The Biggest Financial Bubble of All Time

I have just finished a chapter for one of Terry’s future books. I hope the publish date is soon, because my initial working title was the Coming Fiscal storm. I had six months to write the chapter, so there was room to change my approach of a coming monetary disaster to a process that is currently playing out.

One of the most amazing things about this current monetary crisis is how quickly our national debt has risen. In total we have allocated around $3 trillion to fight the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown. From May 3 to June 3, the official national debt increased by $1 trillion, which is five times faster than the previous record for debt creation.

With COVID-19 virus cases spiking, there is talk of going back into full lockdown mode. Apple corporation has already decided to close some of its stores in hot-zone areas. President Trump and key senators are talking about sending out a fresh round of stimulus checks.

The Federal Reserve has been keeping the party going by buying up the nation’s new debt. The Fed even found a way to skirt laws that barred the purchase of corporate bonds. From the moment the Federal Reserve announced how it would buy bonds for its $250 billion Secondary Market Corporate Credit Facility, something seemed amiss. The central bank has already granted it the ability to buy individual corporate bonds by creating a complex set of rules and terms for its activity.

The Fed last week unveiled an entirely new class of eligible assets called “Eligible Broad Market Index Bonds.” This was little more than a workaround for issuers being forced to certify that they’re in compliance with the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act. The Fed will simply spend what it feels is needed to fix the economy.

Another indication that we are in the king of all bubbles is the wild fluctuation of many stocks. The Hertz car rental company has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The company stock dropped down to 56 cents, and then it began to soar as day traders pushed up the price to $5.50. Hertz received approval from a bankruptcy judge to sell up to $1 billion of common stock to take advantage of its recent share rally.

At the same time, Hertz warned that there was a significant risk that shareholders won’t receive recovery under the Chapter 11 proceedings and that its “common stock will be worthless.” The plan was scrapped when it became clear there would be lawsuits once people realized they bought worthless stock.

Nikola Motors is a Tesla competitor with zero revenue. Unphased investors have nevertheless piled into the stock, sending the company’s valuation soaring to well above $23 billion in just three months on public exchanges. CEO Trevor Milton says the new stockholders “don’t care,” and neither does he.

“They care more about the environmental impact of what you’re doing,” Milton told CNBC in an interview. “‘Oh, you’re six months or eight months from revenue?’ They don’t care. They’re like, ‘you know what? You’re changing the world. You’re going to reduce emissions more than anyone else. We’re invested into you.'”

Chesapeake Energy Corp is preparing to file for bankruptcy in the coming days, making it the largest oil and gas producer to unravel after an energy market rout caused by the COVID-19 outbreak. The Oklahoma City-based company is in the final stages of negotiating a roughly $900 million debtor-in-possession loan to support its operations while under Chapter 11 bankruptcy-court protection, two of the sources said. The company is reeling under a mountain of debt totaling more than $9 billion.

Chesapeake Energy’s stock should be trading very close to zero at this point. It remains around $11 per share because, like with Hertz stock, people have completely lost touch with financial reality.

The current bubble environment takes on a supernatural dimension when one considers what China has accomplished. No other nation on earth has increased its national currency to such a high level, and it plans on more money printing. China’s central bank governor Yi Gang said that China will keep liquidity ample in the second half of the year.

In order to boost its stagnating economy, China is about to unleash a historic credit injection: Yi said that new loans are likely to hit nearly 20 trillion yuan ($2.83 trillion) this year, up from a record 16.81 trillion yuan in 2019, and total social financing could increase by more than 30 trillion yuan ($4.2 trillion), or about 30% of GDP. A similar number for the US would be about $7 trillion, which is more or less what the US deficit will be over the next 12 months.

There is no doubt in my mind that God is in full control of the global economy. Even the most godless economist should have some wonderment over why the world grows more financially distressed without descending into total chaos.

“The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil” (Proverbs 16:4).

–Todd

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Time to Assess

We’re well past April 15 and tax time, which was delayed this year because of COVID-19. However, time to assess came. It always does. Two things are inevitable in life, the saying goes—death and taxes.

However, these aren’t inevitable in terms of believers in Jesus Christ. In the case of death, not all Christians will experience it. In the case of taxes, there is a generation of believers that could miss paying them. In both cases of death and taxes, it depends upon the Rapture.

