By Dr. Patrick Jonston
May 29, 2011
NewsWithViews.com
Foreseeing Evil
"A prudent man foresees evil and hides himself, but the simple pass on and are punished." -Proverbs 22:3
Over 650 Tornadoes spawned in April according to the National Weather Service. That shatters national record by nearly a hundred more than the last three Aprils combined.
This month, the Mississippi River flooded more land than it has in the past forty years.
2010 saw a record number of earthquakes. Oh how many lives could have been saved if people were only prepared!
My pastor's wife was a passenger in a tragic motor vehicle accident several years ago when the driver fell asleep at the wheel. As a result of that accident, she almost lost her ability to walk. On a trip out of town recently, she commented that she was unable to sleep in a car as a result of that accident.
My thoughts went to how many accidents I had in my life that were avoidable if only I hadn't been "asleep at the wheel." When I was ten years old, I swung from a tire swing two stories in the air from a tree fort I had built. Unfortunately, the tire was tied to the tree branch overhead by copper telephone wire, which, of course, stretched and snapped, sending me speeding to the ground where I landed on my
back and was knocked unconscious. My brother found me with a tire around my waist on the ground three hours later. (My head lay in the dirt between two large roots that were sticking out of the ground.)
Jesus warned his followers that when they saw Jerusalem surrounded by armies, they should flee to the hills. How, you might wonder, could they flee to the hills if Jerusalem was surrounded by armies? Titus, in A.D. 70, abandoned his plan to lay siege to Jerusalem, and Jews celebrated their divine deliverance. However, the Christians who remembered what Jesus prophesied took this opportunity to leave the
city and flee to the hills. Titus soon returned and laid siege to Jerusalem until the Jews were feeding off and murdering each other.
Jerusalem was totally destroyed, but the Christians survived - if they were prepared. It's not easy to live in the hills unless you were prepared.
The consequences for nations who abandon God’s Word for alternative moral standards is devastating. Nations may rise to greatness over centuries, but once the longsuffering of God is finally exhausted, it may shrink to slavery in a day. But not before the prophets issue their warnings. One such prophet of God was David Wilkerson, and his tragic death in April gives me the distinct impression that the United States is entering a new phase that may culminate in the bitter judgment and fiery calamity that Wilkerson envisioned.
The Economic Disaster Around the Corner
Congress has recently been trying to negotiate a remedy for the government's massive, unsustainable debt. The most heated arguments involve the soaring price of fuel, but that is missing the forest for a tree. The Democrats propose raising taxes while the Republicans propose easing restrictions on off-shore drilling, but both remedies are like bandaids on a festering cancer. Very few leaders propose the kind of drastic changes necessary in order to halt the inevitable disaster.
The most pressing problem is that our debt is so great that the central government must increase how much the United States can borrow so that it can continue to pay its bills and avoid defaulting on its debt, or else must drastically reduce spending. In March of this year, our central government spent eight times as much money as came in through tax revenue! Most of that spending went to those who redeemed Treasury securities that matured. That's the problem with borrowing to pay your bills: if you take out more and more credit cards to pay your bills, one day, the minimal monthly payment on your debt is over half your paycheck!
Of the next top four bills our central government must pay, three are entitlement programs (Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security), and fourth most expensive bill is defense.
Our central government is borrowing 40 cents on every dollar we spend. You try borrowing on credit card debt 40% of your weekly budget, and see where that gets you - bankruptcy court! Our nation's debt now is over 14 trillion dollars, which is slightly over 100% of the gross domestic product of the whole country. This year, tax receipts and other forms of revenue will only cover about 57 percent of what the government spends. The government will borrow, by issuing Treasury securities, to cover the other 43 percent.
What will happen when borrowing that 43% gets us to the 14.3 trillion limit on borrowing?
According to Reuters News Service, "The Treasury Department says Washington will breach the congressionally-set $14.3 trillion limit on borrowing by around May 16. By employing extraordinary measures, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will be able to stave off a default, but only until July 8."
May 16? Talk about "just around the corner"!
Well, what are we going to do about it?
Some hope that the central government will raise the debt ceiling, but that just postpones the day of reckoning. That amount of debt is impossible to repay. Weighing our children and grandchildren down with massive debt through the increase in taxation and reduction in benefits is an inappropriate prescription for their parents' and grandparents' greed.
