“In God We Trust.” It is a well-known slogan that has become an accepted colloquialism almost everywhere, both in America and in other nations. On the other hand, it is also true that it is generally frowned upon to post this statement in public places or promote it in government-run schools. Yet, it is stamped on perhaps billions of US coins. Few people seem to mind. In fact, even atheists rarely object that the slogan, “In God We Trust,” might touch their palms frequently. Why this apparent indifference? It may reveal the condition of our societies.

What if, instead, coins were imprinted with the slogan, “In Money We Trust”? Many people may object. Its admission, were it true, would be considered too blatant or pagan. For one, our enemy doesn’t use truth and consequences as a tactical device, but rather deceptions and half-truths. An inconvenient truth is much more effective when it is wrapped in a lie.

Do we detect a lie?

Which slogan is closer to the truth in our day? An answer is important. As we will see, depending on the answer, Bible prophecy clearly reveals the future that can be expected, both for nations and individuals. As it happens, it is a question that yields an easy response—no opinion necessary, as Scripture and facts themselves provide a clear diagnosis. By observing the symptoms evident in our society today, we can determine whether the coins jingling in people’s pockets are speaking the truth … or hiding it.

Symptoms That Betray Our Trust

The Bible provides us with rich object lessons in the matter of trust. If we place our trust in God, certain outcomes follow over time. If it is in anything other than Jehovah, another pattern of outcomes can be expected. The prophets of the Bible clearly stated what would happen if the Hebrews turned from God to trust in anything or anyone else besides Jehovah.

Moses admonished this people, “If you ever forget the LORD your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that […] you will be destroyed for not obeying the LORD your God” (Deuteronomy 8:19-20).

Other gods can be anything that displaces trust from God. In this case, as is revealed two verses before, the Hebrews were warned about self-reliance. If they ever were to say, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me” (verse 17), they were headed for tribulation. They are reminded that it is “the LORD your God […] who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today” (verse 18).

The conclusion here is straightforward: If people forsake their trust in God—for example, trusting instead in their own powers and wealth—eventually, destruction will follow. This consequence is repeated later: “But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed” (Deuteronomy 30:17-18a).

But destruction didn’t come right away. After all, God is merciful and slow to anger (Exodus 34:6). His wish is that all might repent (Acts 17:30). He first provides plenty of warnings through His prophets, then follows with harsh discipline and hardships. This pattern is observable through the entire history of God’s people (then and now). We can therefore view these conditions as the symptoms of our spiritual condition.

More Truth and Consequences

Other direct consequences resulting from misplaced trust were: slavery, poverty, droughts, famines, and national embarrassment. Moses prophesied: “Because you did not serve the LORD your God joyfully and gladly in the time of prosperity, therefore in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and dire poverty, you will serve the enemies the LORD sends against you. He will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you” (Deuteronomy 28:47-48).

Expressed in today’s language, Moses is saying if you do not place your trust in Jehovah, you will become impoverished, face difficult economic times, and come under foreign domination and oppression. Once more, destruction is named as the ultimate end. But here, we clearly see that other trials came first.

There are additional proofs of disobedience and misplaced trust. “The alien who lives among you will rise above you higher and higher, but you will sink lower and lower. He will lend to you, but you will not lend to him. He will be the head, but you will be the tail. All these curses will come upon you. They will pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the LORD your God and observe the commands and decrees he gave you” (Deuteronomy 28:43-45).

Here, we see again that foreign influences begin to dominate the land. Another sign of God’s coming judgment is that the nation will become increasingly indebted to other nations.1

Later, when the twelve tribes had split into the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, Jehovah used the same gentle tactics against both nations, even though the evil was great. Speaking to Israel, the northern nation that did not have even one righteous king: “Therefore, I have begun to destroy you, to ruin you because of your sins. You will eat but not be satisfied; your stomach will still be empty. You will store up but save nothing, because what you save I will give to the sword. You will plant but not harvest; you will press olives, but not use the oil on yourselves; you will crush grapes but not drink the wine” (Micah 6:13-15).

