PROTESTANT PROPHETS AND WORLD ECONOMY #3
The Coming Economic Armageddon
Continued from previous page:
I believe as you read here the words of David Jeremiah you will
see what he is saying about Government - Keith Hunt
From Crisis to Consolidation
......The growing financial pressure on the average people of the
world brings to mind the famous first sentence of a Charles
Dickens novel: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of
times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness
... in short, the period was so far like the present period ...
for good or for evil." So begins "A Tale of Two Cities," the
classic tale of the political and economic turmoil of 1775 in the
two dominant cities in the world of Dickens's day - London and
Paris.
If he were writing that story today, Dickens would likely
have to expand its geographical scope to include all of Europe
and the country that was still struggling to be born in that
fateful year-the United States of America. If he found those
inclusions too broad to give him the needed focus for a
manageable plot, he could limit his story to a few representative
cities. London, Athens, and Washington, D.C., would serve very
well - three national capitals teetering on the brink of
financial destruction and carrying the potential for popular
uprisings and street violence even more dangerous than the chaos
of the French Revolution.
In each of the political crises noted above, the problem was
created largely by growing dependence on government to take
responsibility for its citizens' well-being. This dependence, in
turn, leads to greater government control and a consolidation of
power in the hands of a few. Like the frog in the kettle, the
citizens, focused on their own comfort, tend not to notice the
increase in control. Nor do they seem to care as long as their
needs are met and their comfort level maintained. But as we will
see in this chapter, this casual acceptance of government
dependence is leading us into severe results that loom just
beyond the horizon.....
Big government is now an established fact in the United
States, and it's about to get much bigger. In the aftermath of
our recent financial crisis, the cost of our government has
mushroomed into an even larger percentage of the GDP If the
workforce necessary to manage the new tax initiatives and
healthcare programs is anywhere near what has been projected, we
will soon be a full-fledged socialist state.
The Banking Institutions
Another indicator of consolidation can be found in our
banking institutions. In 1940 there were 14,399 banks in the
United States. Today there are about half that many, and the
number continues to drop precipitously.....
One of the worldwide results of the recent global financial
crisis has been the consolidation, concentration, and control of
the world's money by a dwindling number of banks. The primary
fallout from consolidation is that it leads to greater government
control through intervention and regulation.
One such consolidation took place on October 30, 2009, here
in my corner of the world. The once-proud San Diego National Bank
became a failure statistic. It is now one of the 140 banks in the
United States that failed and was taken over by the Federal
Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) in 2009. All twenty-eight of
the branch offices operating under the name of San Diego National
Bank closed at the end of one business day and opened the next
day under a new name: U.S. Bank of Minneapolis.
How was such an astounding turnaround even possible? Was
some kind of manipulation going on here? Some suspect it was a
preplanned event designed to show the effectiveness of
governmental intervention, thus furthering the argument for more
regulation. That brings us to the next evidence that shows the
trend toward a major concentration of power in big government.
Financial Regulation
Plans for more regulation sent President Obama into the
heart of Wall Street in April 2010 to drum up support for a bill
that would end the "too-big-to-fail" phenomenon by increasing
governmental regulation over the financial sector." In his speech
Obama insisted that reform of financial institutions is necessary
"to make certain that taxpayers are never again on the hook
because a firm is deemed `too big to fail.'... A vote for reform
is a vote to put a stop to taxpayerfunded bailouts.... Not only
[will it] safeguard our system against crises, this will also
make our system stronger and more competitive by installing
confidence here at home and across the globe..""
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner also weighed in on the
matter, saying, "Financial reform is not the war of choice; it is
a war of necessity." Beneath the rhetoric of necessity and
public protection, there can be little doubt that financial
regulation is another way in which big government intends to
become even bigger.....
In addition to wealth redistribution, one of the favorite
arenas of leaders with statist aspirations is the limitation of
religious expression. The state determines which forms of
religious expression are to be tolerated and which are to be
prohibited. An example is the recent furor over a simple prayer
of thanks offered before lunch at the Ed Young Senior Citizen
Center in Port Wentworth, Georgia. Since the seniors' six-dollar
meals were subsidized by federal money, the company operating the
center declared that "saying a communal prayer ... is a violation
of federal regulations." Such redefining of First Amendment
rights is a powerful means of extending government influence and
power.
Honest and upright leadership is possible. Joseph was true
to his promise to provide for the Egyptians' needs and preserve
their lives. Unlike a leader in the Machiavellian model, he had
dealt with them in an honest and forthright manner, and they were
willing to trust him, even to the point of becoming slaves. But
such leaders are extremely rare, and I doubt that they ever occur
except through dependency on God.
