February 16, 2009
Steve Collins
As we read the news, it is clear that the global financial/monetary world that we have known for so long is teetering on brink of a historic collapse. Many see this, but there are some pieces of the puzzle that our establishment media is not passing on and, of course, they make no attempt to place it in a biblical context. It is increasingly looking like we are heading for a fulfillment of Revelation 17-18 which foretells that in the latter days, the global financial/monetary system of “Babylon the Great” will collapse. This event will dramatically affect all our lives! Is it near?
Central Bankers and world financial authorities are desperately looking for a way to put the fracturing economic system back together, but their efforts are not yet succeeding. Let’s look at how bad it is. The first link below (from the London Telegraph) reports that a “debacle” is looming in European banks and governments which could “shatter the fragile banking systems of Western Europe and set off round two of our financial Gotterdammerung.” I presume that Round One is assumed to be the events of last Autumn when the global financial system almost seized up due to the ramifications of the US housing market crash and the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers). Eastern European governments are in dire circumstances. The article states “Ukraine has unraveled,” and Latvia’s “central bank governor has declared his economy ‘clinically dead'”as rioters “have smashed the treasury and stormed parliament.” The European banking system is so close to collapse that “the sums needed are beyond the limits of the IMF, which has already bailed out Hungary, Ukraine, Latvia, Belarus, Iceland…Pakistan and Turkey…” The IMF may need to create a new global currency.
The second link below reports the riveting news that the British banking system recently came within “hours” of collapse according to the UK’s own cabinet officer in charge of finance. The third link states the subjects on the agenda of the recent G-7 meeting in Rome included “how to thwart…what the IMF calls a depression in advanced economies.” Do you think the USA is insulated from this threatened collapse? Hardly! The fourth link relates that the current national debt of the USA now “exceeds the gross domestic product of the world” (emphasis added.) Let that last sentence sink in. The USA’s national debt exceeds the GDP of the entire world! Add the impact of the recent Obama stimulus, and it is clear that this already historic debt level is going to skyrocket even further. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see what is happening and realize that the world is heading for a financial smash-up of global dimensions. The fifth link below characterizes various large American banks as “dead men walking,'” and cites Economics Professor Nouriel Roubini as saying “the US banking system is effectively insolvent.” The sixth link (from Reuters) expressed the view that the US banking crisis is so severe that the US government will have to “nationalize large swaths of its banking system” by Autumn, 2009. If this happens, President Obama may have to declare “bank holidays” like FDR did during the 1930s’ Great Depression. There is much more grim financial news in these links, and I invite you read them to really grasp how dire the current global financial system now is.
Re: the incomprehensible US debt, I had a chance to talk with some teenagers recently. I tried as best I could to briefly describe the debt load that they and their children were already obligated to pay as a result of the profligate actions of my generation, and I asked about their willingness to spend their entire lives paying off my generation’s huge debts. This is a “family” blog site so I can’t repeat the exact words they used to express their strong determination to renege on these debts. I’ll bet their views reflect the majority views of the next two generations coming along. This means it is inevitable that the USA will default on its debt (either openly or via hyperinflation to pay off the debt with increasingly worthless dollars). We do not know when this event will happen, but it will occur.
The new US Treasury Secretary, Tim Geithner, made his initial congressional appearance which was underwhelming to say the least. The financial markets tanked as he spoke due to the lack of meaningful detail in his “plan”‘ to rescue the economy. The seventh link below reports on Geithner’s poor performance and observes that he is the past head of the New York Federal Reserve District, a member of the CFR, and a protégé of Henry Kissinger. These credentials indicate that the is one of the key “insiders” of Babylon the Great’s current system which permitted the financial crisis to occur. I find it most important to realize that Tim Geithner used to live in China and speaks Chinese. Geithner’s tax problems would have torpedoed virtually any other appointee as his problems were greater than those which sunk appointees to the initial Bill Clinton cabinet. How did Geithner survive? I think Proverbs 22:7 has the answer. It says “borrowers are servants to lenders.” China is the USA’s “lender”‘ and the USA is China’s (increasingly deadbeat) “borrower.” The previous Treasury Secretary, Henry Paulson, was in China so often that one wonders if he was there not so much to “consult” with the leaders of the Chinese Communist Party as to receive his “marching orders” from them. It is my view that, behind the scenes, China, as the USA’s most prominent “lender,” has a veto over the position of Treasury Secretary, whose powers are vastly greater due to the recent abdication of Congressional powers to that office. I think China wishes to have as US Treasury Secretary, someone who is familiar with Chinese culture and who can receive his “marching orders” directly in the Chinese language so there can be no “misunderstandings.” If future actions of the US government do not seem to be in the interests of US citizens, don’t be surprised. Uncle Sam will do what his chief banker tells him to do. Proverbs 22:7’s immutable principle indicates as much.
