Dear Friends,
Thank you for joining us this month. We at Keep the Faith Ministry are very thankful for your prayers and support. It means so much to us and to the Lord when you support the presentation of truth. Thank you for listening. May God help you as you plan for the future in light of the issues that face God’s people in these last days. We truly live in amazing times.
I want to again urge you to check out our website on a frequent basis so that you can read up on the most recent information concerning current prophetic developments. Moreover, I urge you to tell your friends about their very own free subscription to our monthly sermons on CD that is just waiting for them. Many people are just discovering the wealth of information contained in the little CD preachers from Keep the Faith.
Before we go to our study of prophecy this month, we need to understand that Jesus is looking after His church. He is looking after His faithful people. The good news is that if you are following His counsel and you have a daily walk with the Lord, you can be sure that Psalm 91:1, the heavenly 911 will be your sure and certain safety. You will be under the shadow of the Almighty.
I have said it before; because the global economic crisis continues to deepen and broaden and is affecting every nation on the globe we are going to see a dramatic change in the way the world functions economically. With the huge banks and multinational companies on life-support, forces are now coming into play that will overturn the existing order. There is nothing you can do about the changes except to prepare for it by following God’s counsel. The world as we know it presently is going to end. No, I’m not referring to the second coming. That is going to end the world too, and permanently, but that is later. Right now, the world as you know it is going to end. There is going to be a systematic and systemic change in the way the economy works.
I want to advise you that the things you will hear in this month’s message are not only real, but they are imminent. You need to prepare your hearts for the coming dramatic changes in your lifestyle and way of doing business. Now is the time to make your calling and election sure. Remember that the greatest conflict that has ever engulfed the world and consequently God’s people is soon to come. But first world economies must be brought under control by a few key people and institutions. This sermon is unusually documented. You’ll find that documentation on our website. Click on the sermons link, then click on this sermon and as you scroll down the text you’ll see the links at appropriate places throughout it.
Isaiah chapter 2:20 tells us that those that have made money their idol will cast it aside as worthless. “In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats…”
Furthermore, Revelation 18:15 says that the merchants of the earth, that is; the central bankers and those who control economies, are made rich by their cooperation with the Holy See. They are bold and corrupt. I have never in my lifetime seen such boldness among the merchants of the earth, as those dealing with the economic crisis. They boldly play with your money and spend your future. They boldly give billions of dollars to failing companies whose leaders were boldly taking advantage of circumstances and human nature by making risky loans and investments. Now they are getting their pockets lined with more money by government bailouts at taxpayers expense. They channel some of those bailouts into bonuses for themselves. Also, one company buys out another, and the resulting consolidation puts more power and control in the hands of fewer and fewer people, all in the name of solving the economic crisis on your behalf.
Moreover, governments, particularly the U.S. government, but also Iceland, and many European governments have been systematically nationalizing banks and major industries so that more power is centralized again.
Look at what Isaiah 23:8 says about the papacy and these bankers. “Who hath taken this counsel against Tyre, the crowning city, whose merchants are princes [that’s Rome’s priestly bankers], whose traffickers are the honorable of the earth? [That’s the global central bankers and economists].” I bet some of us never thought that this could be referring to those that control and manipulate earthly finance.
Rome’s merchants, my friends, are priests, or princes of the church who are in league with those same merchants who are the honored central bankers of the earth, like Henry Paulson, and now Timothy Geithner, Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke. Yes, they have fallen upon some criticism in recent times, but they are still honored and given almost free reign over the economy. But they are the front line. They are supposed to get criticism. There are others behind them, such as the Rothchilds, Rockefellers, and others who are immune to it, but have a lot of say about how things turn out.
Isaiah 47:15 again speaks of Rome when she is destroyed; “thus shall they be unto thee with whom thou hast labored, even thy merchants, from thy youth: they shall wander every one to his quarter; none shall save thee.”
Revelation 18:15 says something similar; “the merchants of these things, which were made rich by her, shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment…” They won’t help Rome when God finally undoes all that Rome has tried to do.
Now I’m going to read to you a most powerful statement from the Spirit of Prophecy that brings us up close and personal. It’s from Evangelism, page 62 and 63. Ellen White is addressing the stinginess of God’s people concerning the work of God, but she makes a startling prediction that is now in the process of being fulfilled. Listen to it carefully.
