Economy Nucleus of Tribulation
Bible Prophecy Today (Link) - Terry James (August 30, 2010)
One prophetic element stands out in considering the seven-year Tribulation era, with regard to the Antichrist regime. That is the economic platform prophesied to be at the heart of the beast system.
With so many signals in view that point to the brewing Tribulation tempest, we should expect - if we are reading the end-times signals correctly - that this heart of the Beast should be well along in its construction. We have covered all of the indicators found within current issues and events that we believe are signals like those given by Jesus and the prophets. National and world economies have been dealt with in our efforts to make prophetic sense of the dynamic rearrangements taking place in recent years, months, weeks, and days.
America�s staggering weight of debt and swift economic decline is front and center in pointing to the fact, we believe, that this is the generation that stands at the end of one dispensation � the Church Age - and upon the precipice of the next � the Tribulation. Each hour seems to bring additional confirmation that the Tribulation storm is about to break upon an uncomprehending world. Such confirmation is present in abundance in the realm of geopolitics and global economics.
Since Bible prophecy clearly foretells that the Antichrist government, thus the economic engine that will power that absolute dictatorship, will emerge from Europe, we need keep our prophetic antennae pointed in that direction - i.e., we must be especially alert to news involving movement within Europe to cause significant changes to global economic structure.
The following excerpt from the Wall Street Journal registers an interesting blip on my own end-times radar screen.
PARIS � French President Nicolas Sarkozy called on the world's twenty largest economies to work together to reform global monetary order.
"We must define a new framework for discussing currency movements," Mr. Sarkozy said, adding that it is "nonsense" to talk about exchange rates without including China, which has accumulated huge foreign exchange reserves.
He said stabilizing erratic foreign exchange and commodities markets will feature high on France's agenda when it heads the Group of 20 [in] November. He added there is a need to reduce the U.S. dollar's dominance as the reserve currency of choice." (Nathalie Boschat and David Pearson, "Sarkozy Outlines G-20 Priorities," Wall Street Journal, 8/26/10)
Prophecy scholars and others have long pondered why the U.S. , the most powerful nation in history, isn�t mentioned by name � or even by significant reference � in God�s Word. We continue to flounder in attempts at finding an exact answer for that question. However, with the recent astonishing changes nationally and abroad, the answer seems to be in the process of forming.
Monetary manipulation is at the root of the change taking place. The American dollar must be removed as the currency standard so that a global currency not underwritten by any national monetary unit can be established. This is precisely the Beast economic order I�m convinced Bible prophecy describes as outlined in the following:
And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And 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. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six (Revelation 13:16-18).
This speaks to me of a computer system � a hybrid Internet whereby all citizens of the global economic order will be absolutely controlled at every level of life. Probably, it will consist at its heart of electronic funds transfer (EFT)� a system of Special Drawing Rights (SDR). Anyone refusing to toe the mark of the Antichrist�s regime will face having his or her SDR account blocked or removed completely from the system. Fear of starvation is a mighty motivator to comply.
Pressures are mounting for a completely changed global economic order. Even the king of the kings of the East, China, is at the center of the dynamics driving the changes.
Most economists who are honest will admit that the current building economic heap of debt cannot continue to accumulate. They are amazed, in fact, that everything hasn�t already collapsed into total, worldwide depression. I again offer my belief that it will be the Rapture that causes the ultimate implosion and collapse.
The great world leader called in Revelation �the Beast� will be there to implement a satanically-inspired economic scheme that will at first offer hope � that will for a time �cause craft to prosper� (Dan. 8:25). But Antichrist�s plan will achieve what it will be designed to do: enslave most of the world in electronic bondage.
Jesus offers the opposite of what the counterfeit, Antichrist, will produce. Jesus promises:
�If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed� (John 8:36).
We must at every opportunity lift up the Holy name of Jesus before the eyes of a world headed into the terrors of the Tribulation.
I currently remain of the opinion that the power and the kingdom of the coming man of sin will rise out of Europe as well, although I also hold open the possibility that this center of power could arise from the Middle East. I can see both sides, but I still feel that the beast of Revelation 13 will be centered in Europe and the false prophet in the Middle East, essentially tying them together with the head of power rising from Europe.
However I wanted to primarily address the aspect I disagree with in the article and that is the idea of a seven year tribulation. As I've pointed out before, I have yet to find a seven year tribulation in scripture. There is one seven-year period in Daniel 9:27 that Yeshua clearly specifies the middle of which starts the time of great tribulation, but it is not seven years long. Perhaps it seems a small point, but when you delve deeper into the framework of the 70th week of Daniel to understand our coming future, every little item matters.
I also offer an alternate perspective on the harpazo (rapture) that differs somewhat from the pre-trib viewpoint offered in the article, the pre-wrath perspective. I doubt that this event will so drastically change the landscape in the world given the prophesied apostasy that we see coming to pass now. Rather I think the world will breathe a sigh of relief and continue on. I could well be wrong, but even of those who identify themselves as Christians, only half will actually go. Matthew 25:1-13