Christians will leave the planet in an instant, being changed while alive into immortal bodies. And, if that glorious event occurs before the due tax date, they will avoid having to file tax information. Two good reasons for making sure you go in the Rapture, wouldn’t you agree?

It would be a welcome thing to not be required to deal with how much we owe Uncle Sam. I make the jest in order to lead into another sort of assessment that must be made. It is best to make it now rather than later. It, again, is wrapped up in the Rapture.

The thrilling moment when Christ calls the believer in the air, there will be an assessment. Everything done during life on earth will be looked into by the Lord Jesus Himself. There will be no mistakes in His heavenly audit.

Now this is where Christians become nervous. Will everything I’ve done be flashed upon a Jumbotron screen—the good, the bad, and the ugly?

Take comfort: Nothing bad or ugly will be on that heavenly display, as I believe the Bible teaches. Only the good things done in this life will remain on that screen.

All sin, you see, has already been dealt with by the Savior—the Lamb of God, when He hung upon that old rugged cross at Calvary. He forever did away with our sin when He said: “It is finished” and gave up His life, commending His Spirit into the hands of the Heavenly Father. The bad and the ugly were forever forgotten at that moment—that is, for those who accept Christ’s sacrifice that day some two thousand years ago.

The assessment that will be made when we stand—probably kneel—before our Lord at the bema seat judgment will involve works we have done on earth that are outside consideration of sin, which, as noted, was forever forgotten at the cross for the believer.

Motive is what will be assessed at this eternal moment.

Now, we might experience a minute of regret that we didn’t do more for our Lord. There is debate among theologians about that matter.

The Lord—the perfect Auditor—will assess whether what we did in this life with regard to certain heavenly parameters was to please Him or to satisfy our own desires.

Now, I realize that this brings up many more questions than it answers. It seems simple enough on the surface. Good works will receive rewards—even crowns. All works not done with proper motive will be burned by Heaven’s fire of righteousness in some way, as I understand what the Bible tells us.

But, this whole matter of the judgment seat of Christ—the bema—warrants an in-depth study in order to come anywhere close to comprehending this magnificent moment of assessment by the God of creation.

An upside to this heavenly assessment, as juxtaposed against hanging around planet earth to pay our April 15 confiscatory taxes to Uncle Sam, includes that, rather than have to pay, we will be paid for services rendered to Heaven’s great causes.

The constant thought near the front of our considerations while living our increments of life should be that this assessment could take place following the next click of the second hand, or our next heartbeat. Once the Rapture calls us to be with our Lord or death does so, our time to earn heavenly rewards will be a closed matter. The time for doing what we do here in genuinely wanting to please God will close, and we will look into the omniscient eyes of our Savior.

As I indicated, the matter of the bema judgment is not simple. It warrants study. Fortunately, God’s Word provides much to teach all we need to know about this subject.

Looking through my computer files is what prompted me to think on this matter. However, I believe the Holy Spirit did the true prompting in impressing that it’s time to assess. The file I found gives a good, solid study outline for this assessment.

I might have put this together some years ago myself, I’m not sure. But I believe it is rather from Dr. Harold Wilmington, a great teacher and Bible scholar at Liberty University.

Carefully go through these scriptural truths to more fully understand that coming assessment of your life before the bema.

Things on which Christians will be judged at the judgment seat of Christ:

1. How we treat other believers—Hebrews 6:10; Matthew 10:41–42.
2. How we exercise our authority over others—Hebrews 13:17; James 3: 1.
3. How we employ our God-given abilities—1 Corinthians 12:4, 12; 2 Timothy 1:6; 1 Peter 4: 10.

Add to these Scriptures Jesus’ teaching of the Parables of the ten pounds (Luke 19:11–6) and the talents (Matthew 25:14–29).

Each believer has at least one talent—1 Corinthians 7: 7, 12:7–11; Ephesians 4:7; 1 Peter 4:10.

There are 18 of these gifts—Romans 12; 1 Corinthians 12; Ephesians 4.

It’s up to each believer to find/discern his or her gifts.

4. How we use our money—1 Corinthians 60:2; 2 Corinthians 9:6–7; 1 Timothy 6:17–19.

All belongs to God—1 Peter 18–19.

