President Obama on the Fourth of July

The President honors military heroes and their families during a barbecue on the South Lawn of the White House. On this nation's celebration of independence, he also commends the transfer of control of all Iraqi cities and towns in Iraq's government to Iraqi Security Forces. July 4, 2009.

MICHAEL JACKSON DEAD AT 50

Michael Joseph Jackson (born August 29, 1958 and died June 25, 2009) was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. The seventh child of the Jackson family, he debuted on the professional music scene at the age of 11 as a member of The Jackson 5 and began a solo career in 1971 while still a member of the group. Referred to as the "King of Pop" in subsequent years, five of his solo studio albums have become some of the world's best-selling records: Off the Wall (1979), Thriller (1982), Bad (1987), Dangerous (1991) and HIStory (1995).
In the early 1980s, he became a dominant figure in popular music and the first African-American entertainer to amass a strong crossover following on MTV. The popularity of his music videos airing on MTV, such as "Beat It", "Billie Jean" and Thriller—credited for transforming the music video into an art form and a promotional tool—helped bring the relatively new channel to fame. Videos such as "Black or White" and "Scream" made Jackson an enduring staple on MTV in the 1990s. With stage performances and music videos, Jackson popularized a number of physically complicated dance techniques, such as the robot and the moonwalk. His distinctive musical sound and vocal style influenced hip hop, pop and contemporary R&B artists.
Jackson donated and raised millions of dollars for beneficial causes through his foundation, charity singles and support of 39 charities. Other aspects of his personal life, including his changing appearance and behavior, generated significant controversy, damaging his public image. Though he was accused of child sexual abuse in 1993, the criminal investigation was closed due to lack of evidence and Jackson was not charged. The singer has experienced health concerns since the early 1990s and conflicting reports regarding the state of his finances since the late 1990s. Jackson married twice and fathered three children, all of which caused further controversy. In 2005, Jackson was tried and acquitted of further sexual abuse allegations and several other charges.
One of the few artists to have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice, his other achievements include multiple Guinness World Records—including one for "Most Successful Entertainer of All Time"—13 Grammy Awards, 13 number one singles in his solo career—more than any other male artist in the Hot 100 era—and the sales of over 750 million albums worldwide. Cited as one of the world's most famous men, Jackson's highly publicized personal life, coupled with his successful career, has made him a part of popular culture for almost four decades.
After being taken to the hostpital in a coma, Jackson was reportedly pronounced dead on June 25, 2008.[2][3]

