In this issue, we continue from Part I in which we began to review three major conditions that the Bible indicates will typify the world order at the very end of the last days. We were pursuing the question of whether government debt plays a prophetic role. We had been drawn to this question, given the unprecedented rise of government debt around the world over the last few years. To date we have reviewed one of these a priori conditions—a worldwide wealth skew.

2. Indebtedness as a Necessary Device. The idea that economies can be regulated and managed without losses or periodic downturns is born of a world that seeks its salvation in materialism. Such a world is not possible during this dispensation. Governments who support this idea with interventions and hocus-pocus policies will find themselves in deeper debt as never before. This is what we see unfolding, and it is a necessary aspect of a widening wealth skew.

As already pointed out, for someone to become rich, someone else must be coaxed or foolish enough to become steeply indebted or indentured. Here, as we see, indebted governments play a facilitating role of transferring wealth from the masses to the rich. But, does the Bible support the idea that the “antichrist system” will be an indebted entity? Actually, our understanding on this question first came from reading the prophecies of Habakkuk. Carefully consider these verses:

For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay. See, he is puffed up; his desires are not upright—but the righteous will live by his faith—indeed, wine betrays him; he is arrogant and never at rest. Because he is as greedy as the grave and like death is never satisfied, he gathers to himself all the nations and takes captive all the peoples. Will not all of them taunt him with ridicule and scorn, saying, ‘Woe to him who piles up stolen goods and makes himself wealthy by extortion! How long must this go on?’ Will not your debtors suddenly arise? Will they not wake up and make you tremble? Then you will become their victim. Because you have plundered many nations, the peoples who are left will plunder you. For you have shed man’s blood; you have destroyed lands and cities and everyone in them (Chapter 2:3-8, NIV).

Here, the prophet Habakkuk sheds some light on our questions. Although his prophecies were probably first directed to the Babylon of his day, they clearly also had an endtime application. The Lord answered him, “For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false” (Habakkuk 2:3). We also see the character of the Antichrist of the “end” period described. Greed and economic oppression are the prominent characteristics portrayed.

“The wicked foe pulls all of them up with hooks, he catches them in his net, he gathers them up in his dragnet; and so he rejoices and is glad. Therefore he sacrifices to his net and burns incense to his dragnet, for by his net he lives in luxury and he enjoys the choicest food” (Habakkuk 1:15-16). He (or the world system, the economic Babylon of Revelation 18) is a trapper. Moreover, “[…] he is greedy as the grave and like death is never satisfied, he gathers to himself all the nations and takes captive all the peoples” (Habakkuk 2:5-6). This endtime regime is motivated by greed and is global in span, as it takes “all the nations”and “all the peoples” captive. “Woe to him who piles up stolen goods and makes himself wealthy by extortion!” (verse 6). “Woe to him who builds his realm by unjust gain, to set his nest on high, to escape the clutches of ruin!” (verse 9). Habakkuk’s prophecies could not provide a more accurate description of the world’s emerging ruling structure of our times, and perhaps yet in the future. It is built upon greed, oppression and extortion, taking the world captive through a financial and economic trap, as well as by other means. But there is one additional insight that Habakkuk provides us. It is the condition of indebtedness.

The endtime ruling order is an indebted one. “Will not your debtors suddenly arise? Will they not wake up and make you tremble? Then you will become their victim” (Habakkuk 2:7). “Debtors” can be correctly translated as “creditors.” The KJV better reflects the condition of the “wicked foe’s” indebtedness, saying, “Woe to him that increaseth that which is not his!” (verse 6).

3. Emergence of Rich Elites. Now that we have documented the two conditions of a “wealth skew” and an “indebted world order,” we come to the question of the identity of the rich elites. The Prophet Daniel speaks of them in the same verse that also refers to the Antichrist: “And he [the Antichrist] shall deal with the strongest fortresses by the help of a foreign god: whosoever acknowledgethhim he will increase with glory; and he shall cause them to rule over many, and shall divide the land for a price” (Daniel 11:39, ASV).

Who are “them” that will “increase with glory” and “rule over many,” and play a role in the dividing of land “for a price”? The answer—those that “acknowledge him,” the Antichrist (which can also mean the Antichrist system of world rule). Virtually all English Bible translations use the word “acknowledge.” It means here that certain key people who recognize him and accept his authority will receive a reward—land. It should be noted that the original Aramaic word used for “land” in this verse can also convey the idea of property or economic domain as well as geographic area. After all, in ancient times, land was the main foundation of wealth and economy.

