Commentary on world events that relate to Bible prophecy and on Rapture Ready issues world events.

 

Dec 7, 2009

America's Debt: A Hopeless Situation

Concern over America 's national debt has seen a sharp rise. According to a recent Rasmussen Report, 42 percent of Americans now say that cutting the deficit should be the president's first important priority. I've had dozens of news articles forwarded to me in the past week that focus on this subject.

Some folks are predicting total chaos will some come to the financial markets. "We have predicted for at least the past two years that the primary collapse of the U.S. economy would occur in 2010. We stand by that prediction." - Neithercorp Press.

I don't know if 2010 is a magic year, but things look very dire for America 's future. A report by the White House's Office of Management and Budget (OMB) seems to extinguish any hope of us being able to climb out of this debt trap.

The OMB is usually the branch of government responsible for issuing the most optimistic forecasts of our national budget. In the past, these forecasts would say that we are on track to balance the budget in three years. When we reach that point, our federal deficit is still in the hundreds of billions.

A little over a week ago, the OMB came out with a report that said even if things improve dramatically, we are still headed for bankruptcy. In nine years, the tab for servicing the interest on our debt will exceed $700 billion a year. We currently pay $200 billion in interest. The national debt, which is now $12 trillion, will at that time nearly double in size.

Our fiscal problems are not a decade away. The Treasury has to refinance the short-term debt issued during the financial crisis. This means that about $500 billion is coming due in the next few months. We are also facing another year of deficit spending, so the Fed will need to find buyers for at least another $1.2 trillion in notes. Morgan Stanley's analysts have crunched the numbers and concluded that in the year ending June 2010, there could be a shortfall in demand on the order of $598 billion--about a third of projected new issuance.

The Federal Reserve can step in and purchase the $600 billion in unsold treasury notes. It already owns $4.8 trillion in IOUs, so what's a few hundred more? Well, investors are starting to realize that the system is one giant shell game.

There has to be a point where it becomes mathematically impossible to avoid calamity. I think we are at that point. It's like a plane flying into an obstruction. I'm reminded of the infamous crash in the Canary Islands that remains deadliest accident in aviation history.

The captain of a Dutch KLM jumbo 747 slammed into another 747 jet that was still taxiing on the runway. Fog had prevented the captain from seeing the other jet, and for some unknown reason he took off without clearance. When the KLM captain realized his mistake, he pulled as hard as he could to get the aircraft into the air. Investigators found this out when they discovered that he had pulled so hard on the throttle, he had ruptured the capillaries in his wrists.

Our debt problem isn't confined to the federal government. Bank credit, which in 1947 was 45 percent of GDP, has by 2009 risen to 67 percent of GDP. Household debt, which in 1957 was only about 45 percent of national income, peaked at over 120 percent of national income by 2007. We also have ten states on the verge of bankruptcy.

What make me so pessimistic about our debt situation is that there is no effort to pull up on the financial throttle. If anything, the lever is being pushed downward. President Barack Obama is oblivious to our national debt crisis. Just last week, he escalated the war in Afghanistan, a decision that could cost another $1 trillion over the next ten years. He is also considering cutting taxes to stimulate jobs.

We're seeing some signs that the dam is about to burst. Several key nations that have been buyers of Treasury bills and T-bonds in the past have said they are going to be selling U.S. notes. The dollar's value has been rapidly dropping on exchange markets. Gold and silver has been on a record run based mostly on fears of an American debt debacle.

Only God knows how long it will be before our nation slips into financial chaos. I know that when Jesus removes the Church, America will instantly implode. Terry and I have both said it seems most likely that the economy will limp along until the rapture.

With this world system doubly doomed (moral decay and dire financial circumstances), we Christians need to be more mindful of things that are not influenced by the rise and fall of the dollar. In the end, all we have is our relationship with Jesus Christ.

-- Todd

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Armageddon's Trigger

Jerusalem sits atop land that would be among the least desirable in terms of real estate values. The natural inclination would be to look for more scenic, lusher beauty rather than the much-improved but still arid landscape in Jerusalem and the surrounding area. But when considering Jerusalem, one is talking in terms not of the natural, but of the supernatural.

Since before the time the Lord led Abraham to Moriah with Isaac in tow, when the patriarch was willing to follow through on the sacrifice of his son, the area that is now Jerusalem has been at the very center of spiritual warfare like no other place on the planet.

Moriah is the site where Abraham laid Isaac upon the makeshift alter and started the plunge of the knife toward his son's heart. The angel of the Lord (likely the preincarnate Christ) stopped the test of the old man's faith by providing the sacrificial ram, caught in the thicket by its horns (read Genesis 22:1-13).

Moriah, the tumultuous centerpiece of Jerusalem to this day, is the place where God directed David to the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, from whom he purchased the site. This would be the place where King David would not be allowed to build God a house because he had the blood of war on his hands. But it is where David's son, Solomon, built the great temple of God (Read 1 Chronicles 3).

This plateau on Jerusalem's perimeter is where the Ark of the Covenant sat within the Holy of Holies. It is where the veil that separated man from God in the Jewish sacrificial system was torn in two from top to bottom by the hand of God. This occurred when His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, died on the cross as the once-and-for-all sacrifice for the sin of mankind--so man would forevermore have direct access to God the Father through the one mediator, the man Jesus Christ. This high place in the city of David is the most contested real estate on earth. It is scheduled to become such a cup of trembling that all nations of the world will be drawn to the Valley of Megiddo--Armageddon.

Lucifer couldn't usurp God's throne in heaven, although He tried with all his might (see Isaiah 14). Moriah is the site where Satan will again try to usurp the throne of God--this one the Almighty's earthly throne that is the Temple Mount, where the Ark once sat and where the King of all Kings will one day sit atop a supernaturally elevated Mount Zion.

This real estate named Jerusalem provides the present impetus for the world's call for a two-state solution to the conflict involving Israel and the Palestinians. It is supernatural, spiritual warfare that instigates hatreds in the region and particularly in this ancient city, which is mentioned more than any other in the Bible. Jerusalem is the trigger to Armageddon.

Efforts to divide this city are relentless these days. This news excerpt makes the point:

Sweden's attempts to insert language into an EU resolution on the Middle East that would recognize east Jerusalem as the capital of a future independent Palestinian state harms European efforts to play a significant part in mediating between Israel and the Palestinians, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement issued Tuesday. The statement followed a Haaretz report that the Swedes [Sweden being the current country that holds the rotating EU presidency] were pushing a resolution that will be discussed at a monthly meeting of EU ministers next week in Brussels that would officially call for the division of Jerusalem. (Herb Keinon, Jerusalem Post, 12/0/09)

Jerusalem will be at the heart of the covenant of false peace that will engulf the city, the Middle East, and all the world in a holocaust of God's holy wrath and judgment. The world's power brokers elite will divide the city and, in God's terminology, "divide My land." The results will be to bring all nations into the battle of the Great Day of God Almighty.

For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land. (Joel 3:1-2)

Of all the signals of these last of the last days, powerful issues surrounding Israel, Jerusalem, and the Temple Mount in particular, are paramount. They constitute the trigger to Armageddon and Christ's Second Advent.

The Rapture will preempt that time of cataclysm that will culminate at the last great battle. It is incumbent upon everyone who names the name of Christ to get the Word out that there is safety from that horrendous time of judgment only in the Lord Jesus. You can be a part of that mission with your support of the Rapture Ready website ministry. We ask you to join us in this effort with your prayers and in other ways, and particularly with your financial support. There are so many ways we can expand our end-times thrust. Your support is building treasure in Heaven--to where we will one day be called with the shout "Come up here!"

Terry