5. How we spend our time—Psalm 90:12; Ephesians 5:16; Colossians 4:5; 1 Peter 1:17.
   6. How much we suffer for Jesus—Matthew 5:11–12; Mark 10:29–30; Romans 8:18; 2 Corinthians 4:17; 1 Peter 4:12–13.
   7. How we run the particular race God has chosen for us—1 Corinthians 9:24; Philippians 2:16, 3:13–14; Hebrews 12:1.
   8. How effectively we control the old nature—1 Corinthians 9:25–27. Greek word adokimos, “castaway,” means “disapproved.” It means self is disapproved. Paul wanted to keep his old nature in check, as seen in 2 Timothy 2:15; 1 Corinthians 16:3; Philippians 1:10; 1 Thessalonians 2:4.
   9. How many souls we witness to, and win to Christ—Proverbs 11:30; Daniel 12:3; 1 Thessalonians 2:19–20.
   10. How we react to temptation—James 1:2–3; Revelation 3:10.
   11. How much the doctrine of the Rapture means to us—2 Timothy 4:8.
   12. How faithful we are to the Word of God and the flock of God—Acts 20:26–28; 2 Timothy 4:1–2; 1 Peter 5:2–4.

   What will be the results of the judgment seat of Christ?

   Some will receive rewards—1 Corinthians 3:14

   Bible mentions at least five rewards:

   • The incorruptible crown, given to those who master the old nature—1 Corinthians 9:25–27
   • The crown of rejoicing given to soul winners—Proverbs 11:30; Daniel 12:31; Thessalonians 2:19–20.
   • The crown of life, given to those who successfully endure temptation—James 1:2–3; Revelation 2:10.
   • The crown of righteousness for those who especially love the doctrine of the Rapture—2 Timothy 4:8.
   • The crown of glory, given to faithful preachers and teachers—Acts 20:26–28; 2 Timothy 4:1–2; 1 Peter 5:2–4.

   Looking around at the stage-setting for prophetic fulfillment that is moving in convergence and at a pace that is stunning, it is certainly time to assess!

   –Terry

    

The Perils of Being Perpetually Offended

Our nation has reached a point where it is a hair trigger away from chaos. A host of liberal groups is constantly looking for something they can take offense to. Nearly about 60% of the news today is about what the writer thinks is wrong with the world. One Yahoo news story questioned why was Trump drinking a glass of water in an odd manner. On the same page, another story had an Atlanta megachurch pastor apologizing for saying that people might find ‘white blessing’ more palatable than ‘white privilege.’

The thought police have now taken down Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben. My one-time favorite syrup will no longer have the iconic image and name of Aunt Jemima. PepsiCo Inc declared they are changing the name and the brand of the pancake mix and syrup because it has a “racist history.” The logo of the more than 130-year-old brand features an African American woman named after a character from 19th century minstrel shows. The offensive caricature is rooted in a stereotype of a friendly black woman working as a servant or a nanny for a white family.

Uncle Ben’s owner Mars is planning to change the rice maker’s “brand identity.” In a statement on its website, Mars wrote that “now is the right time to evolve the Uncle Ben’s brand, including its visual brand identity, which we will do.” “We don’t yet know what the exact changes and timing will be, but we are evaluating all possibilities,” Mars added.

The ever-expanding Cultural Revolution has Kellogg’s cereal boxes under its demented scrutiny. Fiona Onasanya, a former British Labor Party MP who became only the second person in history to be kicked out of Parliament by their own voters using a recall petition, has called on Kellogg’s to justify why Rice Krispies is represented with “three white boys” while the Coco Pops mascot is a monkey.

I’m guessing that Colonel Sanders will be next on the chopping block. His southern image will soon be viewed as too much of a reminder of the slaving-holding plantation owners. The investors of all companies that use a surname will need to pray that their company is not linked to ancestors with troubling racial views.

People have become fanatical in America over perceived racial strife. A man wearing a Ku Klux Klan hood and robe casually walking his dog near a freeway in Vilas County, Wisconsin, caused a national stir. The incident prompted multiple phone calls to the police. The local sheriff’s office said passersby spotted Charles Michael Booth “walking his dog, wearing a Ku Klux Klan shirt, drinking a beer, and waving at traffic.”

Because Booth was walking on a country road, it’s not in anybody’s particular neighborhood. “It should not have bothered anybody. “I realize that that may be offensive to some people, but it’s not a crime,” said the officer.