“Men will invest in patent rights and meet with heavy losses, and it is taken as a matter of course. But in the work and cause of God, men are afraid to venture. Money seems to them to be a dead loss that does not bring immediate returns when invested in the work of saving souls.” Now here comes the startling part: “The very means that is now so sparingly invested in the cause of God, and that is selfishly retained, will in a little while be cast with all idols to the moles and to the bats. Money will soon depreciate in value very suddenly when the reality of eternal scenes opens to the senses of man.”
I’m going to make a prediction that I am now confident is close to being reality. Some aspects of this I have been very skeptical about until recently, but not anymore. I have come to this conclusion after reading widely concerning the ongoing financial crisis and the actions of world leaders concerning the solution. Here is my heart pounding prediction. We are at the end, or nearly so, of the western economy as we know it. Moreover, the financial restructuring that is going on globally is going to change your life drastically. It will be forced on you whether you like it or not. Listen carefully. We are likely going to see a rapid devaluation of western currencies, just as God’s messenger predicted, and the revaluation of assets, or rather the re-inflation of assets under a new regionalized set of currencies. Let me say that again in a different way. We are going to see the devaluation of money, then a change in currency (which will make most people poorer) then a revaluation of tangible assets like real estate, so that those who have money to invest, or the rich, can make themselves richer by buying them cheaply before they are re-inflated. This has happened before in many countries, but it is now going to happen on a very broad scale among western countries, especially in the northern hemisphere. This is not about solving your economic problems. It is about consolidating power and money.
Just listen to the breathtaking statements of world leaders, the “kings of the earth,” and the bankers, or the “merchants of the earth.” After the Group of 20 (or the G20) economic summit in London in April, Gordon Brown, Prime Minister of Great Britain announced that the ‘old Washington consensus’ had come to an end. “I think a new world order is emerging with the foundation of a new progressive era of international cooperation.” he said.
In other words, Gordon Brown is saying that from now on Washington will no longer be able to use the U.S. dollar to dictate to the world what is going to happen in world economy. Instead the economy is going to be globalized and controlled by internationalists.
Among the ominous decisions that came out of the G20 meeting is included a “common approach to managing ‘toxic assets’ [which is the term they use for bad investments], radical reform of the banking system, [and] new regulatory systems…” wrote the Melbourne Age. What do they mean by the “radical reform of the banking system?”
Nicolas Sarkozy, the president of France said that “since Bretton Woods, the world has been living on… [an] Anglo-Saxon model,” meaning American and British of course. “It’s not my place to criticise it,” he said, “it has its advantages – clearly, today, a page has been turned.”
Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor said: “[The G20 meeting] is a victory for global co-operation… The things that got us into this crisis are not allowed to be repeated…”
Merkel is talking about the way that the U.S. banks and Wall Street worked together to create a global economic bubble especially in real estate. Essentially banks all over the world were loaning money to finance gambling on Wall Street and other stock markets and in the real estate market. Banks worldwide and stock markets followed the U.S. example and now they are also following the economic fallout in the U.S too.
But Sarkozy, Merkel and Brown were essentially repeating what they had said a few months before. In November, Sarkozy declared, “We must rethink the financial system from scratch, as at Bretton Woods…” and “we want to change the rules of the game,” while Merkel believes that the global financial markets need a “new constitution” to govern them.
Bloomberg News ArticleGordon Brown said we need a “new Bretton Woods,” “a new global order” and a “global new deal” to address the economic crisis. “We face a choice,” he said. “We could allow this crisis to start a retreat from globalization… or we could view the threats and challenges we face today as the difficult birth-pangs of a new global order – and our task now is nothing less than making the transition through a new internationalism to the benefits of an expanding global society.
Before we go any further we need to understand what these world leaders mean when they talk about another Bretton Woods. Bretton Woods is the town in the U.S. state of New Hampshire where an important economic meeting took place at the Mount Washington Hotel back in July of 1944.
After World War I considerable global financial instability arose because most nations were now off the gold standard. Nations could now create money out of thin air without any gold backing. Consequently they could inflate or contract their economies by controlling the money supply. This led to tremendous volatility and a global recession in between the two World Wars.
Toward the end of World War II, financial elites of the 44 allied countries gathered in New Hampshire for one of the most significant meetings the world had ever seen up to that time. Officially called the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference, it is now remembered as Bretton Woods. The job of this elite group of financial gurus and national delegations was to create a mechanism to minimize currency instability and fight recession. Never before had international monetary cooperation been attempted on a permanent institutional basis. Their agenda included the creation of a global currency, and an international monetary fund to regulate it (known today as the IMF), a global body to regulate trade (which eventually became the World Trade Organization), and an international bank to provide loans to needy countries (which eventually became the World Bank).