WHY OBAMA NEEDS TO BE MORE VOCAL ON IRAN

With Iran suffering a political earthquake, allow me to put in a good word for meddling.
I realize there will always be those Americans who recoil at the idea of U.S. military intervention or economic sanctions -- or, for that matter, even just tersely worded statements from the White House -- because, they insist, the United States should not interfere with the domestic affairs of other countries.
Since when? The United States has, for decades, interfered with the destinies of other nations - in Asia, Africa, Latin America and elsewhere.
In fact, just recently, President Obama took to interfering in the Middle East by scolding Israel for its treatment of Palestinians and its settlements in the West Bank.
Yet now, in a real disappointment to anyone who values freedom, Obama has declared his reluctance to "meddle" in the aftermath of the disputed Iranian presidential election even as hundreds of thousands of protesters put themselves at risk on the streets of Tehran.
Sometimes, the only correct course of action is to meddle. Here you have the brutal repression of political dissent, the suppression of free speech and the beating and gunning down of dissidents. College students are reportedly being beaten in their dormitories by government thugs and threatened with worse if they don't stop protesting.
In the street, armed police officers whale on old ladies and teenagers with clubs, as demonstrators carry unconscious comrades bleeding from head wounds. And -- in what served as my wake-up call -- the government shut down foreign media coverage by revoking the press credentials of foreign correspondents and restricting them to their hotels.
That was an ominous sign of what may be coming. With the curtain drawn, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad must think he can crush his opponents once and for all and the world will be none the wiser.
Luckily for the cause of freedom, the tyrant wasn't prepared for Twitter and other social network tools that protesters are using to get the word out about what they're experiencing. Many demonstrators are also using their own video cell phones to get images out of Iran.
This is some of what White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs seems to be missing. At a White House news conference this week, Gibbs insisted the administration's concerns regarding Iran had not changed since the election.
"Regardless of who emerges from this election," Gibbs said in answer to a question. "there are still two principal national interests that this country has relating to Iran. First is their pursuit of a nuclear weapon, and second is their support and sponsorship of terror."
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Sure, those things are important. But Gibbs must be joking. The dramatic events of the last week haven't had an impact at all on administration policy with Iran? That's mind-boggling.
These freedom fighters in blue jeans are brave heroes to the cause of democracy, and, from the looks of it, they could use a little help. They'd probably settle for an encouraging word from the president of the United States that he is in their corner and prepared to hold Ahmadinejad and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accountable for what happens to them.
I'm not talking about sending in the 101st Airborne, or the Special Forces. I'm just talking about Obama doing something that, as we all know, he does awfully well: giving a speech.
The president needs to say to the world that we're choosing sides in this conflict and that we're rooting for the protesters against the people who are trying to beat them into submission and suppress the tides of progress.
He needs to abandon his neutrality and express clearly the principles that our country represents, the secret ingredient in our sauce, if you will -- what it is that makes us tick and why we are moved by what we see happening in Iran. He needs to tell the protesters with all the sincerity he can muster: "We are with you!"
Some of this is complicated; analysts are right to point out that Ahmadinejad would probably welcome U.S. intervention in one respect because it would let him deflect the heat he's feeling to the United States, which would become the convenient foil.
But Ahmadinejad is cleverly doing that already, Obama's hands-off approach notwithstanding. So what's the point of staying neutral?
Other parts of this drama are not as complicated as some people are trying to make it. The United States doesn't have the luxury of being neutral at a time of moral crisis. America is -- as former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright used to say -- "the indispensable nation" that "stands tall" and "sees further into the future."
As Americans, what we see coming out of Tehran should outrage and offend us. Our country is not supposed to sit idly by while the little guy is getting the tar knocked out of him by thugs and tyrants.
We've made that mistake before, too many times and to our shame. One of the most notorious examples of staying out of the fray was our reluctance to confront the Holocaust in Europe in the late 1930s, even though Franklin D. Roosevelt and his administration were getting word of what was happening. It was not our finest hour.
Likewise, as we watch the events unfolding in Tehran, many Americans find it easier to look away. But that is not who we are.
Mr. President, you must do better. We don't belong on the sidelines. As the leader of the world's indispensable nation, it's time to stand tall and stand with the people of Iran.

