren’t even being debated much any more. The mainstream political agenda has left such things behind – and has decided that moral conservatism has run its course – lost – and has been left on the ash-heap of political discourse. God, on the other hand, has not changed His views – and is going to bring us under judgment for such things. In 1973 the infamous Roe v. Wade decision was made – and it became open season on unborn babies. Since that “Hitleresque” decision we’ve killed over 40 million babies. I say Hitleresque, because we’ve actually dwarfed that man’s genocide by over tripling the number of deaths we’re guilty of as a nation. Hitler did not do his genocide openly – but tried to hide it. Ours is done openly – legally – and at quite a profit to those who run the abortion clinics. But God sees it as the spilling of innocent blood. He sees it as violence of the worst order. We cringe at Hitler’s ovens, showers, and mass graves – yet we continue to burn babies alive in their mother’s wombs, chop them to pieces and vacuum them out, or just let them grow to full term and execute them by sucking their brains out of their heads. Yes, I know what I just wrote is shocking – and many in the Christian community may even criticize me for writing it. Problem is – they will not speak with the same passion about stopping it! I will make a prediction for our country. I hate to make it – because I love the United States of America. But unless we turn morally – it matters little what is done about the debt ceiling or the debt. Our problem is that we’ve left God as a nation. We are arrogant and do not grieve over sin. We don’t pray. We don’t weep over the wound of our people – a wound that may be incurable. We debate what GOP Senators and Representatives should be on the “super-congress,” horrified about whether they will support higher taxes or not. What we should debate is how to get the anemic church of God on her knees to avert judgment that is coming because of the millions of gallons of innocent blood that have been spilled on our land. How can we get ourselves first, then the true church in America to repent and fall on her knees? That is the ONLY issue that matters in this hour. God’s discipline for our nation has far more to do with a sinful church, a moral bankruptcy, and a lack of any spiritual urgency than it does any kind of debt or deficit deal. If you want to know the truth – God is far more concerned with a brokenness deficit among his people – than any monetary deficit in Washington. Until we are moved to action and concern about that issue – it matters little what we do about any other. I’m on vacation presently – but as I’ve taken the time to keep up with the news I’ve had a sense of destiny in the things that I am reading. Let me explain by making reference to the book of Revelation and the things we see happen in that amazing prophecy of last things.
In the book of Revelation we see some astounding things happening in the world prior to the return of Jesus Christ. Among them is a world leader who arises promising peace, but delivers something far different. We see war on a scale possibly unknown to mankind. We see horrific events involving famine and plague that seem almost out of the realm of possibility. We see a world system of finance that no longer involves a currency or currencies of the nations of the world. All these things seem so far fetched that many have written off Revelation as either a book that is to be interpreted non-literally – or as the rantings of a crazed prophet or worse. Yet, as I read the news I cannot help but watch the stage being set for the return of Jesus Christ. We are watching our own nation on the edge of a financial Armageddon – not because of the debt ceiling debacle in Congress, but because we have $14.2 trillion in debt and actually think that more borrowing is not a bad thing for us. Because of our position in the world as the largest consumer nation, if we fall the world is coming with us. There is such an inter-connectedness in economies in our world today that a failure in the United States will bring down the world with it. But the debt crisis is not just in the United States alone. European countries who have embraced the lies of socialism are coming to their own day of reckoning as their ability to handle a debt explosion are coming upon them. Not only is the U.S. economy going to implode, but Europe’s as well – and they may get there first. Consider the implications of all this. Two of the world’s largest economies are going to implode. With that we will see a collapse of the U. S. farming community as well – because without financial backing, the system we’ve maintained for our farming will fall apart as well. That will bring a lack of food the likes of which the world has not seen in modern times. With it will also come the looming specter of famine as one of the largest producers of food in the world suddenly will be struggling with feeding themselves as economics prevents the growing of food. This coming economic Armageddon will also affect the nation that has done more to promote world health than any other on the planet. That work will come to a grinding halt as the companies that have pioneered much of the innovation and advance of medicine also implode. Medicines that have been readily available will soon find shortages popping up all over the world. With this kind of financial meltdown will also come the inevitable showdowns between nations who are now facing dire choices as the shortages grow. Historically this has led to war between nations – because