Why did this happen? Because Israel was a “wicked house, your ill-gotten treasures and the short ephah, which is accursed. Shall I acquit a man with dishonest scales, with a bag of false weights? Her rich men are violent; her people are liars and their tongues speak deceitfully” (Micah 6:10-12). Elijah was sent to announce a three-and-one-half year drought during the time of King Ahab, Israel’s most wicked king.

Israel certainly wasn’t trusting in God, but rather in their material prosperity secured through treaties with Tyre and other foreign entities and false gods. We learn here (and in other texts) that the pursuit of the good life apart from God was carried to the point of violence and oppressive commercial practices.

But again, true to His nature, God didn’t bring destruction right away. Rather, He showed Israel that the more they put their trust in foreign powers and material things—the symbols of opulence and maximum consumption—they would experience the exact opposite. No amount of eating satisfied. No matter how much they attempted to store up, nothing was saved.

They also discovered that their trust in “prosperity” economics and materialism came up deceptively empty. The more they pushed and stimulated their nation to create wealth, the emptier became their pockets … the more their unsatiated passions … the greater their foreign debts. This inverse relationship should not be surprising. “Has not the LORD Almighty determined that the people’s labor is only fuel for the fire, that the nations exhaust themselves for nothing?” (Habakkuk 2:13). This is recognition and recompense for the one “who builds a city with bloodshed and establishes a town by crime” (verse 12).

God delivered a similar message to Judah: “[…] Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it” (Haggai 1:5-6).

Why were these words pronounced? Again, the nation’s trust was being placed outside of God and His direction. Rather than being about God’s business, they were concerned with their prosperity and creature comforts. “Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled house, while this house remains a ruin?” (Haggai 1:4).

Unquenchable Wants and Quests

We clearly see in these examples that the more God disallows prosperity, stable nationhood, and healthy societies, the more people seek these goals without Him … or, more exactly, ahead of Him.

If anything, these experiences prove the deceitfulness of other gods … of foreign affairs with unbelieving nations … of human power … of wealth. On this latter point, the Bible expressly warns, mentioning the “deceitfulness of wealth” (Matthew 13:22). The writer in both Proverbs and Ecclesiastes confirms the same deceitfulness: “Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle” (Proverbs 23:5). “Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income” (Ecclesiastes 5:10).

When Judah trusted in the might and prosperity of Egypt, they were severely disappointed. “Look now, you are depending on Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff, which pierces a man’s hand and wounds him if he leans on it! Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who depend on him” (2 Kings 18:21).2

Both Shalmaneser and Sennacherib taunted Judah with this truth. Egypt repeatedly disappointed those who put their trust in its ability to deliver them. In this picture, the ultimate result of any misplaced trust in an idol or another apparent deliverer’s power or wealth can be seen. In the end, not only is the hoped-for objective not achieved, but also an even more dire outcome results—a pierced hand or worse.

We can conclude from the above Scriptures that before God brings peoples and nations to utter destruction because of their misplaced trust, He first allows warnings, inverse consequences, and disappointments. Invariably, these take the form of famine, drought, scarcity (all of these being types of economic troubles), societal deterioration, declining national standing and debasement. The storehouses become empty … the cistern runs dry … the wombs are sealed up. All this occurs before the final destruction.

To the extent that these conditions can be observed in any country, we have the symptoms by which we can assess the nature of national trust. If so, what do the symptoms in America today say about trust? Is it a nation that trusts in God or in Mammon?

(In the final part, we present our conclusions for America, as well as several other nations.)

***

1 The Lord says that if Israel obeys Him, then this will happen at the time of its future restoration. “For the LORD your God will bless you as He has promised, and you will lend to many nations but will borrow from none. You will rule over many nations but none will rule over you” (Deuteronomy 15:6).