But the president of the Dane County NAACP chapter insists that Booth’s “terrorist act” was intended to intimidate others. “[Booth] intended to project what I believe to be white supremacist behaviors by wearing this garb,” Gregory Jones told the Journal Sentinel. “It is intended to create fear among people – even people who are not of color. [Vilas County residents] should be mindful and be willing to stand up and say this is not acceptable in our country at all.”

We are never going to restore racial harmony to our nation if it only takes one wrongful death to trigger fresh riots. There is no systemic discrimination at work in America. George Floyd died because of one cop’s act of stupidity.

People have become so insane with hate, they don’t realize that they are the bigots. An event called ‘An Evening with Cancelled Women’ was due to feature a number of women who had been disinvited from public engagements due to objections from people who disagree with their viewpoints. But it was itself cancelled – due to objections from people who disagree with their viewpoints.

I think this world was a far better place before platforms like Twitter and Facebook came along. These social media sites are destroying the very fabric of democracy, destroying the very fabric of human relationships and peddling in an addictive drug called anger. Instigators know they can attract people to their platform and control if they get them mad enough.

One possible way to defuse that perpetual offense cycle is a hugely negative consequence of the violence. Already a dangerous profession, truckers, who value their lives more than the cargo they haul, have been heard on the CDLLife app calling for a nationwide moratorium of delivering goods until the riots stop. To understand why truckers are rejecting deliveries to certain cities, last week 1,212 users of the trucking app responded to the poll, with 79% saying they will not deliver loads to lawless cities.

“No cops = more violence and targeted robbing,” Scott Cuellar wrote.

“No, I will not deliver to an area with a disbanded police department. My life matters, and I do this for my family,” wrote Casnpaper.

“I just turned down a load from Miami to St Paul paying $3,800; my life matters more than any other,” wrote Carlos Barreras.

“Nope, no load is worth my life,” wrote Eddie Bean.

The perils of being perpetually offended are that you eventually lose contact with reality. Everyone else is wrong, and no amount of evidence will change your mind. At that point, our society seems doomed to self-destruction. The Word of God clearly says that the time for repentance is a limited window.

“So I gave them up to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices” (Psalm 81:12).

“Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves” (Romans 1:24).

–Todd

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Our America-centric Perspective

America stands at the center of all the strangeness that has enveloped this moment in history. There is no other way to say it that fits the circumstance in which we find ourselves. At least there is no way to say it that I, myself, can offer.

This is what is meant by the title of the commentary.

It is true that the COVID-19 pandemic affects the entire world of humanity, not just the US. It is true that there is economic turmoil not just here, but in every nation on earth. It is true that there is violence based upon racial strife breaking out in major cities around the world, not just in America. But all of these things seem to center in and around, and stem from, this nation.

Perhaps it is just a matter of perspective. Maybe its nationalistic myopia from which I suffer in considering all we are enduring. But I don’t think so.

America, as we have looked at many times, is the holdup to the globalist agenda hatched in the high places of wickedness by the powers and principalities, both human and demonic. My thoughts are stronger than ever in this regard in considering things from our America-centric prophetic perspective.

The most crucial presidential election yet, in my opinion, looms just ahead. One cannot just sense, but see—through minute-by-minute, hour-by-hour actions by the enraged—assaults from every angle against America as founded that the above perspective is the right vantage from which to draw conclusions.

It is the right perspective, not in the geopolitical sense of “right” vs “left,” but the right perspective from the standpoint of what the Bible says about what is coming.

And what is coming is a regime so different from what we have known that it is unimaginable that it could ever happen in the minds of average Americans. It will be a regime that will produce, as Jesus put it, a time of tribulation “such as never was, nor will ever be.” It will be a beast regime—that of the man who will be Antichrist.

The question we who teach, preach, and write about Bible prophecy get practically every time there is a forum for questions and answers is something like: “What about America—is it in Bible prophecy?”

The answer is “No, America isn’t mentioned by name in Bible prophecy.” But, it is always appropriate to follow up with: “However, America is certainly in prophecy in the sense of being among the nations foretold to influence the course of human history while the end of the age approaches and the Tribulation looms.” We can say that, because here we are, right in the mix of things moving the world toward the climax of human history.  And, are they ever moving!

With this nation at the black heart of all the satanically inspired rage, hatred, and determination to bring America down so globalist plans can proceed, I can’t accept that I’m being America-centric unnecessarily. This nation is in the middle of a war, an end-times war in which I believe the Lord Himself intervened miraculously in the 2016 presidential election.