All of the attendees were in agreement that an international overhaul of the global financial system was needed, and that it should be under some kind of government controls. Interestingly this was going on at the same time that a new political order was arising through the United Nations. In essence they hammered out a new system of global economy that laid the foundations of the financial order that persisted until the early 1970s when a financial crisis led to the collapse of the Bretton Woods system.
Up to the time of Bretton Woods, the British Pound was the major currency because Britain had been the sole global superpower. The Bretton Woods agreements provided that each country peg its currency to gold. But almost all the nations were not on a gold standard. Since the United States was the only nation that still had gold backing its currency, the U.S. dollar became an almost ideal substitute for gold and achieved great credibility. The Bretton Woods agreements resulted in the U.S. dollar becoming the currency to which all other currencies were, in practicality, pegged. As a result, the United States in essence became the money manager of the world and could manipulate it to its own advantage. That is why there is a strong feeling among world leaders that the system needs to change. They don’t like being at the mercy of the U.S. Federal Reserve.
The signers of the Bretton Woods agreements were essentially the architects of the way the global financial system has worked more or less for the last 60 years. The financial crisis in the 1970s destabilized the Bretton Woods agreements when the United States left the gold standard and no longer backed its dollars with the precious metal. However, because the U.S. dollar was still the main reserve currency, the U.S. was positioned to continue dictating monetary policy on a global scale through the Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve used the respect and confidence in the dollar to manage, or rather manipulate the global economy. When the U.S. loosened things up, so did the rest of the world. When the Federal Reserve tightened monetary policy, so did the other nations more or less.
Now that is all changing. The economic crisis that has been fostered by the loose monetary policy of the Federal Reserve has spread around the world in wave after wave of bankrupt banks and financing corporations, faltering industry and commerce and teetering governments. Germany’s Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck, likened it to a “poisonous oil spill,” and said that “the global financial system will become multipolar.” That means that it won’t be dominated by the U.S. dollar. The call for another Bretton Woods is nothing short of a global attempt to radically restructure the way the world does business and wrest the financial power from the United States and put it in the hands of internationalist bodies, essentially globalizing banking and finances. This does not threaten the Federal Reserve. It is not accountable to the political system of United States. The Fed itself is led by internationalists who want globalization of banking and finance, and is no doubt working to bring about the new global financial structure.
Now for more statements of world leaders. At the World Economic Forum, in Davos, Switzerland in February, Russia’s Prime Minister Putin said that “Excessive dependence on a single reserve currency,” meaning the U.S. dollar, “is dangerous for the global economy.” Putin also suggested that the International Monetary Fund should issue the reserve currency rather than allowing one country’s currency to be the international reserve currency.
Josef Ackerman, the Chief Executive Officer of Deutsche Bank, and the chairman of the Institute of International Finance, said about the G20 London meeting in April that the “benefits of a global financial system is absolutely key” to global recovery and stability. “To retreat from [the] global approach would in my view” he said “be a step in the wrong direction, even if understandable from the point of view of national governments and taxpayers.” In other words, he was saying that it doesn’t matter what taxpayers think, or the national interests of individual nations. Globalism is now going to bring the world economy under its control. Keep in mind the reasons why globalists want this. It will help them globalize politics easier. But there is an even more important reason prophetically speaking. Without globalized economics and politics, there can never be globalized religion.
Furthermore Ackerman said “If we go back to a bank-based approach – traditional, old-fashioned lending – that would require much more capital, which is clearly not available, and would have a very negative impact on global growth,” he said. In other words, traditional banking is now likely to change as a new global system emerges.
Alistair Darling, the British Chancellor of the Exchequer, even went so far as to say that governments should not “waste time talking about [their] constitutions.” In other words, nations will be pressured to join and cooperate with the global financial coalition no matter what their constitutions say about independence. As more money and power is in the control of fewer hands, nations will lose much of their sovereignty. The result will be that these global bankers will be able to reach down past national boundaries right down into your life, which is going to be more controlled than ever. Your government will not protect you from them.
