Jan 31, 2005

America's Economic Peril

For a number years I have been concerned about the financial health of the US. During the 80s, our federal budget deficit appeared almost hopeless. Many books described how our nation was headed for financial peril. By some divine miracle, we managed to escape what seemed to be an unavoidable disaster. The Reagan economic boom is mostly credited for saving us from ruin.

Having learned nothing from our good luck or God's holy grace, it now appears our economic ship is headed back towards the rocks. The problem we're facing in round two has a greater complexity, one that make the previous budget crisis seem like child's play.

  Most frightening about this latest bout of fiscal irresponsibility is Washington's oblivion to the multifaceted budget shortfall it is generating. Both Democrats and Republicans have joined forces in generating huge amounts of new debt.

I'm still baffled by the tax giveaway, which they sold as a solution to our need for more jobs. A few years later, the federal deficit has soared to record levels and unemployment remains unchanged. The shortfall for 2005 is projected to come in at a record $427 billion.

The deficits are higher than they've ever been, but on a percentage basis they are smaller than the deficits experienced in the mid-1980s. In 1985 the GDP, the output of all goods and services, was $3.9 trillion; in 2004 the total was $11.7 trillion. In 1985, the deficit was $212 billion. Using today's GDP figures, the federal deficit would be around $600 billion.

Unlike the situation 20 years ago, we do not have a cushion that allows us to run higher shortfalls. We are starting to see signs that the rest of the world is becoming unable or unwilling to fund our deficits. In the next 10 years, we will need to borrow trillions of dollars from the rest of the world.

An even bigger problem than the federal deficit is our trade deficit. The problem is very simple: We buy more from other countries than they buy from us. For many years, America's greatest export has been our own dollar. They send us goods and services and we repay them with currency.

We've gotten to the point at which we heavily use this trade arrangement to fund our lifestyle. We rely upon low wages in third-world nations to lower the prices of our consumer goods. The price factor is the reason a wide range of electronic items are manufactured in China and in several other Asian nations.

The liberal media likes to blame evangelical Christians for having blind faith in God. I think the blind faith people place in the almighty greenback tops anything an old-fashioned camp revival meeting could dish up. Since World War II, the US dollar has enjoyed an unwavering amount of devotion.

During the past few months, we are seeing signs that the faithful are starting to question their loyalty to the dollar. The size of America’s twin deficits has finally begun to get people’s attention. The introduction of the European euro has also been a factor.

The euro has been rapidly gaining clout on world exchange markets and is starting to give the greenback major competition as the world's reserve currency. In 2002, when the euro was first issued, it traded even with the dollar. Currently, a euro trades about 30 percent higher than the dollar.

Central banks are reported to be shifting their reserves away from the US and towards the eurozone. According to one survey, 70 percent of central bank reserve managers said they had increased their exposure to the euro over the past two years. The majority thought the EU money and debt markets were as attractive a destination for investment as the US.

A few days ago, China released a bombshell by publicly saying it has lost faith in the dollar. Fan Gang, the director of the National Economic Research Institute, said China was concerned about the greenback's declining value, and is looking at ending its exclusive relationship with the dollar.   

History shows that financial Armageddon can happen at any moment. Once the process of collapse is set into motion, it can quickly trigger a series of unfortunate events. A sharp drop in the dollar would compel central banks around the world to dump their American-dominated holdings, triggering further selling.

The only way for the US. Federal Reserve to attract foreign investment would be to dramatically hike interest rates. Of course, raising interest rates would send the Americans into a tailspin.

Bible prophecy’s silence concerning America does not speak well for our economy. During the last days, it predicts that Europe will become the dominant force in the world. It appears that some unknown event will cause Uncle Sam to fall behind Europe. I've always hoped that the rapture would be what removes our nation as a world power, but upcoming events may prove this to be wishful thinking.

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Last Days Hatred

As I write this, having just gotten off the phone with an interviewer who has a live morning drive-time radio program in Toronto, Canada, the fact that God’s Word is absolute Truth is affirmed and moving within my thoughts. Chief among those thoughts are two points:

1) Satan hates the nation Israel.

2)Satan hates the true Church of Jesus Christ.

Satanic rage is increasing –a sure sign that we are at the end of the age. One can only imagine how the Devil’s anger will be used against those who become believers during the tribulation era.

