Out of the Cities!
Just imagine, at least try to imagine.
Author Unknown
A few parents or grandparents are alive today to share their memories of those terrible years historians have labeled "The Great Depression." So that you and I can just imagine it, I will share a bit of history.
"The Great (Economic) Depression" was global, affecting the entire industrialized, civilized world. The hardships and sorrows associated with "The Great Depression" were largely unknown however and scarcely felt by people living in the primitive third-world. Poverty for the "primitive poor" was everyday normal. But things were very different elsewhere on the planet.
In the autumn of 1929, the legendary New York City Wall Street Stock Market crashed! At this moment I am reading the actual headline of ‘The Brooklyn Daily Eagle’, dated Thursday, October 24, 1929 (a framed reproduction hangs above my desk): "WALL ST. IN PANIC AS STOCKS CRASH." Countless thousands of intelligent, wealthy persons, in America and abroad, were bankrupted overnight by the crash and lost everything they owned. More than a few committed suicide rather than face the "depression of The Depression."
History reveals that The Great Depression reached its economic low point about three and half years later in 1932. I wasn’t around at that time and likely you were not on the ground either. My mother was though. She was a teen and the eldest of seven children. Her father, a 1917 immigrant coal miner from Birmingham, England, worked in Alabama coalmines supplying coal for the steel mills in Birmingham, Alabama.
During those Depression years, heart-wrenching photographs recall the haggard-faced thousands of American city-dwellers standing in long "soup lines," begging day after day for a scrap of bread and nourishment. Multiplied thousands of "hobos," fled America’s great cities, hopping trains and crisscrossing our nation, begging for meals and looking for any kind of employment they could find. Many left hungry and destitute families at home.
Nothing about the brutal experience of "The Great Depression" was imaginary for these people. For those who experienced it, "The Great Depression" was not a dream it was a nightmare!
You should know that things and people were different 75 years ago. Seventy percent (70%) of Americans lived in rural America, many of them on farms. During the Depression, at least 70% of America’s population could garden, keep a few chickens and maybe a cow to feed themselves—not so with city-dwellers! For more than a decade, millions of families, in America and abroad, suffered privation!
In Birmingham, Alabama, my yet to be mother, still a teen living at home with her parents and six brothers and sisters, at times went for days without a bite of food in the house! Sometimes a Good Samaritan would leave a loaf of bread and a few potatoes at the front door. My mother could never relate the experience without tears.
Just imagine; at least try to imagine.
I hope that I am mistaken in my interpretation of prophetic Scripture, but I don’t think that I am misreading what the Prophets have written. Another global Great Depression is on the way, but this one will be A Great, Great Depression! It will be global and the entire industrialized, civilized world will soon be thrust into an unimaginable crisis
Today, America is very different from the America of 75 years ago. 75 years ago most Americans left their homes unlocked. Most Americans allowed their children to walk to school and to town—hardly imaginable today. Today the tables are turned. 70% of Americans are crowded into cities that are waiting to explode with unimaginable human fury and suffering.
Today, even smaller American cities are being invaded by vicious gangs, druggies and increasing numbers of poor that can scarcely find enough food for a month. When the economy collapses and there are no monthly checks from Uncle Sam, just try to imagine!
Imagine angry mobs, looting and rampaging through city streets, taking what they need or want. Imagine lawless packs assaulting trucks as they attempt to deliver food, medicine and necessities to desperate city centers—trucks that will likely never arrive because they have been hijacked, looted and burned as a storm of rage sweeps across the land.
Just imagine.
So where are the police? Hello! Katrina was America’s wake-up call for city dwellers! Okay, what about our National Guard? Hello! Most of them are away fighting mad Muslims in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Middle East, and "what has been will be again!"
Aren’t you thankful that you and your family are not living in or too near a large metropolis? Aren’t you thankful that you obeyed the warnings of Heaven and history, that you used common sense, and moved to a rural setting while you could?
Try to imagine the fear that will grip thousands upon thousands who will try to flee the coming fury but find no gasoline in the pumps. Think of those who will discover major highways blocked with fleeing-on-foot mobs, throwing stones, some waving guns, attempting to hijack anything with wheels and gasoline. Aren’t you thankful that you "got out of Dodge" before the coming war with Iran and The Great, Great Depression that will surely follow.
