PART 1 – THE COMING ECONOMIC MELTDOWN / WHAT WE CAN DO TO PREPARE OURSELVES
Sometimes I think that I sound like a broken record. Repeating myself over and over again the dire warning of the coming worldwide economic meltdown. If you seriously take a good look around and read the newspaper or watch the news on TV, you will see the storm clouds gathering. From a biblical perspective it is imperative that people get prepared for what I can see coming on the horizon. We are steamrolling towards the edge of an economic cliff, and most people in our society are totally oblivious to what is going on. So, they are not doing anything to get ready for the immense economic pain that is coming. We have to get prepared physically, financially, mentally, emotionally and spiritually for the great storm that is rapidly approaching.
As I have previously posted: there are many financial dangers – many financial landmines ready to blow up and we need to protect ourselves. Let me make it clear to you; the next great economic tidal waves that will hit the nations are going to be much more painful than the last one in 2008. None of the problems that caused the last financial crisis have been fixed; they’ve only thrown money at it and kicked the can further down the road. We are in a time of deep political corruption and accelerating social and cultural decay.
The vast majority of people are going to be absolutely blindsided by what is coming. They don’t understand how our financial system works, they don’t understand how vulnerable it is, and most of them blindly trust that our leaders know exactly what they are doing and that they will be able to fix our problems. As a result, most are simply not prepared for the massive storm that is heading our way. Right now, we seem to be living in a “hope bubble” and people have become very complacent. As I pointed out in previous postings, our entire financial system is a giant Ponzi scheme. Those that have not made any preparations for what is coming are going to regret it bitterly. It is a fact that we are living in the greatest debt bubble in the history of the world.
It also brings great sadness to my heart seeing that many churchgoers understand very little if anything about the end times. They should if they read the Bible for what it says but they don’t; relying instead on what is preached in the pulpit. They’re going to be totally unprepared and devastated by what’s coming. Sad thing is that many church leaders and ministers don’t know what’s coming and can’t warn their parishioners because they themselves have not been taught about the Rapture, Tribulation, the Millennium and Christ’s reign on earth or anything about the end time events preceding the Second Coming of Christ. That is why there is this deafening silence coming from most of the mainline churches. Why is that? Simply, these ministers and pastors were taught in seminary the erroneous teachings of Amillennialism that came about 200 to 300 years after the deaths of the apostles and were not the teachings of the apostles or of Christ Jesus. Through the workings of God’s adversary Satan; counterfeit Christianity (false teachings) slowly crept into the early church.
Let me explain: The doctrine of Amillennialism denies that there will be a literal kingdom over which Jesus Christ will rule on earth for 1000 years. It teaches that the 1000 years mentioned 6 times in Revelation 20 is a symbolic number. Amillennialists believe that the 1000 years began with the church at Pentecost, and Christ’s reign on earth is spiritual in nature. This doctrine is contrary to what Jesus taught and what the apostles believed (Acts 1:6-7). After hundreds of years and Jesus Christ not returning to earth, a few of the early church fathers of the first and second centuries started to believe that maybe there was no literal Millennial kingdom. Still, only a handful of the early church fathers rejected a literal kingdom. It was not until Augustine (354-430 AD), a Roman Church bishop, who began to write on eschatology that the belief in a spiritual millennial kingdom took hold. The Roman Papal Church, the Eastern Orthodox Churches, and most of the Reformed Protestant denominations teach that doctrine (Anglicans, Calvinists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, and a host of other denominations).
We reject this doctrine because it denies the literal fulfilment of Bible prophecy. It is inconceivable that God would fulfil all the prophecies of Christ’s first coming in a literal manner, and then have most of the prophecies of His second coming fulfilled in an allegorical manner. As we know from Scripture, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Heb. 13:8).” One must ask who is more trustworthy concerning doctrine: the false Roman Papal Church, which invented Amillennialism, or the Holy Spirit, the apostles, and the early church fathers? The Reformed churches merely held on to that doctrine of Amillennialism when they split from the Roman Papal Church just as they did with other false doctrines such as infant baptism, confirmation, and replacement theology where the Church has replaced Israel and Israel has no longer a future in God’s plan.
Let’s just briefly examine some of these false Amillennial doctrines regarding prophecy:
- False teachings that Christ Jesus came back in A.D. 70 (even though no one saw Him or recorded it).
- False teachings that all prophecy has been fulfilled in A.D. 70.
