Implications of this financial Apocalypse

By Joel C. Rosenberg

"U.S. foes gloat over financial crisis" (Associated Press)

"Iran hails world financial crisis as 'end of capitalism'" (Agence France Presse)

"We are witnessing the collapse of the American Empire." - Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh

"We are happy that the U.S. economy is in anarchy and the anarchy is reaching Europe. They are seeing the result of their own ugly doings and God is punishing them." - top Iranian cleric

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(Washington, D.C., October 16, 2008)-- The U.S. is experiencing the most serious financial crisis since the Great Depression. Our enemies know it. They smell blood in the water. Consider the latest developments:

* "Wall Street stocks plunged Wednesday in the second biggest single day point loss in history and their worst percentage fall in two decades, ravaged by fears the world's biggest economy is slipping into recession. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 733.08 points (7.87 percent) to close at 8,577.91 in the worst one-day point loss since last month's record 777-point decline and the steepest percentage drop since 1987. In an even more brutal decline, the broad-market Standard & Poor's index plunged 90.17 points (9.03 percent) to 907.84." (AFP)

* "We are living through financial history of the tragic kind. As of Friday's close, America's stock market had declined in value by well over 40 per cent compared with its peak a year ago. Already, this ranks as the fifth biggest stock market decline since the 1920s." (U.K. Independent)

* "U.S. stocks [in recent days have] plunged the most since the crash of 1987, hammered by the biggest drop in retail sales in three years and growing doubt that plans to bail out banks will keep the economic slump from deepening….The S&P 500 has tumbled 38 percent in 2008 as losses and writedowns from mortgage-related investments at financial firms worldwide topped $640 billion….The S&P 500 has tumbled 42 percent from its Oct. 9, 2007, record and the Dow has lost 39 percent from its peak the same day." (Bloomberg News)

* "Japan's key stock index plummeted more than 11 percent, South Korean shares shed 9.25 percent, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index was down 4.8 percent. Floowing Asia's lead, benchmarks in Britain, Germany and France slipped about 3 percent. Russia's RTS also fell." (AP)

* "U.S. Forces Nine Major Banks To Accept Partial Nationalization" - Washington Post

* "The White House said G8 leaders were expected to meet this year on the worst financial crisis since the 1930s Great Depression. Governments around the world have pledged $3.2 trillion in emergency measures - roughly an equivalent to the economic output of Germany or China - including taking stakes in banks to help them stabilize, rallying world markets on Monday and Tuesday. But optimism quickly gave way to fears that government intervention would not save major economies from recession." (Reuters)

This is not a temporary glitch in the global financial software. The problems are real, deep and systemic. The best explanations and analysis I have seen have come from Steve Forbes, editor-in-chief of Forbes magazine, the nation's foremost business magazine (see Steve's recent columns).

The big question now: What does it all mean and where do we go from here? A few thoughts on the implications of this financial apocalypse:

1. First things first: our national security is inextricably tied to our economic security. Economic weakness is an invitation to radical Islamic terrorists to hit us again. It's also an invitation to other rogue nations to pursue their evil plans while thinking we are unable or unwilling to stop them. The U.S. cannot lead the world in defeating tyrants and terrorists and creating an environment of peace and prosperity if we are collapsing at home. Stabilizing our economy, reforming our financial institutions, punishing and imprisoning those who have criminally undermined our economy, and getting us back on the road to free market growth and entrepreneurial health and vitality must be the top priority of the next Commander-in-Chief.

2. I don't believe one U.S. political party or the other is specifically to blame for our own financial crisis. There is plenty of blame to go around and the problems have been developing for years. That said, it is becoming increasingly clear to me that the U.S. stock markets are tanking especially hard right now in part because investors believe Sen. Barack Obama is going to win on November 4th. As polls for Obama and Congressional Democrats have risen - and Americans have begun to sense that Obama's election as president and expanded control of Congress by Rep. Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Harry Reid and their liberal allies is inevitable - investors' fears have not been calmed. They have been exacerbated. True, investors don't see a complete and convincing economic rescue plan from Sen. McCain. But they see disaster in Obama's plan and the likelihood of full control of the U.S. government by the Democrats. The Obama-Pelosi-Reid prescription, after all, is the worst possible medicine for the economy - $1.3 trillion in new federal spending, dramatic tax increases on small businesses, dramatic tax increases on big businesses, dramatic tax increases on those who create wealth, a major new tax on energy producers, as well as nationalized health care system. We are not simply on the brink of a serious recession; we are on the brink of another Great Depression. How, then, will massive tax increases and massive government spending help us fight our way out of this crisis? Answer: it won't. And Main Street and Wall Street know it. Just ask Joe the Plumber.