Wall Street’s rampant corruption is also now becoming obvious to the world. The reported $50 billion ponzi scheme run by Bernie Madoff (another key Wall Street insider who used to be the Chairman of the NASDAQ stock exchange) has shattered the image of Wall Street types. Other media articles have documented that many other hedge fund insiders have fled, committed suicide, or have been arrested for crimes of their own. Revelations that the SEC appeared to be complicit in this ponzi scheme because it willingly ignored specific warnings about Madoff’s ponzi scheme for many years have cast doubts on the integrity of all government agencies which are supposed to fairly regulate financial markets. Public opinion is turning against Wall Street and the big bankers. If citizens in Iceland and Latvia have stormed their central banks and government halls, what will US citizens do when/if a fiscal collapse happens in America? A recent congressional hearing at which top US bankers testified was noteworthy because the top bankers were “roughed up” by a usually-compliant Congressional committee. A column by Walter Williams in the 12/22/09 National Weekly Edition of the Washington Times was entitled “Was the Federal Reserve Bank a mistake?” It is included below as the seventh link, but its electronic title (“Counterfeiting vs. monetary policy”) is far less combative against the federal reserve banking system than was the title in the print media version I cited. Open questioning of whether the Federal Reserve Board should exist any longer is something very new in major media outlets!
Now let’s conclude with a biblically-based perspective on this grim news. Revelation 17-18 prophesy that a global, self-serving alliance of the “merchants of the earth” (global multinational firms of all kinds) and the “kings of the earth” (political/governmental rulers) will exist which will be called “Babylon the Great.” This system is prophesied to collapse in the latter days. Our current global economic/monetary/political system literally fulfills this prophecy’s description of Babylon the Great. If you wish to see why the Bible refers to its roots as being in “Babylon,” I invite you to read my article “What Kind of Captivity?” available at this website. I also refer you to my recent article on the current global crisis called “Is Babylon the Great about to Fall…Ushering in a Global Beast System?” for a lengthier discussion of how modern events are fulfilling the prophecy of Revelation 17-18. Revelation 17 indicates that this Babylonian economic system has “ridden” the world’s nations for a very long time. This “Babylonian” system is the world’s banking system which is based on usury and its beating heart is the world’s central banks (which create money out of thin air and “loan it into existence.”). Revelation 17:12-18 prophesies that this system of Babylon the Great will be overthrown by a group of nations in the latter days, and that a new global system called the “beast” system will replace it. As the current global economic crisis worsens, this prophecy may be fulfilled before our eyes. I want to emphasize that I’m not making predictions, but whenever this event occurs, it will be preceded by the kinds of events we are now seeing on the world scene.
It is difficult for me to visualize that this Rev. 17 prophecy can be considered “fulfilled” until a new global financial/system is birthed out of the collapse of the current one because Rev. 17:16 foretells that various nations will join together to “eat her flesh and burn her with fire” as they overthrow the current global system called Babylon the Great. This language indicates this systemic change will be a wrenching (even violent) one, not a “seamless” transition to a new system which is controlled by the same central bankers and powers who orchestrate the current world system. World leaders planning their new world order have forgotten the biggest “player” in the world’s affairs. The Creator God who authored the Bible “owns” this planet as he made it and all life on it. He can intervene whenever he wishes to change the course of history to make sure his prophecies are fulfilled. Isaiah 41:21-26 proclaims that God’s ability to implement his ancient prophecies is a major proof of his reality. The new global system which emerges from the wreckage of the current economic/monetary system may not be the one expected by the current global elites. More can be said on this subject, but it will have to wait for a future blog. This one is long enough. I want to leave you with the following thought.
President Bush’s bailout policies consistently had the bottom line effect of sacrificing the nation and its people to save the big banks. So far, President Obama, whose cabinet is dominated by Wall Street “insiders,” is doing the same thing as President Bush. If his budget-busting “stimulus” plan does not save the economy, Obama will have to try something else…soon. If President Obama ever decides to save the nation and its people and sacrifice the big banks, I think we will see the prophecy of Revelation 17:16 fulfilled.
http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/WTARC/2009/ss_economy0125_02_12.asp
http://www.gmu.edu/departments/economics/wew/articles/08/CounterfeitingVersusMonetaryPolicy.htm
