We have written frequently on the topic of the Endtime Money Trap. A book was published by Midnight Call on this topic in 2001, entitled The Endtime Money Snare: How to live free (now out of print). It documented the steadily accelerating trends toward financial controls, global financial interconnectedness and the financialization (money captivity) of an ever greater part of human activity. These trends indeed have continued to accelerate and remain a topic of interest on many levels.

A number of verses in the Bible point to the emergence of a potential “money trap.” Most specific is the following prophetic text: “[…] 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” (Revelation 13:17 KJV).

We note a number of new developments over recent years that hasten the facilitation of just such an event as described. However, before pointing to these, it is worthwhile to firstly reflect on the implications of just such a prophecy. What does it imply, “that no man might buy or sell”? It clearly means that NOBODY … ANYWHERE … will be able buy or sell … ANYTHING … unless they subordinate themselves to the “Beast and its image.” The question to which we want to direct our attention then is this: What systemic controls and/or developments are yet required to be in place so that NO ONE on earth can either buy or sell without permission?

Essentially, for Revelation 13:17 to be fulfilled (grossly simplified), at least four things have to happen:

1. A globally integrated and closed financial system must exist. Necessary and common technologies must be in place. That means that not even a little bank in Tupelo, Mississippi or the Island of Tuvalu will be able to facilitate any type of transaction (whether buying food or selling a house) outside of this closed system.

2. A system of central banking must be endorsed everywhere and which is centrally coordinated. This must result in a commonly-shared monetary philosophy around the world, which, most importantly, achieves a strong influence over market and human behavior. In other words, the entire world must agree to play by the same rules and values, thereby obeying and following the actions of monetary officials (the modern money equivalent to suzerains).

3. The legal statutes and regulatory institutions that oversee the financial activities of individual countries must be superseded by a centralized worldwide authority in order for unified actions to be enforced.

4. Finally, a unified global “political economy” must exist (either taking the form of a very small group of powerful countries or a single autocrat) that is powerful enough to enforce and authorize such controls upon the entire world at a given time.

How Advanced Is the Trap?

How far along is the world with the four steps mentioned? Steps #1 and #2 are well advanced. For all intents and purposes, we could say that they are already in place. Only the final two remain to be completed. In our view, global initiatives in this direction have already progressed quite rapidly.

However, further development in this direction is difficult. Why? Because individual countries must first give up a measure of sovereignty for this to occur. They will do so only very reluctantly. If this is the case, then how can these last steps ever fall in place? After all, they must occur in order to facilitate the prophecy of Revelation 13:17.

As technocrats and political strategists well know, there is nothing as effective as crises and fear to unify political consensus or to compel change.Quoting Milton Friedman (well-known monetarist economist): “Only a crisis, real or perceived, produces real change.” A more diabolical quote comes from the Nazi political theologian, Carl Schmitt: “Sovereign is he who decides the state of emergency.”

In desperate times, thinking they have no choice, people will strike bad deals … ceding freedoms and becoming subject to hostage. An example of this tendency is shown in the Old Testament Genesis account of the 7 year famine during the time of Joseph. In its later stages, people became so desperate they said: “[…] buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be servants unto Pharaoh.”

A major crisis occurred only recently—the Global Financial Crisis (GFC). It was most significant, as it was a globally-interconnected and fiercely contagious financial crisis that elicited the greatest globally-coordinated response of all time. (Actually, we would argue the GFC is not yet over.) Almost instantly, the attention of the entire world was captured, triggering a global wave of fear and trepidation. The specter of collapsing stock markets, banks and other financial institutions, met a hurried and panicked response.

The sheer financial immobilization of the crisis provided license regulators and policymakers with the power to enforce measures that might otherwise have been considered illegal or have encountered stiff resistance. Such is the effectiveness of crisis. It can galvanize responsive action. Invariably, the changes born of such crisis tend toward centralization, greater controls and, crucially, massive wealth transfers. A measure of all of these has played out in recent years.

The Advancing Money Trap

Let us return to our original objective. Just what significant new developments over recent years serve to hasten the facilitation of Revelation 13:17? We have documented many of these in the past. Here we will mention three new ones.

Firstly, in 2008, in response to the GFC, the Financial Stability Board (FSB) was formed by the G20 countries. It was established to coordinate internationally the work of national financial authorities and international standard setting bodies, and to develop and promote the implementation of effective regulatory, supervisory and other financial sector policies.