WHY IS HONORING YOUR FATHER IMPORTANT

Although the Bible says the ten commandments were written on two tablets of stone (Exodus 24:12; 34:1) it does not tell us how these ten commandments were arranged on those tablets. Five on one and five on the other would seem natural, but is an unnatural division when you consider the themes of the commandments. From ancient times biblical scholars have noticed that the first four commandments concern our relationship with God and the last six, our relationship with others.
It doesn't really matter how the commandments were arranged on the stone tablets, but it is important to note the twin themes. Judaism was the first world religion to combine worship (responsibilities toward God) with ethics (responsibilities toward humankind). The gods on Mt. Olympus were neither ethical in their own behavior nor did they make ethical demands of their worshipers. That cheap faith still has its fans. Neo-pagans have all the comfort and excitement of their religion with none of the inconvenience of a God who gets in their way when they want to do something.
In biblical religion, however, God is the Law-Giver. Ethics is theology at work; the ten commandments are worship in overalls. The commandments speak to both theology (our relationship with God) and ethics (our relationship with others).
The fifth commandment begins the second "table of the law": our responsibility toward one another. In this section God tells us how to become more human by controlling certain physical impulses we share with lower animals — such as anger, hunger and lust. Those activities are certainly natural. In fact, they are essential to our survival. But God calls us to something higher and nobler. He commands us to control what comes naturally so that we do not kill and steal and fornicate just because it appears to our immediate advantage. Anger, hunger and sex are powerful urges within all of us. Like fire, they are good gifts of God. Also, like fire, they become bad when they get out of control. Thus we have the ten commandments to tell us how control our natural inclinations so nobody gets hurt.
What inclination do you think is controlled by the fifth commandment? Most animals instinctively care for their young. Bears and robins will attack you if you assault their babies. Although most species care for their young, none cares for its old — except humans. The fifth commandment calls us to rise above our animal nature. God expects more of you and me than he does of cats and dogs. He commands children to provide for their parents just as parents instinctively provide for their children. "Honor your father and your mother." By honoring the aged we rise above the rest of nature and become our true human selves.
We need to hear again the fifth commandment. Our modern age does not give the elderly the place of honor they had in earlier times and so richly deserve today. Bertrand Russell complained, "I was born in the wrong generation. When I was a young man, no one had any respect for youth. Now I am an old man and no one has any respect for age."
Nearly everyone, from Madison Avenue to the local church, honors youth. Now that's not a bad idea, but remember young age is not the age to which the Bible gives the greatest honor. Moses said, "Show respect for old people and honor them" (Leviticus 19:32). And Peter added, "You younger men must submit yourselves to the older men" (1 Peter 5:5).
I resent the fact that calling someone old sounds insulting. Our culture has twisted the traditional value of old age making something honorable appear disgraceful. In the Bible old age is not a problem, it's a blessing (Isaiah 65:20; Zechariah 8:4-5). For thousands of years to be called an "old man" or "old woman" was a high honor. Nowadays it's an insult. What on earth has happened to our values?
A youth-centered culture is a backward-facing culture. It is a society in which people honor what they used to be instead of what they are going to be.
Age is like money. It isn't how much we have spent, but how much we have left. If we truly believe what we say we believe about eternal life, what we have left is forever. Every birthday takes us one year further from our birthdate and one year closer to our Father's house.
The root of the Hebrew word for honor means to "weigh heavy." The people who weigh me heavy are those who contribute most to my weight: my parents, my wife and my children — to them I owe great respect and honor.
The fifth commandment is addressed primarily to adults. It is not a biblical billy club that frustrated parents can use to beat their rebellious children into submission. Parents who try to get respect from their children by quoting this scripture will be as successful as trying to steer their car by honking their horn.
