One prophetic element stands out in considering the seven-year Tribulation era regarding the Antichrist regime. That is the economic platform prophesied to be at the heart of the Beast system.

With so many signals in view that point to the brewing Tribulation tempest, we should expect—if we’re reading the end-times signals correctly—that this heart of the Beast should be well along in its construction. We’ve covered all the indicators found within current issues and events that we believe are signals like those given by Jesus and the prophets. National and world economies have been dealt with in our efforts to make prophetic sense of the dynamic rearrangements taking place in recent times.

America’s staggering weight of debt and threat of economic decline, despite the Trump administration’s determination and successful efforts to begin restoring fiscal responsibility and produce recovery, is front and center in pointing to the fact that this is the generation that stands at the end of one dispensation (the Church Age) and upon the precipice of the next (the Tribulation). Each hour seems to bring additional confirmation that the Tribulation storm is about to break upon an uncomprehending world. We see such confirmation in abundance in the realm of geopolitics and global economics.

Since Bible prophecy clearly says the Antichrist government, thus the economic engine that will power that absolute dictatorship, will emerge from Europe, we need to keep our prophetic antennae pointed in that direction. In other words, we must be especially alert to news involving movement within Europe to cause significant changes to the global economic structure.

The following excerpt from the European Union hierarchy registers an interesting blip on my own end-times radar screen.

“Geopolitical shifts and heightened policy uncertainty remind us that no currency’s global position is guaranteed,” Christine Lagarde told EU policymakers…

The European Union must “do its homework” and seize the unprecedented opportunity to strengthen the global role of the euro at the expense of the US dollar, European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde urged on Monday.

Speaking to the European Parliament’s economy committee, the ECB chief said that current geopolitical instability provides EU policymakers with a “unique opportunity … to strengthen the euro’s role on the global stage.”

“The world is in transition,” Lagarde added. “Geopolitical shifts and heightened policy uncertainty remind us that no currency’s global position is guaranteed. It has to be earned.”

The remarks come as US President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs and attacks on the US Federal Reserve’s independence have sparked deep investor unease about the future of the US dollar, which has dominated global finance since the end of the Second World War…

Many non-Western countries, including the ‘BRICS’ group of nations – which includes China and Russia – have [like the EU] sought to “de-dollarise” the global payments system in recent years, despite Trump’s threats to impose 100% tariffs on nations seeking to move away from the US dollar.

A more “global” euro would allow businesses, households, and governments in the 20-country single currency area to enjoy lower borrowing costs, Lagarde said – much as global demand for dollar-denominated assets has afforded Washington the “exorbitant privilege” of consistently low interest rates despite years of widening budget deficits.

But for this to be achieved, “Europe must do its homework and strengthen its foundations” by integrating capital markets, safeguarding central bank independence, deepening trade links with third countries, developing a “digital euro” that isn’t dependent on US payment infrastructure, and issuing a “safe and liquid pool of EU public debt,” Lagarde said.

“The euro can be more than the currency of a continent and a symbol of unity; it can become a global anchor of trust,” she said, adding that the bloc’s policymakers should help “transform that vision, that dream into a reality.” (“EU must seize ‘unique opportunity’ to supplant US dollar dominance, says ECB president,” https://www.euractiv.com)

Prophecy scholars and others have long pondered why the US, the most powerful nation in history, isn’t mentioned by name—or even by significant reference—in God’s Word. We continue to flounder in attempts at finding an exact answer for that question. However, with the recent astonishing changes nationally and abroad, the answer seems to be in the process of forming.

Monetary manipulation is at the root of the change taking place. The American dollar must be removed as the currency standard so that a global currency not underwritten by any national monetary unit can be established. This is precisely the Beast economic order I’m convinced Bible prophecy describes, as outlined in the following:

“And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six” (Rev. 13:16-18).

This speaks to me of a computer system—a hybrid Internet whereby all citizens of the global economic order will be absolutely controlled at every level of life. Probably, it will consist at its heart of electronic funds transfer (EFT)–a system of special drawing rights (SDR)—all governed, no doubt, by an ultra-advanced AI technology along with Antichrist’s demonic evil. Anyone refusing to toe the mark of the Antichrist’s regime will face having his or her SDR account blocked or entirely removed from the system. Fear of starvation is a mighty motivator to comply.

Pressures are mounting for a completely changed global economic order. Even the king of the kings of the East, China, is at the center of the dynamics driving the changes.

Most economists who are honest will admit that the current building economic heap of debt cannot continue to accumulate. They are amazed, in fact, that everything hasn’t already collapsed into total, worldwide depression. I again offer my belief that it will be the Rapture that causes the ultimate implosion and collapse.

The great world leader called “the Beast” in Revelation will be there to implement a satanically inspired economic scheme that will at first offer hope; it will, for a time, “cause craft to prosper” (Daniel 8:25). But Antichrist’s plan will achieve what it will be designed to do: enslave most of the world in electronic bondage.