The radio interview came about due to an article the program’s associate producer read in the Toronto Star. The article, titled “Apocalypse Soon: The Signs Are All There” by a columnist who uses the name “SLINGER,” was written, as most secular pieces about Bible prophecy are, in a tongue-in-cheek way. In fairness, I didn’t sense in the article great animosity toward those of us who treat Bible prophecy as destined for literal fulfillment. But, the guffaws were there just beneath the surface of the writer’s paragraphs.

The radio host was matter of fact and displayed no tone of mocking in his questions. So, I don’t mean to say I felt hatred for the message that the rapture is coming and God’s prophetic Word will literally come to pass. It was in the last question, just before the brief interview broke off, that I sensed the satanic rage. Not from the interviewer, but from the question, which every interviewer these days wants to know.

“So, you think the Bush Administration’s policies toward support for Israel are driven by the President’s Christianity, and belief in Bible prophecy?” That’s not the exact phraseology, but that encompasses the gist of the question. It mirrors the many other interview questions I get as of late.

My answer was: “No. I believe President Bush is a born-again Christian, but I don’t believe he has the slightest idea of what Bible prophecy is about.”

I might be wrong, but I honestly believe it is the prophesied times that are driving all things, not any geopolitical leader’s determination to get a leg up on the ladder to prophetic success. The news and entertainment media, as a whole, do link the so-called Christian agenda to the Zionist ambitions in the Middle East. This attempt at linkage is a lie, and from the mind of Satan, who hates both Israel and Christians with a vicious rage, which continues to build.

While all who are born-again Christians should favor Israel’s existence –the thing its neighbor enemies are avowed to extinguish—we do not blindly support everything that nation does. Its government and its people are like all governments and peoples –sin-fallen–thus, seriously flawed. We do, however, believe that the Jew and the nation Israel are still God’s chosen. We believe God’s Word that says: “And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed” (Gen. 12:3).

Jesus, the Savior of the world, came in the flesh as both God and man, through the Jewish race –through Israel. God has not forsaken, nor will He ever forsake, His people and the nation. Israel is back in the land for the wrap-up of human history! And, this is the white-hot nucleus of the rage that is assaulting Bible-believing Christians and the Jewish race in America and across the world. The rage might be couched in political terms –such as the accusation that Bible-thumpers support Bush’s insane war in Iraq because of the desire for oil, and the desire to support the Zionists who murder and maim the innocent Palestinians. There is, admittedly, good reason to think that at least part of America’s interest in the region is the tremendous oil reserves. But the near-insane hatred for America’s support of Israel is engendered by the father of lies, Satan.

Some will remember that the Watergate tapes were transcribed in preparation for Richard Nixon’s intended impeachment. The transcripts had the words “expletive deleted" in place of all salacious words used during the conversations covered by the tapes. I’ve used the same method below to edit out the vulgarities one raging e-mailer used in his hate-filled e-mail to me.

Believe me, this is one of the milder e-mails I am receiving these days. Todd will agree, I think, because he gets them, too. The point in presenting this is to convey the hatred against Bible-believing Christians. The rage has been against the Jew, and now it builds as well against the true Christian –especially, it seems, the one who holds to gospel Truth. Believers who hold to the Bible as the literal Word of God are accused of bigotry, racism, and of being judgmental. I’ve been told in e-mails many times lately that all who hold to a view such as mine need to be taken from the planet. This hatred seems to include a special rage against pre-trib rapture believers. Here is the e-mail:  

“I have never heard such a load of [expletive deleted] in my life. If anyone is going to hell, it's you. I'm sure they have a special spot waiting for you. Your site is full of historic inaccuracies, hate and lies! How can you claim to be a virtuous follower of God, when you tell outright lies! Not only are you a huge hypocrite, but you also prove yourself to be an uneducated fool. [Expletive deleted] you and your stupid rapture. May Satan and God [expletive deleted] on you someday! Oh, and get your GED sometime before the rapture comes! You are an embarrassment to humanity. [Expletive deleted] YOU a million times over! I can't wait for the rapture so that you're sorry [expletive deleted] can finally stop stinking up our planet. Moron.”

Precisely this sort of invective is, of course, something the Lord, himself, foretold will be discharged against believers. Jesus said:

“If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before [it hated] you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me. If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin. He that hateth me hateth my Father also. If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father. But [this cometh to pass], that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause” (John 15:18-25).

Satanic hatred against true believers in Jesus Christ and luciferic rage against the Jew (Israel) –tremendous signals that Christ’s coming again is near! --Terry