The week before the G20 summit in London, China, which had kept a low profile during the crisis up to that time “dropped a bombshell,” wrote the Financial Times. Zhou Xiaochuan, the governor of the central bank, in an essay in The People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party, publically called for a replacement for the U.S. dollar as the world’s reserve currency. “Mr. Zhou argued,” said the Financial Times, “that the costs of maintaining the current system in which the [U.S.] dollar dominates, surpassed the benefits… The world urgently needs to create a diversified currency and financial system and [a] fair and just financial order that is not dependent on the United States,” he said, as he warned of the threat of a “financial tsunami” and the need for a new global currency system controlled by the International Monetary Fund.”
Mr. Zhou’s argument is that because the U.S. dollar has been the world’s reserve currency, other nations parked a lot of money in U.S. funds [China having the most], thereby financing the U.S. economy. The Federal Reserve, the U.S. central bank, was able to pursue an irresponsible policy of keeping interest rates too low and thereby inflating the housing bubble. This also increased other nation’s vulnerability to an economic downturn in the U.S. By moving away from the dollar as the reserve currency, Mr. Zhou suggested that it would stabilize world economy. Mr. Zhou is advocating that the International Monetary Fund should expand its use of SDRs, or “Special Drawing Rights.” SDRs [which are essentially] a synthetic or artificial currency issued by the International Monetary Fund, were created by the IMF in the 1960s as a means of providing the nations of the world with an independent reserve currency, but it was never really used that way because the dollar was so respected. SDRs have merely been an accounting tool the IMF uses to keep track of its loans to various nations.
Not surprisingly even the United Nations is getting in on the wave of official enthusiasm for a globalized economy. In March a special UN Commission recommended that the dollar be replaced as the world’s reserve currency.
The UK Telegraph reported on a communiqué published after the April G20 meeting in London. “A single clause in Point 19 of the communiqué issued by the G20 leaders, amounts to revolution in the global financial order,” the Telegraph said. “We have agreed to support a general SDR allocation which will inject $250bn (£170bn) into the world economy and increase global liquidity,” the communiqué said.
The Telegraph continued; “in effect, the G20 leaders have activated the IMF’s power to create money” in it’s attempt to stem the crisis. “In doing so, they are putting a de facto world currency into play,” said the Telegraph. “It is outside the control of any sovereign body… There is now a world currency in waiting. In time, SDRs are likely [to] evolve into a parking place for the foreign holdings of central banks, led by the People’s Bank of China…”
Just before the G7 meeting in Washington last November, Gordon Brown gave a speech before the Council on Foreign Relations. He said “I have no doubt that out of the discussions we are having… we’ll have an international financial monetary fund that looks more like an independent central bank.” In other words, the G7 is working on adjusting the IMF so that it functions like a global independent central bank complete with power to create money.
The implications of this are powerful. Imagine a world currency that replaces your Pounds, Euros or Dollars of whatever variety. This in effect would centralize control of all the world money under a small body of people that have no accountability other than to themselves.
Do you think Ellen White was talking about something like this when she said: “In the world gigantic monopolies will be formed. Men will bind themselves together in unions that will wrap them in the folds of the enemy. A few men will combine to grasp all the means to be obtained in certain lines of business…” That’s Selected Messages, Volume 2, page 142.
If ever there would be a giant monopoly, it would be a world currency. If ever there were a grasping for all the means in certain lines of business like banking and finance, this would be it. And through the financial system everything else is controlled; every industrial steel manufacturer, every car manufacturer, every airline, every food processor, every farm, every pharmaceutical company, every hospital… You name it, it is about to come under the full control of a few global bankers and world money managers. But look what it is doing. According to God’s messenger to the remnant, it is wrapping these men and millions of people in the folds of the enemy.
Frankly, I’m not yet convinced that a single world currency is going to happen very soon, at least not a currency that you and I would use in our day to day business. But there are secret meetings going on behind the scenes that are framing the new economic world order right now into regional currencies. I suspect from what I have read that there is going to be three to six regional currencies pegged to the new global shadow currency, or the “synthetic currency known as SDRs at the IMF. You won’t use the SDRs in your daily transactions at the grocery store, but they will control everything behind the scenes through the policies of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and other global institutions. We get little glimpses of what is being planned by paying attention to the language of those on the inside; those who are the architects of the new economic order.
