In Luke 21 there are several references to troubled times. In verse 25 it says nations will be in distress with perplexity suggesting that problems may be so grave, no one knows how to solve them. In verse 26, it refers to men’s hearts failing them from fear, especially when they see what may be coming upon them.  In this context, the perfect storm is coming.

Rahm Emmanuel made the often-quoted statement that we should never let a crisis go to waste.  Greece has a crisis. You may think that it is such a small nation that it isn’t worth exploring the deeper meaning. The real problem is contagion. Greece is just one of many socialist nations in Europe. Thus, Greece has been funding massive social programs and accumulating huge debt. Nations that could follow right behind Greece — and soon — include Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Great Britain, among others. All wobbly European nations are hoping the European Union will bail them out of trouble. They may try but the financial issues are so formidable that it will not work.

As Gary Bauer of American Values says, “Socialist policies have resulted in a Europe that has been far less than resilient to the economic crisis. Many of the over-spending, over-borrowing and over-expanding European Union governments are heading towards financial bankruptcy and utter collapse. And yet Obama and his allies still insist on remaking America in Europe’s crumbling image.”

Bauer continues, “Europe’s fiscal chaos is an affirmation of Thomas Jefferson’s axiom that ‘a government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take away everything you have.’ The violence in Greece recently is the inevitable result of too much government. And given the Obama administration’s socialist impulses, its addiction to spending and its unflinching devotion to unions, there’s no reason to think a Greek tragedy could not happen in America.”

Greece had no choice but to cut some austerity programs and further tax people. Most of the population of Greece is getting some kind of government benefit. Until the collapse, they could retire at 53. Now the age is raised to 60. The people in that nation had grown dependent on big government and handouts. The free lunch was pulled out from under them and parts of the nation went up in flames with three deaths. This is what happens when the “entitlement mentality” pervades nations.

Today Greece, tomorrow America. Debt and deficits are the gifts that keep on destroying!  People do not willingly give up benefits, particularly if they have benefited from them for years or decades. Most people are self-focused. They often do not see the long-term damage being done due to these entitlements. And politicians don’t seem to think about the consequences either. They are busy buying votes that always come with hand-outs.

America should be paying very close attention to socialist Europe. This is exactly what the movers and shakers in Washington and around the world want to see America become. We may honor their wishes. Our unfunded liabilities exceed $100 trillion. Yes, that’s trillion with a “t”.  The inevitable outcome of the Obama administration spending will be either bankruptcy or austerity.  It will likely be both but the cutting of entitlements will likely produce the same kind of chaos that we saw in Greece this spring. Since President Lyndon Johnson, we have doled out trillions of dollars making millions of people dependent on big government. By now, they know of no other lifestyle. If it is yanked, these people will not go quietly into the night.  Capitalism is not the problem. Handouts and socialism are.

What is the deeper meaning here? The world is being bombarded with what the Bible calls “birth pangs.” God is trying to get our attention. The world does not understand end-time scenarios so God is trying to wake up the church. We are seeing financial chaos, volcanoes, earthquakes, tornadoes, floods, oil spills — all of disastrous proportion. To solve the financial issues, the world will willingly walk into the one-world system with a one-world currency. Right now both the Euro and the dollar are crumbling. People will be open to a powerful, charismatic man who will tell everyone he can fix it all. The Bible calls him the Antichrist. He will be empowered to do miracles, signs and wonders, and pull rabbits out of hats.

This man will be handed the perfect storm referenced above — a crumbling of society on a global scale. As the passage in Luke states, men’s hearts will be failing them for fear. While the real fulfillment of such signs is in the Tribulation, we cannot help but see the stage being set for that.

This could be a long, hot summer or perhaps the chaos will hold off for another year or two. But we know that it will come. Most nations today are dependent almost exclusively on government and now America is no exception. And Rahm Emmanuel and his associates will not let the scenario go to waste.

I believe I have studied under the best of the best teachers when it comes to what the Bible lays out for us in the last days. Many are dazed at the rapid decline of America. The passage of health care wasn’t about health care; rather, the socialization of America. America just came under the power of Saul Alinsky. But some of us, while grieved, look at the broader picture. So, this is how I see it.

Revelation, chapters 13 and 17, lays out a coming one-world political system, one-world leader, one-world religion, and a one-world financial system (cashless). We don’t know when this will all be implemented, but we do know the biggest factor holding up the one-world order has been America, the superpower like no other.