What changes are necessary to avoid disaster? Many fiscal commissions and economic panels have been assembled and proposed the changes that are necessary, but the government prefers to bloat the massive debt with escalated borrowing, all the while praying that they won't be in office when the deck of cards comes crashing down. Why won't politicians make the necessary changes in spending; namely, changes to military, Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, and healthcare?
They don't want to upset the voters.
Why Do Democracies Collapse?
That reminds me of well-known quote from an eighteenth century Scottish professor named Alexander Tytler, who when describing the causes of the fall of the Athenian Republican two hundred years earlier, said:
"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years.
"Great nations rise and fall. The people go from bondage to spiritual truth, to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependence, from dependence back again to bondage."
The voters have figured out how to "vote themselves largesse from the public treasury." It's what Frederic Basiot called "legal plunder" and it's become the American way of life. Government handouts, including Social Security, Medicare, and unemployment, make up more than a third of total wages and salaries in the U.S. Those who make 2/3 of the nation's money are forced, upon pain of fine, prison, or property confiscation, to pay for the non-working citizens' bills. That's socialism, and it does not bode well for our freedom.
Where are we on Professor Tytler's timeline from liberty to bondage? Definitely, dependence. On God? No, on government. The politicians aren't proposing necessary remedies because they don't want to upset the voters who are dependent on government.
Now, we are beginning to "collapse over loose fiscal policy."
What You Must Do to Prepare
Have you ever seen a community "freak out" over a disaster, such as a flood or hurricane? I've been in South Florida as a large hurricane threatened the shoreline, and the grocery shelves were emptied in hours. Do you remember what happened to New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina? Remember the looting and the riots? Do you remember the crime in the street, and the murder and rape of the innocent? Do you
remember the riots that broke out in big cities all over the nation after the officers who beat up Rodney King were acquitted? Do you remember the L.A. riots, when criminals descended upon neighborhoods to loot and murder, when people were drug out of their cars because of the color of their skin and abused? Remember that trucker who was dragged out of his semi, beat senseless, and then had his head crushed with a brick? Those who don't learn from history are condemned to repeat it.
Are you prepared?
At the very least, everyone must have a place away from the city where they can go for an emergency, whether it be economic disaster and the subsequent social unrest, or from a terrorist attack, etc. If you don't have the ability to purchase land in the country near neighbors you trust, you need to make some friends. People in the country will need companions that they can trust who can join them in a time of crisis.
You need to have enough gasoline to get you to your destination. Prepare for fuel pumps to not be operational, and you won't be deserted in the middle of nowhere if they aren't.
You need to have enough food for a year. This is one thing that may be worth going into debt for. Learn how to store it safely for long term with mylar bags and oxygen absorbers in five gallon buckets.
You need to have non-hybrid seeds for planting a garden (only non-hybrid seeds produces fruit whose seeds can be replanted.)
You need to have the ability and the courage to defend your family and your property from looters and criminals.
Lastly and most importantly, we must repent of our sin that has brought on this disaster. Our country deserves the judgment that is coming because of our sin. Don't point the finger at a political party, a political leader, or the Muslim terrorists, or the Federal Reserve, or any of the boogey mans that will be blamed for the crisis.
When Jeremiah prophesied judgment upon Israel for sin, the false prophets promised continued blessing and security. Jeremiah urged repentance, the false prophets urged alliance with Egypt.
Allies can’t save us. Borrowing can’t save us. “Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain that build it. Unless Lord keeps the city, the watchman wakes in vain” (Ps. 127).
"Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord's" the Scripture says, and "Every nation that forgets God will be turned into hell." America, sooner or later, will face national judgment for our national sin.
The Christians who obeyed Jesus' admonition to get out of the Jerusalem were saved because of their faith and obedience to God. Their children were free because their parents believed and obeyed. It was almost four decades from Jesus' warning until it came to pass. Even if judgment on our country doesn't come in our lifetime, we must
be like Jonadab who prepared his children for the judgment that the prophet foretold, and several generations later, they were still following Jonadab’s instructions and were able to escape the promised judgment. We must prepare our children too. Don't get shut out of God's blessing because your lamps ran out of oil, and you weren't prepared.
Full article and links to more info:
http://www.newswithviews.com/Johnston/patrick131.htm
Government Gone Wild
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtVbUmcQSuk&feature=player_embedded
The Day the Dollar Died
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2N8gJSMoOJc&feature=pyv&ad=6050032234&kw=obama
The End of Liberty
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQv-sdMCClQ&feature=relmfu