I have no answers to the war’s outcome in the short term. We do know that the globalists will get their “New World Order” at some point. But for now, the battle rages, and the very fact that it does is most encouraging. God is still in the middle of the fight, and there is no better side to be on than that of the omnipotent Creator of all things.  

America, A Golden Cup

Again, is the name “America” given anywhere in Scripture? Of course not. But, the influence this nation has exerted since coming to its full bloom as earth’s greatest superpower in history makes it a prophetic nation. The Creator of all things continues to use America in His mighty hand to accomplish two very distinctive, supernatural purposes. As a matter of fact, the United States, in my view, has an overwhelming presence in Bible prophecy.

Its place is at the very heart of the end times things we see developing—matters we see unfolding in daily, even hourly, news reports. In this sense, I believe God is speaking of America—in type, if not by name, when His Word tells us the following:

Babylon [hath been] a golden cup in the LORD’S hand, that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunken of her wine; therefore the nations are mad. (Jeremiah 51:7).

Certainly, the United States of America has been a “golden cup” in the Lord’s hand. No other nation of modern vintage can come close to claiming that achievement.

Some nations of Europe were formative in bringing forth Christianity into the world, thus shedding a degree of gospel light into a world of sin-darkness. But it is America that, despite its great shortcomings and more recent degeneration, has been a shining beacon, reflecting from that golden cup in God’s hand.

Being the first nation in spreading to the whole world the gospel message that Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross makes possible the only way to redemption for lost mankind is a feat no other country can claim. This, ultimately, has been done not by the offices, or under the auspices of American ingenuity, but by the omniscience and the omnipotence of the One holding the “golden cup.”

It is God’s grace and mercy that has put America as a beacon of God’s light upon that mountain of gospel dissemination. God’s providence gave this nation the industrial and technological genius—a fact that is denied, or that is so taken for granted today.

Israel the Real Target

No matter the other exigencies of the hour, it is Israel that is the true target of Satan and his minions in the high places of Ephesians 6: 12. The violent organization Black Lives Matter, despite the media trying to make it look like a force for righteousness in correcting past wrongs, is an anti-Semitic evil based upon so-called liberation theology. We heard the thrust of that theology when Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama’s pastor in Chicago, told God to God D**** America before the presidential election of 2008.

It is Israel that Satan is aiming at, ultimately. Bible prophecy culminates first with Antichrist declaring himself God in the temple in Jerusalem. He next leads an attack on Jerusalem when he is let out of the bottomless pit at the end of the millennial reign of Christ.

Israel, America’s Saving Grace

This brings us to America’s second reason for existence—toward the purpose of accomplishing God’s great prophetic plan. In my view, this use of the phenomenally powerful American nation is among the most profound indicators we can find that America, indeed, is in prophecy. And, I believe that our nation being in prophecy includes God using it to be midwife in Israel’s modern birth into the land promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob those thousands of years ago.

President Donald J. Trump has been a friend to Israel like no president since Harry S. Truman. This was a stark change from the anger and disrespect with which the Obama administration treated God’s chosen nation.

Genesis 12:1–3 is still in effect. I have to believe that this counts significantly in God’s great economy for explaining why both Mr. Trump and America continue to survive the most horrendous spiritual/supernatural assault yet endured on an American president and this nation.

So, all things considered, it is permitted to be America-centric in the matter of peering into Bible prophecy on the immediate horizon, I am convinced. Continue to pray the prayer of 2 Chronicles 7:14 and to hold fast to Titus 2:13 and Luke 21:28. Our redemption is drawing near.

–Terry

***Another major documentary request from Terry James***

We ask our RR family to let us know anyone of your family or aquaintence still living who was part of U.S. forces or other armed services which liberated the Nazi death  camps. Here are details from my friend Dr. Thomas Horn.

Briefly, SkyWatch TV, SkyWatch Films and Defender Publishing plan to produce a documentary, a section of which will focus on WW2 and Hitler’s Final Solution. We would like to include an interview(s) with armed services personnel who liberated survivors of the Nazi death camps.  If anybody happens to know any such persons or organization you could put us in contact with, we plan to start production this summer and would like to make contact and details very soon.

Dr. Thomas Horn

SkyWatch TV

417-723-0610

Or write to me, Terry, at

Wtjames1@swbell.net