It only follows that these elites, whoever they are, must be a small group of people who likely will be influential in their own right. Why? They will be made rulers over many. As not everyone can be made a ruler over many, therefore these will be few. Not only is this logical, but the Bible also specifically tell us what the reward will be for everybody else … in other words, all the rest of the masses that acknowledge and worship the Antichrist. They will not be killed (a negative reward) and will be allowed to “buy or sell.” He causes, “[…] all who refused to worship the image to be killed. He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no one could buy or sell” (Revelation 13:15-16).

The elites, on the other hand, are bought off for their loyalty with further reward … the additional pay-off of power or economic domain, we reason. It is the same or similar deal that Satan offered Christ when he was being tested in the wilderness, promising “[…] authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. So if you worship me, it will all be yours” (Luke 4:6-7).

These elites selected for reward must have something to barter in return … likely their fame or endorsement. We are given at least a few criteria with which to identify who these elites might be at that future date. In the first instance, they must be humans. Also, they must be capable of being rulers, already likely possessing some measure of power and authority. And, they must be willing worldly complicitors.

Although these events play out during the future Tribulation period (and therefore really do not concern us), is it already possible today to discern the power structures that these elites might command? Of course, we can only speculate as to whom these persons may be that the Prophet Daniel mentions. One possibility is that they could be powerful heads of large multinational corporations (MNC). After all, some of these companies are already today larger than many individual nations in terms of their commercial influence and economic footprint. (Please see the article, “The Rising Price of Obedience” in the March 2005 Midnight Call magazine, which provides some documentation of the endtime significance of the MNC phenomena … a relatively recent development in the cosmic timeline of mankind.)

Multinational firms (MNCs) today, as a group, are probably the most influential economic force in the world. And, as money is power in this age, they may also be the most powerful, viewed as a group. Though these companies may find their roots a few hundred years ago, their global power has only really developed over the past half-century or so. Today, of the top hundred economic entities in the world, roughly half are made up of countries, the other half of MNCs. The heads of these companies, though they are answerable to boards of directors, nevertheless are very influential. These firms can employ hundreds of thousands of employees—more than the population of many countries. Some secular analysts do foresee the day where a small group of such corporate behemoths will indeed dominate the world economy.

Or, these elites could simply be ultra-rich individuals who control much wealth— perhaps entire industries and many MNCs. It is in their self-interest to support the regime of the Antichrist. In their materialist worldview, preservation of their wealth must be the primary objective. They could not have reached their ultra-wealthy status without governments having also facilitated such enormous wealth transfer either through economic policy or increasing indebtedness. These governments are in cahoots with the ultra-wealthy “princes,” much in the same way as is foreshadowed by the corrupt relationships today between the “Washington Beltway” and Wall Street in America, for example.

We cannot conclusively determine the identity of the elites that Daniel mentions. This shouldn’t be disappointing. The only wise and sure conclusion is that we must keep our options open—keeping ourselves oriented to the Scriptures; watching and waiting for our Lord’s return, so as to not be distracted nor caught sleeping. It causes us to keep watching, to not be taken unawares, and to remain open to new information. The world’s power structures do keep shifting. Though“[…] we have the word of the prophets made more certain” (2 Peter 1:19), at the same time, we must also realize that our Enemy is cunning and a supreme master of deception.

A Calculated Conspiracy Against God

We can deduce from the Bible that there are essentially three main sets of players that the Bible identifies in the “Mammon-controlled saga” of the last day world. There is a world government that at one point takes the form of ten nations, later to be headed by the Antichrist himself (The Beast). These are the “10 horns” mentioned in Revelation 17:12. The preferred interpretation of this author is that these will be key nations, most likely heavily indebted (as many leading countries today already are), that band together to aggregate sufficient power to establish world rule.

These nations have (must have) the complicity of the rich elites. For nations to be heavily indebted, there must also be corresponding lenders and cronies. And, given that the Bible also tells us of a great “heaping of wealth” (Please see Part I for further explanation), we can therefore know that it will be a relatively few number of people—the ultra-rich—who will underpin the indebtedness of the nations with their claims upon wealth. All of these tendencies we see already at work today.