contrary to biblical truth – wars are primarily not engaged in because of political differences. James tells us that the reason for wars is because we want and we cannot have – so we argue and fight on a local level – but on a geo-political scale such arguments become wars. Now add to this the growing problem of an Islamic radicalism that is wanting world domination and you have a recipe for a worldwide conflagration that is coming soon to a planet near you. Some will read this and commence hand-wringing as they try to figure out how to stop it. But the fact is that you will not be able to stop these kind of events when Christ’s return is imminent. When I look at the things that are happening now – I see two things. First I see that when a world sows to the wind, they will reap the whirlwind. Our world has been in rebellion against God since Adam’s fall in the garden. This rebellion seems to be reaching a critical mass in our day. The godlessness in our world only knows one other context historically and biblically – and that is the days prior to Noah and the first destruction of the earth by water. Just as the pre-flood world had to face the consequences for their sin and rebellion, so does ours – and that host of consequences seems to be knocking at our door. The second thing I see is possibly an engineering of all this as God is sovereignly working in our world. Please understand I do not see God as the author of such sin and wickedness. He is not responsible for the sin and rebellion – yet He is still sovereignly working through it toward the ultimate end of His eternal purposes. That eternal purpose has as its goal the summing up of all things in Christ Jesus – the ultimate punishment of the wicked – the ultimate reward of the righteous – and then the penultimate reign of His Son for all eternity. So where does that leave us – you know, the ones who are still on this planet as these things hurtle toward their horrific conclusion? It leaves us where we have always been – redeemed ones of Jesus Christ who have a task before us. That task is to continue making disciples of all the nations – preaching the gospel to the ends of the earth – and preparing our own hearts for the return of our glorious Lord and Savior. The days and years will continue to be piled upon the past – until He comes and our salvation is completed as we are glorified in heaven. But no matter whether this end comes in days or years – or decades – or centuries – our task is the same as our brethren right after the ascension of Christ and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Preach Jesus – live Jesus – lead others to Jesus – disciple them for Jesus – and love Jesus until the end . . . whether it is an end as we die on this earth – or one where we greet Him in the clouds in a glorious reunion as He comes again! Recently while in Sudan teaching I came across a couple of verses in Habakkuk that arrested my attention. This, along with several things that happened while overseas, has brought me to the place where I want to write about what is soon coming to a nation near you. What is coming soon to the United States is a complete meltdown of our entire financial system.
Habakkuk 2:6-7 "Will not all of these take up a taunt-song against him, Even mockery and insinuations against him and say, 'Woe to him who increases what is not his— For how long— And makes himself rich with loans? Will not your creditors rise up suddenly, and those who collect from you awaken? Indeed, you will become plunder for them.“ These are the two verses I read while in Sudan, and immediately the Lord nudged me in my spirit and gave me a sense that these were going to come upon the United States very soon. Unfortunately I do not have an exact time table for what very soon means – but if history is any indicator – it would be my guess that we have less than 2-3 years until this happens (and I would not be shocked if this happens before the end of this year). Let me explain first biblically, and then with a reference to history. First we turn to Habakkuk and the warning that he offers to where God’s people were then – and honestly, where we are now. God told Habakkuk to stand and watch for the vision He gave him. That vision included a rebuke for their drunkenness – and the lack of self control it brought about in them. They were focused as a consumer culture – and part of that consumer mentality was to become “rich” by the use of loans. God rebuked them for this and told them though a person may look rich by becoming rich with loans, the question one should ask is, “For how long?” The problem with becoming rich through debt is that it is an illusory wealth that you have. The ones who are truly rich are your creditors – the ones to whom you owe the money. These people are collecting interest from you – and what you thought cost only $100 – is costing you far more. In the end, if you cannot pay your debt, your creditors will, “rise up suddenly” and “You will become plunder for them.” You don’t actually own anything – they own you. For God’s people during the time of Habakkuk, this was a huge problem – for they were blind to what was about to happen to them. But whether they were blind or not, this was going to happen. Our country is over 14 trillion dollars in debt. We’ve decided to become rich through loans – but the time is quickly coming upon us where we will have to pay for our illusory wealth – and it is going to cost us dearly. The past two times we’ve heard reports from the FED, they have told us that everything is fine – as they are “monetizing” our