- False teachings saying that there is no future for Israel; the church has replaced Israel – replacement theology.
- Their erroneous belief that there is no reign of Christ on earth called the Millennium even though the book of Revelation specifically tells us in chapter 20 that there is.
Chapter 20 specifically mentions the Millennium six times in the first seven verses. Even the apostles acknowledged Christ’s kingdom on earth in the book of Acts. After being with Jesus for 40 days after His resurrection and learning about things pertaining to the future kingdom of God these apostles came together and asked Jesus, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel (1:3-6).” Their question revealed that they still expected Christ to set up His literal earthly kingdom immediately. The Lord did not rebuke them or correct them for expecting His literal reign on earth. He simply told them they could not know when His kingdom would come. He said, “It is not for you to know the times….”
Today, looking back with hindsight, we can see that the kingdom of God spoken of by the apostles was not to come for another 2000 years until the end times. After the Six-Day War in 1967 when the Jewish people regained control of Jerusalem after 2500 years, fulfilling Christ’s prophecy, the only two future events preceding the kingdom of God is the Rapture and the seven-year Tribulation period. With the Jewish people back in their homeland, all prophecy to date has been fulfilled and the next great event on God’s prophetic calendar is the Rapture when Christ’s body of believers worldwide, the Church, is taken up to heaven to be with the Lord.
You may not want to hear this, but many of the churches in North America have already gone apostate, and that is the truth. Those churches that are not dead are slowly dying. Fact is many people aren’t going to churches; they can see the hypocrisy that goes on in these churches. The numbers attending churches have fallen drastically since the 1950s and 1960s. Simple fact is that the gospel is not preached in many of these churches. They don’t know about the end times, they don’t talk about the hard things, because they desperately want to make people feel comfortable. They want to entertain people; make them happy so that they will come back week after week and drop their offerings into the offering plate. People aren’t stupid; they can see what’s going on. Simple fact is that we have dead churches that are stuffed to the gills with dead ministers, and the people are not getting told the truth about the great shaking events of the end times that are coming. We have to wake up as children of God and warn others about what is coming. Very painful economic times are coming, and we diligently need to prepare ourselves and warn others to bear up against the coming storms.
In my opinion, we have been warned about the coming economic collapse in a multitude of different ways but most importantly by prophecy written 2000 to 3000 years ago. Again, from a biblical perspective, at this point; what is coming should be glaringly obvious to everyone who read and follow Scripture. In previous postings I discussed in detail some of those gathering financial storm clouds and showed you that a horrific economic collapse is coming. My goal is never to create fear. Rather, my goal is to wake people up and give them hope. Yes, very painful economic times are coming, and it will be hard on everyone. Those that heed the warning and diligently prepare will have a good chance of weathering the coming storm. I honestly don’t know what those who have made absolutely no preparations are going to do.
Timewise, my main concern is for the next number of years before the Rapture of the Church. After that the Tribulation period begins; then there is not very much anyone can do as God’s wrath (His anger) is poured upon the unbelieving inhabitants of the earth. It will be a time of unimaginable suffering upon the face of the earth as never before experienced in the history of mankind. God describes this period of time as people wanting to die to escape the intense suffering, but they won’t be able to. This is what God says: “In those days men will seek death and will not find it; they will desire to die, and death will flee from them (Rev. 9:6).” During the Tribulation the Antichrist will come up on to the world stage promising to be Mr. Fix-it for the world’s problems and people will follow him and he will be the end time world ruler. You will not be able to buy or sell or do any type of commerce without his authority (mark of the beast – Rev. 13:16-17). He will demand you give him total allegiance and worship. If you resist, you won’t be able to hide; you will be eliminated. The choice will be clear; you either worship him or worship God and pay with your life (Rev. 13:14).