Perhaps the most pointed statement came from Ewald Nowotny, a European Central Bank council member, who added a shocking revelation to the idea of moving away from the “centrality of the U.S. dollar.” He revealed that the U.S., Europe, and Asia are developing a “tri-polar global currency system” to replace the current dollar-centric reserve structure. “What I see” he said, “is a system where we have more centers of gravity…”
Think about what he said very carefully. What is a “tri-polar global currency system?” This was actually a patently clear statement of what is going on behind the scenes in those secret meetings. The United States, Europe, and Asia are secretly developing a three-currency system to replace the current U.S. dollar that countries keep as reserves. ”What he said was that behind closed doors, and in the backrooms of the leading economic powers of the world, and perhaps in and around these G group meetings in Davos, Washington, Rome and London, there are negotiations going on to radically revise the economic system of the entire world. This cannot be good for your pocketbook. Replacing currencies has always been at the expense of the average citizen by giving him less buying power in the exchange. While helping governments pay their debt at a significant discount because of the deflation. Therefore it is always in a government’s interest to deflate a currency value because it helps cover excessive government spending.
Ewald Nowotny said, along with quite a number of others, that the [U.S.] dollar will lose its position as the world’s reserve currency. He also said that the three currencies will be coordinated so that world economy will be balanced by “three centers of gravity” in the U.S., Europe and Asia, though he did not think that the exchange rates would be fixed. Perhaps I should warn you that this means that your cash will be of little good to you soon. It will be replaced and you will be less wealthy. This would be the time to get your money into God’s work and to make sure that most of what is left is tied up in real assets like your home.
No doubt much of this had already been hammered out long before the G20 summit in London. There have been many “G-meetings” to strategize and set the course for globalizing earthly finances. Once the Group of seven, or the seven largest economies known as the G7, met in Washington DC in October, 2008 to create a roadmap, they followed with a G20 meeting of the 20 largest economies of the world in Washington again, to get their cooperation. Then, as you would expect, the G7 or the seven leading merchants of the earth, gathered in Rome in mid-February 2009 to plan for the London G20 summit in April.
I wonder why they met in Rome besides to plan for the upcoming meeting in London. Perhaps they needed to bring the Vatican up do date on the planning and explain what they doing and seek advice. We don’t know for sure, but the Bible tells us that these merchants are in league with Holy See in their economic dealings. Zenit reported that the Vatican Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertoni sent a message to the G7 while in Rome urging them to put “the person before profit” and respect the rights of workers. No doubt these leaders are in contact with the Vatican on a regular basis. Incidentally, the Rome meeting was also attended by leaders of trade organizations, the World Bank, the IMF and Russia as observers.
The Vatican had already been involved in the process. On February 19, Gordon Brown, Britain’s Prime Minister and the host of the upcoming London summit, flew to Rome and met with Benedict XVI to discuss with him the economic crisis and their plans for globalizing it. No doubt the Vatican is very interested in this process for its own reasons. The prophetic meeting with the pope is the fourth of a British Prime Minister in six years, and was in conjunction with Mr. Brown’s meeting with Silvio Berlusconi, the chairman of the G7 at the time. Brown accompanied his visit with an invitation for Benedict to visit the UK. Papal cooperation in the economic solution is so important that the UK Telegraph said that the Prime Minister was going to Benedict to “seek divine guidance as he presses ahead with efforts to tackle the economic crisis.”
Following their meeting in Rome, Benedict and Brown exchanged letters in which they affirmed their commitment to wealth redistribution in order to help the poorest countries among other things. Then just before the London summit, on March 31, Brown “preached” a sermon on the morality of the economy at St. Paul’s Cathedral, in London before 2000 people. Never before had a Prime Minister spoken in historic St. Paul’s. Brown quoted scripture and used religious terms in calling for a new world order based on moral and ethical principles. Echoing Benedict’s emphasis on the dignity of the person, he emphasized that “market forces should be replaced by those of the ‘heart.’” He was joined by his Roman Catholic counterpart Kevin Rudd, Prime Minister of Australia, for a public discussion moderated by the Anglican bishop of London.
The Bible tells us that the leaders in this economic process are working with Rome and other churches to accomplish their purposes. They know that in a time when people are upset by a crisis, success of their plans can only come if they cooperate with religious powers led by Rome because Rome has enormous social and economic influence. That is one of the reasons they have meetings in Rome and private meetings with the pontiff. They know that if they talk in moral and religious terms, religious people are more likely to support their centralization of power. They know that if they help Rome, Rome will help them.