3. Are there prophetic implications of this financial crisis? It is hard to be definitive. The U.S. does not show up specifically in any end times Bible prophecies. But this fact alone raises a sobering question: If we are really in what the Bible describes as "the last days" before the return of Jesus Christ, then how is it possible that the United States of America - the wealthiest and most powerful nation on the face of the planet in the history of mankind - does not play a significant, notable role in Biblical end times events?

The honest answer: I don't know for certain. But here's what I wrote in Dead Heat (p. 154): "What Bennett had never really considered carefully until now was the possibility that something else might devastate the American people, rendering them ineffective heading into the last of the last days. A financial downturn on Wall Street. The sudden collapse of the dollar. The beginning of another Great Depression. A series of devastating earthquakes. Or hurricanes. Or other natural disasters, like a tsunami. [Or ] the most cataclysmic terrorist attack of all time - five nuclear warheads. And there might be more to come. None of it was clearly prophesied in the Scriptures. Not that he could find. But perhaps he should have foreseen the neutralization of America by more carefully reading between the lines. If so, what else was he missing? What exactly was coming next?"

4. Finally, let us consider the possibility that the Lord is allowing this economic meltdown in part to shake our confidence in anything but a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Is it possible that God is trying to shake us loose from trusting in our wealth, from trusting in our political leaders, from trusting in our own ingenuity and our own hard work? Is it possible that He is trying to get us to shift our focus from worldly, materialistic things to how much He loves us, and the truth that the only person we can truly trust in life to never leave us or forsake us is Jesus Christ? Is it possible that He is trying to get us to read the Bible more, and the stock tickers less? To pray more, and to worry less? To store up our treasures in heaven, and not concentrate so much on our treasures on earth?

Anyone who is feeling fearful during this turbulent economic times would do well to meditate on the words Jesus told His disciples in Matthew 6:19-33 --

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also….No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other You cannot serve God and wealth. For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life? And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith! Do not worry then, saying, 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or 'What will we wear for clothing?' For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you."

October 8th, Our Two-Year Anniversary

Tim and I have been married two years today! It's amazing to look back and see how fast the time has gone, yet feel like I've known this man for twenty years.

First and foremost, I have to say that I am married to the most wonderful man in the entire world! I know other women say that about their husbands, but mine is truly the best. :) The most incredible part is that he loves ME. He always says that I only married him because God blinded me, but I believe it's the other way around.

Every day I thank the Lord for bringing him into my life. We met two and half years ago on March 8th at a Wed night Athey Creek Bible Study. My friend Tia introduced us and there was an instant connection we both felt. I wish I could go into both our histories leading up to this point because it is truly an amazing testimony of God's grace, restoration and redemption but I will have to cover that in another post.

I was at a point in my life where I had decided to be single and concentrate on the Lord with my whole heart. That time with Jesus was one of the most special and fruit-bearing chapters in my life. I had surrendered my dream of marriage at the foot of the cross, not expecting to ever get married. It was truly an Abraham and Issac moment because as I raised the knife of surrender, the Lord picked up my dream, dusted it off, healed its wounds from years of mistakes and sin, made it shine like the sun and gave it back to me in the form of my husband, Tim.



So, when I met Tim that night I spent a lot of time in prayer, seeking the Lord's will. I didn't even want to sit anywhere near him at church before I had heard from the Lord. We both felt it like a bolt of lighting but each of us wanted to do the right thing in the sight of God. Even in the midst of waiting on the Lord, though, God was writing the most beautiful love story. The second time we saw each other at church, Tim came up to me and said" I have been thinking about you and praying about you a lot. I know that I want you in my life I just don't know if it will be a friendship or more but I can't stop thinking about you. I just wanted you to know." Wow. I went home and called my mom and told her I met a REAL man. :) Not one that played it cool or played games with my heart, but one that came right out and told me that he wanted me in his life in some way or another. To this day I still value how direct and honest Tim is and how it's strengthened not only the communication in our marrige, but the respect as well.