Virtually all leaders who consolidate power turn out to be
tyrants, first gaining power by addressing crises and hiding
their true intent behind a Machiavellian mask of deceit. Hitler
was the poster boy for the Machiavellian philosophy of deceit to
gain control.
Hitler had lowered wages; state governments and economies
were consolidated under the totalitarian regime.... Virtually
every area of German life was under the control of the Nazi
regime, yet most citizens did not seem to care. Fed a steady
dosage of propaganda by the press and entertained with massive
rallies, parades, and "gifts" from "The Fuhrer," the German
people swelled with pride at their nation's apparent comeback.
Hitler and other tyrants give us a chilling warning of what can
happen when a nation in crisis puts too much power in the hands
of a single leader. It is a danger that stares us starkly in the
face today. As Erwin Lutzer explains:
We can learn from history that politicians often use an
economic crisis to make their subjects more government
dependent, and with that dependency comes more control ...
no government in history has had a great record in providing
expanded benefits without eventually also expecting more
control of its citizens.
.....It appears more and more today that our "present
necessities" are moving us in the direction of carelessly
accepting a change in government, either willingly or by default,
assuming that nothing will change radically. Yet both history and
the nature of power show clearly how wrong this is. The
consolidation of political and economic power will set the stage
for the ultimate in evil governance, the reign of the
Satan-empowered Antichrist. In the next two chapters we discover
what will happen in the future when this one man - the
personification of evil - gains control over the nations of the
world.
..........
Note:
Now do you see what the overall of Jeremiah's stance is? He's
told you (last section in this series) about the EVIL OF WHAT WAS
BEHIND the world going into recession (and hopefully you have
read other Meltdowns where I've made it might plain what that
evil was - greed, greed, and more greed; and lies, lies, and more
lies; manipulation, manipulation, and more manipulation). But now
in this section of his book, you can clearly tell he is against
Government getting into .... well a number of things he has
mentioned, including it would seem "social security" after 65.
And certainly "medicare" - you got to have your own (and I have
told you about the foot doctor I worked for in Florida who was
paying $750 per month to cover himself, his wife, and two
children, AND that was with a $1,000 deductable - THE FIRST
$1,000 he paid). Well, you should be able to see Jeremiah is
against Government in our lives, I'm surprised he does not list
paying the Feds taxes. But then he knows that law would put him
in jail if he did not comply. Look, your State has laws, they are
usually laws that serve the majority of the people, are good for
the vast majority of people in that State. The automobile speed
laws have proved to be sensible and good for the people in that
State, and the Nation! The "buckle up" - seat-belt laws have proved
to be life-saving, hence the law is set. The "child-seat" laws have
proved to be life-saving. So we have State and National laws. Most
today have grown up with such laws already in place, they were born
into a nation with those laws. Yet some get hot-under-the-collar
if they think the Government is going to "come in on" this or on
that. Even if what they are coming in on is dirty business work
like stepping in on Banks and Wall Street fellows, who have been
doing dirty evil business for 20 years or so, and finally having
it hit them between the legs, and also a heck of a lot of the
average person in the Western world! So the word "socialism"
starts to get thrown out and around.... and it's as if the end of
the world is upon us, where we will all become slaves to too big
a government.
Look, yes look outside of the USA. Britain has had a National
Health plan, well I was born into it, it was there when I was
born, I'm now 68 years old. A Canadian young lady I know is
taking her nurses degree over in Britain. I spoke to her after
she had been there for two years. She told me Britain's National
Health plan is WAY, WAY better than Canada's National Health
plan. The point is: those two countries, call them "socialist" if
you want, but they are still free countries and still have not
become dictatorships - people (including me living in Canada
since 1961 [except for 3 and 1/2 years in Florida]) are going
about their everyday lives just as free (free within laws) as the
people in the USA.
What I'm trying to get across to you is that Jeremiah is using
"fear tactics" - if the Government steps in on this or that which
he has mentioned (which he thinks Government should not be in)
then LOOK OUT - it's making way to become your big brother spying
on your every move (and the truth is IF the USA wanted to spy on
your every move, they have the space eyes-in-the-sky technology
to do so, and all kinds of other technical stuff that we the
people of the street, are not aware of).
Now Jeremiah as we shall begin to see is leading you up to what
the funny-mental prophets teach you is future prophecy. Hence they
must set you up for the real "big brother to come" as they spider-
web their way through "world government;" "7 year tribulation;"
"secret rapture of the saints off to heaven;" and then "the visible
coming of Christ."
Keith Hunt
To be continued
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