Throughout biblical history God has used His prophets to warn His people of the coming impeding disasters or hardships. Here in the book of Revelation we see God warning us about the end days of man’s government on earth and the enduring hardships that are coming upon this generation of the end times. The book of Revelation reveals the horrific end time events of the Tribulation period. Those of us who are believers in Christ will not be here on earth (having been raptured), but we will be watching from heaven the unfolding disaster happening on earth during the Tribulation period. Now, you need to understand that there will be economic hardships all along the way leading up to the Rapture. In fact, the world is going to be in total chaos and in a financial crisis of biblical proportion just before the Rapture. After the Rapture, Mr. Fix-it, the Antichrist comes on to the world stage with solutions to clean up the mess. He will have all the answers (from Satan) for all the world’s problems and the world will put their faith and trust in him; he will be Mr. Fix-it and the people of the world will follow him in the Tribulation period. Look, one of my main reasons for writing this posting is to inform and warn individuals about God’s prophetic plans for the end times so we can prepare for what’s coming. After all, you don’t prepare when the storm hits, rather you prepare when the storm is still off in the distance. Throughout the scriptures those that prepare are commended. For example, just check out the parable of the “Ten Virgins” in Matthew 25. Do you want to be like the wise virgins or the foolish virgins?
I really had to think hard about this; about offering some advice about how we might go about preparing ourselves for the coming economic disaster. The reality is that getting prepared is going to look different for each family based on their own unique circumstances. Some people have a lot of resources, while others have very little. Some people are very independent of the system and can move wherever they want, while others are totally dependent on their jobs or have health issues and must stay where they are. As I’ve written in previous postings, our economic collapse is not going to happen all at once and there will also be a reset of the financial system down the road – probably no later than 2025 (after the next election). Also, just before the next election, probably in the summer or early fall of 2024, we can see war break out. Why? The current administration could use the war as keeping them in power as no president has ever lost during a war. Yes, international conflicts and wars are coming.
Now, what can we do to prepare ourselves? Originally, I sat down and listed 21 things to help prepare ourselves but then I got to thinking about how everyone’s situation and circumstances will be different and how hard it is to give advice when we ourselves don’t know exactly where and when these financial storms are going to hit us. Instead, I have put together some basic, simple, common-sense things we can all do to prepare ourselves for the hard economic times coming. After seeing what I’ve written, you will understand, and you can apply your own thoughts and ideas in regard to your own situation and what you can do to prepare yourself and your family. The storm clouds are gathering, and I have no doubt about what’s coming and I think you will be thankful for the time and effort that you spend getting yourself prepared.
Here are some basic, common-sense ideas for our generation and our children:
- 1.Stay out of debt. You do not want to be a slave to debt when the next wave of the economic collapse strikes. It is definitely not a time to acquire more debt. If you have the chance, pay off those pesky credit cards and tighten up the family budget. The key to insulating yourself from an economic crisis is to become as independent as possible, and as long as you’re in debt, you simply are not independent.
- 2.You need to reduce your expenses and live within your means. We all spend money on things that we do not really need so eliminate unnecessary future purchases (you’ll know what they are). Those that are“lean and mean” will tend to do much better during the hard times that are coming. What you can control is your household economics.
3.Try to have one to two months worth of cash on hand (if you can). If there is an extended bank holiday because of a banking crisis that causes the ATM machines to go down, you want to be able to have enough cash to buy the things that your family needs. If capital controls are put in place, you may be able to withdraw only so much money at a time. It is also imperative that you have an emergency fund. It should be enough to cover all of your expenses for at least one to two months. It is unlikely that this global currency or economic reset will be instantaneous. There will exist a period of extreme chaos and uncertainty about the level of economic and financial suffering that will take place. This is why it’s a good idea to have enough cash on hand as you don’t know how severe it’s going to be where you live. Also, having some cash means that if some major crisis should ever befall the banking system, then you’ll at least have enough emergency savings that’s not at risk.
- 4.If you’re investing in the stock market stay away from bonds.With interest rates rising these bonds are going to be worth less and less.
- 5.Avoid counter party risk.If you have an online brokerage account, you may be surprised to know that you may not actually own a single stock in your portfolio. When you log into your account and buy, Apple shares for instance, the brokerage will typically register those shares in its own name, not your name. The shares are effectively owned by your broker. It’s their asset not yours. Now ordinarily, this isn’t a problem. When the system is functioning normally, institutional counterparty risk is low. But counterparty risk becomes a big deal, and quickly, when the system stops functioning normally. We saw the effects of this during the 2008 financial crisis. As one bank went down, it dragged others with it. It’s the same when you deposit your money in a bank. It’s no longer your money. It’s the banks. This is how the system works; your money keeps getting passed around various counterparties. No one ever thinks about counterparty risk until it becomes a problem and then it’s too late. The simple way to reduce this risk is to reduce the number of counterparties. Keeping some physical cash on hand in case of an emergency ensures that there are no more middlemen (counterparties) standing between you, and at least a portion of your savings.