As such, it brings together national authorities responsible for financial stability in significant international financial centers, international financial institutions, regulators and supervisors, and committees of central bank experts. As can be concluded from this description, it is yet one more transnational organization that is seeking to promote an internationally-connected and regulated financial system.

Most interesting is that the FSB has determined that some financial institutions around the globe are systemically important banks (G-SIB). It has identified 28 such G-SIBs, these being the biggest, most internationally-connected banks. What are the implications of this initiative? To our thinking, while these banks will be carefully monitored at the international level, they therefore will likely also be favored and protected during future financial crisis. With this protected status, it would not be surprising were the entire world banking system eventually centralized into a few institutions. That will greatly facilitate the ability to completely control all financial flows.

Further efforts to harmonize banks around the globe include the activities of the Bank of International Settlements (BIS), based in Basel, Switzerland. Its purpose is to foster international cooperation and to act as a super-bank for all the individual-country central banks. Sixty of these central banks are members of this organization today, its board of directors including members from China to Canada. Senior central bankers from around the world meet regularly (some committees meeting bi-weekly). This leads us to the second development we wish to review.

Critically, the BIS seeks to set common voluntary standards for banking institutions around the world, whether American banks or Chinese. A major continuing step in this direction is the monumental Basel III initiative. This undertaking was also expressly prompted by the financial instabilities of the GFC. Its new set of operating standards were originally foreseen to be in effect by 2015. However, implementation has now been delayed until 2018 due to ongoing negotiations.

Crucially, the BIS continues to successfully build a common and unified foundation for global financial institutions and their central banks. This serves to organize the common operating procedures and philosophies of global financial systems that are required for the complete systemic control of all financial transactions.

Finally, we will mention one other critical development in world money systems recently, this also involving central banking. Here we point out the radical and unorthodox monetary policies by central banks in recent years. By any fair standard, these new actions would be considered immoral.

Why have such actions been considered necessary? Again, in response to the economic fallout of the GFC, central banks have been desperately hopeful that their actions will be able to restore prosperity. The scale of their interventions, frankly, is already unconscionable. In fact, these extreme measures have come to be the norm. Why? Because conditions have become so imbalanced, that these policies cannot be reversed. Were they only to consider to do so (not actually exiting from these policies … just considering), financial markets would swoon.

We would not be surprised to see even more aggressive actions in the future. Readers will likely hear more about such ideas as “money finance” or Outright Permanent Money Finance (OPMF). We do not propose to provide detailed technical descriptions here of these high-sounding techniques. Suffice it say that these ideas, which are gaining the popular support of macroeconomists, will cause massive and unjust wealth transfers and an even greater stratification of wealth than is already the case.

Literally, money would be created out of thin air and given directly to governments to spend or to fund direct tax cuts to households. This is a form of stolen money … fictitious money chasing its own tail. All of this breeds the type of instabilities and imbalances that will trigger even greater financial controls in the future.

Thoughts to Ponder

These three recent developments and trends that we have presented (of many more that we could have mentioned), in our view, should all be seen as stepping stones for the endtime money trap—the ultimate worldwide control of all buying and selling that is mentioned in Revelation 13:17. Just what types of crises must yet occur to achieve such global control?

We will deal with this question in Part II.

We often encounter questions that reveal an interest in the topic of profiting from Bible prophecy. Is it possible? As well, we frequently come across situations where certain people or financial advisers make the claim that they are “Spirit-led investors.” We have commented on these issues in the past. Again, is it possible to gain financial profit from an understanding of futurist prophecy? Is the Holy Spirit in the service of making money? We answer “no” and again “no.”

We are firmly convinced that one cannot profit through the application of eschatological perspectives. This is not to deny the random chance of an investment turning a profit. Nevertheless, there are some that attempt to make money through deductions born of their interpretations of Bible prophecy – the Iraqi dinar scam, oil exploration in Israel, and Israel in the Tribulation, to name a few. We believe that such investment strategies are entirely unreliable and have no merit. In the first place, these prophetic viewpoints may be entirely wrong and speculative. Secondly, there is the challenge of timing. Who is able to successfully time the short-term movements of financial markets let alone the fulfillment of any Bible prophecy? This is impossible to do reliably on both counts.