2 Similar references are also found in Isaiah 36:6 and Ezekiel 29:6-7.

Wilfred J. Hahn is a global economist/strategist. Formerly a top-ranked global analyst, research director for a major Wall Street investment bank, and head of Canada’s largest global investment operation, his writings focus on the endtime roles of money, economics and globalization. He has been quoted around the world and his writings reproduced in numerous other publications and languages. His 2002 book The Endtime Money Snare: How to live free accurately anticipated and prepared its readers for the Global Financial Crisis. A following book, Global Financial Apocalypse Prophesied: Preserving true riches in an age of deception and trouble, looks further into the prophetic future.

Do you have questions or other perspectives? You can contact Wilfred at: staff@eternalvalue.com.

 

 

Honored Elites and an Indebted World Order

The results continue to roll in … and they are shocking. Though some may think that the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) and the Covid pandemic already belong to the history books, in reality, these types of financial fallout are epochal for the world … their development a chapter in the processes leading to the “end of days.” Readers might think this a sensationalist statement. However, by the end of this article, you may want to reconsider.

Global financial crises, such as mentioned, have an enormous impact. At some point, there will be another great financial crisis. Its harbingers are already well in view. But let’s consider the scope of the impact of the last global financial crisis. According to a study by two well-known international economists, Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff, the impact of the GFC upon global debt levels was catastrophic. In their research report,[i] they document that government debt levels around the world rose 75% over two years for the top 5 crisis countries during that time (the US, UK, Ireland, Iceland and Spain).

Stop to consider this statistic for a moment. Astoundingly, in a short timespan of only two years, government debt levels for these Western nations rose by more than two-thirds. These statistics were not those of a “banana republic” nation; rather, they applied to some leading nations.

While anyone following global financial affairs before that time will not have been surprised by this development, it nonetheless was alarming. Many secular observers would agree. However, we here wish to focus upon the prophetic timeline and an entirely different set of questions. Just how do these financial crises correlate with the Bible? Does government debt have an endtime role? … as well as other questions.

Taken together with several other trends and a literal Scriptural perspective, in our view, it leads to an irrefutable diagnosis. These developments do align with endtime Bible prophecy. Though, of course, we cannot draw any near-term, specific predictions, we would be negligent not to conclude that the world is indeed on the fast track to great troubles “such as never was” (Daniel 12:1).

Recent Reprobations of Greedy Bankers

The news media is full of reports of various committees and hearings in high places, examining the causes of financial crisis. Of course, after the fact, everyone has perfect hindsight. Wall Street bankers and monetary officials are summoned before special tribunals, which are investigating the cause of the massive losses and financial instabilities wreaked upon America and the world. Why did it happen? Who can be blamed?

One Wall Street banker, Lloyd Blankfein, former CEO of Goldman Sachs, appeared before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission and claimed that the GFC was “an act of God.” Only weeks earlier, when being interviewed in London, he commented that he was only a banker “doing God’s work.” Other senior financial executives also expressed favorable opinions on the morality of their work and their “bulge bracket” companies and incomes.

They accept no extraordinary blame for financial misadventure. It is a characteristic trait of some parts of this industry already long documented. The respected John Kenneth Galbraith, in his book The Great Crash: 1929, writes of this industry’s leaders: “They remained very quiet. The sense of responsibility in the financial community for the community as a whole is not small. It is nearly nil. To speak out against madness may be to ruin those who have succumbed to it. So, the wise on Wall Street are nearly always silent. The foolish have the field to themselves, and none rebukes them.”[ii]

Observing the intransigent attitudes on Wall Street, it is actually much worse than Galbraith suggests. Said Daniel Fass at that time (organizer for an Obama fundraising dinner from Wall Street at the Mandarin Hotel): “The investment community feels very put-upon. They feel there is no reason why they shouldn’t earn $1 million to $200 million a year, and they don’t want to be held responsible for the global financial meltdown.”

And so, only a year after many of these financial firms were saved from certain collapse through government-funded bailouts—actually, by future generations of our children—they are again paying themselves multi-billions in bonuses. To recall, these bailouts were one of the contributing causes to soaring government debt levels.