The fifth commandment has more to do with medical care, old-age pensions, and retirement homes than with disobedient minors. It means quite simply when your Mom and Dad have to depend on you, don't let them down. Honor your father and mother.
Although Social Security, Medicare, and old-age pensions have largely taken over the kind of responsibilities enjoined by this commandment, no system can honor your parents for you. Many systems are terribly impersonal and even insultingly dehumanizing.
When parents are no longer productive members of society, they need more than ever to be honored and reassured of their worth.
The fifth commandment commands honor for your parents but does not limit honor to them alone. It doesn't say, "Honor only your father and mother. That's just the beginning. The apostle Peter said, "Respect everyone" (1 Peter 2:17). Not only should children honor their parents, but parents should honor their children. The rich should honor the poor, and the poor should honor the rich. The weak should honor the strong, and the strong should honor the weak.
Jesus gave this commandment its highest application when he declared "Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me" (Matthew 25:40). You honor others by treating them with the same high respect you owe to the person of Jesus Christ. If you treat others the way you treat Jesus, you will honor not only your parents but every living soul.
Honor takes many different forms. It is much more than greeting cards, candy and flowers on Mother's Day. The way in which parents honor their children, for instance, differs from the way children honor their parents. It is a dishonor to treat everyone alike without respect to differing needs and responsibilities. True honor takes into account the age and situation of the people involved and the nature of the relationship. You're young only once, but you can stay immature the rest of your life.
One of the reasons the generation gap is such a problem is that it is not wide enough. Too many adults try to act as though they were teenagers, and too many teenagers try to act as though they were adults. With all the actors reading the lines of someone else, it is no wonder the play gets confusing. Children cannot honor their parents while refusing to accept the role of dependents. And parents cannot honor their children while evading their parental responsibilities.
To make matters even more complicated, the roles keep changing. By the time we realize our parents may have been right, we usually have children who think we're wrong. As children grow older, parental honor takes into account their growing competency, responsibility, and independence.
Children, likewise, honor their parents in different ways. To a small child, honor means obedience. To an adolescent, it means respect. To an adult child, it means kindness, thoughtfulness, and care of parents.
A boy will never become a man and a girl will never become a woman if they must always obey their parents. Though children eventually outgrow their need to obey their parents, they never outgrow their duty to honor their parents. The time may come when aged parents must obey their children. But even then, and especially then, children must find ways to honor their parents, to affirm their dignity and worth.
The apostle Paul reminds us that the fifth commandment is the first commandment with a promise: "so that all may go well with you, and you may live a long time in the land" (Ephesians 6:3). When a Sunday School teacher asked a kid what that meant his interpretation was, "I better do what my parents say or they'll kill me." Though there may be some parents who would not dispute that understanding, I don't think that's what Moses or Paul had in mind. "That… you may live a long time in the land" is not a guarantee of extra years of life to individuals who honor their parents. It is a promise to preserve the social order that respects preceding generations. Remember the commandments were given after Israel left Egypt and before they entered and occupied the Promised Land. They were a brand new nation. So God gave them laws and a covenant to show them how to make it work. Good individuals may die young, but cultures in which people honor the aged endure with stability.
One of the reasons that Chinese culture has survived thousands of years through many political and social revolutions is that through it all, they obeyed the fifth commandment — not because it was spoken by God through Moses, but because it was wise. "[That] you may live a long time in the land" is not a tempting bribe to good conduct, but a statement of fact about nations and tribes and families in which honor is found.
Remember, the Bible doesn't tell who is to honor you, but whom you are to honor — your parents, your children and everyone else. You obey the fifth commandment, not by demanding that others honor you but by taking the initiative to honor them.