Just imagine the spiritual consternation of hundreds and thousands of sincere Christians, taught by thousands of sincere Shepherds to proof-text rather than context Bible teachings regarding the Great Tribulation and the return of Christ. Self-inflicted blindness is awful!
Through the ages God’s people have always suffered persecution (tribulation). Christ, the Baptist and the Disciples suffered tribulation, but modern millions have been taught that they will be "raptured" and never experience such tribulation. Somehow they have failed to read Jesus’ admonition regarding the Tribulation time: "The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord." Matthew 10:24. Imagine sincere people waiting, waiting, waiting for deliverance, as the world sinks around them.
Just imagine, at least try to imagine, when this time comes, how many people would have appreciated an opportunity to read and heed insightful warnings, like these, written by a sincere Christian; Ellen White; who received the instruction below, by inspiration, 100 years ago:
"The work of the people of God is to prepare for the events of the future, which will soon come upon them with blinding force."
"Unless we understand the importance of the moments that are swiftly passing into eternity, and make ready to stand in the great day of God, we shall be unfaithful stewards. The watchman is to know the time of night... The judgments of God are about to fall upon the world, and we need to be preparing for that great day."
"God has revealed what is to take place in the last days that His people may be prepared to stand against the tempest of opposition and wrath. Those who have been warned of the events before them are not to sit in calm expectation of the coming storm, comforting themselves that the Lord will shelter His faithful ones in the day of trouble."
"I see the necessity of making haste to get all things ready for the crisis."
"In the great final conflict, Satan will employ the same policy, manifest the same spirit, and work for the same end as in all preceding ages. That which has been, will be, except that the coming struggle will be marked with a terrible intensity such as the world has never witnessed."
"Transgression has almost reached its limit. Confusion fills the world, and a great terror is soon to come upon human beings. The end is very near. We who know the truth should be preparing for what is soon to break upon the world as an overwhelming surprise."
"It is often the case that trouble is greater in anticipation than in reality; but this is not true of the crisis before us. The most vivid presentation cannot reach the magnitude of the ordeal."
"If in the providence of God we can secure places away from the cities the Lord would have us do this. There are troublous times before us."
"The time is near when the large cities will be visited by the judgments of God. In a little while, these cities will be terribly shaken."
"Erelong there will be such strife and confusion in the cities that those who wish to leave them will not be able. We must be preparing for these issues. This is the light that is given me."
"For this reason I see the necessity of the people of God moving out of the cities into retired country (places) where they may cultivate the land and raise their own produce. Get out of the cities into rural districts, where the houses are not crowded closely together, and where you will be free from the interference of enemies."
"During the night season I was pleading with some families to avail themselves of God’s appointed means, and get away from the cities...Some were loitering, making no determined efforts. The angels of mercy hurried Lot and his wife and daughters by taking hold of their hands... Lot had too much of a lingering spirit... Those who obey this warning will find refuge. Let every man be wide awake for himself, and try to save his family...God will reveal from point to point what to do next."
"Again and again the Lord has instructed that our people are to take their families away from the cities, into the country, where they can raise their own provisions... Purchase a little piece of land where you can have a garden. God will help His people to find such homes outside the cities."
"A great terror is soon to come upon human beings. The end is very near. We who know the truth should be preparing for what is soon to break upon the world as an overwhelming surprise."
"The time is coming when we cannot sell at any price. Hoarded wealth will soon be worthless. Money will soon depreciate in value very suddenly when the reality of eternal scenes opens to the senses of man."
"In the last great conflict in the controversy with Satan, those who are loyal to God will see every earthly support cut off. Because they refuse to break His law in obedience to earthly powers, they will be forbidden to buy or sell."
"Now I plead with every soul to look not too strongly and confidently to human counselors, but look most earnestly to God, the One wise in counsel. Submit all your ways and your will to God’s ways and to God’s will. Spread every plan before God with fasting, (and) with the humbling of the soul before the Lord Jesus, and commit thy ways unto the Lord. The sure promise is, ‘He will direct thy paths.’ He is infinite in resources."