How does such graft and corruption continue unprotested? Past instabilities and mismanagement aside, bankers well understand that they remain in the driver’s seat. How so? This industry sits squarely upon the edifice of “money.” Bankers (meaning any and all who work in financial institutions and are plugged into global financial markets) know well that they will not soon be thrown out of mankind’s secular temple of this present Age of Capital.

We live in an era of a global convergence in values. The world has agreed to endorse humanist materialism. Fractional reserve banking, wealth in the form of debt, and the notion that human progress is defined by growth in gross domestic product (GDP) make up the unholy trinity of toppling idols that must be propped up and nailed down at all costs. “They adorn it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so it will not totter” (Jeremiah 10:4).

The key argument bankers used to bludgeon governments into bailing them out was the cry that “economies cannot recover if you do not first allow us to recover.” We see that the world has been held hostage by the financial industry. How did this late state of affairs happen? In recent decades, the financial industry became inordinately large—not just in America but worldwide. The affairs of money grew to the point that this industry sector accounted for more than a third of all corporate profits.

How is it that an industry that contributes so little productivity should become so profitable and employ so many people? We have documented these epochal developments in previous articles.

Franklin D. Roosevelt was to have said, “The moneychangers have fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization. We may now restore that temple to the ancient truths.” He made this rather optimistic statement during his First Inaugural Address in 1933. At that time, America was in the depths of the Great Depression. Wall Street had been chastened, and thousands of banks were closing their doors. Unfortunately, Roosevelt was wrong. He probably did not imagine that the business of money would become many, many times larger relative to human life than during his day. It surely did, and it likely will remain so.

The “love of money” reigns rampant today in its advanced state, there being few and fewer restrainers in the world against this force. Corruption runs deep in high places, the world having committed to a materialist “heaven on earth” (denying God). And, much of religion has found a comfortable coexistence with this state of affairs. That this is the road to an eventual holocaust for mankind is supported by Christ’s statement, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). This statement in itself essentially condemns the modern world’s slavish fixation with every nuance and statistic of the fabricated notion of GDP.

Wrangling Economists

Debates continue to rage in the academic world of economics as to the causes of the GFC, and just what should be done in the future to avoid similar disasters. While we certainly respect the contributions of some of these intellectuals, frankly, the debates border on the comical in some respects. To begin, it is crucial to understand that economics is not a science. It belongs to the arts. It is a philosophy … really, a religion. Seen overall, this economics fraternity proved themselves to be false prophets in the king’s court. In direct contrast to their continuing prophecies of “prosperity as far as the eye could see,” they were proven wrong. Yet, despite their culpability, they remain in their advisory posts at the king’s table.

In spirit, it is today the same as it was in the time of Ahab, the wicked king of Israel. He was the infamous founder of the 120-year legacy of the “practices of Ahab’s house” (Micah 6:16), for which God destroyed Israel. To a man, all of his establishment prophets (some four hundred) prophesied victory, as he was pondering whether to go to war against Ramoth Gilead. Only one prophet who received his inspiration from God, Micaiah, told the grim truth. For this bravery, he was rewarded with a slap in the face (1 Kings 22:24). Ahab then ordered to “Put this fellow in prison and give him nothing but bread and water…” (verse 27).

As then, in many vocations today, there is a significant price to be paid for speaking the truth. This can also certainly be true in any public role in economics and finance. For one, any admission of a faith in Jesus Christ virtually guarantees career suicide. Secondly, it hurts the pocketbook.

The famous quip by Upton Sinclair is apropos here: “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.” The point he makes is that anyone—whether a tenured academic … perhaps a scientist contesting the “global warming” theory, etc.—is censured also economically. They may lose their jobs or have the funding pulled on their research projects, etc., if they do not align with the humanist and globalist agenda. As such, “understanding” can be heavily influenced by money.