More profoundly, viewing these questions from a cosmological perspective, we must surely conclude that God did not provide his Church (and his chosen people) prophecy for the purpose of financial profit. It is anathema to such a thought we would dare even say. On the witness of the full body of the Bible’s council, nowhere, no how, and in no way is Money (its spiritual, metaphysical essence … thus spelled with a capital) given any assistance nor is mankind given any guidelines on how to successfully harness it for profit. In fact, to the direct contrary, the Bible warns against the love of money and the sorrows of consorting with Mammon. God shows that his purposes and designs have no intercourse with the incentivizations of Money.

Not one of God’s prophets in the Old Testament is shown to have profited from the “Word of the Lord” that was given to them. Again, it is to the contrary. For example, Jeremiah, knowing that Jerusalem would be destroyed by the Babylonians, nevertheless was commanded by God to “buy” a property. (See Jeremiah 32:7-12.) We must assume he bought this property with his own 17 shekels of silver, all the while knowing that its value would be decimated. After all, this is what the Lord said to him: “The whole land will be ruined, though I will not destroy it completely” (Jeremiah 4:27). God had something else in mind — eternal values. He wanted to show faithfulness to his promises. Despite the punishment that was exacted upon Judah and Jerusalem, one day it would again be restored to prominence and prosperity. And so, Jeremiah was asked to sustain a massive near-term loss on his purchase of this field. This investment strategy wouldn’t make any sense to Wall Street or prosperity teachers, would it?

Elsewhere, not once did Jesus Christ ever give any investment advice or insights as to how to turn Mammon into a Golden Goose except in one way and that was to take advantage of worldly wealth to build riches in heaven. The parable of the Wicked Servant illustrated this great lesson: “And I say unto you, make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations” (Luke 16:9).

We also have the testimony of 13 disciples. One of them, Judas, who did seek to profit from his association with Christ, came to a sad end. The other and final 12 disciples were all recorded to have been persecuted. Eleven of them died an unnatural death. The temporal accumulation of earthly riches was not a priority for them. Yet, they would have had to have been good stewards, nonetheless.

The Holy Spirit Never Tempts Mankind to Mammon

The Kingdom of God and Mammon have nothing to do with each other. (“Ye cannot serve God and Mammon” (Matthew 6:24).) Only one of them can be served. By definition, that must also mean that neither of these two domains can be in the service of each other. This is only logical and leads to these two deductions: Firstly, Mammon has no interest in teaching us how to better worship God. It will never do this. Secondly, God is hardly inclined to tempt his children to become ensnared or preoccupied with the things of Mammon.

What follows, therefore, is this conclusion: God is not inclined to send “Spirit-led advisors” for the purpose of enabling his children to better compete and succeed in the world of Mammon. That should be no surprise. The witness of the Bible supports this statement. Nowhere in the Bible can we find any example of the Holy Spirit assisting people in accumulating wealth. On the contrary, the one instance in which a spirit (demon in this case) is stated to give money-making prophecies through a young damsel (Acts 16:16), the Apostle Paul drove it out of her.

A Rigged, Treacherous Scheme

The unpoliced world of Mammon is a treacherous place. Please never forget that the “love of money” (1 Timothy 6:10) is the greatest vulnerability of mankind. It is at the very root of all evils, and the major leverage point that Satan has to enlist humans to carry out his endtime plans of insurrection, as the Bible outlines.

In practical terms, however, what does this actually mean? It signifies that a godless world will make “Money” (Mammon) its god and object of worship and aspiration. That means that there are 7.1 billion people in the world today that are either vulnerable to, or committed to, doing anything possible to “get money.”

Money is therefore the nexus point of the most competitive and brutally corrupt arena that exists in the entire universe. This thorny thicket is what any saver or steward is up against when they enter the modern world of money and financial markets. Despite the fact that there are supposedly many regulatory bodies and consumer protection agencies around the globe who attempt to keep the “animal spirits” of money in check, massive financial busts, elaborate thefts, and grand lying and cheating in high places will continue (and worsen). In fact, the Bible states this to be the case, even prophesying that such global conditions would be a “sign of the times.” The two visions of Zechariah found in Chapter 5 pointedly indicate that a state of “lying” and “stealing” covers the entire earth, this leading to a curse from God.

This being the condition of the world today, no specific investment opinion can be sure, nor any one outcome guaranteed. Conditions can change rapidly and without warning. The vast majority of stewards and savers are therefore usually no match for the “experts in greed” that serve to brutally rig the global money casino.