There were other planning meetings to prepare for the G20 summit in London, such as a G20 meeting in Berlin in late February and the ASEAN group, or the nations of Southeast Asia who met at the end of February to discuss the upcoming summit. By the time the London meeting began, the plans for economic globalization would have been quite mature and well communicated. After the London meeting, in which the nations agreed to have their economies overseen by the IMF there was planned a summit for the Asian nations, the intent of which would have been to bring all the Asian nations into harmony with the new economic order. But the ASEAN economic summit in Thailand was disrupted by protesters forcing the attendees to flee the meeting place. Perhaps the angels were holding back the process and thereby the winds of strife.
Globalizing the economy and banking while regionalizing currency into three major areas is not an easy task and no doubt will take many more meetings. But the fundamental principles are probably already in place and will just take time to work themselves out. You and I will see dramatic changes over the next few years in which this new globalized administration will regulate everything from banking policies to accounting standards, and even executive compensation. In the long run the new globalization of the economy will certainly shift wealth away from developed nations to developing ones. It is all spelled out in the communiqué from the G20 meeting. You can read it by going to our website and clicking on the appropriate link in the text of this sermon. Forget about banking secrecy. Tax havens will disappear. Every banking transaction will be transparent. Every transaction can potentially be controlled.
Friends, to put this prophetically, if there is going to be a global no-buy-no-sell law, as predicted in Revelation 13:16, there has to be transparency of all transactions. Terrorism first and now the economic crisis are the justifications for establishing a system that will eventually be used to enforce universal Sunday worship laws by preventing those that do not participate in them from buying or selling.
My friends, this is, in essence, the final, or near final centralization of the global economy in the hands of the bankers and global merchants. The bottom line is that the current economic crisis is being used as a means of taking economic power away from the United States and handing it to international bodies that would then manage it for all people of the world in classic socialistic globalism. Of course, the United States has not been a sterling example of fiscal responsibility, and now has no defense. But with the dismal track record of the UN, the World Bank and other international bodies to adequately manage political issues, what makes them think that similar international bodies controlling the whole world economy will be devoid of political agendas or vested interests?
Let us put this into the prophetic context again. Revelation 18 tells us that the merchants of the earth are working closely together with the Holy See to make themselves rich, while at the same time making Rome more powerful. There is no doubt in my mind that the new centralized economy and currencies will benefit Rome and these world economic controllers. While they tout the need for this new system because of the economic crisis, and to help poor nations, they are the very ones that to a large degree have created the crisis by loosening standards and oversight so that banks and other financial institutions in the western world could take advantage of human nature.
Remember that the love of money is the root of all evil. The economic crisis is largely the result of human nature’s ability to make use of an opportunity for personal enrichment at the expense of others. When this is done on a global scale, it ultimately leads to a global instability and an international economic crisis much like we have seen over the last couple of years.
Listen to this statement from the UK Telegraph: “The real sticking point of the new system is the set of ‘new rules aimed at avoiding excessive leverage [or debt], and forcing banks to put more money aside during good times,” said the Telegraph. “This is more or less what the authorities agreed after the Depression. [But] complacency chipped away at the rules as the decades passed. It is the human condition, and we can’t change that.”
So it is no surprise that given a loose environment for profiteering, human nature will exploit the opportunities leading to a cycle of risky investments, bubbles and then contractions in the economy. But the common solution presented for all these “crises” is more centralization of control, more globalism, more internationalism. Eventually the whole mess will be considered to be a moral crisis that only religious and moral austerity can resolve.
Listen to what the Vatican is saying about the economic crisis. “The current economic crisis,” said Pope Benedict XVI, “shows the importance of building our lives on the firm foundation of the Word.” Given Rome’s definition of the firm foundation of the word, which means papal interpretation of the word, or in more precise terms, papal pronouncements and canon law, Rome is patently attempting to put her own moral spin on the crisis and its solutions.
Concerning the UN sponsored Doha economic conference for financing developing nations, November 20 – December 2, 2008, in which representatives of 160 nations were present, the “Bishop of Rome praised the identification of ‘helpful criteria for directing the governance of the economic system and helping those who are most in need…’” wrote Zenit a Vatican news agency. “On a deeper level, bolstering the economy demands rebuilding confidence,” the pope said. “This goal will only be reached by implementing an ethics based on the innate dignity of the human person.’”
What Benedict is saying is that solutions to the economic problems of this world involve moral principles which Rome continues to position herself to define. But the following statement is the clearest concerning Rome’s support for a new system of economic governance. “The roots of the economic crisis point to the need for a new international structure, say [the] bishops of Latin America… Globalization, should abide by ethics, placing everything at the service of the human person created in the image and likeness of God.” This statement is a thinly veiled attempt to suggest that the Catholic Church should be recognized as the moral authority by which the ethics of the global economic system should operate.