Anyway, our first date was about a month later and after that the rest is history. I'm not one to believe in "love at first sight" but I can tell you that the feeling of knowing he was the one that everyone was talking to me about for so long, finally came true in the beautiful blue eyes of my sweet Tim. There was no denying it.

After he went with me and my family to Colorado and was able to meet my ENTIRE extended family (which is incredible because I haven't seen some of them for 10 plus years!), he proposed to me the day after we came back after he had spoken to my father. We were married just 5 short months later.

The lesson here for me was that when you let the Lord take control of something in your life, even if there is some fear that things won't turn out exactly as you want them to, you can trust that he will knock your socks off. What he can do in the drivers seat of your life is SO much better than anything you can ever try to make happen yourself or imagine. Take it from someone who knows!

So, today we celebrate two years together and I am looking forward to many more together with this wonderful man: my soul mate, best friend and so much more.

I love you Timmy.

ee cummings Poem-I carry your heart

ee cummings is one of my favorite poets. I love his use of language and how different his prose is. I started reading him in college as a result of a Writing/Lit class and this is one of my favorites:

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in my heart)
i am never without it
(anywhere i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)

i fear no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)
i want no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;
which grows higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

WHO ARE YOU VOTING FOR?

No matter who you vote for, becoming educated is the best way to make good desicions about our government. We only have a voice if we use it.

This email comes in three parts....Make sure you read all three parts!

Part 1
In just one year. Remember the election in 2006?

Thought you might like to read the following:

A little over one year ago:
1) Consumer confidence stood at a 2 1/2 year high;
2) Regular gasoline sold for $2.19 a gallon;
3) The unemployment rate was 4.5%.
Since voting in a Democratic Congress in 2006 we have seen:
1) Consumer confidence plummet;
2) The cost of regular gasoline soar to over $4.10 a gallon;
3) Unemployment is up to 5% (a 10% increase);
4) American households have seen $2.3 trillion in equity value evaporate (stock and mutual fund losses);
5) Americans have seen their home equity drop by $1.2 trillion dollars;
6) 1% of American homes are in foreclosure.
7) Food prices skyrocketing over 30% in 1 year.

America voted for change in 2006, and we got it!

Remember it's Congress that makes law - not the President. He has to work with what's handed to him.
Quote of the Day........'My friends, we live in the greatest nation in the history of the world. I hope you'll join with me as we try to change it.' -- Barack Obama

Part 2:
Taxes...Whether Democrat or a Republican you will find these statistics enlightening and amazing.

www.taxfoundation.org/publications/show/151.HTML

Taxes under CLINTON-1999 Taxes under BUSH-2008
Single earning: Single earning:
30K - taxed- $ 8,400 30K - taxed $ 4,500
50K - taxed $ 14,000 50K - taxed $ 12,500
75K - taxed $ 23,250 75K - taxed $ 18,750
Married earning: Married earning:
60K - taxed $ 16,800 60K - taxed $ 9,000
75K - taxed $ 21,000 75K - taxed $ 18,750
125K - taxed $ 38,750 125K ? taxed $ 31,250

Barack Obama promises to return to the higher tax rates if elected. It is amazing how many people that fall into the categories above think Bush is screwing them and Bill Clinton was the greatest President ever.

If elected, Barack Obama has already promised that he will repeal the Bush tax cuts, and amazingly, a good portion of the people that fall into the categories above can't wait for it to happen. This is like the movie The Sting with Paul Newman; you scam somebody out of some money and they don't even know what happened.

PART 3:
You think the war in Iraq is costing us too much? I now find that to be RIDICULOUS. Over 900 billion dollars has been spent on the war, and over 4,000 US lives. That is priceless!

I hope the following 14 reasons are forwarded over and over again until they are read so many times that the reader gets sick of reading them. I have included the URL's for verification of all the following facts.

1. $11 Billion to $22 billion is spent on welfare to illegal aliens each year by state governments.

Verify at: http://tinyurl.com/zob77

2. $2.2 Billion dollars a year is spent on food assistance programs such as food stamps, WIC, and free school lunches for illegal aliens.