debt. What this means is rather than paying the debt and tightening our belts as Americans, our foolish leaders have decided to print money at rates that are alarming. This is destroying the stability of the United States dollar. This has led to a meeting that has never happened before in modern history. Recently, all the major economic players in the world met together – and did NOT invite the United States to the meeting. What they discussed at the meeting is that they are strongly working toward removing the dollar as the world currency of choice. Recently, while in Amsterdam, I experienced what is happening in our world first hand. The businesses in that city were very forthright in telling me that they did not accept U.S. dollars. I had to trade them in for Euros. What was even more shocking to my sensibilities was that there were only two places where you can still do this – the Forex booth at Central Station – and at the Central Post Office in Amsterdam. This did not match what I had been told even as late as March of 2011. But the reason for this is because the monetizing of our debt is destroying the value of the dollar. Now for the history lesson. Prior to WWII, the German Weimar Republic also decided that the way to deal with their debt problems was to print money. This quickly destabilized their paper money – and it led to a devaluation of their money – and to a meteoric rise in interest rates. Before long it almost took an entire wheelbarrow filled with money to buy a loaf of bread. Today, when I share this with people they scoff and think that this was long ago. Such things cannot happen today. In 1967 the Labour Party in Great Britain decided to lead their country in a decided socialist direction. In order to pay their bills (as they gave away everything to everyone) they decided to devalue the British currency by 14% overnight. The result was that everything suddenly became much more expensive. In the late 1970’s this situation led to what had been called the “Winter of Discontent.” During this time things got so bad that there were strikes among numerous workers and at one point hospitals were reduced to accepting emergency patients only. Also they saw inflation explode 26.9% in one year! In 1974 businesses and homes were forced into a “three day week” where electricity was given for only three days, broadcasting on television was shut down at 10:30 p.m. each night – and there were constant shortages of food – and even candles as people struggled to live. This same kind of situation has happened recently in Yugoslavia and most recently in Greece. The truly frightening thing that I see right now is that there are currently 46 states in the United States who are nearing bankruptcy. This has led to Arizona selling most of their public buildings – and California to release almost 11% of their prison population because they cannot afford to keep them in jail any longer. Another interesting development is that in parts of Massachusetts they are no longer accepting U.S. dollars to pay for goods any longer. They are asking for Euros instead. There are reports that in Texas some stores are preferring Mexican Pesos to American dollars for payment. Since the U.S. dollar has devalued 11% in 2010, the world is seeing the writing on the wall – and is planning to abandon the U.S. dollar. Here is the prophecy part of all this. What Habakkuk saw IS going to happen in the United States. Soon we are going to see inflation and the devaluing of our dollar run completely rampant. Commodities are going to skyrocket in price to where we will hardly recognize prices at our grocery stores. The price of gasoline will most likely shoot up to European prices (around 6-7 dollars per gallon). We will watch unemployment reach record levels very soon. All this is happening for two reasons – first we are not following God’s principles when it comes to debt and how we manage the money God has given to us. The second reason is that God in His sovereignty is working through this disobedience toward His eventual end – which I believe Scripturally will involve a financial collapse – and a subsequent one world financial system not involving countries having individual currencies. So what do we do about this? First, we read and follow God’s Word when it comes to our financial dealings and practices. Study the book of Proverbs to understand more about wisely handling the money God gives you. Turn from this world’s view of money, and adopt God’s instead. Second, realize that no matter what you do, that some aspects of the financial meltdown are inevitable. God is moving toward His ultimate goal of bringing down the pride of man and exalting Christ alone in the end. Don’t take a fatalist view of things – do what you can – but also don’t think you will be able to escape what happens in this world unscathed as God moves toward His future works. |
What is the Prophecy/News Update?At Calvary Chapel of Jonesboro, we believe that history is moving toward fulfilling God's plans and purposes. In an effort to help us be prepared for His appearing - and also to chronicle news items you just won't see in the national media - this page is devoted to sharing those items and their possible significance to Thank you for visiting our website! Everything on this site is offered for free. If, however, you would like to make a donation to help pay for its continued presence on the internet, you can do that by clicking here. The only thing we ask is that you give first to the local church you attend.
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