So Rome is calling for a change in the global economic order too. But Rome wants more than just a new monetary system. Why would the Holy See want to see a new world order of economics? The Bible tells us that Rome is master of the economy. She gets these merchants of the earth involved with her behind the scenes. Rome is very shy about openly discussing her economic relationships. She will openly discuss her ecumenical relationships and many of her political relationships to some extent, but her economic relationships are a matter left largely to the imagination. But the Bible tells us clearly that in order for the Holy See to have a strong political power, she must of necessity have an economic influence that assists her in this.
Rome urges that religious principles should motivate world economy and politics. Since the economy is what often manipulates politics, she wants more say in economic matters. Her goal is to have the most influence possible on global economy, politics, governments, and the vast millions of citizens. When control of the economy is centralized into a few hands, it is so much easier for Rome to manipulate it, particularly when she has many of her own “merchants” in the seats of power. So the Papacy has an interest in restructuring the economic system. Perhaps she is in the middle of the negotiations. The kings of the earth, and the merchants of the earth give her what she wants, and she gives them what they want. She gets greater power and they get greater wealth.
Think about this in terms of prophecy again. Religion is the third leg of the three-legged stool of prophetic globalism. Once the political world is globalized (and it is well down that road already), and once the economic world is globalized (and this is now being formulated), you can expect that the next frontier of globalization will be religion (and that too has already started through the ecumenical movement). Furthermore, since the economy has become global and political, it is no surprise to students of prophecy that religion will also become political on a global scale. The universal no-buy-no-sell laws to enforce global worship laws cannot happen until every leg of the three-legged stool is in place. There must be economic consolidation on a global scale. That is now in process.
Listen to this statement from the pen of God’s messenger, Ellen White about the wickedness of the world. It is from Testimonies for the Church, Volume 7, page 141. “This earth has almost reached the place where God will permit the destroyer to work his will upon it. The substitution of the laws of men for the law of God, the exaltation, by merely human authority, of Sunday in place of the Bible Sabbath, is the last act in the drama. When this substitution becomes universal, God will reveal Himself. He will arise in His majesty to shake terribly the earth. He will come out of His place to punish the inhabitants of the world for their iniquity, and the earth shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.”
Friends, the universal substitution is not yet in place, but the restructure of the economy is rapidly moving us in that direction.
Money is the medium by which people provide the daily necessities of life. Most people work to earn money so that they can provide for their families. But money is the fruit of our labor, which God has given us the ability to earn and use wisely for His cause. It is God’s, and we are the stewards.
My friends, we must now have our priorities straight. Money is to be used to provide our daily necessities and support the spread of the truth. It is not to be hoarded or used in a selfish way. When you are reduced to the barter system because you are faithful to the Lord, you won’t need your money. You need skills to minister to others. If you know how to help people by giving them a hydrotherapy treatment or a massage, they will give you food to eat. Medical missionary work is one of the very last things that can be done to win souls under the pressure of the Sunday laws that are coming upon this world once economic consolidation and control has been fully implemented. But it may well be the means by which God supports His faithful people.
People will eventually see the worthlessness of pursing economic priorities before spiritual things. Either you develop the right priorities now, or you will have them work against you in the future. It is better to be faithful to God now in all things and avoid his wrath in the day of wrath.
Listen carefully to what the apostle James has to say in chapter 5:1-3. “Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days…” Verse 5 says: “Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter…”
My friends, have you been wanton? Has money been your chief motive? Has it become your idol? God has a solution for the idolatry of money and wealth. He has given us the privilege of returning tithe and offerings. Returning tithe to the Lord’s work is the way we show God that we acknowledge His sovereignty over our lives. Offerings show God how much we love Him.
As the global economic system is revised, as currencies are consolidated, as assets are devalued and then re-inflated; and finally as we near the close of probation, James gives us very pertinent counsel in verse 7 and 8 of chapter 5. “Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; establish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.”
To establish your hearts means that you have settled the matter of worldliness, materialism and selfishness in your life. You are precious to Jesus, and He wants to have you as part of the precious fruit of the earth. The really good news is that Jesus is near to coming again. Now is the time to align yourself with the precious principles of heaven and turn from the corrupt principles of this world.