Verify at: http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html

3. $2.5 Billion dollars a year is spent on Medicaid for illegal aliens.

Verify at: http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html

4. $12 Billion dollars a year is spent on primary and secondary school education for children here illegally and they cannot speak a word of English!

Verify at: http://transcripts.CNN.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.0.HTML

5. $17 Billion dollars a year is spent for education for the American-born children of illeg al aliens, known as anchor babies.

Verify at: http://transcripts..cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html

6. $3 Million Dollars a DAY is spent to incarcerate illegal aliens.

Verify at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html

7. 30% percent of all Federal Prison inmates are illegal aliens.

Verify at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html

8. $90 Billion Dollars a year is spent on illegal aliens for Welfare & social services by the American taxpayers.

Verify at: http://premium.cnn.com/TRANSCIPTS/0610/29/ldt.01.html

9. $200 Billion Dollars a year in suppressed American wages are caused by the illegal aliens.

Verify at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html

10. The illegal aliens in the United States have a crime rate that's two and a half times that of white non-illegal aliens. In particular, their children, are going to make a huge additional crime problem in the US

Verify at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0606/12/ldt.01.html

11. During the year of 2005 there were 4 to 10 MILLION illegal aliens that crossed our South ern Border also, as many as 19,500 illegal aliens from Terrorist Countries. Millions of pounds of drugs, cocaine, meth, heroin and
marijuana, crossed into the U. S from the Southern border.

Verify at: Homeland Security Report: http://tinyurl..com/t9sht

12. The National Policy Institute, 'estimated that the total cost of mass deportation would be between $206 and $230 billion or an average cost of between $41 and $46 billion annually over a five year period.

Verify at: http://www.nationalpolicyinstitute.org/pdf/deportation.pdf

13. In 2006 illegal aliens sent home $45 BILLION in remittances back to their countries of origin.

Verify at: http://www.rense.com/general75/niht.htm

14. 'The Dark side of Illegal Immigration: Nearly One Million Sex Crimes Committed by Illegal Immigrants In The United States.'

Verify at: http://www.drdsk.com/articleshtml

The total cost is a whopping $338.3 BILLION DOLLARS A YEAR.
Are we THAT stupid?
If this doesn't bother you then just delete the message.

Our Baptism July 27th, 2008

So it's taken me quite awhile to finally get around to recapping our amazing experience on my birthday, July 27th, when Tim and I decided to "take the plunge."

I was baptized when I was just a little girl and even though it was such a powerful experience, I still did not fully understand what I was doing.

Tim was baptized when he was just a baby, so we thought this was the perfect opportunity to get baptized together, now that we are adults and have a complete understanding of exactly what it means.

Pastor Brett, who married us, also ended up baptizing us, which was significant in so many ways. Our wedding day was meant to signify the joining of our lives into one and this day was meant to signify the joining of our lives with Christ as the center. Everything seemed to get very clear, as if I had other senses with which to enjoy the world; I saw the vivid outline of the beautiful surrounding trees against the sunny sky, heard the laughs and splashes from the kids playing just a few yards away, and the relished the sound of other believers standing on the shore singing praises.

The power of the moment was very tangible, especially as words of truth, grace and love poured out of Brett's mouth. I will never forget standing there hearing "every sin you've ever committed or will ever commit will be left behind today in this water. You are forgiven." I know that when we confess Jesus as our salvation that we are forgiven because we've accepted his free gift, but to physically accept that forgiveness is to outwardly express that belief. I always think of the dove descending on Jesus when he was baptized and saying he was pleased with his Son. Anything Jesus did I definitely want to emulate!

As Brett continued, I felt the strangest peace. There was a time in my life where I had gotten far away from the Lord and his ways and the reminder of what I've done had always kept me in a place of guilt/fear/bondage. There, in that river, that burden I'd been carrying fell off into those cool depths as I was lowered into the water...my sinful flesh breathing it's last breath...my new self being raised again as I emerged from the water...renewed. I could almost see a faint outline of my old sin-body as it drifted away...gone from me forever.

One thing that I know is that both Tim and I felt the touch of the Holy Spirit that day and even though we are still going to sin and make mistakes, we know that we are renewed, forgiven and full of new life. We look forward to seeing the outpouring from our commitment to the Lord in the coming days and years.

Love,
Shanna