Continuing on the Road to Prophesied Breakdown

Looking ahead, given the incredibly unprecedented and desperate financial and economic conditions around the world, anything is possible over the short-term … including a runaway stock market to the upside. Calls to invest everything in gold or to “dump” the US dollar cannot be guaranteed to be timely advice.

We must remember that the character and essence of the very last days is deception and entrapment. To that end, one last and final manipulated boom in fictitious wealth could be the “checkmate” move … the final steel bear trap that captures many more people’s hopes and leads to an even greater Global Financial Crisis. And, if it is to be the last and final boom — and we have no certainty on this point — the collapse phase will most certainly take place inside the Tribulation period, the most crushing phase in the Great Tribulation spanning the final three and one-half years.

The turbulence that the world is witnessing today signifies the build-up of tremors that finally erupt in the Tribulation period. These tremors contribute to the anguish of many people today and their susceptibility to ill-conceived solutions. They may fall prey to false prophets of prosperity, chase shadows, or uncritically run after so-called Christian money prophets who have the latest solution.

Practical Investment Advice Needed?

What to do? Where should we steward our savings?

But first a disclaimer. We have never provided specific investment opinions in our publications, instead focusing on stewardship and Biblical perspectives on world “endtime money” developments. The Bible is never wrong, certainly this applying also to its statements about the future. On the other hand, people who make timing forecasts (in other words, prophesy) about money trends or other detailed aspects of the future will be wrong at least half of the time. One can never know when a forecaster will be right or wrong. That makes their pronouncements unreliable and dangerous.

Frankly, we are not aware of anyone who has consistently been proven correct in providing opinions on specific investments or future trends. No such person exists. Everyone is fallible … especially, of course, when trying to predict the future. I make incorrect judgments about economies and the timing of world trends frequently. Any reference to my opinions expressed in secular publications would quickly prove that point.

But back to our first question: What to do? We believe that three attitudinal shifts are necessary to receive peace on this question. One must realize that we are already hostages of a globalized, integrated and corrupt financial system. There is little we can do about that reality other than to make the best of it from an eternal perspective. That’s where the second attitudinal shift comes in. We need to concentrate on heavenly riches rather than on earthly wealth.

Of course, sensible stewardship of our resources here on earth is expected at a minimum, but this does not require one to forecast the near-term fate of the US dollar or gold or the S&P500 stock market. We should not become anxious about such things. Where is the one place that our riches are secure? The Bible provides a sure answer: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal” (Matthew 6:19).

Thirdly and finally, our focus should shift away from anxieties about our own “personal” financial security to a Samaritan attitude of helping others. Almost every inquiry we receive reflects anxieties that are personal or limited to the confines of one’s personal family. The worries rarely center on others. It can be a most liberating perspective to turn one’s cares to that of others less fortunate.

Assuming that the above-mentioned attitudes are held, the practical issue of stewardship still remains. What to do? My oft-repeated counsel to investors to whom God has given financial assets to steward is to broadly diversify one’s investments across as many asset types as possible (including gold), as well as globally. For the majority of people, this is the most practical and safest approach though it provides no guarantee of gain. Yes, there definitely will be investments from time to time that appear more attractive than others. Though that may be the case, the average individual usually is not successful in capitalizing upon such opportunities. There are many reasons for this. Suffice it to say that one would need to be adept at understanding the devious and deceptive workings of Mammon (without it capturing the affections of one’s heart). Not many have such skills or dispositions.

Mostly, all of the above-mentioned notions of stewardship are earthly and fleshly attempts to establish security in this world. In essence, this is a “worldly” focus; it is not Biblical. This statement may surprise readers. It surely challenges the trained disposition of this financial analyst; however, we cannot void the truth of the Bible. Its perspectives are true and life-giving. We ignore its advice to our detriment.

Booms, bubbles and busts will continue. All the while, the wealth skew of the world continues to widen … the rich becoming wealthier and the rest poorer and more indebted. (The chart on the front page reflects the cares of the rich.) The world is hurtling rapidly along the path that leads to the ultimate collapses revealed by the Bible. The processes that led to the Global Financial Crisis remain; their full legacy still to unfold in the future. Another bubble and bust will surely soon follow. A more detailed explanation of these expected developments, supported by Scripture, can be found in the recent book, Global Financial Apocalypse Prophesied: Preserving True Riches.