A NATION IN CRISIS

The Apostle Paul wrote of just such a time as exists in this nation today, a time when the people would be lovers of themselves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, false accusers, uncontrollable, despisers of those that are good, traitors, and lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God. In view of the fact that fifty million innocent babies have been murdered intentionally, which of course only highlights Paul’s offering of “being without natural affection.”
There does not exist a more apt description than this of the nature of the United States today, it is a nation that consists, collectively, of a people led away from God by divers lusts, it's an ever-learning acculturation of those who are never able to come to a knowledge of the truth. It is in fact a nation of people who resist the truth, an irreverent fellowship of men of corrupt mind and reprobate faith.

A Warning to Parents
An inimical indoctrination of the people of this nation begins in the public schools where the ungodly elements of communism, sexual perversion, deviancy, false doctrines and a rejection of Biblical tenants are instilled in young minds and taught as gospel by an autocracy of Marxist persuasion. An open-minded and healthy examination of social issues is disallowed and a narrow subjective and politically correct curriculum is rigidly enforced. The National Education Association (NEA) a radical, revolutionary, and powerful labor union, using the political clout that they purchase with the dues of their members, has eliminated the traditional approach to the training of young minds in the basics of education and concentrated on a radical program of mind control and brainwashing to shape the values - I should say lack of values - of America’s children.
Parents, if you think that you have any input in the way that public schools educate your children you need to put that thought out of your mind quickly. The majority of public school systems view your children as property of the state and therefore beyond your control. Moral relativism is promoted and ethical codes and morality based upon absolute standards is not a part of their satanic bible. If it feels good do it is their motto and their creed. You need to get your children out of the public schools and you need to do it now before anymore of our children are corrupted and led down criminal paths to the point that many additional millions of dollars have to be spent on correctional facilities to incarcerate the emotional cripples turned into the streets by the public schools.
America in Decline
The United States has crossed a great divide and is now on a dizzying slide downward through an ever-quickening succession of events, both of the cosmos and of man-made induction, which are driving this nation toward a now inevitable time of a complete and climactic destruction. Prayers from an apostate people for deliverance from catastrophic events current and future will not be heard, in the parlance of the Bible it is a time for sackcloth and ashes.
Those who believe that there is hope for a secular deliverance of this country from an increasingly inescapable terminal destiny at the hand of Almighty God or that the government or its leaders possess the answers to the nearly total social and spiritual unraveling of this commonwealth are barking up a wrong tree. Nowhere in the population of this nation or in the government or the institutions thereof exists a savior. Our Savior has come to this earth and gone and will return again, it is He that we should look to for deliverance. It is He who is the true Savior, and if the readers of this message have not accepted Him as such and taken advantage of His work upon the cross for the expiation of their sins past, present and future they most surely would do well to do so now.
My recent articles have been increasingly apocalyptic; I reject any thought that there is any hope that this country will be turned around by mortal men or by our terribly corrupt and fallible politicians. People, and those who extol their virtues, will do nothing other than hasten our fall.
I am grateful to those who carry my articles on their websites and pray for God’s blessings upon them. But, I know that there will come a time, and very soon, when my words will be blocked and censored. The prophets of old who were sent to deliver hard messages unto God’s people and to their kings and religious leaders were censored and imprisoned, and those who speak the truth today can expect the same circumstances as even now we see an unrighteous abridgement - by a seemingly fascistic government - of individual rights and liberties.
“When I say unto the wicked, Thou shall surely die; and thou gives him not warning, nor speaks to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at your hand.” (Ezekiel 3:18)
Clearly those in the ministry today who tickle the ears with new age doctrines - such as the goodness of man, a lack of evil, that man is divine and therefore can create his own spiritual destiny, or that Satan is an imaginary being and there are many roads to salvation - have not read the above scripture. And if they have and have rejected it, or any other of God’s truths, they will stand and give an account for every lost soul that was in their charge.

YOU LEARN TO TRUST GOD WHEN YOU HAVE TO TRUST GOD

Are you worried about something? Maybe it’s not one thing, but five. One of our first responses to a hectic schedule or a troubled economy is to worry. Worry can creep into every area of our lives, but God doesn’t want us to worry. He wants us to trust him. It’s easy to say that we trust God. But often our actions don’t match that statement.
The truth is that God reigns. No matter what your situation is, Jesus reigns over all things — your cancer, your job loss, the painful situation you’re facing. When it feels like life is falling apart, we can trust him. The question is, do we?

1. You learn to trust God by trusting God.
You will never learn to trust God by watching someone else do it or by reading about it in a book, or even this article. You only trust God by actually doing it.
2. You never trust God until you have to.
I know my human nature: If I’m in a difficult circumstance I will do anything to get out of that circumstance. My first thought when things are uncomfortable is to find a way out of the situation. We never trust God until we have to. So...
3. God will make sure that you have to trust him.
God is going to allow circumstances in our lives that we have no human way of wiggling out of. He does that because he needs to teach us some things. He wants us to trust him, but the only way we learn that is by doing it. So he loves us enough to put us in situations where we have to trust him.
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” (James 1: 2-4)
Scripture teaches us that sometimes God allows trials in our lives. He does it to teach us to trust him and to mature us and make us more like Jesus. He has to shatter the misconceptions we have of him. He has to remove the lies we believed about him, ourselves and others. He wants us to trust him.