In the coming system, all nations will likely be “equal.” That is, there will be no superpower other than, perhaps, the European Union — a consortium of powerful European nations. Even some individual nations in Europe are crumbling as I write this so some of those nations will band together and become the end-time power. Economic chaos is likely to level the playing field of all the world’s players on this strange chessboard.

Economic chaos will also bring down China and Russia, although both seem to have major roles in the last days as they invade Israel, one in the Gog/Magog war and one in the Battle of Armageddon. Their empires and land mass are enormous. But the number one superpower has been America and now we see her imploding due to corrupt politics, greed, love of self, love of power, and the personification of the Bible verse that says, “The heart is more deceitful than all else and desperately wicked; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9)

So the bottom line is that America has been the primary obstacle to the one-world system. We see the decline of the dollar which has been one of the major currencies for decades, yet it stands in the way of a one-world economic/financial system.

Barack Obama and others say we are not a Christian nation, but that is nonsense because the church in America, in spite of its weaknesses today, stands in the way of the coming one-world religion. On the other hand, we have the apostate church in the U.S. which will go along with a one-world religion. As this is being written, there is an assault on everything Christian in America. It is to strip us of our godly heritage and rid the U.S. of as much Christianity as possible.

This scenario is scripted in the Bible by the inference that as America didn’t exist in Bible times: America has to diminish and Europe must rise. The man who could best bring this about promised America and the world “hope and change” and the uninformed bought it hook, line, and sinker. But Barack Obama is just one player in this global chess game. Nonetheless, he gave the world an image that he was the new “world leader” during the 2008 campaign. This is what the world longs for: A “man with a plan.” There needs to be a one-world leader but it is not him.

Capitalism must go and must be replaced by a socialized world. You say this will take decades. Look at what has happened in just over a year! So not only are we threatened from without by radical Islam, we are threatened from without and within by a group of intelligent globalists who are convincing America and the nations of the world that the only way to lasting world peace is the establishment of global government. And all nations will have to be equal for this to work efficiently.

Globalists have no respect for the people who elected them; no respect for their office; no respect for the American Constitution; no respect for what it means to be entrusted by the people of any nation to serve in a high capacity. Their only maniacal goal is the consolidation of more money and power into the hands of the few in order to control and manipulate the entire world.

This coming system is not some prophetically speculative or futuristic fairy tale, but a real world reality outlined in the Bible. It is not some whacko conspiracy theory being advanced by the fringe society. It’s an orchestrated agenda which God had planned for before the foundations of the earth.

But America has not made it possible for the globalists to get their agenda through until now. We see that through the corrupt-to-the-core Obama administration, they are pressing forward to the prize — a one-world system with America subservient to the European Union. We just don’t know the timing, nor the timing of the return of our “blessed hope” Who remains our only hope.

Because so many feel a foolish one-world system is the answer for global unity, I feel the words of Isaiah 66:4 have been in play for several years: “I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears upon them; because when I called, none did answer; when I spoke, they did not hear, but they did evil before mine eyes, and chose that in which I delighted not.”

God sent delusion and this is the result. He sent the delusion to fulfill His Word. It is strong delusion that is causing some Americans to stand behind globalists who will bring about a system outlined in the book of Revelation.

Where one gets in trouble with this kind of theology and opinion is when it leads to an “I give up” mentality. Good people stop fighting evil. Some just roll over. Some go into complete apathy and escapism. Remember the profound statement by Edmund Burke: “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing.” Just keep expectations realistic and Bible-focused.

Now, what is the good news? We can only change the world by changing the spirituality of a culture. In the meantime, we can contend for the faith, preach the gospel, and be salt and light to a frightened world. And since all of the above are scripted, the final act is as well. We can know with certainty that the King of kings is coming back very soon. Right now some are wailing and calling this “escapist theology.” Go ahead and wail.

God is in control.

I close with a statement by Randy Alcorn whose book we now carry (see order blank.) “In Wall Street terms, Christ is bearish when it comes to investing on earth. His financial forecast for the world is ultimately bleak. But He’s unreservedly bullish about investing in Heaven where every market indicator is eternally positive!”

What is happening is in the “all these things must come to pass” (Matthew 24:6) category. We cannot stop such events. We cannot alter the way it is outlined in the Bible. If you have the proper eschatology, all that is happening makes perfect sense. If you follow the Pied Pipers of Amillennialism, Preterism, Replacement Theology, Latter Rain, Kingdom Now, and more, you will be lost in the maze of bizarre current events.

Awaiting His return,

Jan Markell