Despite the fact that the “economics priesthood” has been entirely defrocked as frauds, they are still consulted for solutions to get the world out of the current mess, or to identify new profit opportunities. Of literally hundreds of opinions written by so-called economists on the causes and remedies to the current economic troubles that this writer has read, not one can be recalled that in any way alluded to the unbridled basic nature of man as being the problem. This is the “human condition” of a fallen world.

While the God-appointed facility of civil government during this dispensation is surely charged to pursue beneficial and wise policies (Genesis 9:6), temporal solutions must not ignore what is right in the eyes of God in favor of what is right in their own eyes (Isaiah 5:21).

The Bible says it is the heart of man that is at issue. “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9).

Mankind is innately sinful. How then can future financial crises be entirely avoided? Not until the vices of greed and the love of money are eradicated or better controlled. Until then, “They plot injustice and say, ‘We have devised a perfect plan!’ Surely the mind and heart of man are cunning” (Psalm 64:6).

How Three Endtime Conditions Interconnect

We now return to the topic of government debt. Just how does it figure into endtime developments? Shouldn’t it be strange that government indebtedness plays a role? Isn’t it indebted and trapped individuals who come under the “economic” influence of the False Prophet and the Antichrist? If it is true, as the Proverbs writer says, that “The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender” (22:7, KJV), just how can indebted governments collaborate to rule the world?

Actually, with respect to the “money” aspects of last-day events, conditions are rather more complex, according to the Bible. At least three major impulses can be identified from Bible prophecy, including that of an indebted world rulership. To explain how these conditions interweave, we will describe each of the three roles.

1. A protracted wealth skew. What is meant by a wealth skew? It is the extreme between the wealthy and the poor—the outcome of the wealthy becoming richer and fewer, the relatively poor more so. Wealth has become concentrated in the hands of the few. But is such a condition prophesied? Yes, James specifically prophesies that an amassing of riches plays a role in the end times. He says, “Now listen, you rich people […] You have hoarded wealth in the last days” (James 5:1, 3). The King James, in this writer’s opinion, translates this condition of amassing wealth more accurately, stating, “Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days” (verse 3).

Here, we understand that not only may wealth have increased overall, but also it is “heaped” or “amassed,” as implied by the Greek word thesaurizo. This is an important distinction, as it gives evidence of a wealth skew. Wealth cannot be heaped and concentrated without there being a deprivation of someone else’s wealth.

However, is it reasonable to deduce this endtime condition of an extreme wealth skew from only one single verse? Not only would it be plausible to argue that this verse is clear, but also many other Bible references foreshadow conditions that are in alignment with this condition. From the Old Testament (OT) to the New Testament (NT) prophets, times of extreme commercialism and financial oppression in the last days are outlined. Isaiah and Zechariah point to extreme commercialism, among other OT prophets.

In the New Testament, the Apostle Peter warns of “difficult times” that are evidenced by “lovers of money” (2 Timothy 3:1-2). John prophesies in Revelation to the Laodicean church, saying, “I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing” (Revelation 3:17). This seventh and last church that is admonished is commonly believed to represent the last-day church.

May we increase in knowing and understanding during these very last days.

(In Part 2, we review the other two major players, and conclude with the prophetic implications for the world.)

***

Wilfred J. Hahn is a global economist/strategist. Formerly a top-ranked global analyst, research director for a major Wall Street investment bank, and head of Canada’s largest global investment operation, his writings focus on the endtime roles of money, economics and globalization. He has been quoted around the world and his writings reproduced in numerous other publications and languages. His 2002 book The Endtime Money Snare: How to live free accurately anticipated and prepared its readers for the Global Financial Crisis. A following book, Global Financial Apocalypse Prophesied: Preserving true riches in an age of deception and trouble, looks further into the prophetic future.

Do you have questions or other perspectives? You can contact Wilfred at: staff@eternalvalue.com.

[i] Carmen Reinhart (University of Maryland), Kenneth Rogoff (Harvard University and NBR), “Growth in the Time of Debt,” December 31, 2009.

[ii] John Kenneth Galbraith, The Great Crash: 1929, 1954, Houghton Mifflin Company, New York.