WILL THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS PRECEDE THE RETURN OF CHRIST?

Changes in the world's economy, now shaken by a major downturn, significantly threaten your personal lifestyle. As Time magazine expressed it, the recent events are "the most dangerous shock in mature financial markets since the 1930s" (Oct. 20, 2008). Faced with a problem of this magnitude, we should seriously consider these economic trends in the light of biblical prophecy!
Revelation, the last book of the Bible, is devoted to prophecy. John says that it's literally "the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants—things which must shortly [or quickly] take place"—especially in the last days (Revelation 1:1).
The book's 18th chapter describes a dominant system of international trade supported by corrupt political and religious allies whose combined sins "have reached to heaven" (verse 5). The Bible also shows that the return of Jesus Christ will bring about the collapse and destruction of that global system.
Before that happens, though, it will exercise for a short time immense control over the lives of the earth's inhabitants so that "no one may buy or sell" without its permission (Revelation 13:17). It will stringently regulate all international commerce.
Prior to the recent economic crisis it would have seemed almost absurd to predict such a drastic global change in economic outlook and practice. After all, our society greatly values individual freedom. What could possibly induce the citizens of civilized nations to accept such intrusive controls over their right to buy and sell as they please?
An earlier time of economic turmoil
On a regional level this scenario has already been played out once in the last century. The collapse of the world's free economies, trade wars and the economic turmoil of the Great Depression of the 1930s helped catapult Adolf Hitler to power. Hitler's solutions restored Germany to world power and made him a hero among most of his own people until the military defeat of his Nazi regime in 1945.
Today those who were adults during the Great Depression are rapidly passing from the scene. Their accounts of plummeting wages, loss of homes and jobs, and pervasive hunger seem long ago and far away. At one point in the 1930s, unemployment reached more than 25 percent in America.
The stock markets went crazy, and corporate shares fell in value overnight. As wages fell, debt repayment became more and more difficult.
Mortgage defaults skyrocketed. Business earnings dropped. Large corporations went bankrupt. People became aimless and idle. Hunger and fear became their constant companions. It was a downward spiral into economic oblivion. Little wonder that our parents and grandparents referred to the financial disaster they experienced as the Great Depression.
Could history repeat?
Today few people in the industrialized world have any concept of what happens when severe deflation—an economically crippling drop in prices and wages—sets in. The possibility of out-of-control deflation is already a threat as a direct result of the current economic crisis.
A recent leading headline, "Deflation Threat Grows Worldwide," in the International Herald Tribune (Nov. 2, 2008) bears this out. The article, by national economic writer Peter Goodman, went on to say: "As dozens of countries slip deeper into financial distress in alarming unison, a new threat may be gathering force: the prospect that goods will pile up without buyers and prices will steadily fall, suffocating fresh investment and worsening joblessness for many months or even years.
"The word for this syndrome is deflation, or falling prices, a term that generates chills among professional economists. Deflation accompanied the Great Depression of the 1930s. Persistently falling prices were at the heart of Japan's so-called lost decade following the catastrophic collapse of its real estate bubble at the end of the 1980s, a period in which some experts now find parallels to the U.S. predicament" (emphasis added throughout).
Only a few short months ago inflation—rising prices—was the dominant economic problem as skyrocketing costs of oil and food battered the world economy. But, as the article notes, "that now seems like another era. As the U.S. economy has weakened, and as much of the globe has followed, demand for oil, iron ore, grains and other commodities has swiftly diminished, bringing prices down sharply.
"The new worry is that the end of inflation may be the beginning of something more malevolent: a long, broad retrenchment in which consumers and businesses worldwide lose their ability to buy and prices for many goods fall.
"That would prompt businesses to slow production and accelerate layoffs, taking more paychecks out of the economy and further weakening demand for many products and services."
Worldwide recession on the horizon?
In contrast to inflation, Goodman notes, deflation is a far more difficult economic malady to cure. "Policy makers can generally choke off inflation by raising interest rates and dampening economic activity and reducing demand for goods.