Jesus offers the opposite of what the counterfeit, Antichrist, will produce. Jesus promises: “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed” (John 8:36). We must at every opportunity lift up the Holy name of Jesus before the eyes of a world headed into the terrors of the Tribulation.

Genesis 32: 22-27

²² “That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two female servants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. ²³ After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. ²⁴ So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. ²⁵ When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. ²⁶ Then the man said, ‘Let me go, for it is daybreak.’ But Jacob replied, ‘I will not let you go unless you bless me.’”

One might think that only Abraham saw Jesus as we have journeyed through the OLD Testament and encounters with Jesus. But a new generation of God’s people has arisen now. We are going to take a look at Jacob.

Abraham is dead, Sarah is dead, Isaac married Rebekah, and they had twin boys, Esau and Jacob. Jacob grew up and tricked his brother out of his birthright and then had to run away. He was known as a trickster, and for 20 years or so, he lived with his father-in-law, Laban. Soon, Laban and Jacob’s households were too big to exist in the same location, and Laban tricks Jacob. (Genesis 31:41, “Thus I have been in your house twenty years; I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flock, and you have changed my wages ten times”). Or at least he tries to, but God blesses Jacob, and when the tensions got to be too much, he heads home.

Isaac, we will learn, is still alive. We see that in Genesis 35:27-29. “Jacob came home to his father, Isaac, in Mamre, near Kiriath Arba (that is, Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had stayed. Isaac lived a hundred and eighty years. Then he breathed his last and died and was gathered to his people, old and full of years. And his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.”

Back to the story at hand. Jacob (now in his late 60s or early 70s), his wives and concubines begin the journey back home, and along the way, Jacob encounters a man. He separates himself from his family. They head across the river Jabbok, and that very night, Jacob wrestles with the man. Later, we find out that he knows it was God, and he names the place Peniel, meaning, “So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, ‘It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.’”

We know from our previous lessons that any time one sees God ‘face to face’ in the Old Testament, it is Jesus. Jacob sees Jesus and wrestles with Him. This encounter changes a few things about Jacob, and he is never the same again.

God, Jesus, physically changes Jacob in that He dislocates a joint in his hip, and Jacob walks with a staff after that. We do not know if he ever recovers from that. Then, Jesus changes his name from Jacob, meaning ‘a trickster’ to Israel, and we see that in verse 28. “And He said, ‘Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed.’”

All of us need to have our own struggle with God to have God make changes in us. Jacob was never the same again; his life would take some hard turns fraught with hurt and pain. His own children would trick him and hurt him, but he would remain faithful to God. You see, Jacob could not serve God in Abraham’s encounters; he needed his own. Your children cannot serve God through your encounters and your experiences; they need to see God, wrestle with God, and have God change them.

The change was marked by changed names as well; this seemed to be a common thing for God to do, even in the New Testament era. Abram became Abraham, Sara became Sarah, Jacob became Israel, later Saul becomes Paul, Simon becomes Peter, and we too are promised a new name one day given to us by God (see Revelation 2:17, 3:12).

Now, Jesus could have defeated Jacob at any time during the night that they wrestled, and I find it amazing that Jacob did not give up. He wanted to be blessed by God, and he held on with all his might. We see verse 26: “Then the man said, ‘Let me go, for it is daybreak.’ But Jacob replied, ‘I will not let you go unless you bless me.’” Jacob wanted God to bless him, and he refused to let go. He refused to give in and give up.

How do you and I respond when we are tested by God? Jacob refused to give up, and he was blessed. And even though his life got very hard, he lived in that blessing, and it empowered him to push through all the pain. Do we give up too soon when seeking a blessing from the Lord? Do we ‘tap out,’ as they say, and shortchange ourselves? Jacob was not a perfect man; in fact, he was very far from that. He had failed God times after time, yet God blessed him.

We see also that when we struggle, when we go through the tough fights with God, it is not to break us, and it is not for God to destroy and beat us, but to challenge us to hold on with all we have. God wants men and women who thirst after Him, who need Him and His blessings and live for Him. Men and women who refuse to let go in spite of their sinfulness and shortcoming, they understand that God, Jesus, is all they have, and their only hope.

I pray that you have had, and or that you are looking for your encounter with the Lord. Your night of wrestling, so to speak; a night that will change your forever and empower you to endure that tough time that may be ahead.

Often, we think that being blessed by God means more money, power, prestige or the like, but more often than not, it is Jesus equipping us to endure what is coming our way. When we see Jesus and experience His hand in our lives, it secures us to move forward come what may. It helps us to hold on and trust that He has the way planned, nothing surprises Him, and we can trust Him that He has it all worked out.

We who have children that we are teaching in the way of the Lord should begin to pray that they have their own experiences with the Lord, their own wrestling with the Lord, and their own blessings from the Lord to empower them to endure the dark times that are ahead. Long after we are gone, it is these encounters that will sustain them and endear them to Jesus. He will be their hope and salvation, like He is ours, like He was Jacob’s, like He was Abraham’s and Sarah’s, and all who serve Him.

Dr. Sean Gooding
Pastor of Bethany Baptist Church
70 Victoria Street, Elora, Ontario