Thoughts to Ponder

There was a time “[…] that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, andthat every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5). God saw no other way but to intervene and end it. Today, the world is fast approaching a similar state. Bible prophecy clearly outlines that God again will intervene in the affairs of mankind in wrath.

In another vein, the times today are similar to Babel. The world’s late state of globalism mirrors the sentiment of those ancient times when “[…] they said, ‘Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth’” (Genesis 11:4).  Globalism is counter to the will of God, as evidenced by His supernatural intervention at Babel, causing people to disperse and confounding their efforts with different languages.

Ah, yes, but we have heard countless endtime admonitions all before. Have not the processes we have identified here already been long underway? Yes, but with some key differences that should immediately quell the scoffer’s spirit. Firstly, we are the generation that would “see all these things,” as Christ said (Matthew 24:33). The fig tree (Israel) has begun to blossom. “When her branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is near (Mark 13:28). This season can be identified, and it is here. And, there will be no false starts of this prophesied event, a process that once begun, will not be aborted. Says the Holy Spirit through Isaiah:

Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she was delivered of a man child. Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children. Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth? saith the Lord: shall I cause to bring forth, and shut the womb? saith thy God (Chapter 66:7-9, KJV).

The last season of the “last days” has indeed begun. Today, all prophesied conditions are global in scale rather than applying to just one or a few nations. These conditions can all be shown to be accelerating. Moreover, God had future scoffers exactly in mind when he caused the Apostle Peter to prophesy:

Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished (2 Peter 3:3-6).

People who have no fear before the words of God, thereby ridiculing the Great Sovereign—who stakes the very proof of his essence in bringing about what He has said in advance—put themselves into the company of those “[…] natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak[ing] evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption […]” (2 Peter 2:12).

The results continue to roll in … and they are shocking. Though some may think that the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) already belongs to the history books, in reality, its fallout is epochal for the world; its 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.

According to a recently released study by two well-known international economists, Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff, the impact of the GFC upon global debt levels has been catastrophic. In their research report[1], they document that government debt levels around the world have risen 75% over the last two years for the top-5 crisis countries (the U.S., UK, Ireland, Iceland andSpain.) Stop to consider this statistic for a moment. Astoundingly, in the short time-span of only two years, government debt levels for these Western nations has risen by more than two-thirds. This is not a statistic that applies to a single “banana republic” nation. Rather, but rather some leading nations.

While anyone following global financial affairs during the last few years will not have been surprised by this development, it nonetheless is alarming. Many secular observers would agree. However, we here wish to focus upon the prophetic timeline and an entirely different set of questions. Just why the rapidity? Just how does this trend correlate with the Bible? Does government debt have an endtime role?

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).

Just what threat to the entire earth would cause policymakers around the globe to plunge into such lunacy? Of what great significance is this development?

Recent Reprobations of Greedy Bankers

The news media is full of reports of various committees and hearings in high places, examining the causes of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC). Wall Street bankers and monetary officials have been summoned before special tribunals, which are investigating the massive losses and financial instabilities foisted uponAmerica and the world. Why did it happen? Who can be blamed?

One Wall Street banker, Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs, appearing before the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, even 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 have 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.”[2] Observing recent intransigent attitudes on Wall Street, it is actually much worse than Galbraith suggests. Said Daniel Fass, 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 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 cost. “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 sector represented more than a third of all corporate profits.

How is it that an industry that contributes so little productive activity 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 money-changers have fled from their high seats in the temple 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 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 by the disaster of the GFC. Yet, following this disaster, 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 ofIsrael. 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” (1 Kings 22:27).

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. 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 over the past 18 months or so, not one can be recalled that in any way alluded to the unbridled basic nature of man as being the problem. It 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 the 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. 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 these 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. But is such a condition prophesied? Yes, James specifically prophesies that an amassing of riches plays a role in the endtimes. He says, “Now listen, you rich people […] You have hoarded wealth in the last days” (James 5:1, 3). The King James translation, 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 it is also “heaped” or “amassed,” as is 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 of the Laodicean church that says, “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.

In Part II, we review the other two major players and conclude with the implications for the world.

 
[1] Carmen Reinhart (University of Maryland), Kenneth Rogoff (Harvard University and NBR),  “Growth in the Time of Debt,” December 31, 2009.
[2] John Kenneth Galbraith, The Great Crash: 1929, 1954, Houghton Mifflin Company,New York.