"But as Japan discovered in the 1990s, an economy might remain ensnared by deflation for many years, even when interest rates are dropped to zero. Falling prices reduce opportunities for profit, making companies reluctant to invest even when they can borrow money for free."
This is what happened in Japan in the 1990s, with devastating results. Property prices fell, along with the prices of many goods. Businesses had no incentive to invest, so they laid off employees. For lack of buyers, goods piled up—sending prices even lower in a downward spiral.
Do we see similar dangers today? "Some fear the U.S. economy could be sinking toward a similar experience as consumers lose their wherewithal to purchase just as much of Europe, Asia and Latin America succumb to a slowdown," Goodman cautions.
The recent economic crises show that such a problem likely would not be limited to just the United States.
"Not since the Great Depression have so many countries been required to tackle so many interlocking afflictions at once," Goodman notes. "A financial crisis born in the United States has gone global, like a virus mutating in the face of every experimental cure. From South Korea to Pakistan to the Baltics to Turkey to Brazil, the pandemic has spread, bringing with it a tightening of credit that has starved even relatively healthy companies of the ability to finance operations, prompting job losses and diminishing demand for goods."
Goodman quotes former International Monetary Fund economist Kenneth Rogoff as saying: "We're entering a really fierce global recession. A significant financial crisis has been allowed to morph into a full-fledged global panic. It's a very dangerous situation."
Will history be repeated?
During times of such economic deprivation, history has shown that people respond favorably to strong leaders who show promise of quickly bringing order out of chaos.
But drastic problems can lead to drastic solutions. People want immediate action, not principles and platitudes. The leaders most likely to act decisively are those who have no objection to trampling on the rights of others to accomplish their agendas. They get things done, but at a high cost to the freedom and rights of others.
In the end they reward those who provide the support they need to keep themselves in power. They call themselves benefactors and statesmen. History sees them as despots and tyrants.
This is what happened in Central Europe between 1929 and 1945 as rulers assumed dictatorial powers and plunged the world into a global conflagration.
Bible prophecy indicates that a similar scenario will unfold just before Jesus Christ returns. It reveals that 10 "kings"—heads of state—will throw their power, authority and support behind a superleader whom the Bible compares to a clever and powerful animal, a "beast" (Revelation 17:12-13). The political entity this leader will create is likewise characterized as a beast—a cunning and dominant animal that preys on the very ones it purports to protect.
The Bible indicates that managing the global economy—by controlling what can be bought or sold, and by whom—may be a major reason for this system's initial appeal. For this to happen the international community may have to enter an economic crisis so enormous, so threatening, that nations will find themselves desperate for a solution.
If history repeats itself, a bold and daring new plan may be presented and adopted. And as before, the loss of individual rights and freedoms built into this new socio-economic and political system may well be presented as only temporary. But the Bible shows that what ultimately follows will become so appalling that only the return of Jesus Christ can stop it.
Let's now consider an unseen power destined to bring about this global change.
Ancient origins of an end-time system
In committing to writing the revelation that Jesus Christ gave him concerning this coming political and commercial system, the apostle John first connects us with this evil system's spiritual roots. According to the Bible, an unseen spirit being, a fallen angel called Satan the devil, rules the earth behind the scenes. This malevolent spirit is increasingly angry as he sees the approaching end of his influence.
John speaks of that "great dragon . . . , that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world" (Revelation 12:9; see also 1 John 5:19). This enraged adversary of God and His people has committed himself to make war against those who "keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ" (verse 17). He and his army of unseen demonic spirits are the unrealized driving force behind these events. (To understand further, request or download our free booklet Is There Really a Devil?)
The apostle John next refers to the physical and cultural origins of this ungodly system that is yet to arise from deep in the reservoir of ancient human tradition: "I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name. Now the beast which I saw was like a leopard, his feet were like the feet of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion" (Revelation 13:1-2).
These are the exact characteristics the book of Daniel ascribed to the ancient kingdoms of Greece, Persia and Babylon. John is telling us that there is a direct link between some of the dominant characteristics of those kingdoms and the socio-political system that Jesus Christ will destroy at His coming.
Ancient Babylon, in particular, destroyed the temple of God in Jerusalem, conquered the kingdom of Judah and took its people into captivity. As such, it symbolically became the ultimate adversary of God's people.
Notice who will manipulate the world's final superdictator from behind the scenes: "The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority" (verse 2). Satan is never far from the action. It is his agenda that will really shape this new power that will emerge.
The important religious connection
At present the nations of Europe appear to be growing more and more secular. But this era will end. The new system described above will embody much more than socio-political aspects. It will also have enormous religious support. To convey this point the apostle John introduces "another beast" that, in some ways, resembles a lamb but speaks "like a dragon" (verse 11).
This beast performs miracles and "deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast" (verses 13-14). These verses describe a great religious deceiver who is referred to as "the false prophet" in Revelation 19:20. His miracles will abruptly bring the present secular era to an end.
His influence will be enormous. "He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name" (Revelation 13:16-17). Also he "causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast" (verse 12).
By throwing the full force of his deceptive religious power behind the socioeconomic and political schemes of the first beast, this false prophet will play a leading role in persuading humanity to accept and support the coming transformation of the world's economic and political structures. All who consent will unwittingly enslave themselves to the state.
The masters of commerce
In the end it will be the merchants and traders who will make this Babylon-like system function (Revelation 17:5). Their global trade will include "merchandise of gold and silver, precious stones and pearls, fine linen and purple, silk and scarlet . . . every kind of object of most precious wood, bronze, iron, and marble . . . fine flour and wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and chariots [transport vehicles—cars in our day], and [even] bodies and souls of men" (Revelation 18:12-13).
Today, as we experience a major credit crisis in the world's financial system, it is appropriate that we reflect on how greed and the manipulation of human needs will dramatically affect the future of mankind. We can't know exactly when it will happen, but based on Bible prophecies it seems a likely scenario that at some point a general breakdown of the world's economy will trigger a massive rethinking of man's social, political and economic assumptions.
The chaos of that time will set the stage for the next event. The Bible reveals that a powerful, appealing political "beast" will emerge with vast military and economic powers. For a short time his economic policies will lead some to revel in their regained prosperity, wealth and power. But his system will succeed only because all opposition will be smashed. Those who refuse to submit to his economic system will be excluded or killed (Revelation 13:15-18).
Dawn of a new era
The book of Revelation also reveals that God the Father will finally send Jesus Christ back to the earth to end and replace all ungodly governing systems: "After these things I heard a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, ‘Alleluia! Salvation and glory and honor and power belong to the Lord our God! For true and righteous are His judgments, because He has judged the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her fornication; and He has avenged on her the blood of His servants shed by her'" (Revelation 19:1-2).
At the return of Christ the oppressive political and economic system springing from ancient Babylon will be permanently destroyed. At that time "the merchants of these things, who became rich by her, will stand at a distance for fear of her torment, weeping and wailing, and saying, ‘Alas, alas, that great city that was clothed in fine linen, purple, and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls! For in one hour such great riches came to nothing'" (Revelation 18:15-17).
Also "the kings of the earth"—the world's leaders and power brokers—"who committed fornication [here symbolizing illicit political relations] and lived luxuriously with her will weep and lament for her, when they see the smoke of her burning, standing at a distance for fear of her torment, saying, ‘Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! For in one hour your judgment has come'" (verses 9-10).
Then the world's final experiment with the political, religious and economic systems patterned after the dictatorial Babylonian model will end, and Jesus Christ's righteous rule on earth will begin!